The Critical Corner

Before going on their latest break, The Flash Season 5 had some significant forward momentum with their latest episode, “Time Bomb”. The things that happened this episode: season villain Orlin Dwyer AKA Cicada was definitively dispatched to make way for his niece from the future to assume the villain role for the remainder of the season (one that showed how deadly she is in the past two episodes). Also, Barry and Iris’ daughter Nora West Allen's secret of working with villain Eobard Thawne (which has been percolating since the reveal in the show’s 100 th episode) was finally brought to light. Suddenly, things kicked into gear to (hopefully) deliver a strong final third for the season. Therein lies the problem. Ever since the third season back in 2016, for a series that features the fastest man alive, the show has been consistently plagued with a case of sluggish pacing that’s become a little harder to ignore these days. For a show that made it...

The show heads into the finale with the strongest episode of the season, probably the entire series.  Near the end of March, things had been looking a little too bleak for Season 3 of "The Flash". The plot progression of the story had been stifled by the writer's reluctance to reveal the identity of Savitar, and the show was becoming a little too self indulgent with repeating the same story beats over and over. Even their return episode to kick off the final stretch of the season, "The Once and Future Flash" , gave the impression Season 3 would stay the course with its obvious strengths and obvious weaknesses. Oh boy, was I wrong.  In my initial write up for Season 3 , I mentioned how if there was a show that had the potential to pull itself out of its funk, it was this one. The last three episodes, "I Know Who You Are", "Cause and Effect" and this week's "Infantino Street" have served as a well deserved reprieve to ...

Earlier today, my final post about the current state of The CW's "Arrow-verse" focused on "The Flash" went live . In it, I mentioned the things the show had been doing right in the midst of a lot of things it's gotten wrong in Season 3. Coming into this final batch of episodes, the show needed to pickup the pace with its "Savitar" storyline after the show pulled off the wrong move in teasing their audience in a bad way with the last episode, " Abra Kadabra ".  What they delivered tonight was a mixed bag. If anything, "The Once and Future Flash" is actually a microcosm of everything that has defined this season, in both good and bad ways. The episode picked up right where the previous one left off. With Barry still determined to fully uncover who Savitar is, he fulfilled his promise to Joe and Iris and made a time travel trip to Central City 2024. Even with a mild detour at the beginning of the episode with a showdown with...