Title: The Flash: “When Harry Met Harry…” Review
Release Date: October 14th, 2017
Network: The CW
Genre: Superhero, Drama, Action
This season of The Flash has seen a return to the light-hearted jaunt that works best with the show, especially with colorful new characters adding to that comedy. Yet “When Harry Met Harry…” shows that it’s possible that they are focusing too much on the jokes, as the show is missing substance.
While the title suggests the focal point of the episode will focus around Harry, and his group of eccentric multiverse earth counterparts known as the Council of Wells, the majority of the episode is actually devoted to Ralph and Barry. I have no qualms with this honestly, as the recently introduced Elongated Man has been one of my favorite characters in the show. What I do have an issue with is the filler feel that each of the bus metahumans has given off so far.
The Thinker has stated that each person on the bus has been specifically chosen for the purpose of winning his chess game with Barry. But none have them have been dangerous or even entertaining – outside of Ralph of course – so far, even if presented as such. Mina, known as the Black Bison, might be the worst offender of all as well.
Though her powers have a cool ring to it, as she is given the ability to bring inanimate objects to life, each situation that was supposed to be menacing was comically contrived. From a conveniently placed Cherokee mannequin to a poorly timed SWAT dummy demonstration, each situation seemed manufactured – a common theme in this weeks CW shows so far. Whats even worse is that Barry alone should have been able to handle Bison and save anyone in danger.
Instead, each confrontation is used to highlight the fact that Ralph chooses to catch the bad guy over saving people. While this is a good lesson, and result in a cute hand puppet scene at the end of the episode, it’s made somewhat of a moot point since Dibny has a valid point when he said that Barry should be able to rescue both.
Ever since coming out of the speedforce, it’s been proven Allen is ridiculously faster, something that’s both been stated and show (as he walked to collect the shrapnel in episode two). This leads to multiple scenes were Flash is literally only feet behind Black Bison after choosing to save the intended victim, yet he can’t run after her and catch her despite being the fastest man alive. It’s obviously a trope, one that The CW has a problem with on Arrow too, but it’s really bad on The Flash considering how many times Barry has been able to run from point a to point b in milliseconds.
The ending scene with the handcuff proves this point. He didn’t need to have her put her hand up to catch that artifact. In reality, he could have had those cuffs on before she even blinked. But sloppy writing prevails.
With that being said, Hartley Sawyer was a laugh riot in this episode of The Flash as Ralph Dibny. From cheeky one-liners to his outrages elastic powers, The Elongated Man stood out as the highlight of “When Harry Met Harry…”.
A statement that rings true, especially considering the Council of Wells was a bit of a disappointment. Instead of being the laugh riot that was intended, each iteration of multiverse wells felt like the scene with Sylvester Stallone in Spy Kids 3. That’s not taking away from Tom Cavanagh performance as each character in the slightest, as he proves once again he could probably do any entire show on its own, but the three characters chose were so dramatized for the sake of pointing out just how different other world in the multiverse seem to be. There were certainly some funny bits though, including Harry Potter and LotR references, but most comedy fell flat.
Slight progression of The Thinker and the Mechanic were interesting, but six episodes in there should be a bit more information on just what exactly his plan is going to be. Instead, DeVoe just keeps being very vague regarding his plans, while the actual evidence of his master plan can be found in incompetently one-dimensional villains.
Verdict: “When Harry Met Harry…” continues to bring the laughs, but The Thinker needs to either take the main stage, at least by explaining his plans a bit more, or start picking more interesting villains to show off during the build up. If anything, at least Dibny never fails to bring both comedy and good emotional moments.
What did you think of the second episode of season four of The Flash? What scene or scenes did you like the most? What are your predictions for the rest the season as the mysteries begin to pile up? Be sure to let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to check back next week for the next episode of the season, “Therefore I Am ” immediately after it airs on The CW at 8 PM ET next week.
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