A step down from the greatness of Season 1, “The Flash” Season 2 is still an excellent program that’s nearly as enjoyable. A monstrous speedster named Zoom invades from Earth Two and stalks the Flash, who must now also deal with Earth Two supervillains, an immortal ancient baddie and other sundry super-adversaries. The thing is, for all the special effects and backstory that tries to make Zoom look ominous, the villain is not nearly as chilling as Season 1’s Reverse Flash. And the quality varies this time around, with some really great episodes (the Earth Two episodes, the return of the Trickster and especially the reappearance of the Season 1 Harrison Wells), some good episodes and a few meh. Also, the season finale feels rushed, as if they were trying to stuff in too many things at the very end. Still all-round entertaining and worth watching.

2021 Update: Now the Flash series is up to season 8, and my wife and I have been faithful watchers to all seven previous seasons. But the series never returned to the heights and impact of the first two seasons. It got closer with the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover storyline in Season 6, but the rest is OK. “The Flash” is always fun, but it has lost some of its spark over the years.

Not for Kids

Extras:

• Episode 3 is a homage to David Cronenberg’s horror classic “Scanners.”  The antagonist from that movie portrays Captain Cold’s Dad, and there are some other intentional similarities with the film.