The Flash: Season 2 (DVD)

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from season 1, but no major season two spoilers+++ Season two of The Flash picks up down the line from the events of season one, in which Eobard Thawne was defeated due to Eddie's sacrifice. The team has essentially split with Cisco working for the police department, Caitlyn working at Mercury labs, Iris mourning Eddie's death, and Barry trying to singlehandedly take down the various evil metahumans. The big bad is set up early in the season, revealing that Zoom, an evil speedster on a different Earth, Earth-2 is sending metahumans to Earth-1 to take out Barry. Barry is joined by Earth 2's version of The Flash, Jay Garrick, played by Teddy Sears (from the series Masters of Sex) to help Barry take down Zoom. Zoom's identity is kept secret until later in the season, but when he does make his first couple of appearances, he is voiced by Tony Todd. The season also expands the Arrowverse. First, there is the annual crossover with the parent series Arrow, which set up the cast and storyline of the first season of Legends of Tomorrow and served as a backdoor pilot for that series. Second, later in the season, Barry crosses over to Supergirl, which was in its first season and airing on CBS. That established that Supergirl was on yet another Earth, fully entrenching the multiverse concept which would be key, especially for later crossover episodes. Of course, the show has a ton of twists and turns, and given the multiverse and time travel aspects of the show characters who are dead do not always stay that way. The multiverse also gave a way for the show to keep Tom Cavanaugh (who of course played Eobard Thawne impersonating Harrison Wells as Earth-2's Well, called Harry, comes to Earth-1 to help the team take down Zoom. For those who get the blu-ray set, the show again looks and sounds great in HD, with the special effects looking nearly seamless. Because the Flash's speed requires using animation, you can tell the difference between when it is Grant Gustin in the suit versus an animated version of the character, but even that blends in pretty well. The extras include deleted scenes, several short behind-the-scenes featurettes, a gag reel, and a half-hour-long panel discussion with the showrunners and cast from the 2015 Paley Fest. Overall, the season is very good. It is well-written and very well-acted. The season ends on a pretty massive cliffhanger that will definitely have an impact on season three. It is more light-hearted than Arrow, overall, although it does have some dark moments of its own. It also includes a lot of good guest stars including Peyton List, Mark Hamill (reprising his role as Trickster), Aaron Douglas (from the remade Battlestar series), and more. Of course, characters from Arrow appear on the show, and Amanda Pays reprises her role as Tina McGee, a version of the character she played in the 1990 Flash series. So, if you liked or loved season 1, you will probably feel the same way about season two. Since the Arrowverse is now starting to tell intertwined stories within the case or metahuman-of-the-week procedural format, you almost have to watch all of the shows to understand everything that is going on in the others.

(Contains minor spoilers) Season 2 made far less sense than Season 1 (the plot sort of "zoomed" over how Zoom had even done all the hundreds of of things he had throughout the season, including his spotty motivations that relied heavily on the tried and true "he's just crazy" excuse) and broke even more time travel laws than Eobard Thawne did, but this season also had some of my favorite moments of the entire series. Welcome to Earth-2 and Escape from Earth-2 have to be two of my favorite episodes in the entire Arrowverse, and the addition of Wally West to the cast was a stroke of genius - he's an earnest character that isn't too much of a bad boy or a boy scout to be considered a trope, and ends up bringing a lot of honest emotion and real character development to what could have been a very flat character. Jesse Wells has to easily be one of my least favorite characters, her sole existence seems to hinge on griping at Earth 2 Wells and trying to wrench "heart felt" moments from him but ends up making her character seem like a whining, spoiled harpy who can't, not once, even say "thanks for rescuing me". The ending, of course, is it's own beast, and I'll leave it up to you to decide whether you love it or (like me) hate it. But all in all it was a strong season full of visual pops and unexpected turns that'll have you jumping out of your seat screaming "WHAAAAAT?!" just as often as it'll have you jumping out of your seat screaming "YOU'RE SO STUPID!!!! WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST [obviously the right thing to do that if they'd done it would've made the season way shorter but would've made ten times more sense]" If you loved the first season, you will definitely love the second season. PS: Cisco is still amazing.

Great show

I really enjoyed this season. I found the villain to actually be terrifying and the costume was amazing, blockbuster movie status. some parts of the series were slightly lacking (berry iris chemistry) however I do feel like it was intentional, maybe to demonstraight Iris's sadness and or the fact that Berry loves her but isn't obsessed and they really are best friends too. Cisco character played by carlos valdes really shined this season and brought the character to life for me. Before i viewed him as the smart behind the scenes supporting character and this season he really added a lot and made me laugh a good bit. I actually find Grant Gustin whom plays Berry to be a very good actor, there were two episodes i kinda wasn't into but that's not really his fualt. I actually find this show to be the best of the super hero series out right now, however sometimes some episodes are just pointless to me. I feel like it's a CW thing to have some episodes that do nothing to propel the actual store line forward and it bugs me but all and all I really enjoyed this season, lots of depth to the main character and finally shows his full termoil he feels inside. Can't wait for season three! it played perfectly with no issues, although I found it a bit over priced

