The Flash: The Complete Fourth Season - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Flash: The Complete Fourth Season



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
“My name is Barry Allen, and I’m the fastest man alive!…………...for once”.

It’s kind of a running joke betwixt between my friends and I that The Flash really ISN’T the fastest man alive in the CW Arrowverse. Ever since the 1st season Barry has been slower than every single one of his major villains. First it was Reverse Flash, then it was Zoom, then it was future Barry in the form of Savitar. Each season played out pretty much the same way. This new villain runs circles around Barry, and Barry has to come up with newer ways to train, or gain speed through the speed force, in order to overcome them and defeat the big baddy. Well, that pattern started to get a little bit stale, and the fan began complaining to the CW creators about that fact. Lucily the powers that be have listened and decided to mix it up a bit this year. Instead of a speedster as the main villain, we get to see Barry match wits against one of the biggest brains in the DC universe (at least in this iteration), the Thinker. A man who is literally 100 steps ahead of our heroes the entire time, and requires something other than the use of speed to overcome. While it isn’t as perfect a the first two season of The Flash, season 4 takes a solid step upwards, rising above the mediocre Third Season by a good margin and continues on with the typically great audio/video encodes that Warner has given to it’s flagship TV shows.

Even though Arrow started the DC TV lineup, and it’s lovingly referred to as the “Arrowverse”, The Flash is actually the premier show in their lineup, and has been the most popular out of all the DC super hero shows on The CW ever since it spun off of Arrow 4 years ago. The ratings consistently put it at the top, and for a very good reason. The Flash has the best writing and most fun of all of the series. Arrow started out incredibly well for the first two seasons, but then got two wrapped up in it’s own angst and became bloated. Supergirl got a bit too preachy, and Dc’s Legends of Tomorrow (while still good) has a hard time keeping up. The Flash was blessed to have Grant Gustin main line the show, and his casting has really been one of the biggest boons. He makes a very likable Barry Allen, and his blend of cheery optimist and affable “every person’s guy” sort of persona meshes well with the audience. Even though he got a bit too bleak and dreary last season, Gustin manages to make team flash actually FUN.

This time around we’re not dealing with a speedster. Last time we saw Barry he had to sacrifice himself to the speed force in order to keep said speedforce from wrecking the universe thanks to freeing Wally from the spreed prison. While Barry is willing to let it god, Iris, Cisco, Joe and Earth 2’s Dr. Wells are not so willing. Using a gizmo of Cisco’s creation, the team yanks Barry out of the speed force and back into the real world. However, this was not their design. Unbeknownst to them, another force is lurking in the shadows, pulling the strings with the ease of a puppet master. You see, it was his INTENTION to yank Barry out of the speed force, and to do so with precision timing. When Barry came out, his waves of dark matter washed over a city bus full of people, turning them all into Meta humans.

This mastermind, dubbed “The Thinker” (thanks Cisco) is none other than Clifford DeVoe, a jaded college professor who has created a thinking cap that (once it met some dark matter) turned him into a literal genius. Staying one step ahead of Team Flash, Devoe is mysteriously rounding up all of the bus metas and taking their essence for some unknown plan of devious design. Racing against the clock, Barry and his friends do their best to stop DeVoe, but the Thinker has out thought and out planned them every step of the way, and it looks like Team Flash may have FINALLY met their match.

Season Four of The Flash was a nice change of pace, while keeping the heart of the show the same. With DeVoe outwitting them at every turn, it was nice to see Barry actually struggling to keep up for once. His departure from the CSI department of Central City PD was shocking, but it allowed him to free up his time from dual investigating, and working full time to try and stop DeVoe. With the bus metas we get to see a whole new slew of enemies, and allies, and they even introduced Plastic Man (e.g. Ralph Dibny) in a way that made him one of the better parts of the season. Hartley Sawyer really made the role his, infusing his own style of comedy with a physical slapstick nature that really is reminiscent of a young Jim Carrey (back before Carrey went completely bonkers).

