The Flash season 1


The first season of the American television series The Flash premiered on The CW on October 7, 2014, and concluded on May 19, 2015, after airing 23 episodes. The series is based on the DC Comics character Barry Allen / Flash, a costumed superhero crime-fighter with the power to move at superhuman speeds. It is a spin-off from Arrow, existing in the same fictional universe, and was produced by Berlanti Productions, Warner Bros. Television, and DC Entertainment, with Andrew Kreisberg serving as showrunner.
The series follows Allen, portrayed by Grant Gustin, a crime scene investigator who gains super-human speed, which he uses to fight criminals, including others who have also gained superhuman abilities. The season follows Barry getting his super speed from an accident caused by S.T.A.R. Labs who helps him fight criminals who also get powers from the same accident and helping Barry pursue his mother's killer the Reverse-Flash. Gustin is joined by main cast members Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Rick Cosnett, Carlos Valdes, Tom Cavanagh, and Jesse L. Martin. The Flash was picked up for a full season by The CW in October 2014, and filming took place primarily in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The series premiere was watched by 4.8 million viewers and had a 1.9 18–49 demographic rating, making it The CW's most watched and highest rated series premiere since The Vampire Diaries in 2009. It also became The CW's second-most watched series premiere ever, behind 90210, and the third-highest rated in the 18–49 demographic. The first season finished as the 118th ranked show, with an average viewership of 4.62 million, making it the most watched series ever on The CW, and also the highest rated series among men 18–49 and men 18+ ever on the network. The first season of The Flash received generally positive reviews from critics. Reviews for the series became increasingly positive as the season progressed, with the finale receiving critical acclaim. The series was renewed for a second season on January 11, 2015.

Episodes

Cast and characters

Main

Production

Development

On July 30, 2013, it was announced that Arrow co-creators Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, Arrow pilot director David Nutter, and DC Comics CCO Geoff Johns would develop a television series based on the Flash for The CW, and it would detail Barry Allen's origin. Kreisberg revealed after the announcement that Allen would first appear as a recurring character on Arrow in three episodes of season two—all written by Berlanti, Kreisberg and Johns—and the last of the episodes would act as a backdoor pilot for the new show. Kreisberg added that Allen would be a forensic scientist and the introduction of his superpowers, as well as the reactions to this, will be very human and grounded. Johns stated that the character of the Flash in the show would resemble his comic book counterpart, complete with his trademark red costume, and not be a poor imitation. Kreisberg elaborated: "No sweat suits or strange code names; he will be The Flash." While researching the best way to depict the Flash's lightning speed, Johns stated it would not just be the standard "blurring around".
Barry ultimately appeared twice in Arrows second season, with the planned backdoor pilot canceled in favor of a traditional pilot by The CW executives, who had been impressed by early cuts of Barry's first two episodes on Arrow. This allowed the creative team to flesh out Barry's story and his world on a bigger budget, as opposed to a backdoor pilot's constraint of incorporating characters from the parent show. The pilot was officially ordered on January 29, 2014, and was written by Berlanti, Kreisberg, and Johns, and directed by Nutter. On May 8, 2014, The Flash was officially picked up as a series, with an initial order of 13 episodes. Three more scripts were ordered in September 2014 following a positive response to newly completed episodes by executives, while a back ten was ordered on October 21, 2014, for a full 23-episode season.
In July 2014, Johns described the series as "the most faithful DC Comics adaptation ever... We've incorporated almost everything of the mythology into it and added a new backstory with S.T.A.R. Labs." In October 2014, Johns explained that DC's approach to their films and television series would be different from Marvel Studios' cinematic universe, stating that their film universe and TV universes would be kept separate within a multiverse to allow "everyone to make the best possible product, to tell the best story, to do the best world."

