The Flash Review: “Revenge of the Rogues”

Captain Cold and Heat Wave head into town. Who ya gonna call?

Title: “Revenge of the Rogues”

Directed by Nick Copus
Written by Geoff Johns, Kai Yu Wu

Grant Gustin as Barry Allen / The Flash
Candice Patton as Iris West
Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West
Rick Cosnett as Eddie Thawne
Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells
Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow
Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon
Wentworth Miller as Len Snart / Captain Cold
Dominic Purcell as Heat Wave
Luc Roderique as Jason Rusch

Premise

As Barry experiences doubts after learning he’s not the Fastest Man Alive, Captain Cold arrives in town with a hot-headed partner.

High Point

Despite my Low Point, I enjoy how much this show takes place in the DCU, with Cisco telling the police how to deal with someone called “Captain Cold,” and Catlin trying to learn more about her allegedly dead boyfriend, who can apparently fly.

We’re also seeing the villains develop into the Rogues’ Gallery, that assortment of characters from the comics who actively see themselves as the Flash’s adversaries and, in context, the movement makes sense.

Low Point

The Flash tries to strike a balance between real-world and comic-book, and has proved surprisingly successful. This episode fares less well than others, with the villains going too far over the top with the campy performances and supervillain dialogue. The heroes, meanwhile, had to deal with excessive overlapping dialogue of the unrealistic variety.

The Scores:

Originality: 2/6

Effects: 5/6

Acting: 5/6 The villains have potential, but they favored overplaying their roles when a limited amount of campiness is great, and would suffice.

Gustin and Martin had some good moments.

Story: 5/6 The story works reasonably well. I had to wonder why the police stood around during Barry’s battle with Fire and Ice. Maybe someone could have taken a shot at the villains while they were busy trying to hit the Flash?

Emotional Response: 4/6

Production: 5/6

Overall: 5/6

In total, “Revenge of the Rogues” receives 31/42

7 replies on “The Flash Review: “Revenge of the Rogues””

  1. I’ve seen a lot of the ‘why didn’t the police shoot them’ comments going around. To me, it’s not that big a deal. Maybe we haven’t quite reached that stage yet, but as you say, this is the DC Universe. In the DCU, cops deal with the aftermath of supervillains, they don’t take them on.

    • It doesn’t seem a stretch in any ‘verse that the armed police should take action– and it’s not like they know much about meta humans yet. The Flash only goes public in this ep.

    • To me the bigger question is why the Flash doesn’t just run up, take away their gun, slap on handcuffs, and put them in the back of a police car before they have a chance to blink.

      I get that you need to give some allowance since super-speed is such an overwhelming trump card in a fight, but it was a little ridiculous watching him put so much effort into achieving such a contrived and unnecessary method of victory.

      • Like imagining how the plot of any of these shows set in the DC universe would end if Superman happened by?

      • I mentioned both of these things (run from behind and take guns before they could react, or the police could have fired on them). I know Barry is still getting used to his powers and all, but the police, especially upon seeing the way the villains were firing their weapons, would have taken some kind of action.

  2. Late to the party because since the start of the year I have no local CW on my cable provider, so I’m having to watch via Hulu the next day. Supposedly they’re “working on it”. Rant for another time/place.

    I know Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell can do decent jobs in roles, having seen them in numerous things over the years, but I agree their performance here seemed a little too over-the-top even for a comic book style. The dialog itself wasn’t the problem, but the delivery.

    That said, my low point was both the lack of action by the police who stood by watching the two guys wreak havoc, and Barry for not running up and taking their guns when they were not expecting it. A couple of well-placed shots, especially by a sniper, could have disabled them. They had plenty of notice about the location, so they could have easily prepared for that. And sure, it would have been much less exciting to watch, but Barry could have disabled them and taken their weapons before they even knew he was nearby.

    I thought the “prison break” by the two stars of Prison Break at the end was fitting. Captain Cold’s sister is going to be played by Peyton List, formerly of The Tomorrow People but she was also Lucy Lane on Smallville so she’s no stranger to DC TV.

    Despite its flaws, it still managed to be a fun and enjoyable episode. Hopefully the DC movies learn from the DC TV shows, but I’m not holding my breath.

    • The thing that annoyed me with that is there are ways they could have nullified Barry’s speed and necessitated clever tactics, comic book tech like shields of flame/ice or auto-targeting, or even an alley where Barry couldn’t dodge. They almost seemed to be flaunting the contrived nature of the fight.

      Hopefully now that the Flash is public they’ll find ways to give him enemies that are prepared and pose a legitimate challenge.

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