Television series

The Flash

Name: The Flash
Genre: Drama, Action, Science Fiction
Released: 2014
Cast: Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Jesse L. Martin, Carlos Valdés

Other titles called The Flash: the 2023 film.

The Flash is CW's breeziest superhero soap: a CSI tech gets struck by lightning, wakes up impossibly fast, and spends nine years racing villains, heartbreak, and multiversal headaches. It's colourful, earnest, occasionally silly, and anchored by a found-family core that survives every timeline reset. Best enjoyed for warmth and quips rather than airtight plotting — pure comfort-food heroism.

TVMaze rating

3.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a warm, big-hearted superhero show built on a likable hero's optimism, a found-family team and fast, inventive set pieces, and you don't mind a formula that repeats.

Skip it if you find nine seasons of mostly episodic villain-of-the-week plotting too much, or prefer grounded, slow-burn storytelling; the tone stays bright throughout.

What it asks of you: A long haul: 184 hour-long episodes, brisk and light on dread but heavy on momentum, asking patience for recurring plot mechanics more than close attention.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Arrow2012

Where Barry's own suit-up episode happens; the darker, grittier cousin show sharing Central City's world and half its cast, showing you the flip side of the CW-verse's tone.

But Early seasons take themselves very seriously — expect brooding rooftop speeches instead of Flash's easy charm.

DC's Legends of Tomorrow2016

Started as a Flash/Arrow spinoff and quickly became the silliest, most gleefully unhinged show in the shared universe — time travel, disco demons, all of it.

But The tone swings from throwaway to full theme-park chaos; it takes a season or two to find its groove.

Supergirl2015

Same CW sunniness, same Barry Allen crossovers, and a hero whose optimism matches Flash's beat for beat — bright, hopeful, unabashedly earnest superheroics.

But Melissa Benoist's charm carries a lot of uneven writing, especially in later seasons.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Flash

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Batman1966

Flash's sunny, quippy earnestness is a direct descendant of this show's belief that superheroes should be fun first — same DNA, six decades and a lot less irony.

Before grimdark took over, superheroes were this — pun-drunk, brightly lit, gloriously camp, with Adam West giving the most purely joyful performance in the genre's history.

But The deliberate corniness and canned "POW"/"ZAP" fight graphics will test anyone allergic to camp.

Black Lightning2018

A loosely connected corner of the Arrowverse that trades speedster theatrics for grounded family drama and real-world stakes around race and power.

But Slower pacing and heavier themes mean less of the quippy banter Flash fans might be craving.

Titans2018

Same DC toybox, filed under R-rated and miserable — a good chaser if you want these tropes played mean and bloody instead of warm.

But The tonal whiplash from Flash's found-family warmth is brutal; this show can be genuinely grim.

Doom Patrol2019

From the same DC pipeline, but gleefully weirder — a support group of broken superheroes who'd honestly rather not be superheroes at all.

But Its surreal, R-rated humor and body horror are a hard left turn from Flash's PG-13 sincerity.

Smallville2001

The CW's original superhero soap and clear ancestor of Flash's DNA — small-town hero, secret identity, a decade-spanning will-they-won't-they romance.

But Ten seasons is a lot, and the "no flights, no tights" rule keeps the superheroics frustratingly earthbound for years.

Heroes2006

The show that proved ordinary people discovering extraordinary powers could hook a mainstream audience — same wonder, same ensemble-of-strangers structure, no comic-book branding required.

But The first season is great; everything after is a cautionary tale about writers' rooms losing the plot.

Misfits2009

British, scrappy, and cheerfully rude — a community-service crew gets superpowers and mostly uses them to make their lives worse, a funny inversion of Flash's do-gooding.

But Low budget, foul-mouthed, and morally scruffy — nothing like Flash's wholesome optimism.

Chronicle2012

Same origin-story engine as Barry's lightning strike — an accident, a body that stops obeying the old rules — but played as slow-building tragedy instead of a training montage.

Three teenagers find a glowing hole in the ground and gain powers, filmed as found footage — the "ordinary person suddenly extraordinary" premise stripped of any comic-book gloss.

But No superhero fun here; it's tense, small-scale, and ends somewhere genuinely upsetting.

Watchmen2019

Both shows ask what ordinary people do once extraordinary power lands in their city; Watchmen just refuses to let anyone off with a wink and a hug.

A limited series that takes the "what if meta-humans were real" question Flash raises lightly and interrogates it seriously — power, policing, legacy, who actually deserves a mask.

But Dense, structurally tricky, and unflinching about American racial violence — nothing about it is comfort viewing.