Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

The Flash: The Original Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Flash, Flash, one-season dash.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III June 27, 2024

A sleek six-disc collection that could've also been titled The First and Final Season, Warner Archive's welcome Blu-ray treatment of The Flash: The Original Series arrives almost two full decades after Warner Bros.' DVD set. This decently ambitious 1990-91 production was reportedly budgeted at a then-impressive $1M+ per episode, but the fatal one-two punch of gradually dwindling ratings and a switch to the dreaded Saturday-night "death slot" demolished any hopes of a follow-up season. In hindsight, The Flash is a likeable but limited attempt to bring its durable source material to the small screen, handicapped by its mostly campy tone and a lack of broad, water-cooler appeal that would arrive with more successful superhero TV later that decade like Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

Yours truly was a just a bit too young to be part of The Flash's target audience during its original run, but my DC itch would soon be scratched with the aforementioned Lois and Clark as well as Batman: The Animated Series. Yet the first thing new viewers might notice about The Flash is just how much it draws from the latter's source material; specifically, Tim Burton's equally iconic 1989 film, both in its quasi-timeless production design and the orchestral original score by Danny Elfman (opening theme) and Shirley Walker (series music). Both elements, especially the latter, offer a suitably epic backdrop that stands in contrast to, well, more dated aspects of this series, and are clearly its greatest strength. The Flash also has loads of time-capsule appeal, and you don't even need to be a die-hard fan to appreciate it.

This 22-episode run begins decently enough with its double-length pilot episode, a 93-minute story that builds The Flash's world in relatively short order. It's here that we're first introduced to beefy forensic scientist Barry Allen (John Wesley Shipp, better known for Dawson's Creek) and his decorated brother Jay (Tim Thomerson, looking well past 42 here), who's desperate to take down a violent motorcycle gang terrorizing Center City. Working late one night with his colleague Julio Mendez (Alex Désert) on evidence analysis, Barry is the victim of a near-fatal accident involving a shelf full of chemicals that apparently gives him superhuman speed which he struggles to harness. Aiding him is lovely Tina McGee (Amanda Pays), a recently single scientist working for S.T.A.R. Labs, who not only helps Barry control this new power but takes an interest in him.... much to the dismay of his uptight artsy girlfriend Iris (Paula Marshall).

There's more to the pilot than "get powers, fight bikers, and juggle two women", but these lightly serialized episodes mostly maintain a comfortable episodic groove; The Flash overwhelmingly favors "monsters of the week" (a term made popular by The X-Files just a few years later), which unavoidably gives it more of a Golden or Silver-Age comic appeal. Tonally, there's humor present but almost all of the campier material is shown at face value, which likely kept all but the youngest viewers at arm's length back in the day. Shipp acquits himself well enough as both Barry Allen and The Flash, although his overly muscle-bound physique -- especially when combined with the puffy red suit, which basically gives him D-cup pecs -- and more rough-and-tumble approach to fighting crime is again meant to capitalize on the public's then-rabid infatuation with Batman. Simply put, this is kind of an odd take on the character.

Even so, there's a certain amount of charm to The Flash circa 1990-91 and it remains decently watchable from start to finish, aided by the aforementioned production design and outstanding original score as well as a number of memorable guest stars and recurring characters. Highlights along the way include former Hulk Hogan sleeper victim Richard Belzer (as dutiful Center City news reporter Joe Kline), dreamy David Cassidy ("Mirror Master"), Jeffrey Combs of Re-Animator fame (mob boss Jimmy Swain), Bryan Cranston (thug Phillip Moses), reluctant Star Trek: The Next Generation alumnus Denise Crosby (Dr. Rebecca Frost), Bill Mumy (wacko scientist Roger Braintree), future Star Trek: Voyager Borg babe Jeri Ryan (Felicia Kane, a wealthy heiress), M. Emmet Walsh (Henry Allen, Barry and Jay's father)... and of course Mark Hamill himself, who appears in not one but two episodes as maniacal magician "The Trickster" and steals the show both times while clearly warming up for his iconic take on the Joker just a few short years later.

According to old reviews of Warner Bros.' 2006 Digipak DVD edition (which was later reissued in regular packaging), The Flash was pretty unimpressive in standard definition but those who had only watched it via broadcast TV probably didn't care. Sourced from older masters that showed their age (and loads of dirt, apparently) with janky special effects shots thanks to source material limitations, there was nowhere to go but up. Luckily, Warner Archive's welcome Blu-ray treatment corrects most of these problems, as the wide majority of this shot-on-film production looks leaps and bounds better than previous home video iterations. (The special effects, on the other hand, are still unavoidably rough). All 22 original episodes are presented in original broadcast order on this sleek six-disc set, outlined below.

