The Flash: 5 Reasons Why The Pilot Promises Great Things

3. Grant Gustin

As exciting as the premise is for fans and newcomers alike, a show called €œThe Flash€ is going to rise or fall on the shoulders of its star. For fans of the CW€™s Arrow, Grant Gustin had already made a pre-powers appearance as Barry Allen in a Season 2 two-parter, in which he showed up in Starling City to help Oliver and Co. solve a mystery. Between his earnest approach to his job, his tragic backstory, and his adorably innocent romance with tech girl Felicity, Barry made enough of an impression to audiences and studio executives alike to warrant sending a Flash pilot into production. Still, there is a big difference between charming audiences as a guest star and carrying the mythology of a comic-based show. At only 24 years old and boasting a stint on Glee as an antagonistic singing side character as his highest profile acting experience, young Mr. Gustin had a lot to prove as he took the title role of his own program. And he sure did prove it. Without the ablicious physicality of Arrow€™s Stephen Amell or the brooding dourness of Gotham€™s Ben McKenzie, Grant Gustin lacked the basic characteristics that audiences have come to associate with the good guys in comic adaptations. His enthusiasm and genuine curiosity about his newly acquired powers and how he could use them to help the people of his city were downright refreshing, and he managed to embody the unrequited leg of a burgeoning love triangle without coming across as romantically pathetic. Gustin adds some depth as he maintains the character established on Arrow, and the gravity that he achieves at certain points in the episode (particularly in his scenes with Jesse L. Martin and John Wesley Shipp) tempers the potential saccharine overflow of a superhero story with an upbeat superhero.