The Flash @ Wikipedia
The Flash @ IMDb
Synopsis: No, not that one. 😉
The Flash is a spin-off series of The CW’s Arrow where it started as a sort-of backdoor pilot until it got an actual pilot episode.
In Arrow‘s second season police lab technician Barry Allen visits Oliver Queen’s home town Starling City and actually meets the vigilante.
Back in his own town an experiment in a nearby research facility goes horribly wrong and puts Barry into a coma.
When he wakes up, his body is going into overdrive, allowing him to move and heal at incredible speeds.
But the accident changed other people as well and not all of them are such decent citizens as Barry.
My Opinion: They basically re-used the idea that Smallville had when Clark’s arrival on Earth did not just bring Clark but also the meteor shower that caused mutations and gave Clark enemies to fight against.
But that’s not such a bad thing. This way you don’t need to explain where suddenly all these people with weird powers come from, so that the Flash has something to do week after week.
I also enjoyed the cameo casting of John Wesley Shipp who used to be the Flash in the 1990s (also Barry Allen*).
To be honest I was a bit sceptical when Barry appeared in Starling City because I thought he looked a tad bit too young.
But over the course of these two Arrow episodes and the pre-released pilot episode of The Flash he already grew on me and I will be tuning in when it actually begins.
*The person carrying the moniker “The Flash” is not always the same person, just like there are different Green Lanterns. There were at least for people who used that name: Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West and Bart Allen. Smallville‘s version of the Flash (who went by “Impulse” in the early days) was Bart Allen.
John Wesley Shipp as the Flash:
Bart Allen in Smallville: