The Flash Finale Review

Season 7 of The Flash has finally wrapped up. This season has been divisive to say the least with a plethora of episodes that felt all over the place and some big time cast departures that left voids on the team larger than we can imagine.

It was not a very accurate season for The Flash when it came to adapting villainous counterparts from the source material. All in one season they managed to completely mismanage The Forces and Godspeed. Let me be clear, this is no fault of any of the actors who appeared as Those characters. They played their parts the way they were written. They just weren't written anywhere near what was already laid out for them to use as a blueprint. That's only the villains.

We can switch to the hero side and begin to question a lot over there as well. They managed to bring in Bart and did away with the fact he is Barry's grandson in the comics and made him his son. It took away the Thawne lineage that could have been used to shock Barry and Iris into how much will change in the future. It was just removed. All that emotional core potential was just erased from the story. The only speedster return I enjoyed this season was Jay Garrick. I always love seeing John Wesley Shipp. Speedster Iris had a grand return with a simple boost from the speed force to help fight the war and inevitably come up with a plan to help take down Godspeed.

Everything was too convenient. To the Star Wars homage on the rooftop, there was no explanation as to how Barry suddenly could use this new power. I didn't hate the scene but wish it would have been Thawne vs Godspeed and not have Barry included in the fight. Then the speed force Nora is able to erase Hearts' mind with another conveniently placed plot trick. It felt like there were no stakes. Absolutely none. Not a single thing changed or not a single sacrifice was made. Not a single moment of the timeline seemed to have been changed other than Thawne has more motivation to beat Barry.

The lack of direction this season felt like they had cool concepts but no execution and it was very off putting for me to watch a show I used to love stumble so damn hard. I love the Flash. My shelf is full of Flash books and I adore all iterations of The character. This doesn't feel like The Flash that I read and love. Where a snap of a finger can get everyone out of a jam or provide powers at will seemingly. It seems like they have no clear path even though there is years and years of clear path and they just seem to ignore it. I can't move past how absolutely no element of the show is actually like the comics when the comics have so much more intriguing storyline. Godspeed was rushed. The Forces are not Barry and Iris' children who swear to protect them. They are written as their own people and given emotional development behind their service to Team Flash.

It was predictable they would give Heart organic speed and he would betray them or there would have been zero dramatic element to the season Finale. They need to think inside the box for a change and by that I mean the literal boxes upon boxes of back dated Flash issues that they can adapt from. Don't be afraid. Some of us want to see you dive deep into those. That's what we want to tune in every week for.

After a season marred with having to finish the previous season, a butchered recent comic book storyline and a complete rewrite of one the best character origins (Bart) I really wish this show would have left on some big promise that things were going to improve for next season. Now I am completely nervous that the planned 5 episode crossover is just to distract from the idea that the writers have zero clue how to properly write for Team Flash. If they did, Season 7 definitely would not have been such a mess of jumbled storyline and new iterations of characters that absolutely no one asked for. What would have been a much better ending is Barry either sacrificing himself and the torch gets passed to a combo of Jay, Nora and Bart or Barry finds himself trapped in the Future unable to figure out a way to communicate with his family who are left to try and make every decision without impacting Barry. It would have been nice to have stakes but this season opted to have none and even comic books which tend to jump from story to story at least know some sacrifice is required to be considered a hero.