The Flash: The Original Series [Blu-Ray]

Cast: John Wesley Shipp, Amanda Pays, Alex Désert

Release Date: June 25, 2024

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 6.5/10

Synopsis:

Who-o-o-o-osh! The origins and exploits of the crimefighting DC Comics superhero come your way in this 22-episode live-action series. John Wesley Shipp portrays Barry Allen, a police crime technologist endowed with sudden talents after a fluke lab accident. He pledges to use his new powers for good, powers that include ultra-speed reflexes and the ability to vibrate his molecules so rapidly he can pass through solid walls. Amanda Pays is medical researcher Tina McGee, who monitors Allen’s accelerated metabolism and guards his secret identity. The Tricksters, Captain Cold, The Ghost, mad inventors: Central City is rife with criminals. Now there’s a hero to keep pace with them. He’s called The Flash. And in our era of instant communications, he’s more in step with the times than ever.

The original series from 1990; ‘The Flash’ tells the origins and beginning of heroic DC superhero The Flash, aka Barry Allen and chronicles the loss and fluke lab accident that turned Barry into the faster than life hero and the events that helped him decide to use his newfound abilities for good. Now Barry must live a double life while trying to repeatedly save the city from various baddies including The Trickster, The Ghost and many others, all while trying to maintain his normal life and do his job while additionally attempting to keep his other persona secret in order to protect those he loves, thanks to some help from Tina, a talented scientist at Star Labs who is privy to his secret.

The 1990 ‘The Flash’ series was developed for television by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo and starred John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen/The Flash, along with Amanda Pays as Tina McGee and Alex Désert as Julio Mendez in the lead roles. Recurring cast members included Vito D’Ambrosio, Biff Manard, Mike Genovese and Richard Belzer along with others. The series also featured many notable guest stars throughout its run including Mark Hamill, Dick Miller, M. Emmet Walsh, Priscilla Pointer, Gloria Reuben, Angela Bassett, Jeffrey Combs, Bryan Cranston and Ken Foree among others.

The beloved and unfortunately short-lived DC Comics live-action television series ‘The Flash’ made its debut as part of the CBS primetime lineup in September of 1990 and ran for a total of 22 episodes, eventually concluding its first season (and the series overall as fate would have it) in May of 1991 after multiple time and day shifts were unable to attain the audience needed, especially in order to justify its significant production cost for each episode. I can still remember watching the series on CBS during its original run when I was younger and unfortunately can also recall that I never finished it during that point, eventually catching the VHS “movie” specials (combined episodes released as films) and subsequently on DVD.

As someone who is also a diehard DC Comics fan and this series being one of my earlier live-action DC film and TV loves alongside the original Batman series with Adam West (and Burton’s 1989 film) and the Superman films with Christopher Reeve, the show has always held a special place in my world and revisiting it here on Blu-ray has been an absolute treat. While many of the effects and backgrounds don’t hold up extraordinarily well, they do still do the trick and I immediately became invested in it once again. Its moody and somewhat darker tone, as well as theme song by Danny Elfman are all quite clearly influenced by Tim Burton’s 1989 ‘Batman’ film and any fan of that era certainly wouldn’t find any fault in that. It made for a nice weekly series that kept each adventure primarily self-contained while still returning to various storylines and characters at one point or another. It’s still an immensely enjoyable series in its own right today and for any DC or Flash fans that have never had the pleasure of the show it’s definitely worth taking the time to give a chance.

DC Comics and Flash fans can now rejoice as Warner Archive Collection brings home the entire original series of ‘The Flash’ freshly remastered in High Definition like you’ve never seen or heard it before. Their 6-disc Blu-ray release of ‘The Flash: The Original Series’ brings all twenty-two episodes of the series home in full High Definition and looking tremendous. The outstanding new HD video presentations are only greatly complemented by lossless DTS-HD MA stereo tracks and together the show makes its Blu-ray debut not only looking and sounding better than ever before, but better than most of us probably ever dreamed it would. Even while the release may not include any extras, for fans of the series who would like to physically own it on Blu-ray and are contemplating a purchase, the release is definitely highly recommended and certainly worth adding to any diehard fan’s collection.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘The Flash: The Original Series’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the show’s original 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio on all 22 episodes of the series. The video presentations look spectacular as a whole, especially considering any and all previous releases available for the series. They deliver clean, sharp and beautifully detailed presentations on every episode with exceptional detail noticeable on character faces and attire, along with the gloomy streets of Central City and the various interiors such as labs, apartments and more which all shine. There are a few moments where some video noise and other minor imperfections can be noticed, but never in an aggressive or overly detracting manner and there’s no question that this series looks simply wonderful in HD and better than anticipated. Overall, these are marvelous High Definition video presentations that should have fans of the series extremely excited.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 2.0 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on all 22 episodes of the series. These stereo soundtracks are very nice in their own right and provide clean, crisp and nicely balanced audio presentations on each episode. The two channels balance all of the auditory content splendidly and all dialogue, effects and music share the channels cleanly, with no imperfections or simultaneously occurring elements clashing or resulting in anything becoming distorted or rendered problematic along the way. Overall, these are great 2.0 DTS-HD MA soundtracks that hold up capably at all times and shouldn’t disappoint whatsoever.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray release of ‘The Flash: The Original Series’ does not include any bonus content.

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Disc Rating: 6.5/10

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‘The Flash: The Original Series’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray from DC & Warner Archive Collection

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You can Purchase ‘The Flash: The Original Series’ on Blu-ray at Amazon HERE!

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