Arrow and The Flash are both among the highest-rated shows on The CW, but only one of them truly soared this season.
There was no reason to believe Arrow Season 5 would be worth keeping up with. After having the best season of any CW superhero show back in Season 2 with Deathstroke as the main villain, Arrow completely missed its target in Seasons 3 and 4. Characters and their motivations became annoying, the villains weren’t intimidating, and the flashbacks became boring filler. That made it all the more surprising when Arrow’s fifth season reestablished the show as a must-watch superhero drama.
Meanwhile, after debuting in 2014 as an Arrow spinoff, The Flash quickly established itself as the cream of The CW’s superhero lineup. Barry Allen and the gang constantly went on fun adventures facing off against villains such as the Reverse Flash, Captain Cold and King Shark, all while teasing classic Flash comic book elements such as the multi-verse, the Speed Force, and time travel. There was a tremendous amount of promise. However, after a rough second season, Season 3 became more convoluted and ultimately unenjoyable. Perhaps worst of all, it wasn’t fun.
Let’s break down what worked and what didn’t.
Three Reasons why Arrow was great in Season 5
1. Strong villain with connections to the past:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBQxumcOL94
In choosing Prometheus for the season’s main villain, Arrow‘s producers admitted that the character wouldn’t be anything like the genius-level martial artist created for DC Comics by Grant Morrison in 1998. Instead, he was a mysterious archer who gained notoriety as the throwing star killer and whose sole goal was to mess up Oliver Queen’s life the way Green Arrow messed up his.
In an interesting twist, Prometheus’ origin was tied back to a Season 1 episode in which Oliver killed a corrupt pharmaceutical owner. It turns out district attorney Adrian Chase was the man’s son and wants to make his adversary suffer by screwing with him in unimaginable ways. He accomplishes his objective by psychologically damaging the entirety of team Arrow, going so far as to get Oliver to admit he likes to kill people.
As played by Josh Segarra, Prometheus is the first worthy villain Arrow has had since Deathstroke. He’s twisted, yet extremely calculating. Unfortunately, Chase kills himself trying to blow up everyone Oliver loves. But if the show ever wants to revisit the character, Segarra has earned the right to come back.
Prometheus is the first worthy villain the Green Arrow has had since Deathstroke mostly because actor Josh Segarra absolutely nails the part of the twisted, yet extremely calculated baddie. Unfortunately, Chase kills himself to blow up everyone Oliver loves, but if the show ever wants to revisit the character, Segarra has earned the right to come back.
2. New character roster/sidekicks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr8sAOUDcq0
The show threw a bunch of new characters onto Team Arrow following the death of Laurel Lance and the departures of Speedy and Arsenal, introducing those new heroes well. Rick Gonzalez’s Wild Dog was a direct physical adaptation from the comic, whose quips with Quentin Lance made for the show’s best-ever buddy comedy. Gonzalez also made Wild Dog rough around the edges, but still with well-placed intentions.
Although he didn’t last a full season, Ragman was also a welcome addition. Joe Dinicol played Ragman, a lone survivor of the Havenrock nuclear bomb (like I said, Season 4 wasn’t great), with mystical rags and a great comedic presence. He wasn’t asked to do too much, but Ragman was a great, nonsensical addition. Plus, despite a modest budget, the special effects team sold his goofy ability.
It wouldn’t be fair not to also give props to Juliana Harkavy, who gave Team Arrow the most comic-book faithful version of Black Canary. Madison McLaughlin played the double-crossing Artemis well, Chad Coleman had a great four-episode stint as a street-level villain and freaking Dolph Lundgren made the flashbacks great again.
3. Flashbacks had an endgame
Honestly, the worst part of Arrow for the previous two seasons was the pointless flashbacks. Season 4 featured some of the biggest filler I’ve ever seen from a TV show. If I never have to see Taiana Venediktov’s face again, I’ll be happy. So it was a big surprise when Season 5 delivered an entertaining flashback that felt like it had a point.
Going to Russia and back to the island answered all of the questions about what happened to Oliver during his five-year absence. Fittingly, this season’s flashbacks ended with a scene from the show’s pilot. It was a much-needed conclusion to a tired plot device.
