The Flash Episode 3 Season 4 review: Luck Be a Lady.

“Luck Be a Lady” might have my favorite intro that The Flash has done in its entire four-season run. It’s essentially a short story about the origin of this week’s villain, as narrated by the Thinker. (Yes, he looks weirdly like Metron and we don’t really know he’s the Thinker yet, but whatever.) The Thinker is a very grave, laconic speaker, which gives his droll narration a dry underline that just tickles me endlessly. The story is Pushing Daisies–esque in its matter-of-fact delivery of absurdity: Rebecca Sharpe, the unluckiest woman in the world, is dealing with a bout of lactose intolerance when she discovers her live-in boyfriend is cheating on her. Then she loses her job as a blackjack dealer. Becky’s luck is just cosmically bad — until it isn’t.

When we next see Becky Sharpe (a.k.a. Hazard, in DC Comics), she’s gained the power to give everyone else her terrible luck, while coasting along on her own incredibly lucky streak. We see this in great effect as she strolls into a bank robbery, where everything goes wrong for everyone around her: a repairman falls from a ladder and yanks the security camera away, while other people trip, choke, and fail to notice her entirely, as she strolls into an open vault and purloins stacks of cash.

As Becky makes her getaway — in a Prius, no less — the Flash arrives to stop her. But a massive shipment of marbles is being delivered next door and they spill out into the street, causing Barry to completely lose his footing, like a Looney Tunes character.

This is, far and away, the funniest episode of The Flash that I can remember. Becky Sharpe is a genius villain who allows for endless comedic scenarios: The show’s writers get to brainstorm ridiculous Rube Goldberg machines of ill fortune and have the characters race through them all. What’s not to love about that? This is an episode in which Becky’s growing power to cause bad luck means Iris and Barry attempt a shotgun wedding after losing their planned venue to a fire caused by a creme brûlée competition that got out of hand. Then their impromptu ceremony — which completely interrupts an unattended funeral, by the way — also falls apart, because the priest breaks out in hives from the cinnamon in the incense.

“Luck Be a Lady” is almost entirely devoted to straight-up hijinks, and I love it. There’s a tightness to the episode, and little character moments that really make it sing. For example: the return of Harry Wells, the Earth Two version of Harrison Wells, who was a gruff and secretive man of angst and now is mostly just gruff and awkward.

Harry is my favorite version of the Wells character. No disrespect to H.R., but I found him deeply corny in a pretty groundless way that didn’t add a whole lot to Team Flash, except for some great moments in Cisco exasperation. Harry, on the other hand, shares the original Harrison Wells’s duplicitous vibes, but they stemmed from trust issues caused by living in a darker timeline. His journey with Team Flash was one of mutual growth for both him and Barry; it redeemed the man whose face was stolen by Eobard Thawne.

Harry is back, we learn, because he hasn’t had a great time being a team player on Earth Two. He’s too out of sorts and is unable to shed his gruffness, so he got kicked out of the hero biz on his native world. But he’s not just orphaned; he’s here with a holographic projector from Jesse Quick that’s meant for Wally West. Poor Wally is waiting for Jesse in S.T.A.R. Labs’ portal room with flowers and a giant teddy bear, when Wells shows up alone.

The projector is a “breakup cube,” something that’s a huge deal on Earth Two. You send it to someone when you want to break up with them. A message plays, and tissues even pop out if you need them. Breakup cube!

I’ll be honest: I love the breakup cube. It’s an obvious bit of necessary plot triage — The Flash has too many speedsters in its family circle, so it needs to come up with excuses to keep them away — and it’s nestled in a ridiculous joke that itself is in an episode full of ridiculous jokes. It also helps that Harry’s delivery of the cube is an all-timer performance in mumbly comedy by Tom Cavanagh that I want to watch over and over again.

The breakup cube’s punchline, however, is a sad one: Wally West is leaving Central City. This is a bit of a drag, obviously. Mentorship would’ve been a good thing for Happy Barry, but so far this season, The Flash has struggled a bit to incorporate Wally in a meaningful way. The fact that he doesn’t appear in most of the episode, and that everyone fails to notice his absence, is a point he brings up in his farewell speech. Like Jesse Quick, he decides that he needs to take time to focus on himself. Let’s hope he figures out his own story and returns down the line.

Meanwhile, as far as big climaxes go, this week’s episode is top-notch stuff: Becky Sharpe’s bad-luck field starts to expand as she experiences more and more good luck. So when she goes to her old casino to clean the place out, bad luck starts to befall everyone, including a commercial airline flight. Barry has to go to the casino and push his luck to try and make it to her, without something awful befalling him. But something does, consistently — and it turns out the only way to stop Becky is by letting the Particle Accelerator literally explode again, to negate her powers.