They got rid of the Easter Egg cliffhanger scenes from Season 1! I loved those!!! The gem of each Season 1 episode was the Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne last scene stealers, that often upended everything we'd just witnessed in the main storyline. They need to bring those back on a regular basis! The writers changed plenty in the course of season 2, understandably, since the first season ended on such a wild note: would Barry actually change the course of his life and those around him to get his mother back? We see the repurcussions for that seemingly wise decision being felt all through season 2, and ultimately, it would appear he made the wrong choice, even in spite of the Speed Force reinforcing his decisions. There are some glaring plot holes in Season 2, such as who pays Caitlin and Cisco to keep working at Star Labs and how does Barry keep the lights on with a CSI Salary? We can only assume Thawne left some money for him... Also, shouldn't The Flash be suing whoever is making all those dolls and coffee drinks with his name on it? Just saying, copyright and patenting - especially his suit - may be a good idea. I do have a hard time suspending disbelief in other plot devices: In spite of the glaring problems that must come wth running a laboratory/ particle accelorator that once illegally imprisoned meta-humans, everyone concerned chooses to ignore the fact that STAR Labs is technically non-functioning as an actual lab. Nor do I understand why Mercury Labs creates all sorts of extremely dangerous weaponry and technology that can tear apart planets and help criminals time travel, and there's virtually no real security to protect these amazing devices. I like, but still not buying into the whole "time remnant" concept. I need some further answers: Like, how did Zoom know what his time remnant knew, since that would be the only way he'd have any feelings for Caitlin... And what causes the Time Wraiths to get mad enough to actually go after a speedster? They aren't very consistent. And how is Eobard Thawne's 2nd appearance not affecting the timeline? Patty the Stalker was the one huge annoyance in the season, and I couldn't wait for her to go. She showed up at all the right times in ways that could not be coincidence, so I remain convinced she was a stalker. I blame the writers for making her a stalker. Her appearances were too convenient, Joe was suddenly all for Barry forgetting about being with Iris, a full 180 from season 1, and no one had any idea how Iris felt about anything until 12 episodes into the season. The writers deliberately dragged out the seemingly inevitable West-Allen romance by moving Iris out of the main action and attempted to nullify what everyone had been hit over the head with all during season one. As an Iris fan, (My first time watching the show was actually when Wally was still drag racing and Iris nearly got killed trying to protect him) the writers did her a true disservice: she could have very easily made a comment early on about how she felt about losing Eddie, but instead chose to wait mid-season before even acknowledging that she'd lost someone and was grieving as well. Despite all my unanswered questions and Barry spending way too much time feeling sorry for himself and making dumb decisions like dating the wrong girl, the dialogue was just as funny and original, Carlos Valdez was the breakout star for his work as Cisco and it was nice to see him leave the lab and go on his own adventures with Barry and the other heroes in the Arrowverse. The Earth 2 "crossover" was priceless and funny, bringing on a whole new world of interactions and possibilities. Tom Cavanaugh's Earth 2 Harrison Wells is just as compelling and problematic as EobardThawne/ Wells was last season, and Teddy Sears' Zoom was a super horrible villian, making it all quite interesting. Overall, the cast continued their stellar performances from the last season, I cried almost as much as Grant Gustin did this season -It's unusual for my generation (over 40) to see such an emotional hero, but it works: his grief was justified. I didn't grow up seeing personal sorrow indulged with a male protagonist. In the old school tradition he would have just clenched his jaw, Green Arrow style, and rode off into the night to grieve offscreen. But this is a healthy change and shouldn't be played down. Everyone cries, not just the girls. Final analysis: Season 2 mostly remains true to the spirit of Season 1. Barry and the gang are given new challenges, gain more depth, do some growing up - which is the true strength of the show.

I readily admit I am not the biggest fan of comic book movies/tv shows etc. I couldn't tell you off the top of my head which character belongs to which "universe", so suffice it to say, I just watch the show from an entertainment viewpoint only. This is a fun, light and engaging show. I give it 5 stars, not because it is perfect, but it is perfect in what it does, one hour of fun escapism that leaves you wanting more. The actors they found to inhabit the characters are all very good, believable and better yet, likable. The villains tend to be rather two dimensional, but really, I prefer to spend my time with the heroes of the story than the villains, so I can forgive that. My husband and I are both in our early 50's, so this show does cross generational lines, it has several characters of different generations, so it doesn't feel like your stuck in a high school drama ala Smallville ( which we like but I gave 4 stars). Good show for the whole family, probably a bit too intense and scary for the under 10 set, depending on the child.

One of my favorite shows, have all seasons.

a TV show i missed when it was on the air, I get to now binge. Complete, all disks work.