The Flash Season 6 Premiere: 9 Ups & 3 Downs From 'Into The Void'

4. A Compelling Villain

The Flash has had a pretty checkered history when it comes to villains.

The first season's Reverse-Flash was flawless, while his successor Zoom was nearly as compelling. Savitar had promise but, by Season 3, fans had just about enough of speedster villains, while Season 4's DeVoe was very well-developed but was ultimately let down by a muddled narrative. And then you have Cicada, who started off pretty decent got significantly less intriguing as the season went on.

Season 6, however, promises a much-needed change as its Big Bad is much more grounded. Sure, he may have reached the stage where he can spew black sludge from his arms, but his goals aren't too far-fetched and he doesn't groan "this ends now!" every five minutes before retreating (not yet, anyway).

What works here is that Ramsey Rosso was a rather well-developed human character (a major feat for a single episode) before he became Bloodwork. His goal to cure cancer is an unapologetically human one that, believe or not, makes the sci-fi element of adding dark matter to the equation much easier to buy. He's a man driven by grief to do the unethical - a motivation that will undoubtedly serve him well as a villain.

Welcome to the show Sendhil Ramamurthy!