6 Things I Want to See in a Flash TV Show
Following the success of the Green Arrow TV show – and really, who could have seen that coming? – Warner Bros. and The CW have announced hopes to make a spin-off about the Flash, the fastest man alive. They cast actor Grant Gustin as the Scarlet Speedster only a few weeks ago, and he’s already filming a few episodes of Arrow Season 2 to build up his character and get him ready for his own pilot.
I’ve said it before: we are living in a Golden Age of superhero entertainment.
Faster than a speeding…no wait, that’s Superman
I consider myself a fan of the Flash, even though I’ve rarely ever read his comic. I love the idea of the character, I love the costume, I love the powers; the Flash can be a really cool guy. I think he’d make for a fantastic big screen movie, but who am I to argue with Warner Bros. decision to make a TV show instead? I really liked the first season of Arrow, so I have high hopes for the Flash – I also have some suggestions (or demands, depending on how you look at it).
Join me after the jump for 6 things I want in a Flash TV show.
6. Use the Name ‘Flash’ Right Away
The name isn’t too ‘flashy’
Everybody seems afraid to call Green Arrow ‘Green Arrow’. The show itself is call only ‘Arrow’, and during the first season, the bow and arrow-wielding vigilante was known as ‘The Hood’, because he wore a hood. What’s up with that? Smallville ran for 10 seasons, and even though we knew the guy was Superman from Episode 1, they never called him Superman! There were entire seasons where Clark Kent would dress up in costume and save people in Metropolis, but he was still called the ‘Red/Blue Blur’ or just ‘The Blur’. Guys like Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Cyborg and the Wonder Twins were making cameo appearances on Smallville, and were using their superhero names, but the producers insanely refused to call the main character ‘Superman’.
So when the Flash gets his spin-off show, I damn well expect him to be called ‘The Flash’. They’ve already used ‘The Blur’, and I hope they don’t go with ‘The Super Fast Guy’ to avoid the apparent curse of superhero names. ‘The Flash’ is a perfectly fine superhero name. Use it!
5. Modernized Costume, Include Face Mask
Out with the old…
The Flash’s costume is one of the all-time greats. It’s basic, it’s iconic, and the guy looks like a superhero. But it’s probably going to be hell to recreate on screen. The Flash is a dude in a bright red body stocking. They tried it once back in the original live action Flash show in the 80s, and it kind of worked, as you can see from the picture, but it was still kind of awkward. They did a better job when the Flash guest-starred on Smallville, but that looked nothing like the classic costume.
But I am not married to the classic, iconic body stocking. I would be more than happy with a modern update to Flash’s costume, if it makes it easier to portray on the screen. Comics-accurate costumes are not a deal breaker for me when it comes to TV shows or movies. The only thing I ask is that the Flash have a face mask. The dumbest thing about Arrow is how Oliver Queen apparently has time to put a ton of green makeup around his eyes rather than wear a mask. And the last thing we want from The Flash TV Show is a speedster running around with bright red and gold eye-liner.
4. More Than One Love Interest
Superheroes get all the women
The second dumbest thing about Arrow is the dopey romance between Oliver Queen and his one and only romantic interest Laurel Lance. The two don’t work well together, and by the end of the season, The CW was hammering their romance as one for the ages, even though it just didn’t make any sense. Compare that to Smallville, which had at least three possible love interests for Clark Kent, and left the possibilities open to all of them. So when they include classic Flash love interest Iris West in the show (because of course there’s going to be a love interest), I hope they add a few other potential matches for the Scarlet Speedster. There’s nothing more boring than a predictable TV romance.
3. No Legacy Flashes
Their family reunions are over in seconds
In the comics, the Flash became especially famous for the legacy aspect of the character, and how the mantle of the Flash (and the super-speed) were passed down from one generation to the next. First there was Jay Garrick, who called himself the Flash in the early 1900s. Then Barry Allen became the modern-day Flash. When Barry died, his sidekick Wally West took over as the Flash. Then Wally’s children got Flash powers, and so on and so forth. But I’ve never been big into that legacy thing, and in a Flash TV show, I’d want the one Flash to be the only Flash. I think it would just make things easier and save viewers from any complications – like a guy wearing a tin hat with wings on his head.
2. Take Time to Build the Rogues
A couple bad motha’s!
Unlike Batman and the Joker or Superman and Lex Luthor, the Flash doesn’t really have one specific arch-enemy. Gorilla Grodd, maybe? A giant, sentient, telepathic gorilla? Reverse Flash? He’s basically just evil Flash wearing opposite colors. Not a lot to choose from. Fortunately, the Flash does have some really cool villains, and the best are The Rogues, a team of themed burglars and crooks who joined up to make bigger scores and to protect themselves from heroes like the Flash. Guys like Captain Cold, the Trickster, Weather Wizard, Mirror Master and more are perfect for television. Their powers might require some quality CGI, but hopefully that wouldn’t be too hard to pull off.
When dealing with the Rogues on TV, however, I recommend holding off on turning them into a team. In fact, a sub-plot of the first season could be the various Rogues coming together to form a team by the end. I imagine they’d each be perfect for a single episode appearance, a villain-of-the-week sort of thing. Then behind the scenes, the show could start bringing them all together and build-up to a season finale when all of the Flash’s toughest foes have teamed up against him! The Rogues are some of the neatest, most interestingly complex villains in the DC Universe. A Flash TV show shouldn’t waste their potential by teaming them up too early. Just think of the power that would come from seeing all these villains-of-the-week teaming up later in the season. It would be a much bigger deal than if they were already a team at the start of the show.
