One of CW’s premier shows The Flash has been airing since 2014 and has just concluded its season 7. The Arrow spin off show is closing in on being the longest running show from the connected universe that is the “Arrowverse” (Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Batwoman and Superman & Lois).
To say this season was disappointing is an understatement. It was boring, the writing was terrible and for the first time, many are calling for the show to be cancelled. The show had an 18 episode order instead of the usual 22/23. For many, this would mean less filler episodes and more story richness. While in part this is true, the episode count did not necessary help the season.
The mediocre season 6 was cut short due to… you guessed it: COVID. This saw season 7 wrap up the story arc in its first few episodes. It then moved onto a very forgettable number of episodes that are difficult to sum up. Elements? of the speed force that were in trouble as the speed force (in the form of Flash’s mother) turned bad. These elemental people were also somehow Barry Allen’s children?
Finally, in the latter half of the season, there were upsides, such as Cisco’s farewell episode (he clearly saw the show’s quality diminishing also) and the two part finale.
It was obvious that they could rarely film the whole “team flash” together due to social distancing which certainly was a detriment to the season. Another significant negative that came from social distancing was very limited fighting. The Flash and the rest of the team choose to just speak and convince the bad guys to be good and turn themselves in. This overused practice was considerably cringe worthy and was an automatic boredom inducer. Fingers crossed filming rules loosen for season 8 filming or else, it is sure to be the last season.
The stakes are gone, no one stays dead, so the care for these characters dissipates. The new characters that have seen a increase in screen time are unfortunately either not interesting or just plain bad.
CW shows have always had a level of drama to them, but at their core The Flash had interesting story lines and interesting characters, that is a different story at the moment.
The writers and producers of the show need to take a break and get back to basics, back to the stories and brilliance of earlier seasons. The Flash has a lot of competitors in the superhero TV show world now, some with vastly higher budgets. The show needs to step up its game or else people will see the hour of their life as a waste of time and cease their commitment.
