We have to wait two more weeks for The Flash season two premiere, but you can spend that time revisiting season one today with the release of the Blu-Ray and DVDs.
Marvel may have been winning the big screen the last few years, but DC is dominating television, and The Flash is a big part of that. While sharing the universe that Arrow is set in, it offers a lighter side in comparison.
I’ll admit, I was slow to accept Grant Gustin as a superhero, having first met him as the truly nasty Sebastian Smythe on Glee. (I recently heard during the Flash cast panel at Dragon Con from John Wesley Shipp, who plays Barry’s father Henry, that I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.) Now with the first season behind us, I can hardly imagine anyone else in the role. And he’s joined by such a fantastic supporting cast, including Shipp, who played Barry Allen in the 1990 version of the TV show.
Both the Blu-Ray and DVD sets include several additional features–beyond the usual deleted scenes and gag reel–that give us some insight into how the show is created.
Technical geeks will appreciate “Creating the Blur,” a featurette that describes the thought and detail work that go into bringing realism to super speedsters while respecting the look and concepts created in the comics. Armen V. Kevorkian, VFX supervisor, along with others from the production crew, explains the creative process of achieving the results we see through CGI recreations of the actors, particularly in the slow-motion shots of the Flash in action, such as the fight the night Barry’s mom dies and him saving people in a crashing train car.
Meanwhile, just about everyone should enjoy “Behind the Story: The Trickster Returns!”, a featurette about one of the best episodes of the season. In that aforementioned Dragon Con panel, Shipp talked about working with Mark Hamill as The Trickster in his 1990s Flash show, which had a very different look and feel, and the current version of The Trickster. In this featurette, we get to see snippets of that version of the character in contrast to the new one, and we get to hear about it straight from Hamill, from when he first read Flash comics in grade school through his thoughts on and process of becoming that character.
Introducing the featurette “The Chemistry of Emily and Grant Screen Test,” executive producer Greg Berlanti explains, “The purpose of the screen test was to see if someone could come into the moving train that was Arrow and be The Flash. It was a real burden for someone like Grant to ultimately bear . . . because you have 75 years of history of this character everybody knows.”
The show itself is evidence of their success in that mission, not just thanks to Grant Gustin, but thanks to a creative staff made of fans of the material who want to create something fans will enjoy, and the bonus features on these DVD releases are further support demonstrating it.
In addition to all 23 episodes, the Blu-Ray and DVD sets include:
- The Fastest Man Alive!
- Creating the Blur
- The Chemistry of Emily and Grant Screen Test
- Behind the Story: The Trickster Returns!
- DC Comics Night at Comic-Con 2014 Presenting Gotham, The Flash, Constantine and Arrow
- Audio Commentary
- Deleted Scenes
- Gag Reel
The DVD set includes five discs for $59.98, and the Blu-Ray set has four discs for $60.10 with enhanced audio and additional subtitles. Both are available today (and as usual, a good bit cheaper than the SRPs on Amazon).
Season two of The Flash premieres October 8 on The CW.
Yay, so now I just have to wait for it to show up on Netflix!