TV is awash with time travel right now, and The Flash has taken the sci-fi concept in arguably more directions than any other show. When Season 3 kicks off, the superhero drama will give us our first taste of the timeline-flipped Flashpoint arc, and according to executive producer Andrew Kreisberg, this season will attempt to give its time travel storytelling a stronger dose of realism, as it were, in strengthening the stakes involved. Here's what Kreisberg had to say about the Flashpoint timeline.
It will be resolved, but there will be consequences that last throughout the season, and quite frankly, last throughout the series. That's one of the things that we're attempting to do is have the pitfalls of time travel be long-lasting and that some things can be fixed, and then some things are broken forever.
That's what I'm talking about. I love The Flash's use of time travel for the most part - I had issues with those time wraiths, but they did at least one cool thing - but the biggest problems come with the fact that so much of the show's trips to the past don't seem to create very memorable changes in the present (or presents, I guess). The Flash keeping a tighter grip on the ramifications of its many time jaunts can only be a good thing for the show's complicated mysteries, and I certainly hope Kreisberg's words to EW are big on truth. I want to see something happen in the premiere that affects something in Season 10.
Since first putting Barry through the Speed Force in Season 1, The Flash has given its genial hero a handful of trips to the past that have been quite interesting, but there hasn't been enough of an exploration into how Barry's actions affect his central timeline, and it sounds like we'll get some of that in Season 3. I'd definitely be down with watching Barry learn that "things are broken forever" element the hard way by trying a bunch of times to change a certain event. And I wonder how this will all play into the return of Harrison Wells in a few weeks.
When Barry went back and saved his mother, he didn't just mess things up for Central City and his own series. Some of the Flashpoint ripples will be felt across the rest of The CW's DC universe, particularly on Arrow. And it will all probably lead up to the massive crossover event happening later this year that will officially bring Supergirl into the Earth-1 reality. And speaking of those other shows, Legends of Tomorrow had its own criticisms fielded at its use of time travel during its freshman season, and that show is also looking to fine-tune those elements.
If nothing else, Flashpoint will be a definitive reason for Barry to always add a second thought to trying to fix a problem by running back into yesteryear. He'll have the memory of losing his core memories and the feeling of all of his major relationships going chaotic, which should help to mature him a bit. At least until the point when he just listens to his impulses and ruins everything and then can't fix it. Hopefully Jay Garrick will impart some harsh truths.
The Flash will make its long awaited Season 3 debut on Tuesday, October 4, at 8:00 p.m. To see what else TV is bringing us in the months to come, check out our fall premiere schedule.
