1990s Flash
Nov. 5th, 2016 08:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI have watched three episodes so far and they are, ironically, so sloooooow.
It's because older TV is slower. I know this. There's a predictable relationship between age and slow.
but most things I watch that are old enough to be slow are things I'm used to. This is new to me and I'm tripping over the epic clunkiness. acting styles have changed like woah since then and all.
I'm interested in the plots partly because the presence of Trickster in the new 'verse suggests that at least some of what happened in the 1990 'verse still happened there, just without the Flash or metahumans, within the logic of the new show. Some stuff would change, like the simple presence of Star Labs, if I've understood right how Wells was related to its founding. Tina McGee works for Mercury labs. But the rest can be cannibalised for parts. And those parts won't be much relevant to Barry Allen, but Leonard Snart was probably 18 in 1990, maybe a little older, so if you want background to his awkward teenage criminal beginnings then tada, this is it.
And so far two out of three episodes involve fun with fire, so, this is very much Mick Rory's idea of fun too, and he'd be a couple years older.
... except Legends of Tomorrow had some interestingly inconsistent idea of ages for all of these characters, so apparently that time they rescued young!Mick from the Pilgrim was 1990, which would be... younger than the actors for no good reason. And not fit real well with young!Len either. Messes.
But, useful 90s bits:
The Dark Riders, motorcycle gang led by ex cop with a grudge, threw globes of chemicals that ignited on impact. We know Mick and Len ride motorbikes for jobs and Mick would find the fire part shiny. The gang broke into jail to free one of their own when she was arrested. Plausibly she could be not-arrested in the first place because no Flash, but it's pretty easy to imagine how that could work same without him. Without the Flash the prison break part would go differently, and probably poorly for the cops. Even with the Flash the gang leader escaped, while the others were choking on tear gas the Flash dropped in the vents. But then he got caught and tied up by the Flash at super speed. Without that, he could still be out there, or he could have gone back to base, which without Barry Allen CSI would not have been discovered yet.
Adapted for bunnies: Mick wants to go throw fire globes around, so he talks Len into joining the 'fun'. Len doesn't think annoying the cops that much is a good idea, they don't need the heat, but hey, object lesson. Somebody gets arrested - could include Mick, being distracted by pretty pretty fire. Prison break was messy and violent and without the Flash would have had casualties on both sides. Not Len's style at all. He'd want out. And if Pike didn't want to let him? Well, we know how Len could deal. Meanwhile Mick learns a valuable lesson about Len's instincts and why we do not throw fire globes at the police. Also how to make fire globes.
second episode had a mad scientist experiment on homeless guys to make... actually he wasn't clear on that. What he managed to make was a werewolf, but starting from dog. Also did a Hyde on himself. Don't know what he thought he was doing, screwed it up a lot. Needed Tina's husbands notes to make it successful, the secret was ionisation. Creepy dude drugged Tina after romancing her. Thankfully 90s 12 rating prevented the obvious.
Unlikely to be directly relevant to Len or Mick, but hazards of homelessness in Central are really high. Plus there's a lot of homeless in one place, like a dozen with trash can fires, and the police patrols are overstretched.
This one ought to have been a character heavy ep for Tina but it's difficult to read 1990 TV like that. So. Very. Slow. But there's stuff about what their research is supposed to be doing - curing disease, reversing aging etc. There's stuff underlining the pressure for results that led her husband to experiment on himself, and die. The other guy who courted her in college experimented on other people until he thought he'd got it right. And here's Tina keeping her research a secret, when Barry is basically the end result they're interested in.
Only relevance to new 'verse is if this kind of research has been going on via Mercury etc, then the supersoldier research like Mirakuru was a thread, not a point.
Episode three had a corrupt DA working with an organised crime family. Kind of like Len's dad, seems like corruption was baseline. There were a series of fires that were paid for by organised crime as part of a real estate racket to buy land cheap ready for building casinos when the law changed to make them legal. Seems convoluted to me, but. The arsonist was a former 'Fire Lord' who learned demolitions in Vietnam. He was also the kind of crazy that is way too into the Bible and sees demons everywhere and he thought the Flash was a demon coming for him.
There's easy ways to add an arsonist, especially one interested in new methods. But I'm more interested in a fantasy AU plot, maybe somewhere that making deals with demons is an actual possibility. Like, governments train guys to do awful things, if it was possible to give them magic or meta powers to do those things then they'd certainly do that. And then x years later when they're supposed to let them out of the army they will still have those powers. And some of them will not have done so well mentally. So like if they had fire elemental partners or straight up demon assisted magic then they'd have had a lot of weary years of wondering about the effects on their soul. Or of being pressured to use their powers more and more.
If you want to do a story about Mick and mental illness, here's a guy who sets fires and is, on short acquaintance, really sincerely not well. So Mick might see that as prediction or map. Angst ensues.
Back in the episode, Megan Lockhart, Private Investigator, is a fun character who should stick around and be part of team Flash but almost certainly won't. ... looking it up, she'll be back, but not in the capacity I imagined, where the thing where she has skills and is any good at all could in fact be helpful. But she's tangled with the Trickster, who exists in universe, so Lockhart could straight up still exist in the new Flash. A 58 year old lady PI would be a new and interesting angle. Of course that's skills duplication with CSI and Police Detective, so, trickier to use well.
... I just have this urge to salvage good female characters whenever they appear and give them stories of their very own. Tina McGee could be awesome on the regular, you know? Give her a team and see how they would do the Team Flash gig, or make them people trying to help with the metahuman problem without a Flash of their own, or... all sorts.
I'm increasingly frustrated with my apparent role as plot bunny generator rather than writer now, but hey, many bunnies.
In other news it is Kabooms Night, aka Bonfire Night, and I am displeased. But pretty chill about it, on my scale. So that's nice.
