‘THE FLASH’ is a TV show based of the DC comics character ‘THE FLASH’. It first aired on the CW to 4.83 million viewers and his been a hit among critics and fans alike, with an 8.1/10 rating on IMDB and a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The show began as a spinoff to the CW’s other show based of DC comics ‘ARROW’ and its popularity has even surpassed the show. However the shows ratings and its quality have recently taken a noticable drop. If the history of ‘ARROW’ is to be any indication for the future of ‘THE FLASH’, we should definitley be worried
The fourth season of ‘ARROW’ marked a dip not only in the shows viewership, but a drop in quality aswell. As of right now, ‘THE FLASH’ is the CW’s most watched series and its biggest money maker. But if it goes down the same path as ‘ARROW’ this may no longer remain the case. We will analyze what went wrong with ‘ARROW’ and see how ‘THE FLASH’ can avoid these same downfalls
THE TEAM
In season 4 of ‘ARROW’, the show had a major change up. While we had previously seen the show revolve around Oliver Queen as the focus of all aspects of the show, with him often being joined by a partner. However Season 4 saw a change to this dynamic, with a huge focus being put on ‘TEAM ARROW’ in particular, ‘FELICITY SMOAK’ a character who generally operates behind the scenes. This decision took away from ‘ARROWS’ action roots with a signifagant amount of the season revolving around her love life and family. While this mistep has been remedeed in the shows 5th season, the damage had been done and ‘ARROWS’ season 4 finale had the lowest viewership of any of the shows seasons. ‘THE FLASH’ has had a strong emphasis on ‘TEAM FLASH’ since its begining and has avoided the mistakes ‘ARROW’ made so far, so it would be safe to say, ‘THE FLASH’ is safe in this department
THE VILLANS
One of ‘ARROWS’ season 4’s weakest aspects was its villans. We saw the introduction of Neil McDonough’s Damien Darkh, who was relatively well recived by audiences, however his unclear motives and nonsensical plans was not as popular. Other forgetable villans such as Andy Diggle and Baron Reiter had drawn out, poorly executed arcs. ‘THE FLASH’ has always stood out for its unique and intresting villans and it appears we can expect something new in season 4 as the main villan will not be a speedster. We have no reason be warry here due to the shows quality track record
THE DRAMA
Many viewers of ”ARROW’ complained of the show adopting “soap opera” like drama in its 4th season, from “will they, wont they”, relationships and the introduction of Olivers son, it’s understandable why these story lines drew these comparisons. This also was dialed back in the next season, showing that the writers recognised this mistake. ‘THE FLASH’ has always dealt with relationships and family in an intresting and engaging way for the audience, so rest assured, ‘THE FLASH’ is also safe here
Overall, it is safe to say that ‘THE FLASH’ will avoid the mistakes ‘ARROW’ made entering its 4th season considering ‘THE FLASH’ has always handled what ‘ARROW’ failed with much better. Additonaly, considering that ‘ARROW’ learned from its mistakes in its 4th season, it is certain ‘THE FLASH’ will learn from these mistakes too.
