*The review contains some spoilers**
After the amazing first season, this season had a lot to live up to. When it succeeds, it does spectacular. Unfortunately, there are a lot of missteps. After teasing Jay Garrick and Earth-2 to end things, we quickly get a taste of things to come. While the “Escape from Earth Two” episode was the highlight of this season, they really never captured the magic of this parallel world again afterwards.
Villains were the show’s weakness this time around. It’s always cool seeing various DC bad guys popping up, but almost all are just “villains of the week.” It becomes quantity over quality. This is especially true for the horde of Earth-2 villains that don’t even make it past the first commercial break of the episode they are introduced in. And then there’s Zoom. Yet another evil speedster who masquerades as a friend to team flash before his secret is revealed. The character design is great, buy much of the menace is lost once he’s unmasked.
The first half of the season suffers as it serves as setup for “Legends of Tomorrow.” It gets distracting at times and undoes some of the character work “The Flash” already established. For example, killing off Ronnie Raymond to cast a younger Firestorm takes away the happy ending he had getting his second chance with Caitlin.
The actors are solid as always. With Jesse L. Martin having some of the strongest work as Joe West, and of course Gran Gustin shines in a few emotional episodes. Tom Cavanagh seems to have a lot of fun playing Earth-2 Harrison Wells, and he’s able to shift gears and play the Reverse Flash Wells in a standalone episode. While the addition of Wally West and Jessie Quick don’t add much, Shantel VanSanten’s Patty Spivot actual has a lot of chemistry with Barry, and it’s disappointing when she leaves the show. I was also a bit disappointed that they never acknowledged the crossover with “Supergirl,” and only had a tiny wink to the fans that it really happened.
The show again ends with a cliffhanger, and Barry’s decision seems to undo all the good that he accomplished, this season and the last.
***1/2 out of *****