It's because older TV is slower. I know this. There's a predictable relationship between age and slow.
but most things I watch that are old enough to be slow are things I'm used to. This is new to me and I'm tripping over the epic clunkiness. acting styles have changed like woah since then and all.
I'm interested in the plots partly because the presence of Trickster in the new 'verse suggests that at least some of what happened in the 1990 'verse still happened there, just without the Flash or metahumans, within the logic of the new show. Some stuff would change, like the simple presence of Star Labs, if I've understood right how Wells was related to its founding. Tina McGee works for Mercury labs. But the rest can be cannibalised for parts. And those parts won't be much relevant to Barry Allen, but Leonard Snart was probably 18 in 1990, maybe a little older, so if you want background to his awkward teenage criminal beginnings then tada, this is it.
And so far two out of three episodes involve fun with fire, so, this is very much Mick Rory's idea of fun too, and he'd be a couple years older.
... except Legends of Tomorrow had some interestingly inconsistent idea of ages for all of these characters, so apparently that time they rescued young!Mick from the Pilgrim was 1990, which would be... younger than the actors for no good reason. And not fit real well with young!Len either. Messes.
But, useful 90s bits:
The Dark Riders, motorcycle gang led by ex cop with a grudge, threw globes of chemicals that ignited on impact. We know Mick and Len ride motorbikes for jobs and Mick would find the fire part shiny. The gang broke into jail to free one of their own when she was arrested. Plausibly she could be not-arrested in the first place because no Flash, but it's pretty easy to imagine how that could work same without him. Without the Flash the prison break part would go differently, and probably poorly for the cops. Even with the Flash the gang leader escaped, while the others were choking on tear gas the Flash dropped in the vents. But then he got caught and tied up by the Flash at super speed. Without that, he could still be out there, or he could have gone back to base, which without Barry Allen CSI would not have been discovered yet.
Adapted for bunnies: Mick wants to go throw fire globes around, so he talks Len into joining the 'fun'. Len doesn't think annoying the cops that much is a good idea, they don't need the heat, but hey, object lesson. Somebody gets arrested - could include Mick, being distracted by pretty pretty fire. Prison break was messy and violent and without the Flash would have had casualties on both sides. Not Len's style at all. He'd want out. And if Pike didn't want to let him? Well, we know how Len could deal. Meanwhile Mick learns a valuable lesson about Len's instincts and why we do not throw fire globes at the police. Also how to make fire globes.
second episode had a mad scientist experiment on homeless guys to make... actually he wasn't clear on that. What he managed to make was a werewolf, but starting from dog. Also did a Hyde on himself. Don't know what he thought he was doing, screwed it up a lot. Needed Tina's husbands notes to make it successful, the secret was ionisation. Creepy dude drugged Tina after romancing her. Thankfully 90s 12 rating prevented the obvious.
Unlikely to be directly relevant to Len or Mick, but hazards of homelessness in Central are really high. Plus there's a lot of homeless in one place, like a dozen with trash can fires, and the police patrols are overstretched.
This one ought to have been a character heavy ep for Tina but it's difficult to read 1990 TV like that. So. Very. Slow. But there's stuff about what their research is supposed to be doing - curing disease, reversing aging etc. There's stuff underlining the pressure for results that led her husband to experiment on himself, and die. The other guy who courted her in college experimented on other people until he thought he'd got it right. And here's Tina keeping her research a secret, when Barry is basically the end result they're interested in.
Only relevance to new 'verse is if this kind of research has been going on via Mercury etc, then the supersoldier research like Mirakuru was a thread, not a point.
Episode three had a corrupt DA working with an organised crime family. Kind of like Len's dad, seems like corruption was baseline. There were a series of fires that were paid for by organised crime as part of a real estate racket to buy land cheap ready for building casinos when the law changed to make them legal. Seems convoluted to me, but. The arsonist was a former 'Fire Lord' who learned demolitions in Vietnam. He was also the kind of crazy that is way too into the Bible and sees demons everywhere and he thought the Flash was a demon coming for him.
There's easy ways to add an arsonist, especially one interested in new methods. But I'm more interested in a fantasy AU plot, maybe somewhere that making deals with demons is an actual possibility. Like, governments train guys to do awful things, if it was possible to give them magic or meta powers to do those things then they'd certainly do that. And then x years later when they're supposed to let them out of the army they will still have those powers. And some of them will not have done so well mentally. So like if they had fire elemental partners or straight up demon assisted magic then they'd have had a lot of weary years of wondering about the effects on their soul. Or of being pressured to use their powers more and more.
If you want to do a story about Mick and mental illness, here's a guy who sets fires and is, on short acquaintance, really sincerely not well. So Mick might see that as prediction or map. Angst ensues.
Back in the episode, Megan Lockhart, Private Investigator, is a fun character who should stick around and be part of team Flash but almost certainly won't. ... looking it up, she'll be back, but not in the capacity I imagined, where the thing where she has skills and is any good at all could in fact be helpful. But she's tangled with the Trickster, who exists in universe, so Lockhart could straight up still exist in the new Flash. A 58 year old lady PI would be a new and interesting angle. Of course that's skills duplication with CSI and Police Detective, so, trickier to use well.
... I just have this urge to salvage good female characters whenever they appear and give them stories of their very own. Tina McGee could be awesome on the regular, you know? Give her a team and see how they would do the Team Flash gig, or make them people trying to help with the metahuman problem without a Flash of their own, or... all sorts.
I'm increasingly frustrated with my apparent role as plot bunny generator rather than writer now, but hey, many bunnies.
In other news it is Kabooms Night, aka Bonfire Night, and I am displeased. But pretty chill about it, on my scale. So that's nice.