Upfront and Judgmental: CW Edition

So the CW only has four new shows for the 2014-2015 season, and they only have trailers for two of them. Uncool, CW. Very uncool. I mean, sure, I'm capable of feeling intrigued or skeptical based solely on a synopsis, but it's just not the same as having these brief little snippets of the finished product.

Granted, since both the non-trailer-ed shows are midseason shows that, based on their descriptions, are probably going to be fairly effects-heavy, they might not actually have much of a finished product yet. Alas. I suppose I can understand this reasoning, even if it takes away like 50% of my fun. But hey, at least the trailer for The Flash is out!

Plus, because there are fewer trailers to go through, that means that I can go ahead and start with the 30-second promo trailer that started getting me really psyched for this show in the first place.



The Flash
BARRY ALLEN, YOU ADORABLE RIDICULOUS SHOW-OFF OF A HUMAN BEING.

...Yeah, that's about it. I never started watching Arrow because it seemed a little self-serious, but LOOK AT THIS GLEEFUL DORK. LOOK AT OLIVER ROLLING HIS EYES. Can any show with a promo like that take itself or its hero completely seriously?

I still hate the costume, though. It doesn't look very flexible or speedy, the chin strap is ridiculous, and the parts with a loose fit make Grant Gustin look even twiggier than normal.
Aaaaand the extended trailer:



Taking itself a little more seriously than the 30-second promo, but hey, it has to get through the basic origin stuff, which generally has to take itself fairly seriously. Narratively speaking, superheroes have to have a compelling reason to go out and start fighting crime, or else why would they keep on making themselves a target for every bad guy in Central City?

Anyway. I was already pretty excited about this show, because Grant Gustin is charming and I was psyched that they cast Candice Patton as Iris West (and Jesse L. Martin as Detective West!) but now that I've actually started watching Arrow with Roommates, I'm even more psyched. Arrow has its problems, but it's a fun show, and that's what it looks like The Flash is going to be. Fun, with a hero who's a little dorkier than Oliver Drama Llama Queen — which I say with love, for the record. I'm very fond of Oliver's Drama Llama-ness, and it's probably deserved after five years of trauma. And I can't wait to get to the point on Arrow where we meet Barry.

Also I'm so ready for Barry/Iris. SO. READY.




Jane the Virgin

...Er. Okay, so I've seen this trailer a lot recently because I've been watching Whose Line is it Anyway on the CW website, and I'm still not sure how to feel about it other than "...Er."

Part of that is the fact that I'm not generally too interested in stories about pregnancy; part of it is the inevitable worries about the concept of "virginity" and its depiction in the media; part of it is wondering how long they're going to stretch out the pregnancy, and what's going to happen when she eventually has the sprog; and part of it is just, well. Er.

But it could have that particular brand of CW charm, so I guess we'll see come fall.

Midseason shows:

iZombie, in which a medical resident becomes zombified, discovers that when she eats the brains of dead people she retains some of their memories, and starts posing as a psychic to help the police with crimes. Yes, it is a zombie cop show. Like a zombie version of Psych, actually.

I love that completely whacked-out genre combos are a thing that people just do on TV. "It's a teen show, plus the X-Files!" "It's a fairytale show, and a musical satire!" "It's like Cops plus MTV!"

The Messengers, aka the CW does the Book of Revelations. A mysterious object plummets to earth and connects five strangers who are all in the middle of TV-worthy life complications! Now they have incredible powers! A mysterious man called The Man is wandering around offering morally grey deals! A woman is coming out of a seven-year coma! I guess they thought, hey, if it worked on Supernatural...

Of course, having experienced Supernatural, color me curious yet wary.

And that's it for this year's upfront previews, guys! Which I suppose is for the best, since I haven't started May's Month of Frozen yet, and I only have about three days left of May. Whoops.