Flash Season 5 Not Great?

Anyone else been keeping up with the current season of the Flash, and think it’s…less than great? The Flash has(had) a reputation for being the most consistent of the DC/CW shows, even if last season is started to run out of steam by the end. However, this particular season’s just been very…meh?

I think where it all goes horribly wrong is the villain. Cicada was a terrible choice for a season-long villain. I’m glad they broke away from the Speedster v Speedster mold of the first three seasons, and the Thinker was a nice change of pace, but Cicada? This is not a character that can carry a whole season of television or, at least imo, provide that much of a threat to someone like the Flash. If Cicada was the villain for the first half leading up to a bigger, better villain, great, but we’ve been stuck with this lame character for about half a year now and I feel like the villain, and by extension the entire season of the Flash, have gone nowhere.

Coupled with the fact that this is the last season we will see Cisco(Carlos Valdez leaves after this season) and any of the Wells(Tom Cavanaugh’s done too, and this has just been the worst season of the Flash to date.

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Oh jeez if Tom Cavanaugh’s leaving, the only way they’ll keep me is if they bring in John Wesley Shipp as a regular.

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The Godfall episode aside, I haven’t watched The Flash very much this season.

On that note, I haven’t followed any of the CW shows with regularity for several months. Just the crossover episodes, Lex’s first appearance on Supergirl and the aforementioned Godfall episode o’ Flash.

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Yeah this CW’s kinda dropped the ball this 2018-2019 season. Arrow’s dwindling on it’s final embers, The Flash has been steadily declining in quality, Legends of Tomorrow, has complete flanderized itself to the point where I don’t even know what it’s trying to be anymore, and Black Lightning was practically a chore to get through. The only decent show this season was Supergirl, which is usually the weakest!

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Both Cicadas have been weak villains. The first one was okay as a short term villain, but the second one doesn’t really make sense. Compared to past season villains, they just don’t seem that threatening. I’m more interested in seeing what Hannibal Thawne is planning in the future.

I think it would have been better to use Cicada for part of the season and then turn Icicle into the big bad for the rest of the season. Icicle would had more of a connection with the team and because of that it would seem like there would be more at stake with him as the main villain. Instead they wasted that opportunity by focusing on the Cicadas instead and just having 2 Icicle episodes.

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just the opposite, actually; to me it’s been a compelling tale of relationships between family members who have incredible power to change reality …

Grace and Orlin’s tortured dynamic; Caitlin finding an impossible peace with both her estranged parents; Joe and Cecille building off each other’s strengths; Sherloque and Renee coming to terms; and the crazy premise that Barry and Iris have an adult daughter more headstrong than either of them combined …

add an unprecedented number of comic book easter eggs (G. Simone & Associates) … and I’m willing to put season five with the best arcs in the Arrowverse

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I still look forward to the Flash each week but this season has been the weakest thus far. I think if they had used a slightly more comic accurate Cicada that story could have been more interesting. I hope with some of the cast leaving we can get a lot more Dibney as he is my favorite part of the past 2 seasons.

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I think Flash could’ve been better this season. It’s not terrible by any stretch (there’s other shows I’ll get to in a moment which sorely declined) but yes, I’ll agree that Cicada wasn’t a strong villain. I didn’t understand the whole serial killer aspect when they could’ve gone with the cult leader he was in the comics. And then they introduced the new Cicada who feels like she’s hardly on the show. If it were possible to get all the actors back, they should’ve done a season where the Rogues were the villains. That’s what I was hoping they were going to do in the second season.

I think the biggest misstep of the season was focusing too much on Nora. Don’t get me wrong, as time went on and we learned more about her, I really liked Nora’s character, but it felt most episodes were about her…and considering it’s a twenty two episode season, that’s a lot of time to devote to someone who isn’t the main character. I’m torn on whether or not I want her to come back next season. I guess we’ll find out on Tuesday.

