stevenpiziks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stevenpiziks) wrote2015-03-22 07:57 pm
stevenpiziks) wrote2015-03-22 07:57 pm
Entry tags:
- comics,
- media,
- television,
- tv
Flashing Like an Idiot
Look, I like superhero movies and TV shows. I'm willing to go along with a lot of impossible stuff and write it off as comic book "science" or just fun. But you can only take so much.
You can have an impossible universe, but you still need to follow a FEW rules, and your smart people can't. Be. Idiots.
I've been following THE FLASH, but I'm probably going to drop it soon. Why? Idiot plots. An idiot plot is a story that depends on the main characters acting like idiots, and the whole thing falls apart if anyone acts with basic intelligence. Yes, everyone does stupid or foolish things now and then, but to qualify as an idiot plot, the people need to do stuff that doesn't even qualify as the "what was I thinking?" kind of idiocy.
Case in point is the latest FLASH episode "Out of Time." Lots of spoilers follow, and I'm assuming you've seen the episode.
Early in, Barry Allen and Joe West are sitting in Joe's car when Mark Madron (who they work very hard not to call the Weather Wizard) pulls up behind them in his truck. Madron conjures up a thundercloud and destroys Joe's car with a bolt of lightning. Fortunately, Barry is so fast that he notices the lightning bolt when it's halfway to the car and he spirits both him and Joe to safety nan-seconds before the lightning strikes. Neither of them is hurt. And yet it doesn't occur to Barry to sprint after the Madron in his nice, slow truck and grab him? But if Barry catches Madron now, the episode ends, so Barry has to be an idiot.
Later, Madron, still intent on killing Joe, shows up at the police station. (Here, the villain is being an idiot for doing this in a roomful of cops, but we'll give him a sort-of pass on the assumption that Madron figures his powers make him immune to anything the police might do to stop him.) Barry shows up just in time to stop Madron from killing Joe, but the police chief is badly injured. Barry has to rush the chief to the hospital while Madron just strolls away. Barry is so fast, he zips the chief to the hospital in a couple seconds, but he can't get back to the station in time to catch up to Madron? Or, better yet, he can't spend half a second to punch Madron out and THEN rush the chief to the hospital? Half a second won't make a difference. But of course, Madron has to get away or the episode will be really short. Idiot plot.
In both cases above, the writers could have easily have had Barry fight Madron, but given Madron the ability to neutralize Barry's speed. They showed Madron create a force field out of air--a great way to stop a speedster. WHAM! Barry runs into it, and Madron gets away. They've also shown Madron with the ability to create ice. Madron creates an ice slick which flummoxes Barry just long enough for Madron to exit. There! No one has to be an idiot.
But the writers aren't content with just Barry being an idiot. Joe has to be an idiot, too. Joe says he's going after Madron alone, and that Barry can't go with him because Joe doesn't want anyone else to be endangered. And BARRY AGREES WITH THIS.
Let's look at this again. Joe, an ordinary guy with no powers, is going to square off with a supervillain . . . by himself . . . and he doesn't want his superhero foster son to come along because he's afraid the SUPERHERO will get hurt? And the superhero agrees to this? Now they've passed the idiot event horizon.
The conversation should have gone the other way around. Barry should have told Joe to stay out of it because Joe has no powers. Joe, not wanting this young punk of a kid to deal with Joe's own problems and overconfident that he can handle this Madron guy anyway, goes after Madron and gets himself kidnapped. Joe's idiocy is actually believable.
And then we have the big reveal--Barry is on the beach with Iris and he tells her he's the Flash. He does this by changing from civvies into his costume in a small tornado. In public. With lots of other people walking around them. You can see them in the background, in fact. What the heck? Idiot.
The last part I had trouble with is something the show may have gotten themselves out of. The police chief, who is gay, is so badly injured in the fight with Madron that he'll probably never walk again. Whether or not he'll be able to continue as chief is up in the air. And then Cisco figures out the true identity of Professor Wells, so Wells kills Cisco.
So the show has these two minority characters: a gay man and an Hispanic man. And in one episode, they cripple the first and kill off the second. No straight white people were injured or killed in the filming of this episode. Fuck you, guys.
