Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Meh, "Honey, I Shrunk The Flash Team" Is A Dull Mash-Up Of Simple Ideas.


The Good: Moments of adequate performance, Special effects are fine
The Bad: Underwhelming character development, No impressive performances, Two dull plots, Missing pieces.
The Basics: "Honey, I Shrunk The Flash Team" sticks together two plots that aren't enough to fill a single episode of The Flash . . . and gives D.A. Horton random powers.


The Flash is at a weird and interesting point in its storyline. Right now, the titular character is out of action and the main plotline has become murky. The season's definitive villain, DeVoe - the Thinker -, has made a body swap and set a number of metahumans on Central City. But, because The Flash is in prison, but Vibe, Killer Frost and the Elongated Man (along with the brainpower of Harrison Wells) are all on the outside, it is hard to believe that Central City is all that vulnerable. Sticking with the S.T.A.R. Labs team being unable to rely immediately upon The Flash, "Honey, I Shrunk The Flash Team" is another Metahuman Of The Week story.

"Honey, I Shrunk The Flash Team" follows on "The Elongated Knight Rises" (reviewed here!), which had Barry Allen making a friend and ally in prison, while the S.T.A.R. Labs team was stuck dealing with a Metahuman causing trouble in Central City. "Honey, I Shrunk The Flash Team" puts another Metahuman from the bus into play.

Joe West and D.A. Horton are at home, where West is building a crib. When his wife begins accusing him of saying things, Joe and Cecile realize that she has become a telepath. Dr. Snow theorizes that Horton has had dark matter in her body since the first reactor accident. Allen, in prison, is playing cards with Big Sur, the former Mayor and another inmate when he tries to help Sur win by stacking the deck in his favor. Allen becomes interested in Big Sur's case. He insists he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but Allen is convinced that the forensics evidence against Big Sur was minimal.

While the new mayor unveils the latest Kord Industries building, a new metahuman shrinks the building. When West and Ramon find ATM video footage of the metahuman making a car appear almost instantly, they and Dibny go in search of Sylbert Rundin. Unfortunately, Rundin shrinks Ramon and Dibny with his abilities. Iris discovers that Rundin stole Ray Palmer's last stash of Dwarfstar Alloy. Joe West theorizes that Rundin might have been the person who committed the murder that Big Sur was convicted for and the team goes in search of a confession.

"Honey, I Shrunk The Flash Team" tries to expand The Flash cast by making D.A. Horton more vital and interesting. Giving her temporary powers seems like a desperate ploy to fill time. Horton suddenly having telepathic powers does not actually add anything to the story. The viewer keeps waiting for Horton to be placed in front of Rundin to find out telepathically some detail that would help her exonerate Big Sur. Much of "Honey, I Shrunk The Flash Team" feels like two stories that were not enough to sustain a single hour-long story being mashed together.

The shrunken Cisco Ramon and Elongated Man plotline is very basic. Wells attempts to save the pair by altering the Speed Force bazooka into a "re-embiggening" gun. Unfortunately, it destabilizes Ramon and Dibny at the cellular level. This creates a ticking clock that forces Wells to try to get the two in front of Rundin. Ramon gets the obligatory pep talk of the episode, but the take away from "Honey, I Shrunk The Flash Team" is, unfortunately, that the Earth-2 Harrison Wells has returned to The Flash lacking in his inherent genius.

Warden Wolf finally gets a substantive role in "Honey, I Shrunk The Flash Team." Wolf is performed by Richard Brooks, who had a memorable role in the final episode of Firefly, and he has been very much a background character since he appeared on The Flash. Brooks has the same delivery style as how he presented Jubal Early, but without the crazy, random lines. That instantly infuses Wolf with a sense of menace to him, well before that becomes explicit.

The resolution to "Honey, I Shrunk The Flash Team" is similarly basic. The metahuman is astonishingly easy to defeat and ultimately, Barry Allen just takes Big Sur's word (the episode lacks a scene where Horton sits opposite him and confirms his versions of events from his memory, which would have definitively tied the two plots together). The result is an episode that is largely unimpressive.

For other works with Derek Mears, please check out my reviews of:
"Orientation, Part 2" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Orientation, Part 1" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Part 13" - Twin Peaks
True Blood - Season Seven
Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Predators
Friday The 13th

2/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2018 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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