1. No Kid Flash
Yellow is hard to pull off
No Flash sidekicks. Shocking coming from me, right? I’m such a huge Robin fan, and I’m loving the use of Roy Harper in Arrow, but when it comes to the Flash, I don’t want to see the junior speedster running around behind him – at least not for a good long while. As I said before, I don’t think the legacy aspect of the Flash should transfer to the TV show. I just don’t think super speed should be so common. It’s a freak accident that gave Barry Allen his Flash powers, and I just don’t think it makes much sense for any other freak accidents to give other people the exact same power.
However, if the Flash TV show lasts several seasons, I might be willing to ease up on this demand. They’ll need to come up with other plots and stories eventually, and Kid Flash could be a lot of fun. I just don’t think they should worry about any other speedsters for the entire first season. Keep the focus on the Flash. Though I wouldn’t be opposed to adding Wally West to the cast as just a regular, ordinary human. He’s the nephew of the Flash’s main love interest (in the comics), so I could see him hanging out here and there. Then maybe down the line, when they’ve run out of other ideas, they could give him power too.
I may love sidekicks, but this is one instance where I would put the brakes on the idea.
Get it? Brakes? Super-speed? I crack myself up.
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The Flash TV show isn’t a guarantee just yet, but that has never stopped us from speculating for the fun of it. What would you like to see on a Flash TV show? Or would you prefer they focus on a Flash movie instead? What other superheroes should get a TV spin-off in the Arrow universe? Let me know in the comments!
Posted on October 2, 2013, in DC, Lists of Six!, Television and tagged Arrow, Green Arrow, Smallville, The Flash. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
Henchman-4-Hire 
Classic Henchmen List this week. Tough to add on, but let’s try. Most of these are about the Rogues because they’re generally all I care about in regards to the Flash mythos.
6. The secret identities of the Rogues should not have any kind of personal connection to Barry Allen. They are just random criminal dudes. The world does not have to be so small that Captain Cold and Flash are secretly buddies/co-workers/cousins/neighbors…etc. in real life.
5. There should be an episode almost entirely about the Rogues or a single Rogue. Obviously the actor who plays Barry will have a contract to at least appear in every episode. But like the latest episode of The League, he needs one episode where he shows up for 3 minutes, then isn’t seen again while we get to watch some awesome Rogue-centered story. (This might have to be a 3rd season kind of thing)
4. Ralph Dibny should appear. He’s the closest Flash ally without super speed. He probably doesn’t even need his super powers (but he should wear purple and white at some point). He can just be a private eye or a detective on the same police force as Barry and the two have a close working relationship. He can be the Det. Lance of the Flash show…but way nicer…and funnier.
3. Flash museum in season 5. This ties into an overall thing I want from the show, and that’s for the public to love him. New York hates Spider-Man. Gotham fears Batman. Star City generally isn’t cool with the Hood. And if there is any justice in the world, Metropolis should despise Superman after he collaterally-damage killed all of them in Man of Steel. But Flash should be different as he always has been. Central City loves that scarlet speedster and he loves them. Sure it is less drama when the hero can’t be all like “I’m the hero Central City needs but not the hero Central City deserves.” But I don’t care.
2. Diversity. It just occurred to me that all the Rogues are white dudes…fighting another white dude. They should probably change it up a bit.
1. Deadshot needs to appear at some point. But wait, there’s more…Deadshot needs to also appear in “Gotham” and the Constantine TV show. Arrow already established him as a world-traveling, kurare-using, master assassin. He should be everywhere. He fits in every show. He is DC’s one perfect multi-versatile Super Villain. He can fight street level and Super-powered heroes. And when Constantine needs to take a break from the mystical, Deadshot is there. Or give Deadshot a little mystic stuff to chew on. He can take it. Point is, all these shows are going to be on different networks, but that doesn’t mean they can’t all be the same universe. Deadshot, played by the same actor, would be the least interfering way to connect all these shows to one shared universe. It would be awesome.
Except Gotham is by FOX, not The CW, so Gotham and Arrow are not in the same universe!! Also, good thinking of the Flash Museum. I forgot all about that.
You’re thinking in Marvel movie terms. The same does not necessarily apply to DC TV shows. There is nothing technically stating that they can’t take place in the same universe. I do assume that Gordon can’t appear on Arrow and The Hood can’t appear on Gotham. But if Quicksilver can appear on both Avengers 2 and X-Men Days of Future Past, then I would assume that Deadshot can appear on both TV shows.
The only reason the same actor is not playing Quicksilver in both movies is because the directors’ want their own choices and Kevin Feige only controls one of the universes. But two different networks does not mean that they have two different executive producers. Some WB/DC exec could technically hire the same Deadshot actor for each show. We would then all just assume that the shows are in the same universe. WB/DC would never bother to correct us.
Think of it like this: Agents of SHIELD could have appeared on a different network than ABC. It only appeared on ABC, because Disney owns it and hey, synergy! But SHIELD could have been shopped around to other networks if ABC for some reason passed it up.
It is how Community (A SONY Pictures show) can appear on NBC (a Universal owned network). For Arrow and Gotham, the rights to the characters belong to WB, not Fox, and certainly not CW (Which I think is owned by Time Warner).
My point is that it’s still a long shot, but it is far more likely than Spider-Man on the Avengers.
I caught about 2 or 3 episodes of that gawdawful 80s Flash tv show. And this is taking into account the 80s was my childhood, and i’ve been a superhero nut my whole life. Fair attempt i guess, but yeah, give me Flash cartoons any day. Anyway, i’m a big fan of Arrow too, and i watched most of Smallville (skipped the last couple seasons), so i’m hoping CW does something special with Flash this time around.
And if they don’t call him the Flash right away, i’m going to Boo and Hiss at my tv screen.
I’m relatively satisfied with the early Flash show. I liked the costume, and the TV movie pilot was alright. Plus they had Mark Hamil as the Trickster, so that was awesome.
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