Hopefully, Arrow chooses to never use flashbacks again, as they’ve always been the show’s weakness. Although the writers deserve a shout-out for resetting a completely broken narrative and making it entertaining.
Three Reasons why The Flash regressed in season three
1. Promising “Flashpoint” and delivering… not much
https://youtu.be/g1t5DfpHXyg
The Flash ended a middling Season 2 with the promise of “Flashpoint,” a popular Geoff Johns story where Barry goes back in time to save his mom’s life, creating a ripple effect throughout the timeline. In the comics, the screw-up causes Thomas Wayne to take the Batman mantle after his son Bruce is killed, Cyborg becomes the big earth hero, and Superman is a government lab rat. There was tons of potential for The Flash to change things up and go in a crazy direction.
Instead, Flashpoint lasted a single episode, had little-to-no effect besides plot conveniences, created the villain Savitar and changed Diggle’s baby from a boy to a girl. Talk about lame.
2. Characters with nothing to do
Man oh man, if you were a supporting character on The Flash who wasn’t played by Jesse L. Martin, Tom Cavanaugh or Carlos Valdes, you were given little to work with.
First of all, The Flash attempted to fix its Caitlin problem of making her a constant love interest by… giving her a love interest? Yes, Harry Potter actor Tom Felton was wasted as Julian Albert, a CSI whose sole purpose was to help introduce Savitar and fawn over Caitlin. Meanwhile, the Flash writers messed up big-time by having Caitlin’s metahuman powers automatically make her evil. Literally, no other metahuman turned evil just for the sake of it. This was a plot convenience at its worst, despite actress Danielle Panabaker’s best attempt at making the character interesting.
On top of that, while Kid Flash was given a little bit to do after gaining his powers, he quickly became a background character. It’s a shame because Wally West is one of the most popular characters in recent comic book history. Furthermore, Jay Garrick, another popular speedster, barely appeared while only showing up to help the plot fix a problem it created.
Should it come as a surprise that Iris West, once again, had little to do but fawn over Barry? Literally, Candice Patton had NOTHING to do all season except wait for her character’s prophesied death. Patton displayed a great emotional range, but seeing a badass Iris in an Earth 2 episode last season made viewers want to see more of that character. It seems Flash writers have forgotten Iris is supposed to be a good journalist who can do so much more than pat Barry on the back when he fucks up the timeline further. (Seriously, is Barry Allen the stupidest superhero ever? so much self-inflicted damage.)
3. Villain problem / same formula
The worst problem with Season 3 was the show played it safe and stuck to the same formula — again.
Season 1: The Flash faces off against a speedster villain (Reverse Flash) who wants to be the fastest, who turns out to be a member of his team (Eobard Thawne).
Season 2: The Flash faces off against a speedster villain (Zoom) who wants to be the fastest, who turns out to be a member of his team (Hunter Zolomon).
Season 3: The Flash faces off against a speedster villain (Savitar) who wants to be the fastest, who turns out to be a member of his team (Barry from a different timeline).
It’s frustrating because The Flash has an amazing arsenal of villains. Seriously, how haven’t we gotten a full season of Team Flash against The Rogues? Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Weather Wizard, Heat Wave, the Trickster, Pied Piper and The Top have all appeared on the show. It seems like a no-brainer to go full Rogues.
There weren’t nearly enough moments of levity, as Barry and the crew always seemed to be facing a life-or-death decision. Besides a musical episode, a trip to Gorilla City and a Captain Cold cameo towards the end of the season, the usually fun Flash was painfully serious. The writers room needs to loosen up.
Honestly, as long as the Flash does something new next season, it can rebound. The show needs a Flashpoint type of altering event to happen to its creative team. For now, Arrow is easily winning the race against The Flash in both quality and overall fun, something fans couldn’t have expected.
Season Three of “The Flash” wasn’t fun? I don’t care. A great deal of Seasons One and Two of “The Flash” wasn’t fun. Some pretty grim stuff had occurred during those seasons, let alone Season Three. And when “The Flash” tried to be consistently fun during the first half of Season Four, the quality of the show declined.