In Review: DC: The Flash: Escape the Midnight Circus (Podcast)

Synopsis: In The Flash: Escape the Midnight Circus, Barry Allen is at the height of his powers and fame as Central City’s favorite Super Hero. Unfortunately, being The Flash forces him to let Iris down one time too many. 

Iris decides to call it quits.  Undeterred, Barry figures he can use the Speed Force to go back in time and set things right.  

When his plan goes wrong, Barry tumbles into a new dimension. He finds himself in a small bedroom with Captain Cold. What’s more, his powers are gone.  

Cold tells Barry that he’s an unwitting participant in a televised tournament — THE MIDNIGHT CIRCUS.  Humans, superheroes and rogues are pit against one another in life-or-death games of chance.  

Survive the competition and Barry earns his freedom. He can recreate the conditions of his original transformation and return to his own timeline.  

But to do so, he’ll have to rely solely on his wits.  If that wasn’t hard enough, he soon finds himself facing his toughest opponent yet — Iris West.

Review: I haven’t seen The Flash, yet. I’ve watched both the Arrowverse and DC Animation iterations. Consequently, I’ve already seen two different versions of Flashpoint. Subjectively, I’m just not in the mood for a third right now. 

Added to that, I tend to prefer Elseworld stories to whatever is considered the main continuity at any given time. Moreover, I’m visually impaired. Put these factors together, and I’m the target audience for DC’s audio efforts.

Story

Henry Loevner wrote and directed an extremely entertaining tale. The speed and flow of the episodes fit Barry perfectly. 

The run times of the six episodes ranged from 12 to 20 minutes. That meant there was no filler.

Instead, Loevner gave listeners character realization and cameos that would only work effectively in audio. My favorites were the Turtle and President Murmur.

Acting

The entire cast was wonderful. That said, Max Greenfield was pitch-perfect as Barry Allen/The Flash. DC should keep him in the role for all their audio storytelling. 

Overall

So far, I’ve adored Audible’s adaptation of DC’s The Sandman. Additionally, I’ve devoured DC’s exclusive collaborations with Realm — Wonder Woman: Heartless and Batman: The Blind Cut.

I’ve also greatly enjoyed Batman: The Audio Adventures. Now, I can add The Flash: Escape the Midnight Circus to what I hope will be a growing list of awesome DC audio tales.

You can listen to The Flash: Escape the Midnight Circus through various podcast platforms. All six episodes will also be included with The Flash on Digital, 4K UHD, and Blu-ray.