Tonight season 4 of CW's The Flash made it's return to the small screen. After the mixed reception garnered by season 3 I went into this somewhat skeptical as I personally thought it fell apart the longer it went on. I was hoping they could bring it full circle though, but unfortunately I'm saddened to say that I didn't care for this premiere very much... at all. Needless to say, major spoilers ahead. If you haven't watched the episode yet, go do that now then come back.
It seems as if they're picking up right where season 3 left off. Making Iris even more unlikable than she was slowly becoming last time around. She's now the leader of the remnants of Team Flash, and rules over the team with an iron fist. Seriously, she has a 10 foot stick up her ass. I get it, the love of her life was seemingly locked up "forever" (HA, as if. This is The CW we're talking about), but everyone else seems to be taking things in stride, by that I mean not being an insensitive asshole. She doesn't seem to grasp that concept though, immediately shooting down Cisco's hopes of bringing Barry back. Although admittedly for good reason. Her execution just needs some major work.
At the end of the last season one of the few things I thought they handled pretty well was Caitlin's transformation. I was hoping they weren't just going to turn her into a permanent villain and was glad they didn't go that route. When her Caitlin Snow and Killer Frost persona's merged into one during the finale I was pleasantly surprised that they managed to not blunder her entire arc, and was eagerly anticipating what they were going to do with that dichotomy this season. What did they do though? They turned her into the Hulk.... Really? Really? What the hell were they thinking? I'll hold further judgement until I see where they go with it, but as of now I'm extremely put off. They took what was easily the most interesting arc of season 3 and turned it into a dollar store Marvel rip off. She even has a beyond cringy line where she says "You wouldn't like me when I'm Frosty" after an obvious future antagonist she found herself in cahoots with tried assaulting her when she said she was "out," leaving her rather frazzled.
As for the elephant in the room, does Barry come back? Yes, obviously he does. Literally 17 minutes into the episode. I don't think anyone questioned whether or not he'd be back after watching the season 3 finale, I just think they could've held off on that a bit. Until the end of the episode at the very least. During the scene where they were trying to extract him from the speed force I found myself thinking that if it's happening this early then of course there's going to be a catch. And surprise surprise, I was right. Suddenly I felt like I was watching a piss poor rendition of Kyle XY when Barry was scribbling a bunch of symbols on the walls and speaking gibberish. When the gang finds themselves backed into a corner by the main villain of this episode, The Samuroid, Iris goes to Barry in his deranged state and tells her to "come and get her." Queue extremely predictable sequence in which she allows herself to be captured so Barry can just as predictably come to his senses just in time to save her before all hope is lost.
That was really my biggest issue with the episode. It was far too predictable. I was calling everything before it happened, and not in a positive manner either. In fact I was more or less thinking "Really? They're going this route again. Damn it CW I'm getting tired of defending you," throughout the entire premiere. Sure, some of the characters (especially Iris) were irritating, the Deus ex Machina at the end was annoying, and they totally dropped the ball concerning Caitlin, but my main issue was the predictability. This wouldn't be as big of an issue if it was predictable in the sense that it brought some of the series' best tropes and tricks to the table, but instead they chose to take a hodge podge of things both myself and plenty of others have criticized them for in the past and jam packed an entire episode full of them. If this is the direction the season is going in, I'm in for a rough time.
As a side note, there was no Wells this episode. I'm hoping that they don't simply pluck another one out of the multiverse and call it a day. I was really wary about that last season, but by some miracle it worked. I don't see that happening again. Either bring back Harry or write his character out, preferably the former.
Now with all that being said, there were a few things I enjoyed.
The season 4 premiere of The Flash was overall an underwhelming effort to me personally. I've seen a few people praise it but I don't share that sentiment at all. It started off kinda sorta cool, but the longer it went on I found myself rolling my eyes more and more. The predictability, more than questionable characterization of certain cast members, and missed opportunities left a bad taste in my mouth. Am I curious to see where they're going with this? Yes. Am I optimistic? Not really. It's interesting that The Flash may be following the same trajectory as Arrow did. Great first two seasons, lukewarm 3rd, and (Fingers crossed that this isn't the case) bad 4th season. Who knows though, maybe I'm in the minority on this? I'll just have to wait and see. If anything hopefully I can look forward to a nice return to form when season 5 comes around