Casting

On September 13, 2013, Grant Gustin was cast in the titular role of Barry Allen / Flash. Andy Mientus, who would eventually be cast as Hartley Rathaway, also auditioned for the role. Gustin began researching the character during the audition process, and reading as many comics as possible. Gustin primarily focused on The New 52 series of comics, because he knew it would be difficult to read everything and he felt the New 52 was the closest to the show's "look and feel". In January 2014, actor Jesse L. Martin was cast as Detective Joe West, while Rick Cosnett was cast as Eddie Thawne and Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow. In February 2014, Candice Patton was cast as Iris West and Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon. Patton's casting as Iris caused significant backlash among comic book fans due to Patton being of African descent, while Iris has typically been depicted as a Caucasian woman in comics. Though the writers discussed early on to make Barry and Caitlin lovers, Gustin vetoed this idea in favour of Barry and Iris, as in the comics. Also in February 2014, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the remaining regular roles to be cast were for the parts of Harrison Wells and Hartley Rathaway. On February 10, 2014, Tom Cavanagh was cast as Harrison Wells, with his role described as "a rock star in the world of physics and the mind and money behind Central City's S.T.A.R. Labs Particle Accelerator". It was eventually revealed that Cavanagh's character was actually Eobard Thawne, who stole the appearance of the real Wells after killing him, with Matt Letscher portraying Thawne's original likeness. Letscher was cast due to his previous collaboration with Kreisberg and Berlanti in the ABC television series Eli Stone.
Several cast members from the 1990 television series appear in the series. John Wesley Shipp, who portrayed Barry Allen/Flash in the 1990 series, joined the cast in a recurring role as Barry's father, Dr. Henry Allen, and Amanda Pays once again portrays a character named Dr. Tina McGee. In the episode "Tricksters", Mark Hamill returns as James Jesse / Trickster and Vito D'Ambrosio plays Mayor Anthony Bellows, with images of Hamill as Trickster from the 1990 TV series being used in a police report.

Design

The Flash costume was designed by Colleen Atwood. While remaining largely faithful to Barry's costume from the comics, it was designed as a more "functional, textured quality" costume than previous live-action Flash ones.

Filming

Production on the pilot began in March 2014, with filming taking place in Vancouver, British Columbia; additional filming for the series takes place in Portland, Oregon. On how action sequences are shot for the series, compared to Arrow, Gustin said, "When shoot action sequences, pretty much what you see is what you get and they're really doing everything. We do a lot of plate shots that are empty shots of the area we're going to be in and then they're putting us in later in post. I do a lot of the fighting. I don't have to do it full speed and then they ramp it up and a lot of people have to freeze and I keep moving. Then I have to clear frame and step back into frame. It's really tedious stuff that we have to do. On theirs, they learn fight choreography and they shoot it from the perfect angles and what you see is what you get."
Filming for the rest of the season began on July 11, 2014, and, ended on April 14, 2015.

Music

Arrow composer Blake Neely is the primary composer of the series, and was first hired in April 2014 to score the pilot. He had previously composed a theme for Barry Allen which was featured in Arrows season two episodes "The Scientist" and "Three Ghosts". The theme was titled "The Scientist" when it was released on the Arrow: Season 2 soundtrack. According to Neely, "It had to be different ... but it also couldn't be so different that it couldn't fit in the Arrow universe,... it had to be in a style that could hold hands with Arrow." On December 18, 2014, WaterTower Music released a selection of music from The Flash/''Arrow'' crossover episodes, as well as two bonus tracks from their respective 2014 midseason finales. The first season, two-disc soundtrack was released on October 16, 2015, by La La Land Records.
All music composed by Blake Neely.

Arrowverse tie-ins

In March 2014, it was announced that Gustin would not appear in a third episode of Arrow as originally planned. However, Panabaker and Valdes appear in the Arrow episode "The Man Under the Hood" in their roles as Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon, respectively. Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim stated, "This was something that really came about because obviously Barry is in a coma at the end of . That pretty much made it impossible for Barry to appear in ... The idea of bringing in really, really appealed to us because it allowed us to honor our original intention doing something Flash-related around episode 19 or 20 without having comatose Barry and basically paying Grant Gustin a lot of money to sit around with his eyes closed just unconscious the whole episode... It allows us to further flesh out the Flash universe in Arrow." Gustin had a brief cameo appearance in the Arrow season three premiere, "The Calm". Valdes appeared once again in the season three episode "Broken Arrow", while Gustin appeared in the final episode of season three, "My Name is Oliver Queen".
Stephen Amell appears as Oliver Queen / Arrow in the pilot episode. Kreisberg announced that Emily Bett Rickards would appear in the fourth episode as Felicity. Previous Arrow adversary William Tockman / The Clock King was in the seventh episode. Members of The Royal Flush Gang, who previously appeared on Arrow, made a cameo appearance in the eleventh episode of the series. Rickards and Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer had scenes in the eighteenth episode, "All Star Team Up". Katie Cassidy and Paul Blackthorne, as Laurel Lance / Black Canary and Detective Quentin Lance, respectively, appeared in the following episode, "Who Is Harrison Wells?", while Amell and Doug Jones as Jake Simmons / Deathbolt appeared in the twenty-second episode, "Rogue Air".