What I appreciate mostly is that The Flash show not a goofy show like the Marvel movies have become. The Marvel movies and their characters are worse for that goofiness. But the DC shows have not followed suit, to their credit. Flash, particularly, has evolved into quite the dark show. Meaning the events are grim and even scary. It reminds me of the darker Twilight Zone episodes or Outer Limits episodes of some years ago.
It's not really new either. From the beginning the Flash TV show has had some dark episodes. From the Reverse Flash villain, to the Doom villain, to the Savitar villain. The fact that all of these villains were speedsters like the Flash was redundant, and lacked imagination, but the story lines were dark, and not goofy. Which was refreshing. Facing speedsters all the time is along the lines of the kind of villain a hero like Flash should fight. But season after season, especially the first three seasons, made for some questionable storytelling.
In season four we don't see another speedster except for a brief reappearance of Reverse Flash in the crossovers of episode eight. Which is a good thing. And speaking of that crossover thing, fighting Nazis? Sheesh... Talk about recurring villains. We've seen Nazis and Neo-Nazis as villains more times than I can count over the history of Hollywood. But at least the shows weren't goofy. Well, wait a minute. The fact that all the Nazis were shooting blanks from their machineguns was goofy. It was downright comedic. The Nazis were shooting literally thousands of rounds over the four episode crossover and only once did they hit a target....an old man...and it was comical.
But I digress. We see an even darker villain emerge in season four of Flash. A professor with an artificially enhanced IQ. But he also has ALS. Because he's becoming paralyzed, he takes over a younger dude's body. Meaning he transfers his mind into the body of a much younger and healthier man. Which all in all was pretty scary. I'm not into horror, but the darker stories are preferable to the goofy slapstick comedies Marvel's been putting out recently.
My only complaint is why is this "professor" guy so evil? I mean when you wish ill will on others for no reason, that's an evil thing. And this guy is doing that. Killing innocents for no reason? I mean, where is the guy going with this? What are his reasons? He's supposed to be a teacher. And his mind is supposed to be so smart with his enhanced IQ. Whatever. I suppose the show will answer all the questions when it pans out. I'm only on episode nine, so we'll see. I hope.
My point is serious drama beats dumb comedies any day. That's not to say all comedies are dumb. Inspector Clouseau was great. But superheroes, as Inspector Clouseaus, are not great. They're only dumb. And to me, at least, dumb is not funny. And far from great.