Episode List

Disc One
Pilot: (9/20/1990)
Out of Control (9/27/1990)
Watching the Detectives (10/18/1990)

Disc Two
Honor Among Thieves (10/25/1990)
Double Vision (11/1/1990)
Sins of the Father (11/8/1990)
Child's Play (11/15/1990)

Disc Three
Shroud of Death (11/29/1990)
Ghost in the Machine (12/13/1990)
Sight Unseen (1/10/1991)
Beat the Clock (1/31/1991)

Disc Four
The Trickster (2/2/1991)
Tina, Is That You? (2/14/1991)
Be My Baby (2/21/1991)
Fast Forward (2/27/1991)

Disc Five
Deadly Nightshade (3/30/1991)
Captain Cold (4/6/1991)
Twin Streaks (4/13/1991)
Done With Mirrors (4/27/1991)

Disc Six
Good Night, Central City (5/4/1991)
Alpha (5/11/1991)
The Trial of the Trickster (5/18/1991)

The Flash: The Original Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Advertised on the press release as being sourced from new 4K scans of the original camera negatives, it's hardly surprising that the wide, wide majority of this film-shot production substantially outperforms all previous home video editions and is obviously better than what anyone saw on TV well over three decades ago. Fine detail is crisp and clear and The Flash's "anything goes" color palette is rooted in vivid cross-lighting that ties it to its original era while also retaining something of a non-specific place in time like Tim Burton's iconic 1989 Batman film. Contrast values, shadow detail, blacks, and more are rendered extremely well and everything's framed nicely at its original 1.33:1 broadcast aspect ratio; it obviously doesn't suffer from the drop in detail and clarity that you'd normally see from a hasty 16x9 pan-and-scan presentation. All these positive aspects and more contribute to an overall much-improved presentation, one that will likely exceed the expectations of those who watched through the series on lesser formats.

Overall encoding is relatively solid as well, with these six dual-layered discs holding a comfortable three hours or so of content while maintaining a bit rate that largely stays put in the 25-30Mbps+ range. That said, there are also sporadic moments when it drops into 15-20 territory and it's here where the use of grain management is more apparent (likely to reduce excessive noise, which may have actually been a good move) and noticeable moments of macro blocking can be spotted at times, especially in crowded scenes or anything with dense fog or smoke. These stray compression issues aren't necessarily distracting in-motion but will obviously be more noticeable on larger displays.

Of course, the elephant in the room is The Flash's notoriously low-grade special effects, a clear product of their time and a visual Achilles' heel for the series in standard definition as well. (Ironically, any dips in quality probably didn't seem as noticeable in 480i). Many of these sporadic SFX sequences -- which include the opening credit sequences of all 22 episodes -- were rendered on video rather than film like the strictly live-action footage, and as such, they suffer from a dramatic drop in fine detail and even sporadic but very noticeable interlacing and jagged edges. None are as eyebrow-raising as Barry's quick run around a track during the pilot episode, but they're all guilty of these unavoidable side effects from using "mixed media". This obviously won't be a big deal for long-time fans of the show or this era of TV in general, but it's still well worth pointing out. I've included a few offenders at the end of these 40 screenshots; again, they represent a small portion of the total content here, which otherwise looks quite impressive. All told, it's more or less on par with WB's recent 4K-sourced treatment of Babylon 5, which used a blend of filmed live action and low-res CGI rendered on Amiga and similar computers to similarly mixed (but mostly pleasing) results.

The Flash: The Original Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Believe it or not, The Flash's native audio is all mono except for the music cues, and as such Warner Archive's DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track is a mixture of split one-channel elements and true stereo. (According to several sources, the previous DVD release utilized the same sonic strategy but in lossy Dolby Digital format.) The end result actually isn't quite as "patchwork" sounding as expected but there are obvious deficiencies along the way as much of the action, as gunshots, explosions, and even heavy punches sound relatively flat and lifeless. There is a little bit of aural excitement to be found along the way and the dialogue is crisp and easy to follow, with said music cues occasionally overpowering everything else but usually to the show's benefit. So once again, while its source material's mix of formats prevents this Blu-ray set from scoring higher, it's another solid effort and gets the job done under these circumstances.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during all 22 episodes.

The Flash: The Original Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Warner Archive's sleek collection thankfully avoids the gimmicky packaging of the old DVD set, serving up all six discs in hinged keepcase packaging that barely eats up any shelf space. Sadly, though, no extras are included at all.

The Flash: The Original Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This short-lived small-screen adaptation of DC's The Flash made a solid initial impact on CBS back in the fall of 1990, but dwindling ratings led to a fatal Saturday-night timeslot change where the rest of its 22-episode run died of natural causes. It was decent fun while it lasted, but forgiving fans of this series -- whether they caught it the first time or via Warner Bros.' DVD collection many years ago -- will enjoy revisiting this series on Warner Archive's welcome new Blu-ray edition. Featuring a mostly impressive 1080p restoration sourced from 4K scans of the original camera negatives and lossless audio that highlights the great original score, its lack of extrass the only real disappointment. This one's unquestionably Recommended to the right crowd, but total newcomers may want to try before they buy.