Same Geek Channel Review: ‘The Flash’ Episode 112 “Crazy for You”

Corrina: Same Geek Channel looks at The Flash this week. I can’t say I’m pleased. You could say I wasn’t crazy for it, save crazy annoyed.

Hey, Mordechai, you be Barry and I’ll be Iris and Caitlin.

Iris: Journalism is hard, Barry! I don’t have anything new on the Flash, oh what can I do? I mean, I suppose I could check police reports and talk to the first responders at the scene of the accident where Flash saved those people and interview them and I suppose I could try to find the local couple the Flash saved, but, wow, the writers haven’t let me learn that yet. Instead, I’ll just ask for Barry’s help, then blow him off.

Mordechai: Did she even really ask? It was more like “woe is me” freestyling. And she’s good at it. It’s terribly frustrating, but even more frustrating is they give occasional moments where Candice Patton is actually allowed to act, like the “sneak a pick of the Flash” thing.

But oh my G-d yes, please give us a slightly more self-assure Iris. Interestingly, we got a self-assure Cisco this week. Sure, it didn’t work out well for him, but I rather loved the scene where he took down Piper. And hey, Flash writers? Can we not have Piper’s thing be at least one reference each episode to how gaaaaay he is? A rough trade crack this episode, the man in leather one last… it’s just annoying. Not because he’s gay (please). Because one of the great things about the character has always been that he is a person who is gay, not someone defined by his homosexuality.

Although I suppose asking for well-defined characters on The Flash may be too much to ask. Speaking of which, let’s hear your Caitlin imitation!

Corrina: I didn’t notice the gay references. Maybe I’m just more attuned to more obvious subtext/text like on Rizzoli and Isles.

Caitlin: Oh, Barry, we should have fun! I know the love of my life is running around spouting fire and yelling but, clearly, I should just *listen to him* and move on instead of being a scientist and continuing to investigate and try to reconstruct what happened to Ronnie that night and maybe even *explore the entire site* to possible gather evidence. Like a scientist.

No, instead, clearly, what I need to do is dress sexy, get very drunk and sing badly. And then decide, hey, I’m all better and can move on. Oh, and did you get that peek you deserve at my private parts? You’re such a good friend, Barry, and everyone knows good friends deserve to see you naked just for being there!

Mordechai: I am so glad you covered that insanely noxious line. I would have been okay with the terrible, cliche “white girl drunk” gags (no one leaves the bathroom to tell someone they have to throw up, people). I’d even be okay with the drunk fumbling and changing in front of someone. Hell, even the “did you peek” line was almost cute. But “it’s okay if you peek. You deserve a peek, with all the good things you do.” Holy fudgecicle.

I’m also pissed that they are turning it into a will they/won’t they thing. You know what, CW? Men and women can work together without getting crushed on each other. Sheeesh. Seriously Catilin, how about you learn to be crazy about yourself, first?

And the time to go get drunk at bars was when you thought Ronnie was dead. You don’t find out he’s, in some way, alive, and then give up. The hell, girl?

Corrina: If I sound flip, it’s because I’m seething. I like both these characters. They have such potential and it hurts to see them so badly written. I’m to the point where I wish there weren’t any women in the show because it would bug me less.

Mordechai: And that’s without touching on the villain of the episode, Peek-a-Boo. Notice how they tweaked her origin so instead of trying to save her sick dad, it’s because she’s a party girl mixed up with a criminal. She gets powers and uses them to help a man. Yes, the comic book version is also defined by a man, but not like this.

Corrina: Also, why does she get locked up? She never killed anyone. She wanted to get out of town. And they not only locked her up, they made it sure she can never see anything while she’s in there. That is absolutely cruel and unusual punishment.

Mordechai: Well, let’s not forget that she participated in a jailbreak and an armed robbery or two. She’s hardly an angel. But considering that the entire prison thing is questionable to begin with…

I’ll confess that I really liked Linda Park’s introduction. In ten seconds of screen time she had more game than anyone on the show. Well done. Except I know that once she gets more than ten seconds screen time, she’ll fall into the black hole of writing for women that is this show.

Corrina:  Since you mentioned Linda Park, let’s talk about Iris’ journalism career.

