The Flash (TV Series) Mixed Signals (2017) User Reviews

We Are the Flash

[ThomasDrufke · 7/10 · 17 October 2017]

Well I have to give it to The Flash, they are really trying to lighten up the tone this year, and I don't mind it all that much. I can't necessarily say the same for the direction it looks like they are taking The Thinker, but if we can get back to season 1 and most of season 2's tone, then I'm down.

This week, Team Flash took on a villain, who I'm just going to call Kilg%re, who used his metahuman abilities to hack into technology and exact his revenge on his former co-workers. Sounds like a regular day at the office to me, right? Luckily, there was plenty of goofiness to go around to keep the Walter White wannabe's plans to a minimum (seriously, that's who this villain reminded me of). Not only was today a full blown girlfriend-problems episode between Cisco and Barry's issues, but it was also an episode full of suit shenanigans thanks to Cisco's upgrades.

It felt like the only reason Gypsy made an appearance was so that Cisco's arc could be paralleled with Barry's. While it's good to throw in some romantic material every once in awhile, I wasn't a huge fan of the material tonight. Iris' confession about her unhappiness with Barry leaving to the speedforce was a nice touch, and Candice Patton does have a tendency to pull out nice dramatic beats when needed. Gypsy and Cisco's arc wasn't as nicely plotted out. She would just randomly show up every few scenes with much notice. I've enjoyed their relationship to this point, but I would just like a more consistent presence of Gypsy or really no presence at all. This show already has a problem with too many characters.

As much as this episode felt like a huge villain of the week episode without much depth, there were some fun moments, including an impressive slow-motion sequence at the police department with Barry stopping the grenade. They don't usually spend a ton of time in the CGI department on the slow-motion, but it seems like that was stepped up this week. Some cheesy romantic stuff and a weak villain didn't help but it was an improvement over last week for sure. Plus, that Risky Business tag was pretty dang great. Out of nowhere, but still great.

7.1/10

Now the series is returning to form!

[asb_deutsch · 7/10 · 21 October 2017]

Finally, the series start after two last mediocre episodes. Kid Flash could have been utilized better. The villain had a "mixed" role, he was like coming from a cheese burger restaurant and looked like more of a "violet matrix". But this episode makes you care about the other characters, especially Flash (I love Grant Gustin!). There was no need to go for a Tony Stark suit!

My ratings (based on what I marked on IMDb): Season 1: 200/23= 8.69 Season 2: 193/23= 8.23 Season 3: 188/23= 8.17 Season 4: 13.5/2 = 6.25

My significant score: 6.5/10 See you flash fans next week!

Who is that new guy?

[gorkem-bir · 6/10 · 18 October 2017]

Barry has dealt with a lot in the previous season. He had gone through so much and felt desperate and exhausted most of the time. And now, he suddenly came out of speed-force like nothing has happened. He is joyful more than ever, and it is not because that he is grateful to return to the world or Iris. It is something extreme. His attitudes, behaviours are so incongruent with the stereotype that I could recall. I've even thought about the possibility of our new villain to shape and control the actions of him. Iris seemed to suspect that he is not the fiancée who went into the speed-force couple months ago. I don't know whether anyone else have noticed that, but it is a disturbing issue unless it is something fictionalized. Besides, add something new. I don't want Barry to gain his confidence following an emotional talk anymore.

The Flash - S04E02 Mixed Signals

[j_forbesy · 9/10 · 18 October 2017]

Second week back with The Flash. I thought last week's premiere was quite solid. It laid a good foundation to build off and caught us up to speed with where everyone was at in the show.

I really enjoyed this episode, while I had a few problems with the episode, are are small details that didn't take away from the overall episode.

Firstly I have to hit on the tone of the episode. The earlier seasons of The Flash had this uplifting and charming tone that I think they went away from a bit last season. This season however they have brought it right back and it is a massive positive for me. The humour is strong, the characters are all light and fluffy and there isn't a big dark cloud hanging over everyone's heads. If the season keeps with this tone, they are going to have a very good season.

I really like how they have tweaked how these earlier episode villains are working. I've always enjoyed the early villain of the week episodes because it allows Team Flash to be the forefront which still giving us some action. This season isn't much different except for that all the villains are tying into the Thinker's plan. It gives these early villains a bit more meaning than they have had previously.

Onto some negatives, I thought Barry and Iris' relationship drama was a little over the top this episode. While I understand the need for relationship stuff because it is a CW show, this episode presented both the best they can do and the not so best. Barry and Iris was in the not so best. By the looks for it, their drama is over for now which is something to look forward too. As I mentioned, there was a really good display of relationship in this episode and that was Cisco and Gypsy. They have this natural chemistry that really works well with the show, similar to what Patty and Barry had a couple of seasons ago.

