I like it, yes, because I think it knows exactly what it is and what it wants to be. It knows its about a guy whose powerset spits in the eye of physics every single time he uses it, a guy known for having particularly goofy villains even in a world full of goofy villains, a guy who's generally quite light hearted and optimistic...and so they just roll with it. Its not afraid to have Flash run across water to outrun a two-storey shark-man, to have him run across helicopter blades to catch a dude riding his own personal whirlwind, to have a goddamn psychic gorilla.
Its one of the reasons I don't much care for Arrow (one of the may reasons, but thats a rant for another time), because Arrow is suffering from one hell of an identity crisis. It started out in its first series wanting to be gritty and grounded and while I didn't particularly like the first series (I maintain that the second series is the only good one) I'll freely admit that can work, since Green Arrow is just a guy who's into archery who often fights street level thugs rather than big cosmic threats like some of the other JL members, and it at least gave the show a coherent theme. That theme was "Grrrrr" but whatevs, its someone's cup of tea even if its not mine. And then every series after that they've tried to get away from that, introducing more and more fantastical elements and lighter tones but all while still setting everything in the dark and having the characters main method of communication be scowling at each other. Arrow started with a fairly decent premise of "a guy fighting drug dealers and corrupt businessmen with a bow and arrow" but has since introduced magic, metahumans (including the Flash himself) and a serious abuse of technobabble to try and explain how computers work (seriously, given all they can do with "hacking" I swear they're just in the Matrix). Flash, on the other hand, let you know exactly what you were in for when its first episode featured its hero defusing a tornado by running round it in the other direction, and has stuck to that through both series.
Thats not to say its complete fluff though. The opposite end of the spectrum to Arrow is Supergirl, which felt like someone was trying to pummel me with enormous rolls of bubble wrap. Everything in Supergirl just felt so...consequence free. Every time they had a Big Emotional Moment I just couldn't care because they hadn't gone to enough effort to actually make me feel sad and were just expecting me to do so because they told me to. The equivalent of one of those studio audience Applause signs that lights up when you're supposed to clap.
I won't say The Flash doesn't have problems (the only "romance" plot I found tolerable was the Caitlin/Jay one in series two, I think mostly because it wasn't rammed into front focus and actually developed rather than simply telling us "these two love each other now!") and does take a few missteps, but overall I think it handles its characters, its themes and its premise way better than either of DCs two other offerings
Its one of the reasons I don't much care for Arrow (one of the may reasons, but thats a rant for another time), because Arrow is suffering from one hell of an identity crisis. It started out in its first series wanting to be gritty and grounded and while I didn't particularly like the first series (I maintain that the second series is the only good one) I'll freely admit that can work, since Green Arrow is just a guy who's into archery who often fights street level thugs rather than big cosmic threats like some of the other JL members, and it at least gave the show a coherent theme. That theme was "Grrrrr" but whatevs, its someone's cup of tea even if its not mine. And then every series after that they've tried to get away from that, introducing more and more fantastical elements and lighter tones but all while still setting everything in the dark and having the characters main method of communication be scowling at each other. Arrow started with a fairly decent premise of "a guy fighting drug dealers and corrupt businessmen with a bow and arrow" but has since introduced magic, metahumans (including the Flash himself) and a serious abuse of technobabble to try and explain how computers work (seriously, given all they can do with "hacking" I swear they're just in the Matrix). Flash, on the other hand, let you know exactly what you were in for when its first episode featured its hero defusing a tornado by running round it in the other direction, and has stuck to that through both series.
Thats not to say its complete fluff though. The opposite end of the spectrum to Arrow is Supergirl, which felt like someone was trying to pummel me with enormous rolls of bubble wrap. Everything in Supergirl just felt so...consequence free. Every time they had a Big Emotional Moment I just couldn't care because they hadn't gone to enough effort to actually make me feel sad and were just expecting me to do so because they told me to. The equivalent of one of those studio audience Applause signs that lights up when you're supposed to clap.
I won't say The Flash doesn't have problems (the only "romance" plot I found tolerable was the Caitlin/Jay one in series two, I think mostly because it wasn't rammed into front focus and actually developed rather than simply telling us "these two love each other now!") and does take a few missteps, but overall I think it handles its characters, its themes and its premise way better than either of DCs two other offerings