Though its fourth year disappointed, Season Five of The Flash worked pretty well. That leaves me with hopes that this positive progression will proceed with Season Six, and all 19 of its episodes appear on this five-disc set.

That fifth disc includes all five programs that comprise the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” “crossover event”, one that also included shows from Arrow, Batwoman, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow. The plot synopses come from the package’s insert.

Into the Void: “Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Iris West-Allen (Candice Patton) deal with the loss of Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy).”

That’d be Barry and Iris’ future daughter Nora. While I liked Season Five, Nora became a weakness, as she provided a persistently annoying character.

With no Nora in sight, S6 kicks off on a positive note. We get an interesting new threat and a fun character named Chester P. Runk (Brandon McKnight) who I hope appears again.

A Flash of the Lightning: “Barry faces the news of his impending death.”

As mentioned earlier, S6 offers one-fifth of a crossover called “Crisis on Infinite Earths”, and “Lightning” offers a hint of that tale yet to come. Toss in an exciting – and sexy – new villain and the episode works well.

Dead Man Running: “Barry prepares Team Flash for life without him.”

Hey, it’s time for a new Wells! That always becomes a lively twist to each season, so I feel happy to greet this one. We get plenty of other good plot elements that push along the show in a satisfying manner.

There Will Be Blood: “Dr. Ramsey Rosso (Sendhil Ramamurthy) uses his deadly new abilities to save his own life.”

From the second we met Rosso, it seemed obvious that he’d become a baddie, so I’m glad the tease ends and he finally goes that way. He’s not the most interesting villain, though. Add the continuing mopefest related to Barry’s apparent imminent demise and “Blood” becomes a less than great episode, though it still comes with good moments.

Kiss Kiss Breach Breach: “Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) investigates a shocking murder close to home.”

At this point I look forward to “Crisis” just to end the incessant pre-mourning for Barry. Despite that drag on the show, “Kiss” offers a decent mystery.

License to Elongate: “Barry preps Ralph “Elongated Man” Dibny (Hartley Sawyer) for life without him after Crisis.”

As the title implies, “Elongate” comes with a James Bond vibe – accentuated by comedy since it emphasizes the goofy Ralph. That choice entertains, and the return of the fun Chester P. Runk adds to the show.

The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Part 1: “Barry stands on the threshold of his own death in Crisis.”

When I come to two-part episodes, I save my discussion for the finale. So leap ahead to that section of the review.

The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Part 2: “Team Flash fights to reclaim Central City from Bloodwork.”

With “Crisis” on the horizon, it seems gutsy to preface the crossover with a two-part story. Honestly, it feels like the tale on display could’ve been told in one episode, but “Temptation” nonetheless offers a pretty good mix of action and drama, even if I still don’t much like the Bloodwork character.

Crisis on Infinite Earths: “The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) sends Harbinger (Audrey Marie Anderson) to gather the worlds' greatest heroes – Supergirl (Melissa Benoist), The Flash, Green Arrow (Stephen Amell), Batwoman (Ruby Rose), White Canary (Caity Lotz), The Atom (Brandon Routh) and Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) - in preparation for the impending Crisis. With their worlds in imminent danger, the superheroes suit up for battle while J'onn (David Harewood) and Alex (Chyler Leigh) recruit Lena to help them find a way to save the people of Earth-38.”

As mentioned at the start of the review, “Crisis” offers a five-episode “crossover” that spans Flash and four other DC series. Disc Two of this set presents “Hour 3”, the portion that ran in S6 of Flash.

As also noted, this 5-disc S1 set includes all five episodes of “Crisis” on the fifth disc. It makes sense that this package offers “Hour 2” on its own, since that’s how it appeared during the season, but I can’t imagine many will watch it isolated from the other four shows. That’s how I viewed it, as I skipped the isolated “Hour 2” and took in “Crisis” all in one fell swoop on Disc Five.

I’ve enjoyed prior crossovers, and this one comes with a decent level of excitement and fun, some of that sparked by clever cameos. However, “Crisis” also comes burdened with messy storytelling, a factor that means it can become tough to follow and semi-incoherent. “Crisis” still entertains, but I don’t dig it as much as I hoped.

