Do you ever wish you could move and think super fast? Well, in the CW’s series Barry Allen (Grant Gustin), is a forensic scientist at the Central City Police Department, who can. This new series puts a twist on a well known hero, The Flash. Barry gained his powers of super speed  after an accident which involved a nearby particle accelerator and a lightning bolt. After watching the first few episodes, I knew that this show was going to get a lot of buzz from people who watched the 90s version and from younger people.

Season 1 overview (Some spoilers)

This isn’t the first series based on DC’s Scarlet Speedster, the Flash was originally played by John Wesley Shipp in the 90s and he now plays Barry’s father. In the new series Barry must get accustomed to his powers while he begins to protect the city from rogue metahumans. On top of that, he is trying to find out who killed his mother and prove his father’s innocence. Throughout the first season another speedster constantly terrorized Flash and the city, which kept the audience guessing who it was. Barry finds out  the “Reverse-Flash” is actually the man who saved him from dying, Harrison Wells (who was actually Eobard Thawne from the future).

Barry is given the chance to save his mother by going back in time, but he would have to let the Reverse-Flash go. Barry accepts but does not save his mom and ends up going back and fighting Wells before Joe’s partner, who is a distant relative of Thawne, kills himself and erases Thawne from existence. When Barry came back he accidently opened a portal that began to destroy the city and with that cliffhanger we waited for the second season.

The first season was great television overall, with great CGI effects (even in standard definition) when they introduced Gorrilla Grodd, and great performances from the actors. While certain episodes were just filler where Barry battles vague villains who are never shown again and brings down the show, such as Peek-a-Boo who can teleport, but once they capture her there is never a reference to her again. In the end The Flash kept us wanting more especially with its action sequences and its cameos such as Mark Hamill who reprised his role as the Trickster whom he played in the original show.

Season 2 (spoiler alert)                                  

Picking up where the cliffhanger left off, we come back to Central City to see that Barry is protecting the city by himself after he stopped the singularity. With new villains and Jay Garrick (Flash of Earth-2) coming through portals, as well as Zoom being a new threat. With the introduction of Earth-2 (a parallel earth where Jay Garrick is the Flash), the show expands its horizons with new characters and as well as some from the first season.

So far, Season 2 has surprised me with every new episode that has aired. It’s not only the CGI they have used with some of the characters, but also the introduction of characters such as Zoom (who is a long time rival of the Flash in the comics) and Jay Garrick (the original Flash, but in this interpretation he is a parallel Earth’s Flash) would leave any geek pleased even if there are some inconsistencies with both characters origins.

This show covers all the major points that make a good superhero themed show- great action, amazing special effects, an interesting story, and as well as three-dimensional characters. The show definitely sticks to the source material as much as possible, but there are instances when they do change facts to help the story arc, such as making Garrick be from an alternate reality instead of him being the original Flash like in the comics.

If you think you have to know comics to enjoy the show, you really don’t. If you have the basic idea of who the Flash is, that’s enough to enjoy the show especially with the show’s action and story. But if you want a deeper understanding or want to be able to catch easter eggs (references to to outside characters and other shows) you should look into the comics.

If you want to watch the first season of Flash, it’s up on Netflix. If you don’t have a Netflix account, there is also the CW app and website the only downside being that the website only lets you watch recent episodes . If you enjoy The Flash, you should also watch the spinoff series Legends of Tomorrow which features characters from The Flash and Arrow and look out for crossover episodes between Flash and Arrow as well as a crossover with CBS’s Supergirl.