Overall, while not the strongest villain of the week, the Thinker tie in made it feel important. On top of that, we got a few relationship dramas out of the way. For the most part however, I think Flash has captured it's charming tone that it had earlier in it's series.

9/10

Definitely has a season 1 vibe (no pun intended)

[hawkins_saints_rock · 9/10 · 18 October 2017]

So we knew going into this season that the writers were trying to get back to the feel of season 1. Through the first two episodes, this is very evident. The fun nature and funny moments of this episode make the episode. Whether it was watching Barry's suit malfunction, Cisco justifying why the suit needs so much technology, or "111 day". This episode hit the mark in being funny, with Cisco at the center of it. Cisco was the star of the episode for me, every scene he was in he made hilarious, and he pretty much sums up all men when ladies say "I'm fine" hahah. Speaking of ladies, gypsy (damn she fine) as always was a great addition to the show, and after watching this episode I'm convinced that her and Cisco are my favourite Flash couple, which may not be a good thing...you get where I'm going with this...

Barry and Iris, Iris and Barry. Not a good episode at trying to convince fans to love this relationship. "You are not the Flash Barry, we are" is probably my most hated line any character has had in this show. Barry is the Flash Iris, he is the man. Yes Team Flash is great and how they help each other makes for good television, but he IS the Flash and at the end of the day gets to make the big calls. Really annoyed me how it seems she wants to be the leader of Barry's team. Also, why is she angry at Barry for going into the speed force in S3's finale? He had to! She knows this! Just utterly stupid.

Anyway away from the relationships, the villain this week was good but nothing too special. He had the ability to control technology and did quite some damage doing so. But the type of villain he was didn't make for any amazing action scenes with Barry taking him on, which this episode missed. But we did have a lot of scenes showing off Barry's speed. Man he is so much faster than he's ever been. That scene of him catching all the grenade debris was so awesome to watch and shows just how fast he is. I'm loving it that now Barry definitely is the fastest man alive.

On to Caitlin...so it seems that maybe she doesn't quite have the control over her powers that I initially thought, as we saw her fighting off going full blown Killer Frost. Will be interesting to see how they take this in future episodes.

Back to the villain for a moment...he told us that he didn't get his powers from the particle accelerator explosion. Which for me, points to his powers likely coming from the speed force storm in S3. So I think all the new metas of this season, including The Thinker, will have gotten their powers from the storm. Let's see if I'm right.

Overall I enjoyed this episode slightly more than last week, even with the Barry and Iris relationship fiasco. Hoping to get a bit more action next week. Oh and I'll never get sick of hearing "Run Barry, run!" 8.8/10

full on sarcasm

[zerinchowdhuryamy · 8/10 · 4 July 2020]

I found it more sarcastic than any other episode of any other previous season.

they really pushed this sarcasm part that was actually missing as MCU are better in this i always felt.

You left me, you really left me!

[hnt_dnl · 1/10 · 3 March 2018]

Remember when Barry Allen used to be this happy, selfless, fun-loving, SINGLE hero? It was true at one point, then WestAllen happened. And ever since, Barry's been dragged down to levels of boring mediocrity. Failing to get rid of trashy Iris West in Season 3, the writers had to figure out what to do with her going forward, so they come up with the "brilliant" idea of making her the leader of Team Flash, even though she has no scientific background or acumen, stood around the for 3 seasons like a deer in headlights, and doesn't even seem like she has the capacity to read. So in Season 4, Iris is in Starlabs full time bossing everyone around and play acting like she's smart. Really, she was in the lab all of Season 3 also, even though she supposedly was a reporter.

I've always known Iris was trash, but this episode 'Mixed Signals' is the one where everyone else figured it out, too. The beginning of the infamous Iris proclamation "We are the Flash" to Barry. Yeah, somehow, the ONE person in the lab who didn't do anything but stand around like an idiot for 3 full seasons and doesn't know her left from her right is all of a sudden the most important member of the team. You've had characters like Cisco, Caitlin, Wells, and Joe who have repeatedly saved Barry's life for 3 seasons and none of them would ever have the audacity to self-promote and insist to Barry that he needs them to survive. Nor would they ever emotionally blackmail Barry into thinking he abandoned them for the Speedforce, because you know why, Iris? Barry didn't abandon you! He saved your life and everyone in the city. But Iris has been like this for years, just more low-key and subtle about it. Everything is pretty much about her. Her only "use" is as Barry's love interest, so all she can do is turn the Flash into some angsty romantic melodrama. Sadly, at the end of it all, somehow, the writers intimated that Iris was actually right and Barry wrong for, you know, saving the world! But, hey, as long as this canon relationship sticks and Iris shoots out Barry's speedster kids, that's all these pscyho fangirls care about. WE ARE THE FLASH!

