The Flash: The Original Series Blu Ray Review (Warner Archive Collection)

The Flash is a 1990 superhero television series created by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo (Human Target, Viper, Trancers, Zone Troopers, The Rocketeer, Arena, Eliminators, and The Sentinel). It’s based on the DC Comics character. It was directed by Mario Azzopardi (Night Heat, Nowhere to Hide, M.A.N.T.I.S, RoboCop, Highlander, Stiletto Dance, Bone Daddy, Stargate, and Tropical Heat), Bruce Bilson (Get Smart, The Odd Couple, The Sentinel, Viper, Dinosaurs, and The Fall Guy), Danny Bilson (The Wrong Guys, Cyberforce, It’s True, and On the Road in America), Gus Trikonis (Baywatch, Thunder in Paradise, The Commish, Quantum Leap, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and New York Undercover), and 7 others. The estimated budget for each episode was $1.6 million. It was nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys. The Pilot, The Flash II: Revenge of the Trickster, and Flash III: Deadly Nightshade were all edited together with episodes as their own full length features. Barry Allen (played by: John Wesley Shipp from The Flash 2014, Dawson’s Creek, Teen Wolf, The Neverending Story II, Arrow, Stargirl, Guiding Light, and Deadly Web) is a forensic scientist working for the Central City police. He is accidentally struck by lightning and doused in chemicals in his lab. He gets superpowers that makes him have superspeed. He hides under a mask and costume to protect his identity. He is known as The Flash. Barry suffers a tragedy that makes him want to be more than a scientist so he decides to use abilities for good. He must battle criminals and supervillains which includes the psychotic James “The Trickster” Jesse (played by: Mark Hamill from the Star Wars franchise, The Guyver, Body Bags, The Machine, Batman franchise, Masters of the Universe: Revelation, The Flash 2014, Child’s Play, and Village of the Damned). Research scientist Dr. Tina McGee (played by: Amanda Pays from Leviathan, Max Headroom, The Flash 2014, and The Kindred) works at S.T.A.R. Labs and helps Barry fight crime while trying to understand how his powers are developing. Barry tries to live a normal life as he goes through these changes. He tries to keep his superhero identity from the people in his life which includes Lt. Garfield (played by: Mike Genovese from Point Break, Risky Business, Showdown, Blood In Blood Out, ER, Best of the Best II, and Code of Silence), Officer Bellows (played by: Vito D’Ambrosio from The Untouchables, The Usual Suspects, and The Flash 2014), Officer Murphy (played by: Biff Manard from Trancers franchise, Zone Troopers, and Blankman), Joe Kline (played by: Richard Belzer from Law and Order SVU, Scarface, Homicide: Life on the Streets, Species II, Fletch Lives, Freeway, and Night Shift), Fosnight (played by: Dick Miller from the Gremlins franchise, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, A Bucket of Blood, Night of the Creeps, Chopping Mall, Small Soldiers, The Howling, and Piranha), and Julio Mendez (played by: Alex Désert from Becker, High Fidelity, Swingers, The Simpsons, and Boy Meets World). Can he make a difference in his community from all the evil around???? The Flash was ahead of it’s time when it came to superhero television. When it originally aired on CBS, there was nothing like it on TV. They didn’t make that many comic book based shows back in the day. Batman made a killing at the box office so they tried to capitalize on it when it came to this show. The music for The Flash is very similar to that first film and the theme was actually done by the legendary Danny Elfman. They even have some easter eggs here for Batman and Superman during an episode. Unfortunately, it got moved around so much during it’s debut that it just couldn’t keep a stable fanbase to justify it’s huge budget which was the biggest production cost when it came to the small screen in the 90’s. Besides a few episodes, The Flash 1990 was a standalone type of TV series. They wanted something every casual fan could just jump into every week without being confused. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a few arcs and subplots here but that’s the main creative route that they went for when it was put together. It had a variety of different villains which included a motorcycle gang, a mad scientist, the mob, corrupt politicians, thieves, supervillains, so many others, and of course the best one which was The Trickster. The 90’s adaptation featured more than a few DC Comics characters from their universe like Captain Cold, Omega, Nightshade, Deadly Nightshade, Nicholas Pike, Reverse Flash (Pollux), The Ghost and others. The Flash is more family friendly but it had a few darker moments every once in awhile. It had all kinds of action so The Flash was always fun and entertaining. The special and visual fx are very outdated now but they bring you back to the 90’s. They were considered top notch when it was made. The main cast was pretty small, only a select few actually appeared in most of the episodes. John Wesley Shipp was great as Barry Allen and The Flash. I really enjoyed his acting range playing the different roles here. He brought humanity and compassion as Barry. He was the justice and hero for Central City. He had excellent chemistry with the entire cast. Amanda Pays as Dr. Tina McGee provided a nice balance for Barry Allen as he struggles with his identity. They keep flirting with disaster and it’s one of the better story arcs for The Flash. Alex Désert as Julio Mendez provides some comedy relief. He’s the best friend of Barry Allen and he’s kinda his sidekick in this without even knowing it. Mark Hamill as The Trickster only appeared in two episodes but he made a major impact. He stole the show in every scene that he was in. It’s a shame that he didn’t have a bigger part in The Flash. If you are a diehard fan of this iconic DC Comics superhero then you know all of the actors and characters above returned in The Flash 2014. It has an all star cast when it comes to the supporting characters which includes Dick Miller, Richard Belzer, Mike Genovese, Vito D’Ambrosi, Biff Manard, Patricia Tallman (Night of the Living Dead), Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead), Wes Studi (Heat), Clifton Collins Jr. (Star Trek), Adam West (Batman), Mark Dacascos (John Wick Chapter 3), Jeri Ryan (Shark), Robert Z’Dar (Maniac Cop franchise), Kirk Baltz (Reservoir Dogs), Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator franchise), Ian Abercrombie (Puppet Master III), Angela Bassett (Black Panther franchise), Yvette Nipar (RoboCop), Denise Crosby (Pet Sematary), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Gloria Reuben (ER), Joyce Hyser (Just One of the Guys), Sven-Ole Thorsen (The Running Man), M. Emmet Walsh (Blood Simple), Paula Marshall (Hellraiser III), Richard Burgi (Hostel Part II), Tim Thomerson (Trancers franchise), and Jonathan Brandis (IT). The Flash 1990 had some of the best casting for television at it’s time. It’s loaded with so many familiar faces. It’s great to see the original Flash get this kind of home video treatment after all these years. It’s one of my favorite versions of the iconic superhero. It’s a product of it’s time so don’t expect it to hold up to today’s standards but it still has quality replay value to it. This deserves to be revisited or watched for the very first time especially if you are fan of DC Comics and The Flash, RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation from the Warner Archive Collection! These 1080p (1.33:1) transfers on all 22 episodes are a massive upgrade for this 6 disc set. I’ve owned the original DVD set since it was first released on home video and these brand new 4K restorations from the original camera negatives blow away those older versions. The Flash had a huge budget for each episode so the picture quality here is much better than your typical 90’s television series. It’s the best it’s ever going to look anywhere. It has English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks for all 22 episodes. The audio is solid but I did have to turn it up a little more than most stuff in HD. The action scenes and the score did have a killer boost to them but some other stuff was a little low at times. All of the dialogue is very clean and the chaos is elevated. It has English SDH subtitles. There’s no extras on this release. This needs to be in every DC Comics collection. It’s available everywhere right now, CHECK IT OUT!!!!