6 great things about the trailer for ‘The Flash’

The CW has released their extended trailer for the new fall show “The Flash” (viewers of “Arrow” got a sneak peek last night), and judging from these five minutes, things are looking good. Here are six reasons why you might want to tune in even if you're not a comic book superhero fan. 

1) The CW sprang for lighting

Okay, that's unfair, but an awful lot of the shows on the network are beautifully gloomy. Sometimes the night shoots are dictated by story (for example, vampires don't love bright sun even when they have daylight rings — I'm guessing they don't tan), but often it's just a stylistic choice. “Flash” looks like it isn't taking place in a never ending night of rain. And that brings us to…

2) It looks like a movie

The CW has clearly pulled out all the stops for “The Flash,” in that the special effects are slick, they're not simply limited to fast/slow motion stuff, there are lots of locations in the pilot and some of them seem to be destroyed in intriguing ways. While most shows on the network look slick, not all seem to have this big screen scope. 

3) There's humor as well as pathos

How could you not laugh when he realized lightning gave him abs? These days we expect a little humor with our superhero action, and “The Flash” doesn't seem so intent on wallowing in a tragic origin story that we don't see how much fun it is to be the fastest man in the world. 

4) There will be crossovers with “Arrow” and we're betting on more

In the trailer, we see that The Flash and Arrow have a little tete a tete, in which Oliver Queen tells our new boy hero to take his own advice and “wear a mask.” I suspect this won't be the only crossover we get, either. While it's not the Marvel fleet of crossover characters, I've heard the CW is aiming to utilize a lot more DC Comics properties in the same way. 

5) The cast is phenomenal

In addition to a charming lead in Grant Gustin, the show sprang for some established talent in Jesse L. Martin (“Law & Order”) and Tom Cavanagh (“Ed”). A few veterans (like John Barrowman on “Arrow”) go a long way in selling a superhero concept that can, in the wrong hands, go to the cheesy side.  

6) The modern take on The Flash story seems fresh

Picking up the Silver Age take on The Flash, our “Crimson Comet” isn't bathed in chemicals before being struck by lightning but is instead gets a more modern (and exciting) creation story which involves a particle accelerator. Bringing in the S.T.A.R. Labs element suggests we're going to get a little scifi tech with our action sequences, and that can't be a bad thing. 

Are you excited about “The Flash”?

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