So yeah, this episode goes places.

And it especially goes places with Joe West, who has spent these early episodes of season four settling into life with Cecile Horton. Much of Joe’s time in “Luck Be a Lady” is spent debating — in a loving and understanding way, of course — whether or not he and Cecile should move somewhere else, rather than maintain this big, old family home. It’s a big question to consider, so there’s a considerable amount of back-and-forth involved. Just when they finally agree to find a new home, though, Cecile changes her mind. Something is suddenly different.

She’s pregnant. Is this opening a door for the Daniel West version of the reverse Flash?

Joe is speechless. He just stares at her. And then, the episode just … ends. Pretty strange reaction, no?

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The Flash season 4 episode 1 review: The Flash Reborn

Every year when the Flash returns, we all get excited and thrilled to get this fabulous cast back. I genuinely missed these people an their chemistry during this off-season. Although many of us will agree that the third season of the show was not a hit among fans due to the darkness it brought into the season specially during the second half of the season. But seeing this season's premier brought back the old vibes (pun intended) back to a highly optimistic character. 

Before I start the review, I want to quickly shuffle away some complaints that I had with the episode. First issue which I felt was the hand-wavey approach it takes to things like actually bringing Barry back, restoring his mind, and its approach to bringing Caitlin back into the fold. Well that's an awful amount of work to be fitted in one episode, especially when the showrunners had full 23 episodes, they could have easily done this all in a two-parter like the season three's first two episodes. But having said that I understand why they did this all, because to get all the things ready from the get-go and re-establishing the status quo. 

The second issue I felt was that Iris West being the leader of the team. Before anybody jumps the gun that she is the love interest of the lead and all that, I want to say that her character has really grown on me in the previous seasons. It's not a knock on the character but that she doesn't have powers or any computer skills or say any statistical skills to lead the team. That is what I felt was a bit odd.

Anyways before anyone thinks that this is a negative review, it is far from that. I thoroughly enjoyed the episode. The Flash Reborn is a really enjoyable hour of TV, handily reminding everyone why we love these characters so much in the first place. I particularly felt Joe and Cisco are particular standouts in this regard while maturing/evolving others in ways that are really satisfying, Iris and Wally are going to kick so much ass this season. 

And Barry freaking Allen felt so powerful reminding us all that he is indeed the Flash. I think it is in a long time when I was awe struck by the power he displayed making it like a true comic book show. 

I cannot forget Caitlin Snow. I think she had my favourite line in the episode when she said, "Don't make me frosty. You wouldn't like me when I'm frosty." When she said it I was so happy that they made a reference to the Incredible Hulk. A little crossover of DC and Marvel. I guess they are going for Bruce Banner and Hulk situation for Caitlin making one of the most complex characters in the show right now. 

The post credit scene of the episode was indeed refreshing. If you check my post about Flash' big bads you will know what I m talking about. Click here. Revealing the big bad in the first episode really makes him a big deal who is manipulating all the things and especially when I realised it was his Samuroid to pump up the speed of the extraction of Barry from speedforce. Looking forward to this battle.

All being said I feel, it was a great start for the show after a rather unflattering third season.

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4 Reasons Why Everyone must Watch 'American Gods'

"The only thing that scares me, is being forgotten."

~ Mr. Wednesday, American Gods

If you have any interest in history, mythology, fantasy and horror you should tune in. The TV series, based on the Neil Gaiman novel, is a weird, slow burn pocked with moments of extreme violence and bizarre visuals. It's fantasy Americana and from what I've seen, it's one you won't want to miss. Let me put this like: "It is Game of Thrones with everyone being God."

The story follows Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) a recent ex-con and child of hippies as he leaves prison, only to find his world turned upside down. He runs into the mysterious Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) and the two embark on a great adventure into America's forgotten heartland and unseen places. It's not your average TV show or your average fantasy, and I won't spoil it any more with summary than this barebones premise. Instead, here's a handful of reasons why you should tune in tonight.

American Gods is a road trip movie unlike any other.

Fans of Logan might want to take note here. That film eschewed super-hero movie conventions, coupling Western themes and road trip adventure rather than grand, flashy special effects and time travel. American Gods is a road trip fantasy, scrawled out across the green fields of the Midwest. Its magic is not exactly mundane, but it casts aside genre tropes and plucks its mystery from the pages of history and custom.

Indeed, American Gods is less urban fantasy than rural fantasy. Our heroes avoid freeways. Their journey takes them down the back roads of middle America. "You've seen one highway, you've seen them all," Mr. Wednesday snaps at Shadow as they drive. "No highways!" Stops in cities are fleeting. We are always simply Somewhere in America. And it turns out there's a magic to these lost and distant places.