She’s identified by Linda as a stringer. Very good, that’s nice to know. If so, what is she doing at the newspaper office? Stringers are free-lancers. They work from home. They get paid by the story. Sometimes, they’re assigned articles, sometimes they’re sent to meetings, and sometimes they’re told to dig up stuff on their own. Iris seems to be the latter. She’s not an employee.  That’s how the daily newspaper business used to work.

But maybe things have changed, you say. Yes, they have, with a reliance on articles that can go up on the web immediately. In a real-life situation, the newspaper would have approached Iris about *hosting* her blog on their site, and paid her a monthly fee probably based on the number of monthly pageviews that her blog receives. (This is just the arrangement GeekDad and GeekMom used to have with Wired.com.)

In this case, Iris would still be a freelancer, with a contract to provide content on the web, and have no reason to be at the newspaper office except maybe for a meeting or two. I highly doubt, in either case, that she’d be assigned a mentor. Newspapers don’t have the hours to take one of their few full-time employees left to babysit a stringer.

I’d have really loved it if the newspaper had picked up hosting of Iris’ Flash blog. That would make sense, give her a focus, and show us how she develops information about the Flash.

Instead, we get Iris complaining she doesn’t know how to do her job. ARGH. Writers, this could be such a cool, modern angle. And you’re blowing it.

Mordechai: I don’t have enough real world journalism experience, but yeah, this made no sense. And what are the odds that Linda is not only a journalist, but at the same paper as Iris?

Oh and hey, can I whine about the bad science? Barry finds “particulate residue” in the cell of Peek-a-Boo’s boyfriend. That feels linguistically redundant. But anyway, it is by testing these particulates that Team Flash figures out that Peek-a-Boo needs to see to teleport. Because you see, when they remove a light source, they stop vibrating. So wait, the particulates can see? How the hell does that work? And it’s a hell of a leap of logic. It could have been a sensitivity to a particular bit of the spectrum, etc. For scientists, they sure do very little testing.

And speaking of labs, how the hell do Cisco and Piper get into Barry’s labs? And fine, the cops would have the security footage but so would S.T.AR. No?

Man, I’m hating on this episode a lot.

Corrina: You forgot the dive bar which has about as much relation to a dive bar as Iris’ job has to actual journalism. Karoake? And not new stuff, a Loverboy song? This is not a dive bar. This is not a place our villains would hang out. This is a young professionals bar, where people like journalist Linda Park hang out. This was so much not a dive bar that I started laughing.

Mordechai: f you can get up and sing Summer Lovin’ without getting beer bottles thrown at you, it is not a dive bar. That was such a classic yuppie bar that it’s not even funny.

Let’s see, what did I like?

Both fight scenes with Peek-a-Boo were very well coordinated. I really enjoyed them. Especially the bit where Barry doesn’t exactly stop a speeding bullet, but manages to stop it from doing more than just breaking skin.

Corrina: Agreed. Nice mis-match of powers and realistic that she caused Barry problems. I did wonder at the Flash breaking all those lights in the tunnel at the end. Those are going to be expensive to replace. I thought he’d toss something over her windshield and windows instead.

Mordechai: The thing where Joe arranges for Barry’s dad to be around while Barry is checking the cell for clues was touching. But the thing  is, when the dad gives them information on Clay? The cops should have a good portion of that information. C’mon.

Corrina: Barry’s relationship with his two dads is the best characterization on the show, by far. I always like scenes that deal with either of them.

What else did I like? And I also liked Cisco’s scenes with Piper. Cisco’s desperation comes across and he mostly acquits himself well.  bought that he’d risk Piper escaping to find out what happened to Ronnie.

And I finally figured out why I’m so fond of Cisco. He reminds me of a friend of mine, Charlie Valesquez, who had a similar personality. Unfortunately, Charlie died young of non-Hodgkins-Lymphoma. So this explains my subconscious (now conscious) like for Cisco.

I should thank you, show, for reminding me of Charlie.

Mordechai: Well, damn.

Corrina: And, yes, I’m particularly hard on this episode and the show in general, which is at odds with the common opinion. But I’m not automatically swayed by seeing the Flash in action or cool special effects like catching the bullet. I want to believe in these characters and, most often, I don’t.

Mordechai: Hey, we approve of Grodd.

Corrina: I predict I’ll buy Grodd better than the dive bar or Iris’ journalism job.

Mordechai: To be fair, Grodd’s a male, so he’ll likely get better writing.

Join us next week, same geek time, same geek channel! 

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