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It's official: The Flash is ending with Season 9.
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
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The series has ran its course (no pun intended)…they’ve probably known for awhile so hopefully they’ve written a decent conclusion. -
Stopped watching this after season 3. It just felt like Barry's story was done. He went off into the Speed Force, and Wally West takes up the mantle. The End. (It also didn't help that seasons 2 & 3 felt like a repeat of season 1.)Comment
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I guess that this marks the end of the Arrowverse, as this was the only show still airing (heard that Superman & Lois is a separate thing, which I guess might say some things about how the Arrowverse is seen at WB).Comment
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Crazy how the Flash is gonna end at season 9 I've been watching weekly since season 2 episode 8Comment
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Yeah. Technically it's the end of the Arrowverse. Although realistically, the Arrowverse ended with Crisis and the subsequent end of Arrow. Creatively, the Arrowverse ended after season 1 of The Flash. Every show has been a frustrating mixed bag of good and awful ever since.Comment
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I could poke fun at the Arrowverse's miserable and deserved cancelation by the new owners of CW this past year, but the joke would be on me. Once The Flash concludes, the Arrowverse will have lasted 11 years! That's an incredible run if you consider that the Arrowverse creatively peaked in 2015.
People can praise Greg Berlanti and his shows for their light heartedness and social commentary (aka "woke virtue signaling") all they want. The fact of the matter is that all these shows gave us just 3 seasons of great tv: S1 and S2 of Arrow and S1 of The Flash. Everything we've gotten since then has been good here and there and abysmal most of the time. Did Arrow get more serious and gritty again after S4? Sure. Did The Flash become more compelling whenever Tom Cavanagh's was on screen? Yes. But this wasn't enough. And these shows kept losing viewers. As did LoT, Batwoman and Supergirl of course.
So I don't feel sad that The Flash is ending. It stopped being truly good many years ago. I am actually happy that some of its talented actors will get new opportunities to show their skills. And I am actually happy that the talentless activist-wannabe writers who ruined these shows are out of work now. Time for new and more talented people to get opportunities.
P.S. My post doesn't refer to Black Lightning at all. I didn't watch this show and I want to believe that it wasn't blighted with the same issues.
P.S.S. The fact that Superman and Lois is carrying on doesn't mean the Arrowverse is. Superman and Lois was deliberately detached from the Arrowverse by Todd Helbing (one of the few decent showrunners working for Berlanti) to wash off the stench. Todd saw how badly Superman was written in Crisis and in every Supergirl episode and he wanted to do right by the character. On a final note, isn't it deliciously ironic that Superman and Lois, the show patterned after Snyder's tone in MoS, is carrying on while all the rest are ending? Especially after the way Snyder's tone was mocked by Arrowverse apologists who claimed that Berlanti's campiness was the way to go?Comment
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I would also say the Arrowverse 'ended' with the massive Crisis crossover during Arrow's final season, when they still had multiple shows that could feed into it.
The landscape has changed considerably since then, with WB ownership changes (which actually had a huge impact on the eventual cancellation of LoT and Batwoman). Their ratings were weak, but the network was also thinning the herd in anticipation of the forthcoming sale, with other CW series getting axed too. The rationale that saved them in previous seasons -- int'l sales, catering to the coveted "youth" demographic -- meant little to the bean counters.
For LoT and Batwoman, it was an easy call to make as they were low-hanging fruit. I feel that, had Flash not been the senior series then -- essentially the Arrowverse flagship show after Arrow wrapped up -- and Berlanti's favorite superhero in his TV roster, Flash would/should have also joined their lot. It too had seen its better seasons, years ago, in the rearview mirror and was creatively limping of late.
Flash's shortened final season is basically a chance to bow out with grace and, like Arrow, they will get to leave on their own terms and close their story.
The Arrowverse is what it was. Arrow's DNA felt slighty different early on, intentionally darker as its took its direct influence from the TDK trilogy. The CW wanted a lighter tone, more melodrama etc in line with its brand -- and Arrow never was able to fit into that mold entirely, suffering creatively in the process.