American Gods is a story about immigrants.

Unlike most stories of immigrants, American Gods is less a story of individual people and more a story of the customs, history and, of course, gods of the immigrants, slaves and explorers who came to America. "This is the only country in the world that wonders what it is," Mr. Wednesday muses. Perhaps that's because American is made up of so many disparate pieces, so many stories and beliefs.

So we're introduced to various histories and immigrants, from stranded vikings to African slaves aboard a slaver's ship to Middle-Eastern cabbies. Many of these stories are introduced through short vignettes that take place alongside the main story rather than within it. In American Gods we see these beliefs in the flesh, as dwindling manifestations of once powerful conviction. The old gods, come to America, once-hot flames now merely embers in the smoldering pit of modern America.

American Gods asks us to question our faith in technology.

Fantasy and science-fiction are often lumped into the same genre, but in many ways they're completely at odds. The former is concerned with belief, magic, the unknown and inexplicable. The latter is obsessed with technology, science, and the tangible. In some ways, this is what American Gods is attempting to examine, this division between faith and science.

None of this is to say that fantasy and science fiction can't work toward the same thematic ends. Indeed, science-fiction often warns of the dangers of technology gone awry, of unchecked human meddling and the thirst for power. Science fiction as cautionary tale is a close neighbor to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, which itself was a parable about unchecked power in the industrial age.

American Gods is the story of a war brewing between the Old Gods---those forgotten immigrant gods---and the New Gods: Media, Technology, Money. The things people used to worship and the things they worship now. These cheap newcomers and golden calves, big-screen TVs and social media stand in stark contrast to the brooding, mysterious and unfathomable old gods, whose power stems from blind obeisance and hard faith, or sometimes simply need. American Gods is the kind of show that happily throws our cell phone out the window. What does it mean to believe, anyways? What does it mean to reason?

American Gods embraces the absurd.

American Gods is a weird show. It's a fantasy set in modern America, that drifts between dreams and reality, airports and bone orchards, as easily as shadows between shade. The visual effects are outlandish rather than realistic, and Shadow's dreams often look like fantastical television sets. There's a twisted gaudiness to it that may not click with everyone. Personally, I found the art direction grew on me over time, as did much about American Gods. The magic here is real, but not of the sorcerous variety, and the show achieves many of its oddest moments by embracing the absurd.

The same often goes for the dialogue. We, as viewers, see more than Shadow does, privy as we are to the short vignettes and other perspectives. But we're still in Shadow's shoes, as confused and baffled as he is much of the time. Dialogue between the show's cast of mysterious characters is often opaque enough to leave us guessing. Especially if you're a newcomer to the story (and haven't read the book) you might find yourself wondering what exactly is going on. That's okay. You're supposed to be confused. Thankfully we have a great cast of actors and some splendid writing to help us along the way.

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Why the Flash needs to break out of its Formula

Last episode was not the season finale of The Flash, but it was the most significant episode of the season so far, as after literally just putting together clues inside his own head, Barry figured out the identity of the armored speedster known as Savitar, the one destined to kill Iris West and ruin his life forever.

To discuss this, we’re obviously going to have to get into spoiler territory, so turn back now if you haven’t seen last night’s episode.

You’ve been warned.

Barry realizes from Savitar’s infinite knowledge of his life and his little quips like “I am the future, Flash” (actually, “I am the Future Flash,” is a better reading), that the villain is none other than…himself. Future Barry. Or an Earth-X Barry. Or Flashpoint Barry.

This Barry isn’t “old” per say, probably just a few years older than Barry is now, though he has some sort of burn-like scar on his face, indicating a severe injury. Now the question morphs from “who is Savitar” to “why would future Barry want to kill Iris and presumably set off a chain of events to destroy his own life and the lives of everyone he loves?” That’s something I don’t have an immediate answer to, but I do know one thing: This is the type of plotline I hope gets put on the shelf for a while after this season.

While I have maintained since its debut that The Flash is one of the best superhero shows on television, if not the best, here in season three, my enthusiasm is starting to wane a bit. And mostly that’s because we are now in the third straight season where we more or less have the exact same over-arching plotline for the year.

1. Mysterious evil speedster arrives
2. Barry must get faster to stop him
3. Mysterious speedster is revealed to be someone Barry knows

In season one, Reverse Flash was Eobard Thawne wearing the face of Harrison Wells, pretending to be an ally to Barry and the team.

In season two, Zoom was Hunter Zolomon, pretending to Jay Garrick, pretending to be an ally when it suited him, in a reveal so convoluted I still don’t understand aspects of it a year later.

