Why So Blu?

The Flash: The Complete Seventh Season (Blu-ray Review)

The Flash resumed business as usual on the CW this past year, albeit with a later start than normal. But, that was the case for all of their shows as the pandemic caused them to halt and abruptly end their previous seasons and new Covid-conscience shooting methods took a bit more time to get things going. The Scarlet Speedster has long remained the most popular character and show since its debut as the first spinoff of Arrow and now will continue to an eighth season. Where it’s predecessor once close out on an eighth season, The Flash appears like it may continue on. Perhaps the pandemic has extended its life beyond plans. But before that season begins, you can catch up by watching the Seventh Season on Blu-ray when it arrives on October 12th. It features some deleted scenes, gag reel and featurettes. You can own it and add to your collection by using the paid Amazon Associates pre-order link that follows after the review.

Season

After last season’s cliffhanger which saw the brilliant and powerful Eva McCulloch victorious and still-at-large in Central City, Barry Allen/The Flash must regroup in order to stop her and bring back his missing wife. With help from the rest of Team Flash, Barry will ultimately defeat Mirror Monarch and reunite with Iris West-Allen. But in doing so, he’ll unleash two more devastating threats: one that could tear his marriage apart… and another that will lay siege to Central City and change the future forever.

While many exits and changes occurred during The Flash’s sixth season, it rendered rather a rather forgettable and ineffective year for the show. And I don’t really think it had to do with any sort of pandemic related issues either. The previous season, which this one has to pick up on and wrap up in its early outings, wasn’t too engaging or enthralling either. Skipping around with smaller arcs is a good idea, but none of them really stick or engage. And in turn, the villains aren’t much, don’t get much and render a bit tiresome, forgettable and the stakes never “feel” ramped up enough.

There’s admittedly a lot on the plate here, and the show’s creators just aren’t up to task for this challenge. They needed to wrap on the previous season’s hanging arc, develop a new one, write out multiple longtime characters and attempt to develop a handful of new ones. There are some cringe shortcuts taken to end Season six’s story, but what follows that isn’t all too much better. And while the old characters leaving is handled well, it almost feels like the show should be taking a hint from them. None of their replacements feel very much worthy, interesting and that I feel I want to hit the reset button on and grow up with at all. And its not like The Flash is any stranger to new characters joining Team Flash and us embracing them (Wally, Jesse, Patty, Ralph, Cecile). This new batch just isn’t it.

If it weren’t a show I watch together with my children, I’d probably be considering check out of The Flash. I don’t think its an actively terrible show, I just feel my personal interest has waivered and I struggle to find any sort of urgency to watch a given episode or to really keep up with it. Many of the show’s main cast are making their exits and it really feels like its about time to overall. Its very much how things were for me when Smallville neared this same point in its life. But, more power to The Flash to be able to continue this far and year in and year out be the top rated and watched show on its network.

Episodes

All’s Wells That Ends Wells

The Speed of Thought

Mother

Central City Strong

Fear Me

The One with the Nineties

Growing Pains

The People vs. Killer Frost

Timeless

Family Matters, Part 1

Family Matters, Part 2

Good-Bye Vibrations

Masquerade

Rayo De Luz

Enemy at the Gates

P.O.W.

Heart of the Matter, Part 1

Heart of the Matter, Part 2

Video

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Layers: BD-50

Clarity/Detail: Over the years with these DC shows, the presentation of them comes around like clockwork and they all pretty much line up to their previous seasons’ audio and visual standards. The Flash’s seventh season continues to feature a top of the line picture, complete with being sharp and plenty detailed.  The texture of all the power suits and villain attire are visible by every little stitch almost.  It looks great.  Also impressive, is that the effects hold up and look every good considering the jump from HD television broadcast to Blu-ray.

Depth:  Movements appear as a cross between natural and cinematic.  No blur, unless you count the quickness of the Flash.  A lot of the slowed down action/speed sequences look very 3D as there is good spacing and looseness between characters, objects, effects and environments

Black Levels: Blacks are inky and good.  They help with furthering the definition of characters, objects and environments.  No detail that wasn’t intended to be was hidden and there was no crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: Colors are bold, and a bit more vivid and poppy at times compared to the Arrow and Batwoman series and more on par with Legends than it would be Supergirl.  Reds look very nice in this transfer, as well as yellows.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones primarily take on a natural look.  Some episodes can vary on that (some dark alleyways take yellow tinge), but for the most part that’s what we have.  Facial detail is very high, making clear well rounded visions of cuts, scrapes, freckles, dimples, make-up pores and stubble.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean

Audio

Audio Format(s): English 5.1 DTS-HD MA

Subtitles: English SDH

Dynamics: As is usual with these DC shows, the presentation of them comes around like clockwork and they all pretty much line up to their previous seasons’ audio and visual standards. The Flash is an action oriented show, and as such, this 5.1 mix knows how to perfectly present it.  The speed scenes, car crashes and explosions all burst into your room with a crisp clarity and well rounded sense of uncompressed fun. Its very similar and formulaic to the previous season and the other DC shows.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: Engine hums, Flash’s bursting speed, guns, magical beams and blast and action crashes get a nice thump from your sub woofer in a very good presentation.

Surround Sound Presentation: The front three channels gloriously present the action and onscreen movements back and forth with great accuracy.  Rear speakers tend be used for ambiance, but don’t count them out to surprise you during some action sequences and environments that are a bit more lively.

Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue is crisp, clear and at the ideal placement in terms of volume.

Extras

The Flash: The Complete Sixth Season is a 3-Disc set that comes with an episode guide print on the reverse side of the cover insert and a digital copy of every episode in the season.

Disc 1

Deleted Scenes (HD, 8:10)

Disc 2

DC Fandome: The Flash WatchVerse (HD, 33:52) – The entire DC Fandome panel with Grant Gustin and the rest of the cast from the DC Fandome that preceded Season Seven.

Deleted Scenes (HD, 8:45) 

Disc 3

Gag Reel (HD, 10:10) 

The Journey Ends: Carlos and Tom (HD, 9:41) – This featurette focuses on Carlos Valdez and Tom Cavanagh as they left the show during this season. It talks about the relationship of Cisco and Welles, how the actors portrayed them and grew throughout the show.

Never Alone: Heroes and Allies (HD, 20:49) – This is the same featurette on sidekicks and friends of the superheroes found on the Batwoman: The Complete Second Season release.

Deleted Scenes (HD, 4:38)

Summary

The Flash continues to descend in terms of its quality for a couple seasons with sadly no real endgame in sight. The Blu-ray for the seventh season features terrific audio and video as always, accompanied by some pretty solid extras. These releases are pretty routine, so return buyers know what to expect. Those collectors will eventually pick it up, but I imagine the casual crowd will be fine with catching it on HBO Max.

This is a paid Amazon Associates link