The Flash, while inconsistent this season, hasn’t declined in quality nearly as bad as Arrow, Supergirl and Black Lightning. With Arrow, I don’t feel like we had a strong villain this season, so the stakes weren’t there. And the flash-forwards with Star City in the future was such a road block. I am not interested in a future version of William and Mia, so whenever they cut to it, I mentally tune out. Supergirl leaned too much on political and social commentary this season. There’s nothing wrong with either and I know the show has had elements of that since the beginning, but I’m not one for politics or social commentary. I watched Supergirl because it was the fun superhero show (along with The Flash), suddenly the superhero aspects became an after thought. For me, the best episodes were the two with Lex (and yes, I realize the irony in saying I don’t enjoy political and social commentary when those episodes focus on Russia) because they felt very much like a superhero show. Black Lightning was just slow. Every time something interesting would happen like Khalil confronting Tobias, the pacing slowed down to a crawl soon after.

I’ve actually liked Legends of Tomorrow. They’re not afraid to be a fun superhero show. Constantine has been a joy and it’s nice to see Maisie Richardson-Sellers still on teh show (though I wish they gave her more to do with her new character). The only real complaint I have is Mona. Her character is very annoying and in a cast this big where everyone is trying to get screen time, they devote way too much to her and her “wolfie” persona.

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Honestly it got to the point I stoped watching the new season didn’t care for it but let’s hope red death be the next villain but probably not…and is I’m the only one that has a problem with killer frost beening a good guy lol

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I think Nora had too much focus. She was OK in some episodes, I liked her in less, and she annoyed me in the rest. I agree that Cicada is the big bad the sow has had. I also think that over the years other characters have been built up at Barry expense, which is a detriment of the show.

@c02goddess yea, they spent too much time on Nora. My biggest concern is whether or not she sticks around after the season finale. If she leaves, then at least we know the next season will focus on Barry. If she stays, we can expect to see more stories focusing mainly on her.

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Nora wasn’t a very interesting character to follow. Not too mention her speedster name as XS (excess) is really cheesy xD…

They couldn’t find a better name than that?

But I will tell you… She’s really nice to look at. :wink: …i fall in love with that smile and that laugh.

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Maybe we’ll get lucky and the season finale will blow us all away. The Flash usually has outstanding season finales, so I’m hopeful.

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I actually think it’s been the best season in a few years. Any time Thawne is in the picture I’m interested.

Season 3 was probably the worst to me. The Savitar storyline was just convoluted.

There’s always one person ^ lol

The Flash and Supergirl have this formula: Make one villain a constant, overarching threat for an entire season. The heroes narrowly stop the villain, but villain gets away to plot another day. Mostly, this happens by the heroes, who are either super-powered or super-smart, acting like brain-damaged chimpanzees. Every opportunity they have to put the villain in a pair of power-dampening cuffs, they waste time looking around or taking a pause for no reason. Or the villain will run away and the people with super-speed will look on in dumbfounded awe instead of chasing and capturing them like anyone with half a brain would. Like they forgot what they can do with their super-powers. In between these “epic” bouts, they have the main villain “lie low” for ambiguous reasons so another villain can have the spotlight for an episode, which will also follow the same formula. I get the need to build tension, but it’s not particularly well built if it relies on the main characters being repeatedly stupid just to drag a story along.

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I don’t see Flash as the most consistent. IMO it had ONE good season. Season 1. Seasons 2 and 3 copy pasted season 1’s story. 4 and 5 were boring

Not loving this season. Cicada is a dumb villain, can’t stand daughter Nora (character or actress). Hate Sherlock and tired of Thawne.

Here’s holding out hope that Tuesday’s season finale gives us enough that we can look at the season overall in a different light. And if not, there’s always next season. I just hope they pick a better villain next season.

I feel like The Flash went wrong as soon as they opened up the Time Travel bottle. Time Travel is important to the flash don’t get me wrong but it makes for these complex plots that seem to never hold their value. The Flash season 1 had so much weight due to him being fresh and new and not fully understanding his powers, However every season since has been copy and paste the same monster of the week formula. The monster of the week formula no longer works for this show and i truly don’t see The Flash airing for more than 2 more seasons.