I can understand why this episode may be divisive for fans. It's not a particularly good episode. It's certainly can't stand on its own merits and was never intended to.
It does show how far television has come as a media and thaf there will always be inherent difference in comic books and television as mediume, but business is business. It's fascinating that the DC shows found themselves in the same perdicament as DC did when crisis was published. it was a bold choice for the producers to try and tell a similar story to accomplish the same goal. It was an excellent choice to hire Marv Wolfman to help with the teleplay.
But a television show is not a comic book. And even though photoshop has made it possible for TV producers to attempt the same kind of cosmically large stories comics have always been able to tell- better effects will never make a comic image the same as a TV one.
For my own take, the dialogue was not very good. They tried to hard to fit in to many in jokes and references. It got stilted quickly. Also being a fan of early DC, I couldn't help but feeling the Spectre was the wrong choice. His power seemed wasted, and he's less, IMHO, a cosmic being a more a supernatural one. Though at the moment I can't think of a better entity, as DC most powerful beings tend to be magical: The Wizard Shazam, The Phantom Stranger, and Doctor Fate for example. It might have been a good time to introduce the emotional spectrum to the small screen universe, but I'm sure there were practical and fiscal reasons for Evey decision made.
And that's why, for a change, I'm willing to give an A for effort. This was a bold attempt to recpature the magic of a groundbreaking comic series in a completely different format with many more limitations. The end result was entertaining enough, if needing some polish, and respectful of the source material while playing to a different audience I'm completely different market.
