‘The Flash’: Heart, emotion, a real hero in Grant Gustin

From producers Greg Berlanti (Dawson’s Creek, Arrow) and Andrew Kreisberg comes The Flash, whichmade its debut on Philippine television on Wednesday, October 8, via Solar Entertainment’s Jack TV channel.

Written by Berlanti, Kreisberg, and DC Entertainment’s Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, the TV show follows the life of Central City Police scientist Barry Allen (Grant Gustin), who gains unworldly speed after an accident at S.T.A.R Labs on a fateful night changed the lives of many, including his.

Attaining new powers through the lab explosion, Allen, who takes the alias “The Flash,” stops crimes in Central City and helps contain others who garnered powers the same night but use their gifts to commit acts of violence that lead to catastrophic results.

Besides being the fastest man in the world, Allen is also something of a genius, and has a personal mission that should serve as season one’s long story arc: to prove the innocence of his father, who was wrongly accused in Barry’s eyes of killing his mother when Allen was a kid.

Visual attributes

Other than the  storyline, interesting casting, and significant background of being a DC Comics-based series, one major aspect that will draw viewers to The Flash is its use of visual effects.

Whether its watching Flash zooming around Central City faster than the speed of light or watching him contain an adversary that could create a hurricane with his bare hands, Berlanti and company did a great job enhancing aesthetic value during the pilot episode.

“Without a doubt, the most challenging part of shooting The Flash is going to be maintaining the level of visual effects that everybody saw in the pilot,” Berlanti said in an interview which was shared with Rappler.com.

“This show has a lot of heart and a lot of emotion, which is great and surprising – but the wow factor of the visual effects and some of the sequences that we have coming up are going to blow people away.”

Berlanti was kind enough to offer some spoilers for upcoming episodes: The Flash will save a number of people from a burning building and crashing trains – scenes viewers should be excited about considering how well the show’s visual effects were in episode one.

Casting

But for the show to be a hit, the producers needed a main star that could play the role of boyish, easy-going, and likeable Barry Allen by day but turns into the responsible Flash by night, which Grant Gustin (Glee) did a great job of in episode one.

“Barry, at heart, is a happy person and does things with a smile and is the positivity in all these people’s lives on the show as a character, and I think Grant is that for the cast,” producer Andrew Kreisberg said in a media roundtable interview before the pilot.  

Members of the cast include Candice Patton (The Game) as Iris West, Barry’s best friend and love interest; Danielle Panabaker (Shark) as Dr. Caitlin Snow, who will become DC character Killer Frost; Tom Cavanagh (Bang Bang You’re Dead) as Dr. Harrison Wells, the founder of S.T.A.R. Labs; and Jesse L. Martin (Law and Order) as Detective Joe West, Allen’s surrogate father and Iris’ dad.

Barry’s biological father, Henry Allen, is portrayed by John Wesley Shipp, who played the original Barry Allen during the 1990-1991 run of the former The Flash TV series.

“We are all fans of the ‘90s version of The Flash. I think I re-watched the pilot and one other episode during the development process, but it was great to see it again,” Berlanti said.

“I knew John Wesley Shipp because we worked on Dawson’s Creek together – and we knew we wanted him to be a part of this new show in some way because we are big fans.”

Though Shipp will play only a recurring role, he will still be a big part of the first season as Barry tries to release his father from prison.

“Barry is determined to free his father, especially now that he knows for certain that Henry is innocent and that it wasn’t just his childhood imagination inventing something,” Berlanti explained about the relationship between father and son.

(Spoiler): During his mom’s death scene to start the pilot, Allen sees a bolt of lightning in which a man who looks to be in a Flash yellow suit is present. Andrew Dyce of Screenrant.com points out that many The Flash comic fans believe the man to be Reverse-Flash, Barry’s arch-nemesis.  

The Flash is expected to also introduce other popular DC Comics characters, particularly Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller, Prison Break), Simon Stagg (William Sadler, The Shawshank Redemption), and Firestorm (Robie Amell, The Tomorrow People). And throughout the course of the series, Berlanti and company will introduce even more personalities that will get ample time of exposure and background information on a per episode basis – something not accessible if their project were a movie.

The Flash and Arrow

Berlanti talked about how The Flash’s sister show, Arrow (now on its third season),has gained popularity because of the wide amount of TV time they get to talk about different storylines revolving around the show.

One of which is how the main character, Oliver Queen, becomes DC Comics superhero Green Arrow after spending the last five years of his life on an isolated island away from humanity due to a ship incident.

The first season picked up with Queen putting on his Green Arrow suit, but also uses flashbacks to talk about how his time on the island turned him from a spoiled billionaire kid into Starling City’s vigilante at night. Such an objective wouldn’t fit the time frame of a two-hour movie.

“Arrow was an origin story. We can actually show him on that island for 5 years. A movie couldn’t do that. It would be 20 minutes in a film. It would be really tightly crammed in,” said Berlanti.

The happenings in The Flash and Arrow take place in the same world, with Starling City and Central City being neighbors.

The character of Allen was actually first introduced in the 8th episode of Arrow’s second season, and Queen (Stephen Amell) was present during The Flash’s pilot as Barry looked for someone with superhero experience to turn to during a moment of self-reflection.

A crossover episode between the two shows titled “Flash vs. Arrow” is planned for their current seasons, which has a lot of fans excited.

The trailer above sees Bary Allen (Grant Gustin) kissing Felicity Smoak (Emily Richards) of Arrow in what’s expected to be the crossover episode. The two had obvious chemistry during Allen’s appearance in Arrow during its second season.

If The Flash’s pilot episode was any indication, then the crossover episode, as well as rest of the first season, should be very entertaining. – Rappler.com

Naveen Ganglani is a correspondent and writer for Rappler.com who spends a lot of his time watching movies, flicking through TV shows, and reading novels when he isn’t penning articles and covering events. On most days, he likes to watch re-runs of Friends as he hopes to master Joey Tribbiani’s “How you doin’?” pick-up line. Follow him on Twitter: @naveenganglani