Season 4 of The Flash is getting back to the silly fun that made the show enjoyable in the first place

When The Flash first showed up on The CW fans gravitated to the show because it had a sense of fun about it. While there were emotional and dramatic moments it also had a lot of lightness and humor, and many of the superhero situations took inspiration from the “silver age” of comics when things could get a bit wacky. The Flash wasn't a brooding, grim, dark superhero. He was a superhero who realized that it was fun and cool to have special powers.

With season 2 and especially 3 the show took a turn toward the brooding and angsty. Facing season-long arcs that involved seemingly unstoppable foes who wore down our heroes' spirits to the breaking points made it tiring to watch at times.

But with season 4 they seem to have returned to what gave the show its personality in the first place. The “arc” so far this season primarily involves tracking down a bunch of new “metas” that developed superpowers due to an event in the season premiere. This essentially justifies “meta of the week” stories and lets the episodes be more self-contained, less heavy, and gives the writers more room to do other things. They've also embraced some more explicitly comedic elements. For example, they've introduced the character of Ralph Dibny / Elongated Man:

He's a sleazy ex-cop PI who has developed stretchy powers. He's played with gusto by an expressive actor, and his character traits play on a lot of familiar tropes. He could easily be a character in a straight comedy, and stretchy powers are tailor-made for humorous effect. For example, the opening scene of episode 6 involves Barry and Ralph encountering some low-level street crime and discussing how to handle it, it's very good superhero comedy.

I found season 3 of the show to be something of a chore to watch, but as I was watching last night's episode I realized I had a big smile on my face. For the first few episodes of this season I had been taking a “cautiously optimistic” stance with regard to the show, but now I'm fully on board again. Hopefully they'll continue to deliver a fun, enjoyable show for the foreseeable future.