Still, there are some flaws in the show that still keep it from being as awesome as the first two seasons. The whole “Team Flash” has gotten as much stale as it has on Arrow. Iris is still annoying as ever, and their INSISTENCE on making her an integral part of the team really grates on my nerves (much like how Felicity has become on Arrow). The same can be said of Dr. Wells. He was fantastic as Reverse Flash back in season one, and even his doppleganger from Earth 2 worked well in the Zoom storyline. He became such a fan favorite that he couldn’t be let go, and as such has kind of over stayed his welcome in the series. Also Killer Frost. I like that they introduced her into the series, but the dual personality thing of Killer Frost/Caitlin Snow is a bit whacky and seems to go against the series own rules (somehow her personality changes when her meta abilities come out, although they tried to explain that away with some flashbacks later on in the season. Hopefully that will be expounded upon next year). It really feels like they wanted to introduce one of the DC’s greatest villains, but wanted to keep Caitlin “nice” as well for the fans.




Rating:

Rated TV-14




Video:

Yup, broken record time once more. If you've seen one season of The Flash, you've seen them all. And I say that as a positive. The fourth season hits Blu-ray with another stunning looking transfer, giving us the same 4 disc layout and the same highly enjoyable digital cinematography. The show is bright and shiny (sometimes overly so), that just sparkles with bright neon colors and flashy suits. Barry's uniform is deeply red, while Killer Frost enjoys a pale blue sheen with accents of white. The Thinker's lair is overly saturated with every shade of blue imaginable, and the sizzling lightening bolts of our friend Barry shine just as orange as ever. The CGI is still a bit wonky (too much speedster battles tends to soak up the budget), but the show's detail levels remain consistently sharp all around. balcks are deep and inky, with only some minor banding, and the show itself seems to really clear of any artifacting all around. It's a great looking show, and a great looking Blu-ray presentation (as have all The Flash seasons). Buy with confidence.




Audio:

The Flash has always had a consistently great sounding 5.1 DTS-HD MA track for all the previous seasons, and this season is no different. The show is pretty action intensive, and this translates to the audio as well, filling the channels with the whizzing of Barry's super speed, the stretching of Ralph Dibney's powers and the "whomping" sound of Devoe as he transports in and out of his little pocket dimension lair. Directionality is superb, with Barry zipping around the sound stage, and the surrounds are constantly awash with all of the action. LFE is punchy and powerful, while not being overly aggressive. In fact, I actually felt it was just a hair lighter than last season's incredible sounding bass track. Vocals remain clear and concise, and evenly balanced with the rest of the track. Not much more I can say about it. The track hits all the proper check boxes and delivers a great sounding mix that works for the show.






Extras:

• Featurette: The Best of DC TV's Comic-Con Panels San Diego 2017
• Featurette: Inside the Crossover: Crisis on Earth-X
• Featurette: The Elongated Man
• Featurette: Flash Time on Amunet Black with Katee, Eric and Sterling
• Featurette: The Fastest Mind Alive: The Thinker

Final Score: ​

The Flash: The Complete Fourth Season deserves some praise for going back to its roots. The first season vibes are all over the place, and I really like how they finally changed up the villain formula a bit, as well as added in some new allies that really enhanced the flavor of the show. I was really worried that the series was going to go the way of Arrow, but this year’s entry has solidified just why I love The Flash so much better than all of the other CW DC shows. Warner Brothers has once again given us a top notch video and audio experience, as well as the standard array of “comicon” style extras that the DC TV lineup gets every year. For fans of The Flash, the series continues to impress, and is still on my highly recommended list of all the Arrowverse series.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Tom Cavanagh
Created by: Andrew Kreisberg, Greg Berlanti, Geoff Johns
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish (Castilian), Portuguese DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: TV-14
Runtime: 1096 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: Own on Blu-rayTM and DVD 8/28/2018

Recommendation: Recommended

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Still got to catch season 1.