Fans will note several "Easter Eggs" when re-watching this.
Buildings labelled "Stagg Industries", A busted animal cage with the sign "Grodd", etc.
PILOT PREVIEW WITH VERY, VERY MILD SPOILERS ... Since Arrow has been such a success for DC Comics and Warner Bros Television, a spin-off has been created in the form of The Flash, Central City’s speedster superhero. After already testing the water with a little teaser in last season’s Arrow, Grant Gustin takes on the Barry …
It's interesting that, while Flash has superpowers and Arrow doesn't (sort of like Superman and Batman), Arrow apparently doesn't find this odd.
Not being very familiar with the old comics, I had assumed Arrow had some sort of powers that came from somewhere and that his not having them in the was a departure made to ground things a bit more in reality.
Anywho, grats to Mr Gustin for landing such a plum role.
And so far, Iris hasn't succumbed to your fears. All in all, the series remains crackling.
However, I suspect that I now know who really killed Barry's mother, but mum's the word for now.
You didn't mention, though, the lovely casting choice CW producers made for Barry's unjustly-imprisoned father: John Wesley Shipp, who played Barry Allen in the 1990 CBS TV series. A thoughtful touch.
Here in Canada, like down in the USoA, we've had a few episodes of Flash and Gotham. I've been watching Arrow since it started, and likely will continue that with Flash. I usually don't remember such things, but when Barry Allen visited Starling City, I pretty soon realized he was the Flash (must be from having watched the previous Flash TV series).
I stopped watching Gotham after 2 episodes. It seemed that the Penguin character was going to be the main star in Gotham, and, since he is a slightly-deformed psychopathic killer, I really wasn't interested. The future CatWoman is really cute though. :-)
Really upping their game in the past few years, now over 90% of what they air is
1) Something that has already been "available" online for 3-4 weeks
2) Reality TV that portrays dregs as role models, or gives untalented has-been's another 5 minutes of fame
3) Top gear repeats
Which encouraged me to to have my Sky and Freeview disconnected, in the 3 years since then I have saved about £1800...
So, I love the UK TV industry and want to say, thank you for being so shite, thank you for ensuring I finally got off my fat ass to get a life (and it was fat!) and thank you for ensuring I have enough money to have an extra holiday each year, god bless you!