On this episode of The Iris aka Desperate Flash Wannabe

[imakk2001 · 5/10 · 17 October 2017]

• Iris the leader is still shoehorned, still unbelievable and still needs to get over herself.

• Saving lives is all important but only if it doesn't interfere with Iris' personal plans.

• Iris thinks she and Barry are Flash now. That's some ego she has. But to back it up, the writers had Iris do the pep talks/runBarryrun/coming up with the solutions instead of the team. That's not an improvement. What would be an improvement is Barry NOT needing pep talks or exhortations to run all the freaking time, and coming up with the solutions himself as expected of a superhero.

• Iris throws out she's upset Barry left without consulting her. As if he was going on vacation and not saving CC from IMMINENT death and destruction. This is a woman who grew up as a cop's daughter, dated and almost married a cop who died saving everyone, and is about to marry a superhero. Makes me wonder if Joe and Eddie consulted her every time they got a call. I would like to say this was a surprising reveal but it's not. She has been consistently making everything about herself since S1. She truly is the ball and chai - er, I mean rock for Barry.

And because Barris isn't enough, Cisco/Gypsy have joined in the soap operadic melodrama.

Shockingly enough there were other characters and things in this ep. Risky business/Barry catching up on TV, return of Captain Singh/CSI Barry (working at his job even if only for 3 seconds)/Cisco's beloved fake PD badge, 1st therapy session, Barry dismantling the car and catching the bomb shrapnels, hacked flash suit were as fun as the show promised.

Brain farts:

• Was that Ralph Dibny behind the yellow line when Cisco arrived at the crime scene?

• Does this mean Iris thinks she's been abandoned by Eddie, too? Poor guy, he gets absolutely no love, only the shaft even in death.

• Barry can't phase out of his suit but he can run fast enough to throw lightning and hit himself with it.

• Is the production or is the actor behind the Neymaresque transformation of Wally?

• The show is doing Wally no favors keeping him on. Since Iris is taking over the show, there's little room for him if they don't make him Flash.

• This show better hope JL sucks donkey balls.

Score: 5

4 seasons and people are still telling Barry what to do

[samu_ld · 4/10 · 18 October 2017]

This episode showed how Barry (and the show) evolved absolutely NOTHING after almost 4 years of being The Flash. Barry who is supposedly one of the smartest characters is still getting his ass kicked by random metas and STILL needs the motivational speech to do something, but now it's worse, because it's Iris who inexplicably became smart enough to tell everyone what to do at every situation, is leading the team.

I have to admit i really like a funny/happy Barry, but it's just not working with Iris contradicting everything he does,there is a funny moment, and then it's gone, it's like she's the most important human being in the world, judging Barry for going to the speed force: "You left me!", no, ma'am, he just saved you, your family, the city and the world possibly, so you should be grateful that he's back and even more grateful because he's not down and depressed like last season. And i don't even want to talk about that couple's therapy scene because, oh god, it was awful.

Don't get me started on Cisco putting tech upgrades at the suit, which is an obvious rip-off from Iron Man, and i thought it was RIDICULOUS! I know it was because of the script, because the villain conveniently controls technology, but WHY THE HELL DOES THE FLASH NEEDS LASER BEAMS? WHO CAME UP WITH THESE IDEAS?!

Also what's up with Wally being useless, not being able to dodge that laser beam and doing nothing against Kilg%re? Is this because he is leaving the show? Wow, they really made him look bad this week. Is this because they can't afford having 2 speedsters and the budget is too expensive? Who knows.

The show is going downhill, but i might give it a chance and tune in for more 1 or 2 episodes, because if the writers are doing what i think they are doing, we may have a Felicity 2.0 on our way and the nightmare of Arrow season 4 will repeat all over again.

Very strange episode

[jimdan1962 · 4/10 · 20 October 2017]

I'm not commenting on the substance of the episode so much as maybe the tech aspect of it. I'm seeing strange camera angles that don't match the last seasons/episodes or the general feel and groove of the last 3 seasons at ALL. At times it come's off like a bad soap opera visually and doesn't have that "Flash" sorta groove that I've been use to for so long now. Wasn't impressed with the villain, the guy just didn't seem right for the part, or maybe it was his lines. The same thing with the actor who portrayed elevator guy. It just seems to have a very weird overall feel, I didn't get this in the last episode, which makes it very bizarre. Could be a different producer or director? Perhaps it's just me. I'm not sure if anyone else will notice this, which of course would mean it's just me! It does seem to be losing momentum, I hate that, I really love this show! I'll keep hanging in there, hopefully it will get better.

