“Random Access”

For a show that has been mediocre at best, I have to give credit where credit is due. It is difficult to take what essentially is a clip show of the season thus far, and move a story forward in new and interesting ways.

Although it could be argued, why a clip show 11 episodes in? Are Flash fans have THAT short attention span? Impossible or they would have given up on this show a long long time ago.
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“Conspiracy Theory”

I must start this review by repeating something I’ve made crystal clear by now. Flash Gordon has to take place on Mongo or in space at least. Not on Earth.

This episode is a classic case in point. The sequences on Mongo are engaging, and even intriguing in some cases. The sequences on Earth? 90210 with aliens. Pure garbage.

We start with the idea that there has been damage done to the fabric of interdimensional space. Rankol asks for help from Flash’s father, but he refuses to have anything to do with Rankol. Rankol decides to go with plan b, which is to open a rift and send a bounty hunter to bring Zarkov back to him.
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“Til Death”

“Til Death” really struggles. At it’s heart it really wants to go back to the sub-mediocre crap of the first part of the season although there is just enough to elevate it to some forward moving sub-mediocre crap. It may sound damning, but there is some good to the episode.

Not enough to save a series in danger unfortunately or even the episode.
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“Revelations”

Revelations unfortunately cannot maintain the sharp direction for the better. On the other hand it doesn’t slip completely back down to the depths of the first portion of the season. Unfortunately we’re left with a barely mediocre episode, that for once has less to do with the writing and more to do with the performances.
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“Alliances”

Finally..Flash Gordon takes a step out of dreadful and actually even manages to be above average in this episode.

Why?

1. The majority of the episode is on Mongo - Flash Gordon needs to be on Mongo.
2. There is no freak/rift event of the week
3. More insight into the politics of Ming/Mongo
4. The slow formation of an overall arc.

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“Life Source”

“Life Source” just continues the bad trends that have been coming about all season long on Flash Gordon. The main offenders: Rift Event of the Week and bad cliche.

The rift of the week has become so common place that we don’t even get the alarm in Zarkov’s lab to show us this week. Instead we open with the crew already exploring an area where a rift was found. This time it happens to be within the garage of a house for sale within a gated community.
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Despite the debacle that Sci-Fi’s revival of Flash Gordon as a weekly series was, Columbia is looking to bring the hero to the big screen according to The Hollywood Reporter, to be directed by Breck Eisner.

We’ll see if the big screen will be a better home.

It certainly worked before. Flash AHH AHH, Saviour of the universe!

“Ascension”

The best thing I can say about “Ascension” is that it didn’t slide too far from the mediocrity of last episode. Introducing another canton, the Dactyls (or the Hawkmen as old school Flash fans would call them), is a great idea. Although the introduction, much like that of the Omadrians, there isn’t much time to explore them beyond a superficial level, but that’s expected at the beginning.
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“Assassin”

Well, four episodes in and we’ve finally taken a step towards mediocrity. And that’s huge. Sad but huge. While “Assassin” is nowhere near a classic episode, it does avoid any catastrophic incidents and does play up what the show did offer in characterization.

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“Infestation”

“Infestation” is just about the worst dreg that I feared Flash Gordon would be. It’s overall a ridiculous concept and even worse execution…if you can stick around to watch.
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