Producer: The CW
Writers: Andrew Kreisberg, Gabrielle Stanton, Greg Berlanti
Director: Ralph Hemecker
Featuring: Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Tom Cavanaugh, Jesse L. Martin, John Wesley Shipp
Release date: USA OUT NOW/UK 13 October 2015 Sky 1
Six months after the first season Barry Allen, the Flash (Grant Gustin), is estranged from his Star Lab colleagues and former guardian Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin). “There’s only one thing I can do now. I run,” Barry says in the introduction. He may be referring not only to his ability, but the space he has put between himself and his friends.
After the calm between seasons things get coincidentally complicated all at once. There’s a Flash Day rally which Barry says he won’t attend but does, a nuclear plant worker is found strangled, the giant Atom Smasher with the victim’s face attacks the rally, and Barry receives a thumb drive with a message from last season’s villain Harrison Wells, which Barry says he won’t listen to but does.
The Flash TV series has always suffered from a lack of common sense and unfortunately the season opener carries over that tradition. When Atom Smasher appears instead of the Flash running at speeds faster than the eye can follow to take him out from behind, or run around him to suck out his oxygen, Flash runs right into a fist. How does the fastest man alive keep getting beat up?
The Atom Smasher comeuppance is disappointing. Without going into spoilers the solution to defeating Atom Smasher is a tired old cliché used by comic book legend Stan Lee way back in the 1960s. And the scientists of Central City must have special technology that can suck radiation out of a room and all surfaces.
The subplot involving how Barry reconnects with his friends and family is more interesting than the villain. There is some good dialogue and humor, and a surprise ending.
Flash fans will undoubtedly enjoy the romp. But The Flash Season 2 Episode 1, The Man Who Saved Central City comes up a little short when scrutinized too closely. However, that quibble aside, this new season promises excitement, and hopefully the writers will rise to the occasion.
Reviewer: Joe Lovece
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker