TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Season 6 Premiere!

Mark the date. 10/08/19, Queen appeared on The Flash by singing their song “Flash” in the climax. It’s a beautiful moment.

Just as beautiful, for the most part anyway, was the premiere of Season 6 of Flash via “Into The Void”. Which both helped set up Crisis on Infinite Earths and the first “graphic novel” that will kick off this season (it’s being broken up into two parts).

What I appreciate most of all is that both Barry and Iris are suffering in their own ways from the loss of Nora. Especially knowing that unlike before, they aren’t going to have their same Nora with the same experiences because the timeline changed via Reverse Flash. Iris is struggling to having something to have something to remember Nora by, and Barry is desperate to keep everyone else alive. Even noting that “Team Flash looks after each other” with the biggest smile he can muster so that both the others believe it…and he believes it himself.

The main focus of the plot with Chester and the black holes was very much “Meta of the week”, but it served its purpose. And it honestly gave the team a near hopeless situation. After all, how do you beat a black hole that happens to have someone’s mind in it?

The other key storyline was surrounding Frost and Caitlin, the former of whom wants to have a life now that she’s witnessed death multiple times in the forms of people close to her. It’s an interesting direction to go in to be sure, but it has potential to go far…so long as Ralph doesn’t push it with his “life coaching”. At least he was bearable in the episode.

The arrival of Bloodwork was fascinating too. Because unlike many villains in the Flash’s past, we don’t need mega-teasing to know who they are and what they’re after. We know what he wants, to prevent death at all cost. And they bring that desire out of him in a rather brilliant way that subverts typical comic book and life tropes.

Finally, the stinger at the end with The Monitor showing up and saying Barry will die is a two-edged sword. On one hand, Barry Allen DID die in Crisis on Infinite Earths. PLUS, his death STUCK in the comics for decades until Geoff Johns brought him back in the 2000’s. So it would be canonically accurate to do that. BUT, we KNOW that Oliver is going to die, and that Flash is NOT getting a 10-episode season, so this sets in motion another “change the future” storyline that literally has been the focus of the past three seasons in its own way. So hopefully this season doesn’t retread too much.

In the end though, “Into The Void” was a solid return for Team Flash, and I look forward to seeing how it plays out. Just remember…A Crisis Is Coming.