With the premiere of Season 8 of The Flash, it appears the CW show is very comfortable in its own skin. Easily the longest-running show left standing in the larger Arrowverse, Episode 1 of the new season seemed to have stuck to a formula that its fans will certainly recognize and understand. In fact, the season premiere was quite similar to past premieres, teasing a massive world-ending type of cataclysm that the gang will likely spend most of the rest of the season trying to stop. Just in case that wasn't obvious from the opening scenes of the episode, the showrunners wanted people to understand what was about to happen quite clearly, considering it's actually titled "Armageddon Part 1."
Sticking to a well-established formula has both its pros and its cons and both showed their heads in the first episode of the season. That formula also includes a kind of "villain of the week" addition that tends to be someone who is actually fairly easy to stop, because apparently, the showrunners feel as though The Flash and his gang need a win, even if the bigger victory or defeat is still a ways off. There was also the addition of an Arrowverse crossover in the form of Brandon Routh's Ray Palmer, formally of Legends of Tomorrow. It didn't take long for it to be rather obvious that Ray is going to be this season's fill-in for Hartley Sawyer's Ralph Dibney. Sawyer found himself in some real-life hot water and was booted off the show. It appears The Flash felt as though it needed another super-powered goofball to fill that hole so enter Palmer and his alter ego, The Atom.
The Formula For The Flash Not Adding Up As Well
While The Flash felt like it stuck to its formula to kick off the season, it's possible that this time, it didn't really equal success. That might be because it was simply trying to do too much in a short window of time. There's a lot to pick up from after Season 7's finale and interestingly enough, in that regard, the show might not have done enough. It's not clear why this season is kicking off with what is apparently a kind of mini-series inside the series. These sort of things are usually saved for mid-season crossovers, but this particular time, The Flash is kicking things off with one. That means things like Jesse L. Martin's Joe West and Tom Cavanuagh's Harry Wells not being around were barely even mentioned. There was one sideways comment about Joe being out of the picture but it was only in passing and ignored fairly quickly.
The rest of the formula for The Flash involves a few other quirky friends all doing their thing in order to try and help Barry beat the bad guy of the week and start the battle against the big bad who is going to be around all week. Because of shifts in the cast that included the departure of Carlos Valdes and his character, Vibe, it feels like the cast of characters are still feeling each other out. Brandon McKnight's Chester P. Runk has basically stepped into the role of Vibe, but his personality quite frankly, isn't vibing as well with The Flash or the rest of the characters.
Kayla Compton's Allegra Garcia is having problems meshing with the group as well. Of course, her part of the episode was about trying to find her way in the world, so it makes some sense that she's a bit off-kilter. At the same time, it feels like they already did the "where does Allegra fit in" quite a bit in Season 7 and it would be nice if that particular well-traveled road didn't appear to get traveled yet again to kick off the year. It's entirely possible that the formulaic approach to The Flash mostly felt off because of how much was getting packed into one hour.
The Flash Villains Left A Lot To Be Desired
When considering the formula The Flash uses when it comes to its "villain of the week" it shouldn't come as a big surprise that the Royal Flush Gang wasn't particularly a dangerous group. On the other hand, a group of villains that all combine their powers to commit robberies could have actually been interesting. In fact, it feels like they could be something that took the focus of at least a couple of episodes. Instead, they were on screen just enough to deliver one painful poker pun after another and then dealt with fairly quickly. The addition of a very hurried mystery as to what they were actually after that was then quickly answered and dispatched left the whole thing feeling rather hollow.
In fact, it felt a bit like plans for this episode of The Flash (and maybe the season) changed midstream and the writers attempted to keep what they liked from the old plan while merging it with the new one. If that is indeed what went down, it wasn't pulled off all that well. While the gang was a bit too goofy to feel very foreboding, they also seemed powered up enough that they could have held their own in a fight a bit better than they did. It appears the show wanted to quickly move to what appears to be the big bad of Season 8.
Despero came to the Arrowverse for the first time this season and he's certainly a formidable enough villain for Barry Allen and company. He's got the ability to change his size and shape and he's apparently got some mental powers that allow him to get into other people's heads and even fool his foes into thinking he's standing somewhere he's not. Of course, the way the show decided to demonstrate that latter power was some of the most ham-handed writing The Flash has ever had.
Despero apparently comes from the future, and that too certain sticks to the formula for The Flash. It's not clear why so many of the villains involved in the show travel back in time to take on Barry Allen and company. It would seem there would be plenty of danger in the "here and now" but the show's writers tend to like to set the stage with assurances that everything is going to go wrong, and then let viewers watch and find out how it didn't go wrong after all. It will be interesting to see if the show has gone back to that well once too often.
The Flash airs on Tuesday nights on The CW