Distributor: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Episodes: 24 (Including crossover episodes)
Duration: 42 min (per episode)
The Flash: Season 5 (Blu-ray) – Series Review
The fourth season of The Flash felt like the series hit a brick wall. The character development became dull, the story repetitive and the series was just too long, dragging out the main plot of the season. We concluded that the series should soon start to wrap things up, and that it would be best to shorten the seasons, fixing the flow of things. Sadly, we once again got a very long season, with another prediction that the Flash will meet a horrible fate in the future. That being said, this fifth season started out a lot stronger again, showing that good choices can still be made in the development process.
The fifth season will revolve around a new story arc where the Flash (Grant Gustin) will disappear in the future. None other than Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy), Barry and Iris’ (Candice Patton) daughter, traveled back from the future to help prevent this event. The duo is surprised to see their fully grown daughter, as they don’t have a child yet in the present. Nora quickly becomes a part of the team, and she learns to bond with Barry, the father she had never known, while remaining somewhat distant towards Iris. The key to solving the problem of the Flash disappearing seems to go hand in hand with the team’s new nemesis, Cicada (Chris Klein), who is brutally murdering the metas of Central City.
The fifth season of The Flash starts out quite strong with a fairly interesting new villain. While the premise is once again the same, that ‘The Flash’ will disappear in the future, the villain makes up for a lot. You’ll once again have an entire season that revolves around catching this new nemesis, and while the initial episodes looked promising, once again we found ourselves getting bored before the season ended. You’ll have to wade through 22 episodes (24 if you count the two extra crossover episodes included in the physical edition) before the arc reaches its conclusion. This means you’ll have to plow through a lot of filler content, which is not always bad, but it just feels like a tactic to keep you invested in the series for longer. If the seasons were simply shorter, we reckon fans would enjoy the series more.
Cast-wise not much has changed. We once again get to see the familiar faces of the previous seasons, and we find that Tom Cavanagh plays another Earth’s version of the famous Dr. Wells. This time he is a professional detective by the name of Sherloque Wells, of course referring to the famous Sherlock Holmes character. Other than that, we see a few new faces, such as Jessica Parker Kennedy, who now plays the daughter of Barry Allen and Iris West. We have seen Kennedy star in Black Sails, in which her role was a lot less PG friendly. Now she does a fairly good job at playing the Flash’s daughter, but those who have watched Black Sails will find it hard to see her play the reliable daughter of a superhero. This does not mean she is not doing a good job, as she actually is performing nicely. Other than that, the new villain is played by Chris Klein who tends to overuse his Batman-esque voice instead of his inside voice. Nonetheless, he plays a relatable villain, which is a big improvement compared to the previous bad guy(s).
The physical edition of the fifth season of The Flash has a lot of interesting extra features outside of the typical deleted scenes and the standard gag reel. You’ll see how Killer Frost evolved over the course of the series, as well as in the original comics. You’ll also have a Comic-Con panel to wade through and you’ll also have a very lengthy piece about the Elsewords crossover to view. Last, but not least, there is a fun part about the villains of the complete DC universe, and the thoughts behind certain characters.
Conclusion
The Flash: Season 5 is mildly better than the fourth season, but it could have been a lot better if they trimmed down the number of episodes. Once again we see the series become a drag and lose its edge before the season ends. The story arc itself was okayish until many inconsistencies started to form and the fillers kept stacking up. As the sixth season is already well on its way, we truly hope the Flash will redeem itself before it’s canceled just like Arrow because of it becoming something bland. Nonetheless, those that watched the fourth season and still enjoyed it, will find enjoyment in the fifth season.
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