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Arrow, Flash, & WTF DC
Nov. 8th, 2013 11:33 amArrow is going to introduce Barry Allen!!
And then the CW is going to make a Flash TV show!!!
...
...Should I be excited or afraid?
So, okay. I've already documented my distaste for The CW's Arrow, meaning I don't trust the same creators to write a good Flash TV show. Yes, apparently they said Flash wouldn't be as "dark" and "gritty" as Arrow (that's a huge relief). But besides the fact that all the angst and grimdarkness in Arrow has been so over the top that it's becoming painful to watch, there's also Arrow's iffy record when it comes to writing female characters well (*cough* HUNTRESS WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU *cough*) and the fact that I dropped the first season not because of the angst, not because of the plot clichés, and not even because of the female characters, but because I was bored.
(Also, Arrow plays really fast and loose with the source material, which isn't to say that any changes to the canon suck, but it's pretty distracting to have a character named Dinah Laurel Lance and NOT have her be the Black Canary, and it's also really distracting to build up all this "romantic tension" about will Oliver Queen and Dinah Laurel Lance get together or won't they, when they're a canon couple in the comics.)
What I'll give Arrow is that it's pretty good with secondary characters. Felicity and Diggle are fantastic. But Diggle aside, Arrow kind of has a bit of a problem with whitewashing (Sin was supposed to be East Asian...).
I don't know. I liked Arrow in the beginning. It's very clear they were taking a leaf out of Batman Begins's book, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing because it was entertaining and intriguing. But the whole "what happened to Oliver Queen on the island" subplot has been dragged out for waaay too long. The grimdarkness, as I said, is over the top; not everyone needs to have PTSD in order to become a superhero. Also, they began with a realistic depiction of Oliver's PTSD and then sort of...dropped it. Not cool. And finally, bizarrely, for a show that's trying to be about whether vigilanteism is heroic, Oliver is a giant douchebag and a hypocrite. He kills people, but criticizes his enemies for killing people and claiming he's above them. AND HE'S NEVER ONCE CALLED OUT ON THIS.
(He's also a pretty big hypocrite when it comes to demanding that other people reveal their secrets.)
But enough about Green Arrow.
So, Flash.
I can't help but be excited. Hell, I'm excited any time we get a movie/TV show that isn't about Batman or Superman, because as much as I love Batman, it's getting stale to have nothing but Batman all the time. I'm also thrilled because I really like the Flash; his powers are super cool, and it's great to have another superhero who isn't brooding and angsty all the time. And instead of being a billionaire, Barry Allen is a regular guy, a forensic scientist in fact, which means there will be lots of cool opportunities to feature crime procedurals from a scientific angle (woot!). I'm not super familiar with the Flash comics, but I'm psyched to see Iris West (and I'd love to see Wally West in the future as well!).
But it's just bizarre in general that DC is sitting on so many comic properties and yet all we get on a screen is Batman and Superman, over and over again. (I hear a Flash movie is still in development?) And, you know, even when DC branches out into non-Batman/Superman superheroes, they're always still white men. Why not a Huntress movie/TV series? Or Birds of Prey? Or any of the Batgirls (which reminds me, I also want to see Nightwing and Red Robin sometime)?
Sigh. WTF, DC. WTF.
And then the CW is going to make a Flash TV show!!!
...
...Should I be excited or afraid?
So, okay. I've already documented my distaste for The CW's Arrow, meaning I don't trust the same creators to write a good Flash TV show. Yes, apparently they said Flash wouldn't be as "dark" and "gritty" as Arrow (that's a huge relief). But besides the fact that all the angst and grimdarkness in Arrow has been so over the top that it's becoming painful to watch, there's also Arrow's iffy record when it comes to writing female characters well (*cough* HUNTRESS WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU *cough*) and the fact that I dropped the first season not because of the angst, not because of the plot clichés, and not even because of the female characters, but because I was bored.
(Also, Arrow plays really fast and loose with the source material, which isn't to say that any changes to the canon suck, but it's pretty distracting to have a character named Dinah Laurel Lance and NOT have her be the Black Canary, and it's also really distracting to build up all this "romantic tension" about will Oliver Queen and Dinah Laurel Lance get together or won't they, when they're a canon couple in the comics.)
What I'll give Arrow is that it's pretty good with secondary characters. Felicity and Diggle are fantastic. But Diggle aside, Arrow kind of has a bit of a problem with whitewashing (Sin was supposed to be East Asian...).
I don't know. I liked Arrow in the beginning. It's very clear they were taking a leaf out of Batman Begins's book, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing because it was entertaining and intriguing. But the whole "what happened to Oliver Queen on the island" subplot has been dragged out for waaay too long. The grimdarkness, as I said, is over the top; not everyone needs to have PTSD in order to become a superhero. Also, they began with a realistic depiction of Oliver's PTSD and then sort of...dropped it. Not cool. And finally, bizarrely, for a show that's trying to be about whether vigilanteism is heroic, Oliver is a giant douchebag and a hypocrite. He kills people, but criticizes his enemies for killing people and claiming he's above them. AND HE'S NEVER ONCE CALLED OUT ON THIS.
(He's also a pretty big hypocrite when it comes to demanding that other people reveal their secrets.)
But enough about Green Arrow.
So, Flash.
I can't help but be excited. Hell, I'm excited any time we get a movie/TV show that isn't about Batman or Superman, because as much as I love Batman, it's getting stale to have nothing but Batman all the time. I'm also thrilled because I really like the Flash; his powers are super cool, and it's great to have another superhero who isn't brooding and angsty all the time. And instead of being a billionaire, Barry Allen is a regular guy, a forensic scientist in fact, which means there will be lots of cool opportunities to feature crime procedurals from a scientific angle (woot!). I'm not super familiar with the Flash comics, but I'm psyched to see Iris West (and I'd love to see Wally West in the future as well!).
But it's just bizarre in general that DC is sitting on so many comic properties and yet all we get on a screen is Batman and Superman, over and over again. (I hear a Flash movie is still in development?) And, you know, even when DC branches out into non-Batman/Superman superheroes, they're always still white men. Why not a Huntress movie/TV series? Or Birds of Prey? Or any of the Batgirls (which reminds me, I also want to see Nightwing and Red Robin sometime)?
Sigh. WTF, DC. WTF.
