TV Show Review

TV Review: THE FLASH: Season 1, Episode 8: Flash vs. Arrow [The CW]

Grant Gustin The Flash

The CW’s The Flash Flash vs. Arrow TV Show Review. The Flash: Season 1, Episode 8: Flash Vs. Arrow is the kind of super hero team-up fans have been waiting for. When a series of homicide cases involving a boomerang-like weapon brings the Arrow (Stephen Amell) to Central City, The Flash (Grant Gustin) must also take care of a new meta-human who manipulates emotions.

This episode was very much anticipated and not because of the extra special FX or hype. I was pretty critical of the show becoming a little too formulaic in the last episode. The prospect of having Arrow come on this show for a full episode created a very interesting situation. Both shows are different. Arrow is a darker show with a harder edge. I guess I was wondering if there would be some kind of compromise to have Arrow come on the show and still be hard-core. To my surprise the interaction between characters was fairly decent. Barry maintained his boyish charm and Oliver kept his tortured hero vibe going strong. The best part of having Arrow on was the fight between him and The Flash and the training sequences. Still this was a bit of a cheat. I was expecting to see The Flash and Arrow team up and fight an enemy that tested both their powers. After going after one another in brief scrap, we never saw how they defeated Chroma (Paul Anthony).

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Cross over’s have strange effects on characters. Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) and Iris West (Candice Patton) both seemed to be having an odd time. Jesse, is pretty much a straight up shooter. He knew what Arrow brought to the table and was not cool with his way of bringing justice. He never blinked when telling Barry he wanted him out of town. A few encounters and Jesse was willing to shake his hand at the end of the episode. Basically that whole gap between them was filled too fast. We really needed to see something happen like maybe Jesse seeing him safe someone. Even then he may need to see that more than once to be fully convinced. On top of that lets not forget Joe was just threatened. He came around too soon and we never saw that light click where Arrow won him over. Iris, is having a mild identity crisis. In the beginning of the episode she is still acting like a teeny-bopper infatuated with The Flash. When she sees Oliver in the café she reveals she not only has a thing for him but also has a cheat list. She is just full of surprises and rolling through emotions as fast as The Flash can run. This is a light infraction but when you couple it with the fact that we see Iris and Eddie (Rick Cosnett) rolling around in the bed together, it shows her in a different light. In the end she no longer wants to see The Flash. This may cause Barry to make more mistakes trying to get her the way she was before the cross over.

Arrow seemed to also be in rare form. On his own show he leads dual lives and is on top of keeping his secret. He seemed to be a little too eager to let the S.T.A.R. team know his identity and it wasn’t necessary to resolve the episode. He helped Barry and helped capture the new villain…mission accomplished. He could have kept his identity a secret. It’s not like they wouldn’t understand…Barry isn’t going around telling everyone who he is. This didn’t work for me.

This cross over left me hoping if they do this again, they will need to have Arrow and The Flash actually fight a tough character. Cutting out the fight really was disappointing. It basically suggested the guy was not really that much of a threat after all. I did like the new villain introduced at the end. It looks like he may have a hot temper too. I can only hope he has been developed better than the last meta-humans we have been meeting.

Leave your thoughts on this review and this episode of The Flash below in the comments section. For more The Flash reviews, photos, videos, and information, visit our The Flash Page, subscribe to us by Email, “follow” us on Twitter, Tumblr, or “like” us on Facebook.

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Brian Fire

Brian is a screenwriter and visual fx Artist who loves science fiction, drama and follows many TV shows. He is a versatile writer who is published and has written copy for: CompUsa, The California State Lottery and Princess Cruise lines. Every year he attends The Sundance Film Festival and the San Diego Comic Con filling up on his other passions…indie films, comic books and video games.
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