'The Flash': TV review
Even measured against other everyday citizens who have developed superpowers and become comic book heroes, the Flash seems remarkably ordinary.
That trait, evidenced in his DC Comics persona, feels even more acute in this new TV adaptation.
Grant Gustin plays Barry Allen, a forensics specialist whose true obsession is solving the long-ago murder of his mother and unjust imprisonment of his father.
One day he is caught in the explosion of a particle accelerator. He emerges from a coma nine months later to find he can move at superhuman speeds.
Instead of just using this skill to be first into the mosh pit at Green Day shows, he vows to help humanity.
That's noble, it keeps him authentic for comic fans, and it makes us like him.
He's a little different from many contemporary comic superheroes, though, in that he rarely jumps off the screen.
He's more subtle, which distributes the drama load around the rest of the cast.
The particle-acclerator premise also has a sort of 'Back to the Future' campiness about it. Happily, the scientist who created the device, Harrison Wells, is played by Tom Cavanagh, and he finds the right balance.
Candice Patton plays Iris West, Barry's best friend, and that helps create minidramas with her father, Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin).
'The Flash' forms a decent complement to 'Arrow,' from which it has been spun off. If it doesn't sparkle, it also doesn't stumble.
dhinckley@nydailynews.com
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