Tag: Carlos Valdes

DC Comics, Interview, Television

Danielle Panabaker Discusses Directing ‘The Flash’

Keith Chow

On tonight’s new episode of The Flash, Danielle Panabaker will play triple duty as Dr. Caitlin Snow, Killer Frost, and as director of the episode. This will be Panabaker’s third time in the director’s chair after making her directorial debut in season five. I got a chance to speak with the actress/director recently about getting back behind the camera post-COVID and what it’s like to be the last remaining member of the original S.T.A.R. Labs team.

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DC Comics, Recaps1 Comment

NOC Recaps The Flash: The Do Over

Christelle G.

“I ran back in time because Zoom and my dad and things and I got to live with my parents and it was all good but then it wasn’t so I came back but everything is different and I want everything to change back.” – Barry Allen during this week’s panicked voiceover

Barry flips his shit so hard that he flips it all the way to Star City. All over Felicity. Who, like us, is like, “You just, like, run back in time? All the time?”

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DC Comics, Recaps, Television5 Comments

NOC Recaps The Flash: Sit, Barry, Sit

Christelle G.

“The Runaway Dinosaur” is a children’s book that our Flash’s mom used to read to him when he was younger about a lost dinosaur. Our Barry-saur is also lost, but in a place we’ve only been in passing: in the Speed Force. I think. What kind of noun is the Speed Force, anyways? Only Kevin Smith, the director of this episode, knows.

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DC Comics, Recaps, Television

NOC Recaps The Flash: Hoodlums and Holograms

Christelle G.

“My name is Barry Allen and I am the fas– nope, not yet.”

Now I know that there is a certain amount of suspended disbelief when it comes to this show, and this is one of those times when I can’t help but yell, “REALLY?” at my TV. In the absence of The Flash, Team Flash is using a hologram to trick the city and the city’s criminals into believing that Central City is still under Barry’s speedy protection. In reality, Cisco is using his Warcraft skills to control the projection as Barry runs around in a Tron suit. Iris is being as helpful as she can, but it’s just too damn ridiculous.

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DC Comics, Recaps, Television

NOC Recaps The Flash: Escape Velocity

Christelle G.

Team Flash is dealing with their Post-Traumatic Zoom Disorder in a healthy way. Motivated by avenging Jay’s death and defeating Zoom, they take a team field trip to a cliffside-waterfall–river-canyon to test out Barry’s ability to run at escape velocity. It’s a lot like the first “test runs” with the Core Four pre-supersuit, but there’s a level of familiarity and kinship that can only happen after dealing with all of the bullshit that Barry, Cisco, Caitlin, and Wells, have been through together.

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DC Comics, Recaps, Television

NOC Recaps The Flash: (King) Shark Attack

Christelle G.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to Earth-1… King Shark returns. Also, I learned that there’s no such thing as a “filler episode” for The Flash. I’ll admit that I was wrong and incorrectly assumed that bringing back King Shark after the heavy Earth-2 plotline was a gimmick, but this episode (aka Jaws 2) really sunk its teeth into developing character growth of the members of Team Flash.

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DC Comics, Recaps, Television2 Comments

NOC Recaps The Flash: Earth-2, Frozen Boogaloo

Christelle G.

All the Barry Allens. All the Iris Wests. All the Caitlin Snows. All the Jay Garricks?

I’d laugh that Zoom is doing the CW voiceover for this episode if he weren’t, um you know, scary as hell. Zoom takes Banksy-ing a city to a whole other level:

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DC Comics, Recaps, Television5 Comments

NOC Recaps The Flash: Grodd + PTZD

Christelle G.

It’s the return of Grodd! But we’re mainly dealing with the aftermath of Zoom. Not all of the destruction was physical; Barry’s spine has basically healed but the shame of losing has not yet scarred over. Well, hopefully he “gets back on his feet” soon because superhero legends need him! Let’s just think of Grodd as the big bad boss of this video game level.

I almost didn’t change the title “Gorilla Warfare,” the original was just too good.

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DC Comics, Recaps, Television4 Comments

NOC Recaps The Flash: Rebuild It and They Will Come

Christelle G.

I bet you didn’t think that our second season would include Barry Allen ditching Team Flash to become a mysterious midnight contractor, Cisco becoming a semi-cop, Harrison Wells making things right, and Iris West actively-in-the-know regarding all things concerning The Flash. Yes, that all happened… or did it? I don’t know who or what to trust anymore after the re-imagined reality that was the episode’s opener.

It’s like one minute you’re in a bear hug (Barry-hug?) with Grant Gustin… but then you pull back to realize you’ve been hugging the sharp bony angles of Ezra Miller instead. NO NO NO. NOT MY FLASH. HE IS NOT MY FLASH. #NotMyFlash

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DC Comics, Music, Television, Theatre23 Comments

Why There Must be an Arrow/Flash/Supergirl Musical Crossover

Keith Chow

The latest issue of Variety features a profile of super-producer Greg Berlanti — who will have six(!) different shows on three different networks next season. It’s a great profile about one of the most prolific producers in Hollywood. But what got the internet buzzing was the magazine’s cover, featuring Berlanti flanked by the stars of his most recent superhero offerings: The Flash’s Grant Gustin and Supergirl’s Melissa Benoist.