It had glimpses of its grittier self in later seasons, but it was inconsistent quality: an issue that affected every one of the Arrowverse shows in time, no exceptions. They all became formulaic.
Flash and Supergirl seemed to be the kind of shows they wanted -- lighter in tone, more optimistic, full of relationship drama and angst and 'villain of the week' adventures. And, increasingly, addressing contemporary issues head-on.
Some fans relished the SJW flavour and wanted more, while others who only wanted light-hearted adventures and a weekly dose of escapism felt turned off by politics being clumsily injected into plots. Sometimes they hit the mark with some points, but too often it came off as heavy-handed, too-preachy spoon-feeding.
If I was loyal (for lack of a better word) to any Arrowverse series, it was to Arrow. At its best (S1, S2 and some eps and arcs during its run), Arrow led from the front and was in a class all its own. It couldn't recapture this by S8, but I still appreciated that it retained a semblance of its grittier self to the end.
The next show was The Flash. S1 was just awesome, and like Arrow's first two seasons, that quality would never really be replicated in later seasons. I've faded in and out with Flash over the years and sadly, it happened again with its S8.
The departures of o.g. characters had some part in that, but Flash was also getting long in the tooth, rehashing old themes and mailing it in re: story. I don't have the sort of residual attachment for it that I had with Arrow. That's just a matter of personal taste.
When Flash signs off after a mercifully short S9, I'll feel some regret at the Arrowverse formally closing up shop with its end -- but I wouldn't call it mourning its loss. The end of Arrow marked the spiritual end of Arrowverse in my books. Flash was merely the last ember to be put out, after Supergirl, LoT and Batwoman.
Superman and Lois is likely the best of the remaining CW superhero shows, but even there I don't really follow it closely. From the little I've seen of Stargirl, it's pretty good but I'm definitely not their target demographic and haven't kept up with it either. I haven't watched Black Lightning (no local carrier picked it up), though I've heard positive things about it. Being detached from the Arrowverse was probably to their advantage.
It could just be general CW superhero fatigue on my part. There's no denying that Arrowverse had a long run, esp. when you consider most series today are lucky to get three or four seasons. My regret is that it could have aspired to be much more than what it became.Comment
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The scary thought is that if the WB/Discovery merger hadn't happened, not much would have changed in the Berlantiverse. Batwoman would still be airing, LoT would still be airing, The Flash would have gotten a full 9th season and Eric Wallace would have pushed for a 10th, Diggle would have gotten his own Green Lantern show, some other new virtue signaling show would have started, etc...
That merger was a blessing.
By the way President Luthor, in case you haven't caught up, The Flash wrapped up Diggle's storyline (which has basically carried on in various shows ever since the Arrow series finale) this season. It was in episode 8.18 (The Man in the Yellow Tie).
Next season I could see them doing the same with LoT, in order to give that show a proper send off.Comment
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I'll probably revisit Flash's run someday if it ever goes on one of the streaming services.
Good to hear Diggle's story is going to wrap up. I saw bits of it when he popped up in other shows, but I'm out of the loop. Some clips show up on YT, but the context is lost on me.
Batwoman run was overall rocky and even the Gotham setting wasn't enough to keep me committed this last season. The real "star" of the show was Alice (Rachel Skarsten) -- she was the veteran, raised the game with whatever she was given and ran circles around everybody else. The rest of the cast tried, but the material they were given was meh.
LoT is kind of its own beast and, in a way, "left" the Arrowverse awhile ago, opting for camp and zany hijinks. I think all the frequent roster changes took its toll too. Fans would get attached to a character, only to see him/her disappear or die. Wouldn't be surprised if they did get one last nod during Flash's final run.
The Arrowverse had its appeal and Arrow, Flash, Supergirl and LoT have had long runs, at various times against the odds. But that luck ran out with the Discovery merger. It likely forced WB's hand and they went on a cancellation frenzy across the board. The accountants went through The CW like a butcher in an abbatoir.
That's not to say I have full confidence in WB's handling of DC properties going forward (the movie situation esp.), but it is a rare chance to have a clean slate. Let's hope they use it wisely.Comment
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