The Flash: Who is Harrison Wells? Review
What was up with the villain's name in this episode; Hannibal Bates? That's like naming your child The crazy ass murderous killer.
And names where indeed the gripe that I had with this episode. It's called "Who is Harrison Wells?", and when I read the name I obviously had in mind a flashback-heavy, or at least a present set, Harrison Wells (or Eobard Thawne) centered episode. It might even have been called "Who is that ugly and slimy bald guy at the end?" and it would have had the same connection to the plot as the original. It did dwell on the lingering question if Wells could be a good guy or if he is all evil and a total douche for acting like a friend to the team but the only plot point that furthered the entire story was exposed in the epilogue.
Aside from the misleading name, this episode was solid. It featured a cool new power and took the opportunity to explore the funny situations that this particular power might cause, and it even gave us an entertaining, and honestly, visually impressive character swapping climactic fight. For that it deserves our praise.
The other furthering that The Flash offered us was that of the team- ups with the Arrow series. It was not a very usual team- up and that was a good surprise. The only major characters that came face to face where Laurel and Cisco, and yet the true team-up was Joe with Detective Lance. It was like positive energy clashing with negative (Lance is still kind of crazy I think) but, all in all, they helped each other out. My theory is that they mix-up so well because of their amazing chemistry in their individual shows. All of the actors seem to have an awesome time filming and it translates to the screen when performing. And the chemistry of both mixed into an episode just makes you look at this world as an organic one. An at the end they all got something out of the meeting. I can't wait to see the canary cry and laugh at a moment as funny as the one with Cisco's picture again.
Back in Central City, the team (that includes Eddie now, m'kay) tries to catch the shape-shifting crazy guy who is running across town having way to much fun. The one who got the best storyline out of this was Eddie, surprisingly. He had an opportunity to show morale & an interesting persona and he ended up with Iris hugging it out with him (maybe more than that but you get the point). The villain created some fun situations but the writers only exploited these without writing him a compelling and fun personality like in the case of Mark Hamill's "The Trickster". The visual effects department though, they got the chance to get shiny, just like the slimy frog-face on "Everyman". They created sleek looking fights and an impressive character model.
As I mentioned before, the epilogue gave the true plot-punch when the team (except Wells obviously) discovered the "Wellscave"and made Cisco almost drop the f-bomb. Now they know for sure and clear that Harrison Wells is the "Reverse Flash" and I want to see what their next move is and what the writers have planned for a finale. The Arrow Season 1 finale was a truly amazing surprise that blew my brains away 2 years ago because of how awesome it was and the scale that it suddenly achieved. I hope I am equally surprised by The Flash's performance in it's final episodes.
I hope this was the last episode with a "minor meta-human villain". The next episodes look to be promising and I really don't mind putting too much trust in the team behind the series. They have gained it through the escalating quality with which they have created a fun and sometimes fascinating adaptation to this DC character.
In the meanwhile this episode gets an 8 out of 10.
What was up with the villain's name in this episode; Hannibal Bates? That's like naming your child The crazy ass murderous killer.
And names where indeed the gripe that I had with this episode. It's called "Who is Harrison Wells?", and when I read the name I obviously had in mind a flashback-heavy, or at least a present set, Harrison Wells (or Eobard Thawne) centered episode. It might even have been called "Who is that ugly and slimy bald guy at the end?" and it would have had the same connection to the plot as the original. It did dwell on the lingering question if Wells could be a good guy or if he is all evil and a total douche for acting like a friend to the team but the only plot point that furthered the entire story was exposed in the epilogue.
Aside from the misleading name, this episode was solid. It featured a cool new power and took the opportunity to explore the funny situations that this particular power might cause, and it even gave us an entertaining, and honestly, visually impressive character swapping climactic fight. For that it deserves our praise.
The other furthering that The Flash offered us was that of the team- ups with the Arrow series. It was not a very usual team- up and that was a good surprise. The only major characters that came face to face where Laurel and Cisco, and yet the true team-up was Joe with Detective Lance. It was like positive energy clashing with negative (Lance is still kind of crazy I think) but, all in all, they helped each other out. My theory is that they mix-up so well because of their amazing chemistry in their individual shows. All of the actors seem to have an awesome time filming and it translates to the screen when performing. And the chemistry of both mixed into an episode just makes you look at this world as an organic one. An at the end they all got something out of the meeting. I can't wait to see the canary cry and laugh at a moment as funny as the one with Cisco's picture again.
Back in Central City, the team (that includes Eddie now, m'kay) tries to catch the shape-shifting crazy guy who is running across town having way to much fun. The one who got the best storyline out of this was Eddie, surprisingly. He had an opportunity to show morale & an interesting persona and he ended up with Iris hugging it out with him (maybe more than that but you get the point). The villain created some fun situations but the writers only exploited these without writing him a compelling and fun personality like in the case of Mark Hamill's "The Trickster". The visual effects department though, they got the chance to get shiny, just like the slimy frog-face on "Everyman". They created sleek looking fights and an impressive character model.
As I mentioned before, the epilogue gave the true plot-punch when the team (except Wells obviously) discovered the "Wellscave"and made Cisco almost drop the f-bomb. Now they know for sure and clear that Harrison Wells is the "Reverse Flash" and I want to see what their next move is and what the writers have planned for a finale. The Arrow Season 1 finale was a truly amazing surprise that blew my brains away 2 years ago because of how awesome it was and the scale that it suddenly achieved. I hope I am equally surprised by The Flash's performance in it's final episodes.
I hope this was the last episode with a "minor meta-human villain". The next episodes look to be promising and I really don't mind putting too much trust in the team behind the series. They have gained it through the escalating quality with which they have created a fun and sometimes fascinating adaptation to this DC character.
In the meanwhile this episode gets an 8 out of 10.