Funny thing – I never thought I’d be praising DC’s competence with their properties (Chris Nolan’s Batman trilogy being the exception to their cinematic follies). So it is an unusual situation for me to be sitting here, typing away, expounding with geeky enthusiasm about their latest foray into live-action adaptations. What DC has created with The Flash and Arrow is nothing short of masterful. Who would’ve ever thought us lifelong readers would get a Green Arrow and Flash television series with storylines pollinating in one show only to come to fruition in the other? It’s madness, I say! Yet here we are, basking in the sunlight of a new day – hungry for more.

Like all other factions of fandom, there are two opposing sides: geeks like myself who love The Flash and those who think The CW’s take on our Scarlet Speedster is childish and overly cheesy. To the naysayers – or haters, as I choose to call them – I say, you’re missing the point. The Flash is supposed to be lighthearted and fun (a nice counterbalance to Arrow’s dark and gritty Batman-esque tone). Who better equipped to showcase this than the folks who brought us Smallville; longest running live-action comic book series in television history, by the way. With each proceeding episode, we’ve been treated to good acting, fantastic storytelling, and better special effects than the stuff most big-budgeted films give us these days. Geoff Johns and company have even found clever ways in which to present formerly uninteresting villains as new and cool iterations of their comic book counterparts.

But the greatest achievement of the series is its casting choices; casting choices so rich in diversity one can’t help but watch with unbridled adoration. They’ve taken an historically all-Caucasian cast and switched-out several major players with actors of color. And guess what? It doesn’t hurt or alter the integrity of the storytelling in any way, shape, or form. How can this be, you say? It’s simple: great characters effortlessly transcend the origins of their race and gender. The show even has a gay police captain. Let me repeat that bit of information for you one more time: A GAY POLICE CAPTAIN. And get this, he even spoke of his boyfriend around two of his detectives in one of the episodes – and neither of them even so much as flinched; business as usual in Central City. Did I also mention he’s played by an Egyptian actor? I’m surprised Fox News hasn’t aired a piece exclaiming the show’s negative influence on today’s youth. At this juncture, the show might as well have virgins bathing in the blood of newborns for all the heresy it has demonstrated in the eyes of conservatives; they typically balk at these sorts of shenanigans.

I hope the series continues to build upon all of the story developments it has given us thus far. Although, it’s hard to imagine how they’ll top the mid-season finale: Reverse-Flash versus Flash, Firestorm’s appearance, Barry’s confessing of his love to Iris, the revelation of a possible second speedster the night Nora Allen died – nerdgasms at every turn; saturated chones guaranteed.