However, they sent Barry back in time a few days at the very end of the episode, which may mean they intend to undo these problem. We'll see if the fuck you stands.
And none of this excuses the characters--and the writers--acting like idiots.
You can have an impossible universe, but you still need to follow a FEW rules, and your smart people can't. Be. Idiots.
I've been following THE FLASH, but I'm probably going to drop it soon. Why? Idiot plots. An idiot plot is a story that depends on the main characters acting like idiots, and the whole thing falls apart if anyone acts with basic intelligence. Yes, everyone does stupid or foolish things now and then, but to qualify as an idiot plot, the people need to do stuff that doesn't even qualify as the "what was I thinking?" kind of idiocy.
Case in point is the latest FLASH episode "Out of Time." Lots of spoilers follow, and I'm assuming you've seen the episode.
Early in, Barry Allen and Joe West are sitting in Joe's car when Mark Madron (who they work very hard not to call the Weather Wizard) pulls up behind them in his truck. Madron conjures up a thundercloud and destroys Joe's car with a bolt of lightning. Fortunately, Barry is so fast that he notices the lightning bolt when it's halfway to the car and he spirits both him and Joe to safety nan-seconds before the lightning strikes. Neither of them is hurt. And yet it doesn't occur to Barry to sprint after the Madron in his nice, slow truck and grab him? But if Barry catches Madron now, the episode ends, so Barry has to be an idiot.
Later, Madron, still intent on killing Joe, shows up at the police station. (Here, the villain is being an idiot for doing this in a roomful of cops, but we'll give him a sort-of pass on the assumption that Madron figures his powers make him immune to anything the police might do to stop him.) Barry shows up just in time to stop Madron from killing Joe, but the police chief is badly injured. Barry has to rush the chief to the hospital while Madron just strolls away. Barry is so fast, he zips the chief to the hospital in a couple seconds, but he can't get back to the station in time to catch up to Madron? Or, better yet, he can't spend half a second to punch Madron out and THEN rush the chief to the hospital? Half a second won't make a difference. But of course, Madron has to get away or the episode will be really short. Idiot plot.
In both cases above, the writers could have easily have had Barry fight Madron, but given Madron the ability to neutralize Barry's speed. They showed Madron create a force field out of air--a great way to stop a speedster. WHAM! Barry runs into it, and Madron gets away. They've also shown Madron with the ability to create ice. Madron creates an ice slick which flummoxes Barry just long enough for Madron to exit. There! No one has to be an idiot.
But the writers aren't content with just Barry being an idiot. Joe has to be an idiot, too. Joe says he's going after Madron alone, and that Barry can't go with him because Joe doesn't want anyone else to be endangered. And BARRY AGREES WITH THIS.
Let's look at this again. Joe, an ordinary guy with no powers, is going to square off with a supervillain . . . by himself . . . and he doesn't want his superhero foster son to come along because he's afraid the SUPERHERO will get hurt? And the superhero agrees to this? Now they've passed the idiot event horizon.
The conversation should have gone the other way around. Barry should have told Joe to stay out of it because Joe has no powers. Joe, not wanting this young punk of a kid to deal with Joe's own problems and overconfident that he can handle this Madron guy anyway, goes after Madron and gets himself kidnapped. Joe's idiocy is actually believable.
And then we have the big reveal--Barry is on the beach with Iris and he tells her he's the Flash. He does this by changing from civvies into his costume in a small tornado. In public. With lots of other people walking around them. You can see them in the background, in fact. What the heck? Idiot.
The last part I had trouble with is something the show may have gotten themselves out of. The police chief, who is gay, is so badly injured in the fight with Madron that he'll probably never walk again. Whether or not he'll be able to continue as chief is up in the air. And then Cisco figures out the true identity of Professor Wells, so Wells kills Cisco.
So the show has these two minority characters: a gay man and an Hispanic man. And in one episode, they cripple the first and kill off the second. No straight white people were injured or killed in the filming of this episode. Fuck you, guys.
However, they sent Barry back in time a few days at the very end of the episode, which may mean they intend to undo these problem. We'll see if the fuck you stands.
And none of this excuses the characters--and the writers--acting like idiots.