The Flash Season 8 – Another Decline for the Show
“Did these three stories hit the mark?”
It’s eight years later, and The Flash is still running at full speed. Or on empty. Depending how you see the show’s latest season of adventures of Team Flash. With a lot to unpack about Season 8, let’s get straight into it.
Season 8 takes us through three different “graphic novels”, all which flipping Barry Allen’s life upside down as he and his pals work to keep Central City safe. The thing is, did these three stories hit the mark?
The easiest positive to mention is that Grant Gustin is as great as ever our leading man. Though there are rumours of the actor wanting out of the role soon, you wouldn’t think so from the quality of his performances. We still get that big rush of energy from him every time and he really helps to deliver the emotional beats. Jesse L. Martin and Candice Patton also give strong returns as Joe West and Iris West-Allen respectively. Same as from day one, they are strong supports to our lead actor and are great to see on screen.
There is also Tom Cavanagh who returns for guest appearances throughout the season. His time on the show this season felt like a warm hug to say the least. The actor is always a great addition to the show and we long for him to be around now that he’s no longer a series regular. It’s also great to have him exclusively as a villain throughout the season as opposed to a version of of Harrison Wells. Thankfully, his villainous side is enough to keep us entertained.
Unfortunately, not all of the cast and characters are to be praised this season. Danielle Panabaker’s Caitlin Snow and Frost are not cooking with gas nowadays really. There is a big shift in Panabaker’s dynamic on the show this year, but all in all, this is a character that isn’t as interesting anymore. It’s becoming very rinse and repeat. Even though there are big sections of the season where she is heavily involved. Then there is Kayla Compton and Brandon Mcknight who give us Allegra and Chester respectively.
It pains me to say it, but these two don’t perform as well as previous members of Team Flash. In the past, I’ve thought that these two just need time to grow, but it’s a couple of seasons down the line now and there’s not enough change. One big note? Chester is no fit replacement for Carlos Valdes’ Cisco. When that’s clearly the intention.
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To round it off, there’s Danielle Nicolet. She is an amazing actress, and it’s great to see an older member of the cast getting to be so action-based. however, does she really need to be so active in some of the story elements? It feels so forced the way the character’s powers and story are developed. It’s getting really fatigued.
When it comes to our plot threads for the season, there’s a few different thoughts really. the Armageddon storyline that opened the season? Quite interesting. It felt like an interesting way to lead into Season 8 and also contained some fun plot twists. To be honest, any section of the year’s plots that involved Eobard Thawne were very good. Expect maybe that final fight to round out the season. It just felt a bit more like old school Flash to have us walking on egg shells when it came to Barry Allen’s arch enemy.
Sadly, the overall momentum of the season is diminished by the current graphic novel format. This transition that the show has made just doesn’t work. Ultimately, we don’t get long enough to to care about each arc and it isn’t as effective as having a full season to become attached to the plot fully. Yeah, season-long villains maybe felt dragged out sometimes, but the quality of stories never dipped as much as lately. We don’t even get high-quality pay-offs from plot threads that go back as far as last season! Though the villains of this new format have potential, the time just isn’t enough to really get a feeling for them.
Eric Wallace, the season’s showrunner who has also been at the helm for seasons 6 and 7, clearly has an intense love and knowledge of the source material. The details he threads into the show and the responses he gives in interviews tells us that we’ve got a true fan as captain of the ship at the moment. It should be a good situation, shouldn’t it? So why isn’t it?
Well, it appears his love for The Flash isn’t enough. He’s allowing poor dialogue and plot elements to run riot on a show. These are elements that used to be pin perfect. Story development and character voices has just dropped in quality so much over the last few seasons. Forgive me for sounding harsh, but Wallace either needs to fit more into what made the show a hit in the first place, or be prepared to end the show promptly. Change can be good, but it’s been more than tried and tested now, and the results aren’t good.
This eighth run of the show not only highlights more than ever how far these characters have come, but also that the show is unfortunately beginning to drop in quality. Arrow seen a similar dip and headed for the door accordingly. I think it’s fair to say that The Flash should follow suit in it’s next season. Either that, or run the risk of being cancelled.
On the whole, it’s a dark, lacklustre time for the show. Some of our longtime cast members continue to bring the heavy lifting in terms of performance. When familiar foes return, it’s a lot of fun and makes it feel like the old glory days of the show. Nevertheless, the majority of the main cast just don’t seem to land well. The graphic novel format is killing the momentum. The current showrunner is ultimately forgetting what made The Flash so popular to begin with. As I mentioned, change can be good and even encouraged. But, learn when to revert back if necessary.
As a long time fan of the show, this hurts. A disappointing 5.2/10.
The Flash airs on CW in the US, and Sky One in the UK.