“You look like the attractive yet non-threatening racially diverse cast of a CW show.”
–Cat Grant
Somewhere between the grim chaos of Batman v Superman and the Silver Age simplicity of this very special crossover ep, there’s an excellent DC adaptation, and I hope we get to see it some day.
Meanwhile, this team up of inspirational super-doers is fun.
Not terribly related: Watch Calgary body artist/model Kay Pike transform herself into Superman.
Director: Nick Gomez
Writers: Andrew Kreisberg, Michael Grassi, and Greg Berlanti
Melissa Benoist as Kara Danvers / Supergirl
Grant Gustin as Barry Allen / The Flash
Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen
Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant
Jeremy Jordan as Winn Schott
Jenna Dewan Tatum as Lucy Lane
Italia Ricci as Siobhan Smythe / Silver Banshee
Brit Morgan as Leslie Willis / Livewire
Harriet Sansom Harris as Sinead
Sarah Robson as Dr. Amelia Hamilton
Dan Warner as Fire Chief
Premise
A world-hopping Barry Allen helps Supergirl defeat a pair of villains and restore her name.
High Points
The leads prove super-charming as ever, and Cat gets some amusing lines.
Low Point
The villains should have posed little threat to two heroes who can literally outrun their specific powers. Both Barry and Kara have to learn not to stand still in plain sight when confronting their foes.
The Scores:
Originality: 3/6 At least the heroes don’t fight first, before taking on the common foe.
Effects: 5/6
Acting: 5/6 Benoist and Gustin look like they enjoy playing super-friends.
Emotional Response: 5/6 It was great seeing these heroes work together.
Story: 4/6 I understand the significance of the firefighter ex machina, but it only underscores how easily these villains should have been defeated. The writers, to their credit, made the episode a part of the ongoing story arc, rather than just a stand-alone team-up, and they did so without alienating or confusing anyone who was not following the show.
Production: 5/6
Overall: 5/6
In total, “World’s Finest” receives 32/42
The CW line was excellent! As was Cat’s recognition that Barry was The Flash.
Between the obvious chemistry between the leads and the all-around hilarity their interaction brought about with the rest of the cast (Barry and Winn geeking out, and Jimmy’s obvious jealousy, for example), it was great. I would have given it 6/6 on the emotional response.
I hope they find ways to cross these over again. Some of the Arrow/Flash crossovers I could take or leave but this one was excellent, even if it did suffer from both of their usual villain issues of not properly utilizing their powers.
I really enjoyed this. It looked like it could fit into both current Flash and Supergirl series and be a positive contributor to both. They managed to explain the DCU Multiverse in a way that almost made sense as why none of these other shows Gotham, Supergirl, the Movies etc are in a different instance than the Arrowverse.
Yeah, the multiverse explanation did help clear things up, though given the way they treat it on The Flash where they are all very close (similar doubles on each Earth) it could have done a little more to explain why some were so very different, but perhaps they don’t know yet.
I would have liked a similar explanation on this week’s Flash episode, I’m left to wonder if they’ll ever acknowledge the crossover there.
A glimpse of Smallville or a DC Movie hero during one of Barry’s “travel” sequences as an easter egg would have really driven that point home.
This was a pretty good episode (and yeah, the CW line was great), but it reminded me of one of my essays for Comp class where I go “Ugh, I just don’t feel like rewriting this awkward part in the middle and the rest is solid so I’m going with it.”