Once more the great hero got his ass kicked by a random dude

[aopek · 5/10 · 1 February 2021]

I don't get it. 4 years now and still don't.

How are the hero and every time you get your ass kicked until your team helps you and then you win the fight.

How useless is Barry alone?

Is this suppose to be a hero parody show?

Flash should be the stonger and the leader in his show. Not his chick.

Oliver Queen would never be the weakest in his show. That's why he is the leader and the star.

I still don't get it.

Mixed Signals Indeed...

[lassegalsgaard-45284 · 4/10 · 16 January 2018]

It is funny to think about the fact that "The Flash" was once the number one hit show on The CW. It was the superhero show that everybody talked about and that would get the reviewers' attention all the way through. Now, the show has turned into every other CW show: a soap opera with superheroes. Most of these shows make such a huge deal with their relationships, instead of focusing on the thing that really matters, which is the superheroes and the extremely cool comicbooks. There is a great catalogue of characters to go from, but instead these writers are choosing the weirdest villians they could find and instead of having the Flash save people, they have him going to couples therapy. Are the great days of this show behind it? They might be.

This is an episode that is a step down from the premiere, which wasn't even that good itself. But, like every other episode, there are things to look at which were very well done. One of the things that this episode did really well was its handling of Barry trying to cope with every day life again. It is not easy for him, and I appreciated that they went in that direction, because they could have just picked it up directly from when he left and make it all seem like he never left, but they don't. There are some problems in his life, and especially in his relationship with Iris, and I liked that they touched on those things.

There is also the other power couple of Cisco and Gypsy, and they are really sweet together. I don't think we saw them get together in the last season, so it must have happened between the two seasons. Anyway, I love their relationship, and I especially loved to see Cisco try to actually deal with a girl. It is not always that easy, and Caitlin says as much in this episode: "Whenever a girl says it's fine, it's not fine." I loved that we got to see this side of Cisco, and I loved that we got to finally see these two characters together this way.

Unfortunately, this episode is an even bigger disappointment than the first one. The writing in this episode is horrible. There are so many forced jokes that it is not even funny. The writers come up with such lame jokes and they are all just in there to create some cheap laughs. There is an entire plot point of Barry and Caitlin going to couples therapy, and it is only an attempt to make people laugh because they have experienced all these horrible things in their life. I don't know where all the writers from Seasons 1 and 2 have gone, but they should definitely get some of them back, because they knew how to create humor that actually landed and had an impact at the same time.

The big thing that has bothered me ever since the beginning, is the inconsistency of Iris' character. She can change perspective and personality from one episode to another, and it was also a problem for me in the premiere, but because that was so reduced because of other things, I got over it. However, this time, it just seemed like everything that happened to her was a problem. In the last episode she was so happy to get Barry back, and in this episode it's like she doesn't even want him there. I don't think she is a well-written character and this episode just further confirms that.

And then, the villain of the week. This is probably one of the worst villains I have ever seen on this show. Not only because his powers made no sense and his motivations was week, because we never really got to know what actually happened to him, but also just because the actor who played the character was very cringeworthy. He felt like he was taken straight out of a cartoon, which didn't work at all, because they were trying to set up this very serious problem with him. I hated the performance and the character suffered because of it, as well as some horrible dialogue that sounded like something out of an Adam Sandler film. Very disappointed here once again.

Ranking/Reviewing every Flash episode: Mixed Signals

[lbramson · 5/10 · 12 June 2023]

A meta who controls technology goes on a killing spree. Meanwhile, Barry and Iris go to couple's therapy (Ugh!) This is what a call a visually impressive mess! The main bus meta story has a terrible villain in Killgore, but it has some cool moments. Cisco gets some his funniest lines, instantly proving himself even funnier this season! The scene where Barry's suit malfunctions is a cool, impressive sequence with great cinematography that establishes the suit's enhancements. The big issue with this episode is everyone's favorite sweetheart: Iris.

She's so annoying in this episode, way more than usual. Every scene with her feels like getting tased in the balls 1,000 times! It's torturous! This was the couple's therapy episode, but not only that, this has the infamous "You're not the Flash, we are" line, which deserves a review all to itself. She's the worst, most nagging person in this episode!

5.3/10-Meh, more so problematic than anything.