Marathon: “Barry must face the consequences of Crisis.”

Given how much mopiness we got in the lead-up to “Crisis”, I worried “Marathon” would continue that trend. While it does address some of the crossover’s ramifications, it finally starts to point us away from it, and I appreciate that. “Marathon” provides a good relaunch.

Love Is a Battlefield: “Love is in the air for Barry and Iris – and Amunet Black (Katee Sackhoff)!”

With a Valentine’s Day theme, “Love” goes a little sillier than usual, especially when it indulges in the campy Amunet. Some of the aspects work well, but too much of it feels goofy.

A Girl Named Sue: “Ralph finally comes face-to-face with his client.”

The alluded-to-in-the-title character Sue Dearbon (Natalie Dreyfuss) adds spark, as Sue seems sexy, fun and dynamic. The rest of the episode fares less well, but enough of “Girl” succeeds to make it worthwhile.

Grodd Friended Me: “Gorilla Grodd (David Sobolov) asks for Barry’s help with a new villain.”

Try as they might to make Grodd a scary villain, he still seems ridiculous much of the time. That becomes a drag on “Friended”, as does the murky overall narrative.

Death of the Speed Force: “Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale) – aka Kid Flash – speeds back into Central City.”

Wally’s return feels like a bust, as Zen Kid Flash provides a dull, pedantic version of the character who exists as a brief plot device. Otherwise, though, various developments flesh out “Death” well and send it on an intriguing narrative path.

The Exorcism of Nash Wells: “Cisco Ramon sets out to help Nash Wells.”

“Exorcism” feels heavier on exposition than much else. That means it movies along different elements but it doesn’t become as dynamic as I’d like.

So Long and Goodnight: “An imperiled Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) refuses to stop investigating Joseph Carver (Eric Nenninger).”

Has Joe always been the series’ least interesting character? Maybe not, but he’s been a drag during S6, and the focus on Joe saps “Goodnight”. At least the return of spicy Sue Dearbon adds life.

Liberation: “Barry takes a closer look at his life with Iris.”

As much as I whined about S6’s pre-“Crisis” mopery, that lead-up seems preferable to the semi-turgid “Mirrorverse” plot in the season’s second half. Like other episodes, “Liberation” offers some drama, but the flat nature of the overall narrative remains a lackluster point.

Pay the Piper: “Godspeed (BD Wong) and Pied Piper (Andy Mientus) return.”

If nothing else, at least “Piper” packs some good action. It moves along narrative points as well and becomes a reasonably effective lead-in for the season finale.

Success Is Assured: “Barry considers a plan to save Iris from the Mirrorverse.”

Given that “Success” finishes S6, one expects it to wrap up the overall story. One would anticipate incorrectly, as “Success” finishes only a couple of arcs and leaves us with a big old cliffhanger that won’t resolve until Season Seven.

That feels like a cheap choice. I feel fine with a tease for S7, but the decision to leave open a whole bunch of story domains frustrates too much.

Though I guess it makes sense for an inconsistent season. Overall, S6 works fairly well, as it provides entertainment most of the time. However, it doesn’t quite hit the way I’d like, so this becomes middle of the pack Flash.

The Flash appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though still appealing, the visual seemed a little less taut than expected.

Sharpness became a minor issue at times, as the shows could look a little softer than usual. However, most of the time the programs remained well-defined and accurate. Though I saw weaker delineation than in the past, this didn’t turn into a substantial distraction.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws also failed to materialize.

As usual, Flash went with a largely teal and orange palette, though we got purples and reds at times as well. Within production choices, the hues looked appropriately vivid.

Blacks came across as deep and dense, while low-light shots offered solid smoothness and delineation. The episodes consistently looked good, if a bit weaker than previously.

At least the lively DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio of Flash engaging soundscapes. With ample amounts of action of display, all five channels received ample usage, and the information meshed together in a compelling, involving manner.

Music sounded full and rich, while speech seemed natural and concise. Effects boasted strong range and impact, with fine low-end response as necessary. The audio worked well for the shows.

