Chicago Redshirt
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Posts posted by Chicago Redshirt
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What makes you say there was no segregation in the MCU in the 1940s?
In Captain America: The First Avenger, we didn't really get a global perspective of what life was like in the 1940s for Americans. We saw, if memory serves, a single black person in the movie, one of the Howling Commandos. The armed forces IRL were among the first to integrate. The notion that there was a black POW who gets captured alongside white ones doesn't say anything about segregation in general.
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For every Nikita or Veronica Mars on the CW, there have been probably 3-4 Laurels, Lanas, or Caras.
I want to be clear: I am not prejudging Candice Patton's work. In fact, to quote myself: "We obviously don't know how Iris will play out in her entirety in this show." I'm just saying that it strikes me as being perfectly reasonable to fear that her character gets the short shrift, or that she turns out to be more in the Laurel/Lana/Cara camp than the Nikita/Veronica camp.
I have watched the pilot and I am not as enthusiastic as JayKay about the character or Candice. But I still am well aware that a pilot is just an opening salvo and that it takes both the writers and the actors time to develop (or fail to develop) a character. I'm definitely going to keep my fingers crossed. For what it's worth, my personal fears lie more with the writing rather than with Candice in the wake of viewing the pilot.
Her character being the only one of the main cast to not know Barry is the Flash by the end of the pilot is a setup for her to be marginalized, for an annoying love triangle and for "secrets and lies" drama. I also didn't have a great sense of who she is and what she wants, or less of a sense of her than most of the other characters.
In terms of males who are cast for their looks rather than their acting abilities and criticism of the same, I would point you to Arrow discussions of the guy who plays Roy Harper. I can't think of too many examples of lead actors on CW shows who struck me as being as weak at acting as the folks who portrayed Laurel/Lana/Cara. Granted, Tom Welling was often underwhelming in his own right, and but when he wanted to, I think he did a good job acting.
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I don't know how anybody feels equipped to make judgements and Lana comparisons based on a two minute clip but regardless I'm excited for this character.
Iris being a poorly crafted character, IMO, is a natural concern when the trailer is seen in the context of a) a long tradition of female leads in comics/comic-based tv shows and movies who are mainly there to serve as damsels in distress, romantic interests from afar who do not actually date the hero or his alter-ego because of arbitrary reasons, nags, and/or self-righteous whiners who lack agency b) the specific precedent of Laurel from "Arrow," the show that Flash is spun off from and the product of many of the same writers/producers as Flash and c) the specific precedent of the CW/the WB/UPN, which has had a plethora of actresses cast primarily for their looks rather than their acting abilities.
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Harrison Wells is faking his disability -- and his superpower after the accident is that he can see the future (the headline from 2024 at the end, about the Flash missing) or is that some sort of special machine he built. But apparently the Flash will be doing good for at least another 10 years. Was Wellington implying that there may be hundreds of possibly thousands of supes in Central city after the accident ?
The yellowish thing that attacked and killed Barrie's mom (or did he ?) was stupid -- why would whatever it was attack his mom like that ? Unless it's a time traveler from the future -- maybe Barrie killed his own mom in some sort of incarnation as the 'evil Flash' (all dressed in yellow in Barri'ss flashbacks). Or maybe the Flash came back from the Future, and ran around her to create a vortex and took her back to the Future with him.
And what's with fluids going all anti-gravity whenever the funkiness that gives superspeed power to anyone is in play ?
I thought this was an episode of Law and Order when Jesse L. Martin showed up as Det. West -- his character is nearly identical to Det. Lance on 'Arrow', complete with a child who is personally close to the primary super-individual of the show. Plus, having Det. West's daughter working at a diner is also oddly similar to Diggle's almost sister-in-law on Arrow. Heck, Barrie Allen even has his own version of super-techno geekgirl Felicity Smoak in Caitlin Snow. They really didn't stray far from the 'Arrow' formula.
They've established that Central City is about 600 miles from Starling City, probably still on the West Coast (as it looks like Flash is also filmed in Vancouver).
I also wish they would piss off with the "I am <insert character's name>" nonsense at the start of the episode (or in this case, the end of the episode) -- it sucks on 'Arrow', and it really sucked on 'The Tomorrow People'.
Interesting thing -- on TVrage.com, several characters are listed with nicknames that may be based on superpowers they acquire. Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost, Cisco Ramon/Vibe and Detective Eddie Thawne/Professor Zoom (Thawne is the guy that Iris is currently making googly eyes with Iris West).
To address some of your questions:
Yes, we are being told there may be an unknown number of "metahumans" created out of the same accident that gave Barry abs (and superspeed). Thousands is probably too high.
