***This review contains some spoilers***
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“The Flash” enters its seventh season with a lot of loose ends due to COVID ending last season early, and then attempts to move forward with new storylines that almost all fall flat.
With the exception of a few moments, the first three episodes of this season are what the final three episodes of last season were supposed to be. Not only did the long break kill the momentum, but the lackluster way the story wrapped up robbed much of the emotional impact. A big character sacrifice at the end of a season carries a lot of weight, but when it happens this early in a season, it doesn’t feel like it’s that characters time was supposed to be up. Once the show moves past the Mirror Master arc, it actually does a good job of breaking the season up into chunks. They’ve done this before, dividing the season into two or three “graphic novels,” but this time there’s four of them. Unfortunately, none of them are particularly good. The Speed Force section is a mess. Half the story makes no sense, and the constant shift in who’s good and who’s bad makes it hard to root for anybody in the end. (It doesn’t help that it goes on way too long.)There’s a brief three episode arc next that feel like filler, and once again the show loses momentum. The final arc is the strongest, but they’ve half-assed Godspeed so much at this point, he can’t really be taken serious until the end. It all comes across rushed, and a lot of time is used up reintroducing old characters and bringing in one major new one. If this batch of episodes had a little more time to breathe and establish the villain, it could’ve been pretty solid.
Even with the show losing yet another Wells, the cast is starting to feel a little bloated. Barry’s characterization is all over the place again, going from optimistic hero to a jerk and back again. Every time he seemed to have a defining hero moment, he would come back and do something stupid and set his character back a few steps. He’s actually unlikable quite a few times this season. Iris had quite a bit a material to work with in the first half of the season, even if none of it was particularly memorable or worked with her skill set. The back half the season sees her mysteriously disappear from the show, with characters either talking to her on a phone or yelling to her off camera. Cecile was actually given a lot to do this season, and with her abilities leveling up, she contributes a lot to Team Flash. Joe’s story with the meta-hating Kristen Kramer was fine, but they took a strange detour after the trial of Killer Frost wrapped up. Speaking of Frost, while it was an interesting choice splitting her and Caitlin into two different people, they never really capitalized on it. Frost’s first real crush was kind of cute (and ultimately ends up going nowhere), but that left Caitlin little to do while she was on her own. Meanwhile, Cisco spent a lot of time off screen on unseen adventures, setting up for his eventual departure.
As far as characters officially promoted to the main cast, there’s nothing special. While Chester and Cisco have good chemistry, having both of them on the team was redundant. With Cisco leaving the show, it gives Chester room to grow, which is good because they really didn’t get to expand on him too much. Allegra so far adds little to the show, as a reporter or as a superhero. Her story with her cousin had potential, but it was too rushed and ended up lacking any emotional impact. At least when Nash was on the show, they had some chemistry, but with him gone she’s just kind of there. And while he not part of the main cast, Impulse makes his debut. He’s fine in the short amount of time he appears, but he’s not as likable as his big sister, so it remains to be seen if he gets better as he sticks around.
“The Flash” does it’s best to wrap up season six and roll back into season seven, but most of the new material falls flat. A bloated cast means characters either just disappear, or don’t have much interesting to do. While the production values get better every season, they still pale in comparison to other superhero shows out there, including sister show “Superman & Lois.”
** out of *****