“The Flash: The Complete Seventh Season” — Blu-ray Review

The Flash races to keep up with its own ever-expanding lore in The Flash: The Complete Seventh Season, made available on DVD & Blu-ray on October 12th, 2021!

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of The Flash: The Complete Seventh Season Blu-ray that I reviewed in this blog post. The opinions I share are my own.

The Flash has taken on too much to handle and the show’s overall quality has taken a hit because of it. Honestly, it kind of hurts to say that this show has become an empty shell of the enjoyable superhero show that it used to be. So much of the fun that I used to have when watching The Flash has been replaced by the tedious amount of work that has to be put into trying to understand odd character and story direction, where entire arcs are so underbaked that Barry Allen, the fastest man alive, has to be dramatically dumbed-down and nerfed just to keep things moving along. 

At times, I feel like I’m being too harsh with the show, but then I remember that The Flash just finished their seventh season and will be dropping the premiere of their eighth season on November 16, 2021. Due to the fact that the pandemic screwed up the usual filming schedules, we’re basically getting back-to-back seasons for all of the Arrowverse shows with a minimal hiatus. And while I would usually be super psyched to have a whole new season of a show only a couple of months after the previous season, this is worrying when we’re talking about The Flash because it means that the writers probably didn’t have time to course-correct issues fans might have had with season seven. 

The Flash season seven is split into two “smaller” story arcs instead of the season just being one long 22-23 episode fight against one singular villain. This is the same formula that the show went for during the previous sixth season and while this concept should have worked out incredibly well, it didn’t. This failure is mainly because the show still relies too heavily on filler to keep the audience placated during large chunks of the season’s episodes. Additionally, the episode order is not equally split between the season’s two main groups of villains. 

For example, the first 3 episodes in The Flash season 7 focus on finishing up the Mirror Monarch’s story from the previous season (aka leftovers from the pandemic screwing up filming). Episodes 4-14 then focus on the Speed Force branching off into 4 separate host bodies (Nora/Speed), (Deon/Time), (Fuerza/Strength), and (Psych/Mind). They become the main villains for a handful of episodes, although in what has become all too predictable now in this show, they are defeated by the power of friendship and end up becoming allies. Episodes 15-18 then switch over to a new villain, Godspeed, and rushes through a whole backstory/reason as to why Godspeed hates Barry Allen and wraps up his villain arc in 4 episodes.

Unfortunately, The Flash season seven also has problems in how it handles its heroes. There are simply too many hero characters in the general “Team Flash” line-up, which creates major issues when the writers attempt to juggle giving each character a purpose. At the present moment, the main core cast happens to consist of Barry, Cisco, Caitlin, Frost (separated from Caitlin and is now her own character), Allegra, Chester, Iris, Cecile, and Joe. As a result of having such a bloated line-up of characters, season seven has actual episodes where Barry Allen, the main character, is just completely absent from the entire episode. And even when Barry is there, the writers have him consult with nearly every other character before doing any actual superhero work.

However, despite how much I personally disliked this season, I will say that there was one thing I absolutely loved—the character, Psych. So, as mentioned before, one of the villains for this season was a foe named, Psych, who possessed the ability to literally create your worst fears (like Batman’s Scarecrow just without the use of toxic fear gas). Although his costume gave me major Power Rangers vibes, the episodes that he was in ended up being the coolest because of the whole spooky horror movie aesthetic. I’m only a tad bit disappointed that the writers didn’t elect to use Psych as a villain for a full season. I think that he could have presented a genuine challenge to the heroes. 

Overall, I just feel like The Flash is dropping the ball when the potential to be great is right there. It’s possible that after seven years this show might have just run its course (pun intended). After all, Arrow bowed out of the Arrowverse following its eighth season, so it could be possible that we’ll see The Flash end around the same time too. I will say, however, that there is great potential to have a spinoff series with Barry and Iris’ kids from the future (Nora and Bart), as season seven reintroduced us to Nora and finally let us finally meet Impulse (Bart Allen). A new show, especially one set in the future, would be interesting. 

The Flash: The Complete Seventh Season Blu-ray Bonus Features: 

• 2020 DC FanDome – The Flash: This is the full Flash panel that was aired during DC Comics’ Fandome 2020 event. It’s essentially what you’d expect from a usual convention panel, except it’s done entirely virtually through a Zoom call. Eric Wallace (Executive Producer) and the rest of the cast members come together to talk about the latest season of the show, their characters, the villains, and what they like about working on the show. This is actually a pretty lengthy watch, so it’s a great bonus feature to be had. (33 minutes)
• The Journey Ends – Carlos and Tom: This featurette is actually a really sweet send-off to Carlos Valdes and Tom Cavanagh, who have played Cisco Ramon and Harrison Wells since the first season. Unfortunately, the seventh season of The Flash was their last, so they’re no longer series regulars. This bonus feature talks about what made the chemistry between Cisco and Harrison so fun to watch. It also takes a brief look at the history of their characters through the seasons, especially the many different variations of “Harrison Wells” that Tom played throughout the series. (10 minutes)
• Never Alone – Heroes and Allies: This featurette isn’t only just about The Flash. It’s actually about the Arrowverse, as a whole, and DC comics in general in regards to the superheroes and the supporting characters or sidekicks that fight alongside them in their respective shows. One of the most interesting parts of this feature is how it talks about the birth of the sidekick concept, which became popularized in comic books following the introduction of Dick Grayson (Robin) in Batman comics. (20 minutes)
• Gag Reel: The Flash is usually fairly goofy in general, so it’s definitely not surprising that there’s a big blooper reel from filming. Something that’s super enjoyable is that the newer characters that have been added to the main line-up of characters seem to get along really well with the original cast. This reel was fun to watch. (10 minutes)
• Deleted Scenes: There are 14 deleted scenes from the original airing of The Flash, spread out through the 3 discs of the Blu-ray set. (20 minutes)

Both the DVD & Blu-ray editions of The Flash: The Complete Seventh Season were made available for purchase on October 12, 2021, by WBHE. The DVD edition comes with a 4-disc set and all 18 episodes from the full seventh season run, while the Blu-ray edition is a 3-disc set. Both releases also include 5 special bonus features, including deleted scenes and a blooper reel. The DVD release will be marketed for $39.99 SRP ($44.98 in Canada) while the Blu-Ray release will be marketed for $44.98 SRP ($49.99 in Canada). The Flash: The Complete Seventh Season is also available for purchase via digital retailers.

Are you guys picking up a copy of The Flash: The Complete Seventh Season? Are you excited about The Flash season 8 debuting on November 16, 2021?

Let us know in the comments below!

Author: Rodney

Rodney has a bachelor’s degree in English Literature. Aspiring to one day write television shows and novels, he’s an avid slash-shipper and enthusiast for all things gay. Rodney’s especially a lover of magic, mystery, and superheroes—holding Harry Potter, the X-Men, and Scooby-Doo close as his own personal favorites. But when he’s not fantasizing about how cool it would be to have magic, he’s busy writing fanfiction and re-watching old TV shows.

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