Now in season three, we have Savitar as Future/Flashpoint Barry, motivations as of yet unclear.

This sort of mystery can be a lot of fun, and I was on board for it for maybe, 1.75 seasons (I was not a fan of the Hunter Zolomon/Jay Garrick craziness at the end of last season). This year, my only real guess was that this was some version of Barry in the suit, ever since he uttered “I am the future(,) Flash” and that set off fans speculating that was the case.

I’m not upset that I wasn’t super surprised by this reveal, but I do think it’s time to let this formula go. By keeping the identity of X villain a secret over the course of the season, the obvious answer is that it’s going to be some member of the cast, past or present, so it’s just a game of musical chairs as you try to guess who it is. Again, while this formula can work well (and Arrow actually did a good job copying The Flash’s formula this season with its Prometheus storyline, and had a head-fake no one saw coming), for The Flash itself, it’s getting a bit tiresome.

I think Barry needs A) a non speedster villain in season four, though someone who can still go toe-to-toe with him and B) someone whose identity isn’t a mystery for more than a short while so we don’t have round four of this little guessing game, which is getting old. It’s like The Flash saw how well season one worked, and now they’re scared to do anything besides that overall formula. But each time they do it, it gets a little less effective. This season, I haven’t really been on board with Savitar, the blob of CGI armor, from the start. Only now that I know he’s Future Barry does he seem even a little bit interesting.

The Flash is still a good show and I’ve enjoyed parts of this season. I think that after Savitar is put to rest, that we need to lay off this exact format for a season or two, and see how The Flash works when it’s not all about just trying to get faster or the identity of a villain or the perils of time travel. There’s a lot more that can be explored here, but so far, The Flash seems afraid to go in new directions.

I am interesting in hearing the wild tale of how Barry Allen went full supervillain, but there has been a lot of wasted time getting to this point, and I just want the show to go someplace new after this.

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The Flash Episode 19 Season 3: The Once and Future Flash

The Once And Future Flash is a nice way for the show to come back from its spring hiatus. I didn't even realize how much I had missed this season until things kicked off, when suddenly I was reminded that, oh yes, The Flash Season 3 has been very good.

By this time last year, the warning signs were everywhere, and it was right about now that I started to really skewer this show for what I considered to be some cheap shots and easy ways out. With just a handful of episodes to go until that May 23rd deadline (which also marks the actual season finale date), I'm hard pressed at the moment to think of ways this show could really blow it as monumentally as it did last year. Every reveal, every twist, has been executed so well that I have no choice but to put my absolute faith in everyone involved. The storyline has been holding up very firmly and the writers are paying up close attention to every detail which is going up in the season.

But with all that, and all the fireworks that we know are coming in the final showdown with Savitar (and, it appears, with Killer Frost), The Once And Future Flash was a surprisingly understated episode. The Top and Mirror Master were almost set dressing, here to add a little Rogue-y flavour to the Central City of the future (I really dug the special effects they used for them this week, too), but this was purely character driven, with the bulk of it falling on Grant Gustin (who was terrific as both regular Barry and...ahem...Emo Barry, as Twitter has dubbed him) and Carlos Valdez (who once again proves that he is this show's secret weapon).

When you go up and see the first episode you see how these two actors have grown and are one with their characters that they can pull off both hard hitting dialogues and showcasing the fun elements for which the show is hailed so highly.

Setting this episode seven years in the future not only makes sense from a story standpoint (it's the date on the headline from the newspaper in the first episode), it also frees the show up from having to do any silly gymnastics to over-age its cast. Any of that would have just distracted from a solid hour with (most) of the core cast, using their future, broken selves to remind audiences why we love them so much when they're fully functioning. The episode was not about Barry knowing about Savitar but about himself and knowing this will help him in keeping the team together. 

So with that in mind, we know that even when Barry saves Iris on May 23rd, the universe is going to extract its toll. Somebody isn't making it out of this season, and I'm more convinced than ever that it's Joe West. Joe is, in fact, the last person I want to see take the ol' Central City dirt nap, but I just feel like we're going to see some kind of parallel via Iris with what we saw with the Joe of 2024.

Unfortunately, I also feel that the fate of Caitlin Snow that we saw teased here is also set in stone. Perhaps we'll be starting The Flash season four with a very different looking team. I think, overall, Caitlin's heel turn has been handled brilliantly, but at some point it has to stick. If they keep see-sawing her over the next few years, it's going to lose its impact. If I'm wrong, and she is brought back from the brink before season's end, they can't play that card again. I also hope that when it does finally stick they find a better balance for her dialogue, which veers a little too far into "I'm eeeeevil now" for my taste, considering that the rest of this story has played out in such a balanced fashion.