Because they’re both Glee alums, it got me thinking about the potential for not only a Flarrow/Supergirl crossover, but why that crossover needs to be a musical episode!

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DC Comics, Recaps, Television3 Comments

NOC Recaps The Flash: It’s a Trap!

Christelle G.

The episode is called “The Trap,” and refers not to the semi-idiotic plan by Team Flash to lure an anachronistic speedster villain into his own basement, but the counter-trap set up by the Reverse Flash to use their trap as the actual trap to trap them. I know. A lot happens.

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DC Comics, Recaps, Television6 Comments

NOC Recaps The Flash: Bee-ing Truthful or Why Lies Sting

Christelle G.

Central City buzzed with excitement this week when Team Flash teams up with Team ATOM  (Team ATOM consisting solely of Arrow‘s Felicity Smoak and Ray Palmer) to tackle CC’s new bee problem. The bees, however, aren’t the only stings felt by our favorite Central citizens: Barry hesitates whether or not to talk to Cisco and Caitlin about his Wells theories,  Eddie and Iris are on the road to couples counseling, and Cisco is feeling some bad vibes concerning Dr. Wells. Are we sure that bees are the only bug problem? Surely, there have gotta be spiders, too, because everyone is tangled in a GOTDAMB WEB OF LIES.

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DC Comics, Recaps, Television5 Comments

NOC Recaps The Flash: Sibling Roguery

Christelle G.

Barry runs so fast that he literally runs through time and back “a day and some change,” specifically into the beginning of last week’s episode. To recap, he’s ran into a time before [SPOILER ALERT] Weather Wizard 2.0 kidnapped Joe in revenge, before Captain Singh was hospitalized/paralyzed, before the WestAllen kiss, before a tsunami threatened Central City, and before Wells vibrated his fist through Cisco’s chest.

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DC Comics, Recaps, Television5 Comments

NOC Recaps The Flash: The Wizard Returns

Christelle G.

This recap of The Flash is going to be a little different because 1.) too many things happened that I’m not sure actually happened because I may have been buzzed from green St. Patrick’s Day beer and 2.) I’m much more interested in the events that reference the established history within the show and how those things might be undone in the future. You know, because — SPOILER ALERT — Barry Allen freaking ran into the past. He ran right through time, y’all. Continue reading “NOC Recaps The Flash: The Wizard Returns”

DC Comics, Television1 Comment

NOC Recaps The Flash: Better than the Multiplex

Keith Chow

Yesterday, I went on a bit of a rant about how DC was getting trumped by Marvel on the big screen. The opposite is true on the small screen. Sorry, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but there’s only one comic-based superhero show to watch on Tuesdays: The Flash on The CW. After one of the best pilots of the season, how was Team Flash going to follow through on episode two?

Well, by fully embracing its superhero-ness, for one. Grant Gustin’s opening narration even poked fun at similar type internal monologues — *cough*Arrow*cough* — before diving right into the action. And this week’s cold open was literally on fire as we saw Barry saving  folks from a burning building.

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DC Comics, Recaps, Television16 Comments

NOC Recaps The Flash: Proof that Superheroes Can Still Be Fun

Keith Chow

One of the most anticipated new shows of the fall finally premiered last night, and it did not disappoint. The Flash has been on the NOC radar ever since Grant Gustin did a multi-episode arc last season on Arrow. More than that, I’ve been super psyched for this show and thought some of the initial casting choices potentially made The Flash the most diverse live action superhero adaptation in history.

Well, after having watched the pilot, I can safely say that The Flash works for all of the reasons that I think Gotham doesn’t. Namely, these writers get it. The Flash not only revels in the joy of being a superhero, it respects the source material in a way usually unseen in DC’s approach to live action.

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DC Comics, Television1 Comment

We’re Ready to Ride the Lightning with The Flash

Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria

At the beginning of the recently concluded television season, the creators of Arrow announced they were going to produce a spin-off based on Barry Allen, aka The Flash. Last month on Hard N.O.C. Life, we had the privilege to pick the brain of Andy Poon, the concept illustrator behind the costumes on Arrow and Smallville, and we had an intriguing discussion about Barry Allen. Most of us here at the NOC have been watching Arrow, and I voiced my enthusiasm about the episode (“The Scientist”) in which Barry — as played by Glee’s Grant Gustin — first appears.

As always we were skeptical, but knowing that the creators of Arrow were involved, I had hope. It also helped that the producers seemed to be filling out the cast with plenty of people of color. Then images of The Flash’s costume were leaked, and I seriously began to have doubts.

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DC Comics, Television12 Comments

The Flash Might be the Most Diverse Superhero Show on TV

Keith Chow

Over the last month or so, the supporting cast for The CW’s upcoming Arrow spin-off The Flash has been fleshed out, and we’re starting to get a clearer picture of what the show will look like. In addition to the casting announcement for the series’ villains (Professor Zoom and Killer Frost, respectively), it looks like series regulars will include Barry’s love interest, her police detective father, and a mechanical engineer named Cisco. But while the inclusion of such characters isn’t really all that groundbreaking, who they’ve cast in these roles definitely is. Also, “Cisco” refers to Cisco Ramon, a.k.a. Vibe. That’s right, y’all, Flash isn’t going to be the only DC hero on the show. We’re actually getting a live action Vibe, too.

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