11 Deleted Scenes fill a total of 14 minutes, 39 seconds. Most of these tend toward short additions and minor character pieces. A few fun bits emerge, but the sequences seem superfluous overall.

Disc One brings Kiss Kiss Breach Breach – Noir, an alternate version of the season’s fifth episode. The only substantial shift comes from the visual presentation, as “Noir” provides a black and white tint. That makes it a curiosity, but the shift from color to black and white doesn’t make a real difference.

Alongside “Noir”, we find an audio commentary from showrunner/executive producer Eric Wallace. He provides a running, screen-specific look at the noir choices, story/characters, cast and performances, and related areas. Wallace also presents some quotes he got from a chat with actor Carlos Valdes.

Overall, Wallace presents an informative commentary. He covers the appropriate topics and makes this an engaging and useful affair.

On Disc Four, we find Best of DC TV’s Comic-Con Panels San Diego 2019. As implied, this packs participants from a slew of series into one 51-minute, four-second highlight reel.

We hear from:

Arrow’s Stephen Amell, Marc Guggenheim, Rick Gonzalez, Katie Cassidy, David Ramsey, Juliana Harkavy, and James Bamford.

Flash’s Grant Gustin, Eric Wallace, Carlos Valdes, Candice Patton, Hartley Sawyer, Danielle Panabaker and Tom Cavanagh.

Black Lightning’s Cress Williams, China Anne McClain, Nafessa Williams, Jordan Calloway, Marvin Jones III and Christine Adams.

Batwoman’s Caroline Dries and Sarah Schechter.

Supergirl’s Schecter, Melissa Benoist, Jessica Queller, Chyler Leigh, Asie Tesfai, Nicole Maines, Mehcad Brooks, Katie McGrath, David Harewood, Andrea Brooks and Robert Rovner.

Comic-Con panels offer teases for upcoming seasons and not much else. These seem fun for fans at the time, but given we’ve already watched the seasons in question, they become less than useful.

Disc Four provides a Gag Reel. It lasts seven minutes, 11 seconds and shows a standard allotment of goofs and giggles. Some amusing improv lines emerge, but we mostly find the usual nonsense.

Six more featurettes appear on Disc Five, all dedicated to “Crisis on Infinite Earths”. The Architects Return goes for 11 minutes, 55 seconds and offers notes from comic writer Marv Wolfman, DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio, “Crisis” executive producer Marc Guggenheim, and artists Tom Derenick, George Perez and Jerry Ordway.

With “Architects”, we get a discussion of the original 1980s Crisis comics and its TV adaptation. It delivers a solid overview.

Crisis Management spans 13 minutes, eight seconds and delivers remarks from Guggenheim, Wolfman, Legends story editor/writer Ubah Mohamed, Supergirl executive producer Robert Rovner, Flash executive producer Eric Wallace, and actors Caity Lotz, David Ramsey,

“Management” tells us a bit more about the adaptation as well as issues connected to the production. Some of this feels self-congratulatory, but it still offers a moderately useful view of the subject matter.

Under Crisis Past and Present, we find two segments: “Kevin Conroy Bat Legend” (3:17) and “Superman vs. Superman” (4:37). In the former, we hear from Guggenheim, Wallace, Mohamed, Rovner, and actor Conroy, while “Superman” features Guggenheim, Wallace, and actors Brandon Routh, Grant Gustin, Hartley Sawyer and Tyler Hoechlin.

“Legend” looks at the use of Batman voice actor Conroy in the live-action setting, whereas “Superman” covers dueling Supermen. Both seem fairly fluffy.

Finally, Characters in Crisis breaks into “Pariah” (4:20) and “The Anti-Monitor” (4:55). Across these, we hear from Guggenheim, Wallace, Mohamed, Rovner, Wolfman, and DiDio.

As expected, these clips give us some notes about the named characters. They’re short but efficient recaps.

Essentially split into two separate stories, Season Six of The Flash won’t go down as one of the series’ best. Still, it also rises above the lesser years of Flash, so even with some lackluster choices, it largely works. The Blu-rays bring pretty good picture and audio along with a decent array of bonus materials. Season Six becomes mostly satisfactory.