But that Caitlin/Savitar cliffhanger. Holy moley. This scene was perhaps the best visual we've had on the show in a while. It really just looked terrific, and Savitar's eerie blue glow against that snowscape with Caitlin was a really nice touch. For a moment, I thought they were gonna give us the "full Savitar reveal" but alas, I was wrong.

So who the hell is he?

Caitlin's reaction obviously indicates it's somebody she knows quite well and would do anything for. That points the finger at Ronnie Raymond, and considering how he croaked at the end of season one, I suppose ending up with Speed Force armour isn't the most out there possibility. But the problem is: why would the audience care that it's Ronnie? But that whole death thing might explain why he needs this armour. The other possibility is Eddie Thawne, who also vanished into the Speed Force, albeit after he was already quite dead (or on his way there). 

I know there has been some speculation that it's Jay Garrick, which I refuse to really get into, mostly because I can't be objective about anything involving Jay Garrick and this would break my heart. And would Caitlin really have that much reason to unquestioningly do whatever Jay says? This may rule him out. I might also be in denial, but give me this, please.

Of course, this leaves Julian... or some version of him. Or some version of Wally. Or... version of Barry, I dunno. I'm out of ideas, and I'm sure all of them are quite wrong

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'The Flash' season 3, episode 15 spoilers: What will happen in "The Wrath of Savitar"?

In Tuesday night's The Flash, Barry Allen and the rest of his team had to defend Central City from a Planet of the Apes-like Gorilla invasion."Attack on Central City" forced Barry to wrestle with some darker thoughts as he contemplated killing Grodd as a way to change the future and hopefully save Iris' life.

Obviously, since The Flash is considerably more lighthearted than Arrow, Barry was able to find another way to save Central City from Grodd and his army of sentient gorillas. And following the team's victory, with the help of  Earth 19's Gypsy ,love was in the air.

Not only did Gypsy and Cisco have a hot and heavy moment, but Jesse officially moved to Earth-1 to be with Wally and, oh yeah, Barry proposed to Iris! Unfortunately, it seems like all these love affairs will be short-lived, because in season three, episode 15, the Flash's most dangerous enemy yet, Savitar, will be making his return.

In the later moments of "Attack on Central City," Wally West catches a glimpse of Savitar while out grabbing some burgers for his new girlfriend. And while it seems like the evil speedster may initially be playing mind tricks, things are bound to get a lot more dangerous very quickly. If you need a little bit more from The Flash before next week's episode, here is the official synopsis:

Savitar visits Wally: While training with Barry (Grant Gustin), Wally (Keiynan Lonsdale) starts to have visions of Savitar, which he hides from the team. A dangerous secret threatens Barry and Iris' (Candice Patton) happiness. 

It is quite understandable if that synopsis is not enough to hold you over for a full week. So, check out some more of The Flash in an extended promo for "The Wrath of Savitar" below:

 

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"The Best Worst Video game Ever! Part 2" The Flash Episode 14 Season 3 Synopsis

The Flash Episode 13 Season 3 had an amazing setting with team Flash in Gorilla City fighting highly intelligent gorillas and Wally and Jesse back at Central City together protecting the city. The concept alone is mesmerizing and thrilling but it felt like the show runners did not want to show us the full extent of the settings like they were holding back and just teasing us with this mind boggling concept. 

Truth be told I can understand why they were holding back. The main reason may be the next episode,"Attack on Central City", just tipping up the scales. Now that Wally and Jesse are on the same page, the team can fully concentrate on saving the city and in doing that saving Iris (which I have a feeling might not happen). If we look at the synopsis:

When Grodd (voiced by David Sobolov) and his army of gorillas bring the battle to Earth-1, The Flash (Grant Gustin) and team must find a way to stop them before they destroy Central City. Gypsy (guest star Jessica Camacho) returns to join the fight. Meanwhile, Jesse Quick (guest star Violett Beane) decides she wants to stay with Wally (Keiynan Lonsdale) on Earth-1.

The synopsis and the end credit scene of Episode 13 do bring a lot of questions like :

How Gypsy got caught in middle of this? Is she being mind controlled or not? 

Although I was not that impressed by the episode 13, it was a good character driven episode for Jesse and Julian. But I m pretty sure that episode 14, will be action packed and surely link the story further to the return of our big bad this season, Savitar as the episode 15 title is: Wrath of Savitar.

I am looking forward to this as after seeing Solovar and Barry go at it for 4 minutes, I am curious to see how the Team fight an army of Gorillas.

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