Opinion: Why The Flash Is Perfect For The CW… And Arrow — Craig’s Take

Matt Tucker offered his opinion on the Flash on Arrow and then ideally his own spin-off news a few weeks back; now here’s another take, from GreenArrowTV Webmaster Craig Byrne.

Ever since the initial announcement that Barry Allen, also known to fans of the DC Comics universe as “The Flash,” would be coming to Arrow and then possibly his own series, I’ve been really excited, and thinking about all that implies. The more I think about the idea, the more excited I get. Part of my excitement surely ties in to the notion that I much prefer my comics on TV over movies, more times than not; another part is surely nostalgia for the last Flash TV series — one CW audiences might be too young to remember, but trust me, it was very cool at the time. More than that, though, I’ve always enjoyed The Flash, even if Wally West is the scarlet speedster that I grew up with.

Here are some reasons why I think The Flash will work well for The CW — and for Arrow.

Barry Allen. Barry Allen was a CSI before being a CSI was cool. But beyond that, despite Wally West being my Flash of choice, Barry might be the Flash that is best suited for the Arrow universe, because of that grounded job. Quick, tell me what Wally West did for a living. Aside from that brief stint as a police mechanic when he didn’t remember who he was, I don’t really remember; he was mostly known for being the kid who was a huge fan of the Flash when lightning struck a second time. He then became the sidekick, and ultimately, succeeded Barry as The Flash and in many ways surpassed him. But I’m getting ahead of myself. A forensic scientist — especially one looking into the mystery of a murder — is perfect for the Arrow world.

But, it’s super powers! Arrow doesn’t have those. Smallville didn’t have flights or tights either, and despite Tom Welling not wanting to put on a suit, we had plenty of flights and tights in that show’s ten seasons. Someone with fantastic powers can only serve to expand Arrow’s world. It doesn’t make it any more or less realistic; I mean, after all, this is a show where a guy had a seismic device that could level an entire part of a city. That’s pretty sci-fi in itself. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

At the end of the day, who wouldn’t want to see the reactions of characters like Oliver and Felicity in a world with super powers? Could Flash having special abilities mean we might get actually a Black Canary with a canary cry? If yes, sign us up.

Flash on TV could mean DC can get more heroes introduced before the inevitable Justice League movie. Now, at no time has anyone said or confirmed that Arrow and The Flash happen in the same universe as Man Of Steel and the upcoming movies including Justice League… but it would be convenient if, in addition to their Superman and Batman, they’ve got at the very least a Flash, Black Canary, and Green Arrow before 2017 or whenever they want to have it out, right? Do we really think Warner Bros. will have individual movies for so many Justice Leaguers before the team-up flick? I don’t think it’ll be possible. With 22-23 episodes a year of TV, though, it’s very possible.

One other thing that’s not among my points listed, but is very important: I think it’s great that people involved with Arrow are making this happen. Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti working with Geoff Johns, with ties to Arrow, immediately sounds better to me than the random Wonder Woman, Deadman, or Spectre projects that were presented in recent years. Now, I could be wrong and they could have been brilliant; but I think working with a team that is proven is a very smart choice here. A coherent, unified team presenting DC on TV could be the Warner Bros. equivalent of what Jeph Loeb, Joss Whedon & co. are doing with Marvel and television and tying all that to the movie world.

And if not the Justice League, we could get some Teen Titans. Roy Harper over on Arrow, surely they’d eventually have Wally West on The Flash… you see where I’m going with this. And, I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face… Grey Damon, dammit.

The Rogues. The Flash has one of the best Rogues Galleries of villains in the entire comics world… maybe only Batman and possibly Spider-Man have better rogues. Bringing Barry Allen in to the Arrow world might also open up the world to those villains, who could conceivably cross over into Arrow. Everybody wins!

Barry Allen’s story is better for serialized TV. While, yes, a Flash movie could be cool, it might be a spectacle that’s along the lines of things that we’ve seen before. With a certain number of episodes, we can see his story grow in a way that could be as popular as Arrow if not (gasp!) even more popular.

If The Flash looks cool, we could be looking at record-breaking CW ratings. Mark my words on this now. If The Flash runs, it could give The CW their highest premiere numbers since the likes of Arrow and The Vampire Diaries. I think it could be huge, and it could only help the entire CW line-up in the process.

Now, I do admit, there are two major concerns I do have with The Flash on TV. One, of course, is what if the casting is awful? A badly cast Barry could ruin it all for everyone, although, at least we’d get three episodes of Arrow to know in advance if he stinks or not. I’m going to be hopeful and say he won’t.

The other concern I have is: Could this be too much of a good thing? The CW has only ten timeslots in their schedule for any given week. The Vampire Diaries has its spin-off, The Originals. A Supernatural spin-off is said to be in play. Here we’d have Arrow and The Flash, and that’s three whole nights out of five that are taken up, right there. As much as I love my genre television, would that even work? The other question mark is how this might affect new CW launch The Tomorrow People. Say Arrow, The Tomorrow People, and The Flash all make it to 2014-2015. That means there would now be three comic booky style shows, even if TTP isn’t based on a comic book. Might that be too much? Now, this might be alleviated if The Flash premiered as a summer series or something like that, but that’s a column for another day….

Your thoughts are welcomed. Leave them in the comments section below!