Assuming the show follows the general outline of the comics, the yellowish blur was Professor Zoom/Reverse-Flash, who has time-travelled from the future. It's been established, I believe, in the current line of comics that Professor Zoom/Reverse-Flash travelled back in time to kill Barry's mom in an attempt to shape Barry to shape Reverse-Flash.
My pet theory is that Detective Eddie Thawne is not the Reverse-Flash himself, but an ancestor of him. Harrison Wells (whose middle initial is probably G) may be the actual Reverse-Flash.
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Was I the only one creeped out by Stalma discussing her SON while giving her husband a hand job???? I still love Stalma though, "I am once again forced to open the airlock door myself". Alak needs to listen to his mother who has always been the brains of the family.
Camp Revelry is truly a disgusting place, throwing the prisoners food to fight over like dogs in a pit? Why is Doc Ywell there? She is one of my favorite characters.
Raife is far more powerful than the new E-Rep mayor could've ever guessed. Yes he can keep control of the miners, but he is smart, he knows how to bide his time until it's optimum to strike and take those fuckers down.
Ps post pale wars country music is AWESOME!
I think it's "Camp Reverie." I'm sure we'll get a full explanation for why Yewll is there, but her actions in last season of giving the Earth Republic folks lip and helping Irisa to escape (IIRC) probably are sufficient grounds for being locked up.
I want to give the post pale wars country music a special shout-out on a couple grounds. One -- it was kind of catchy in its own right (and I'm not a country fan). Two -- it's the sort of worldbuilding that sets things apart. Too many shows in the future have the characters loving music, plays, etc. that are already in the public domain rather than their own futuristic art forms.Three -- it's a callback and inversion of the pilot, where Nolan gets Irisa to calm down by playing country music. They go from having a good ol' time to Irisa hallucinating she's slitting Nolan's throat.
Cletus Musashi: Yes she has.
I wonder if the drug Stahma gave her is the same one Stahma was using in the bath? They seemed to have similar effects and different species might metabolize it different ways.
I'm thinking the drug that Stahma was using was some sort of sex thing -- Alak says something to her about how Datak wouldn't approve of her using it, and her response was that without a man around, she has to get by somehow. It was a white powder.
The drug Amanda was on seemed to be the "Blue Devil" one that was referenced earlier in the episode. IIRC, it was blue.
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Also, it would be easier to say that the police don't need the help of a guy with arrows to fight basically guys with guns and drugs.
A super-fast guy's help might be handy against people who shoot cold rays, talking psychic gorillas, immortal geniuses, weather wizards, people with futuristic mirrors and other speedsters.
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Also, Cloe, next time you put a virus on a guy's computer, make sure there isn't a nice popup telling him that.
I think the popup was on Chloe's screen rather than on Rask's. It just was a wonky bit of editing.
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We obviously don't know how Iris will play out in her entirety in this show. But given that it's the CW, given that it's a spin-off of Arrow and we know from Arrow how that show has treated its "meant to be" romance, I wouldn't fault anyone for being concerned that Iris might end up being a two-dimensional, perpetual damsel in distress who only exists as Barry's potential girlfriend and Detective West's daughter rather than as a person in her own right.
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I think this has the potential to either duplicate or dodge the bad parts of Smallville/Arrow.
While there will be a lot fewer "secrets and lies," since from the jump it appears that Caitlin, Cisco and Wells all know Barry's Flashiness, there still could be similar dynamics:
Iris=Lana/Laurel (as the OTP girlfriend shoved down our throat in a poorly written, poorly acted fashion, where arbitrary obstacles are put in the path of the hero and his girlfriend getting together)
Detective West/Falsely Accused!Father=Pa Kent (Father figure who dispenses with smug, platitude-ridden advice)
Caitlin=Chloe/Felicity (Girl Friday who develops feelings for the hero, albeit in this case with much less snark and adorableness than in the other shows)
Cisco=Pete (Minority best friend and comic relief)
Iris West
in The Flash
Weak male leads? Sure. I would concede that the guy who played Roman and Robbie Ammell are not likely to take home any awards any time soon. (Haven't watched much of the other shows).
I do not think, however, their characters were anywhere in the Lana/Laurel/Cara territory that I was speaking of, and they are far better actors IMO than Kristin Kreuk (circa Smallville, anyway, maybe she's improved)/KC/Peyton List. Part of it may reside with the writing of shows -- it would be unthinkable to have a male lead be as thinly written as those three, especially in genre fiction that has the male lead as some sort of Chosen One.
Anyway, I don't want to divert too much from the topic of what do we think Iris West will be like.