Arrow was the DC property that kicked off what is now known as the Arrowverse, a collection of connected DC franchises including The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning and Batwoman. Recently, the ‘Verse was turned upside down thanks to the multi-part crossover epic “Crisis On Infinite Earths.” It didn’t just end with the death of Oliver Queen. It permanently changed the entire Arrowverse by eliminating countless infinite Earths down to just one; an amalgamation of everything that had come before.
Since “Crisis On Infinite Earths” has effectively rebooted every franchise within the Arrowverse to some degree, we thought we’d take a look at some of the clichés that have worn out their welcome. These need to go if the shows are going to break new ground and thrive.
TIME TRAVEL TOMFOOLERY
By now, the concept of time travel has become incredibly dull. What started as a thought-provoking story mechanic has mutated into a go-to solution for lazy writing. The Arrowverse did handle time travel a bit differently than other properties by showcasing its inherent dangers, rather than using it as a proverbial crutch.
That being said, we’ve had enough of the time travel gimmick. Legends of Tomorrow is the only property that should be flirting with this theme. The rest of the heroes have a new lease on life. No more mucking up the timeline, guys!
ON-CUE CRYING SCENES
The Arrowverse has its fair share of powerful emotional moments, such as Barry Allen singing to Iris in the deeply moving Season 3 Flash episode “Duet.” Unfortunately, it has gone a bit off the rails with the waterworks. At this point, every episode of every series feels as if it has a crying scene.
We get that emotional connections are what drive the story arcs between all these characters, but toning it down is important. It’s all become a bit too scripted and predictable, and that can spell trouble for audiences.
CONVENIENT WORLD-SAVING GADGETS
The heroes of the Arrowverse are fun to watch, and the actors and actresses who portray them are very talented, but their characters should be the ones saving the day, rather than some technological doohickey.
We’ve lost count of how many times the writers have fallen back on the much-too-convenient super-gadget plot device, and it reared its tired head again during “Crisis On Infinite Earths.” At this point, a magical gadget seems to pop up within minutes of an emerging threat, making us wonder what all those superpowers are for.
THE MYSTERY BEHIND THE MASK
Everyone likes a bit of mystery in their villains, but there comes a time when you should just come out and reveal who they are, without any big surprises in tow. The Arrowverse has an unfortunate habit of hiding the main baddie behind a scary mask, only to let the cat out of the bag by the time the middle of the season arrives.
The Flash is especially vulnerable to this cliché, with the Reverse Flash, Zoom and Savitar all serving up the same formula, but other shows are equally guilty of it. Yes, they are all adaptations of comic book sourced characters, but trotting them out in such a manner creates predictable cliffhangers that end up annoying the audience.
THE SELF CONFIDENCE TRAP
Oliver Queen was the original champion of self-blame and doubt, and it was okay for a while since it played into his character’s darkness-to-light story arc. Then, other franchises got bitten by the bug, and it started becoming too predictable for our liking.
We tend to like our superheroes when they’re channeling their reassuring confidence to take down a major threat. It’s always good to show the vulnerable side of a seemingly invulnerable character, but when it’s happening every single season, it forces us to wonder if these guys are really up to the task of saving the Earth or merely making it by the skin of their teeth. We want to see some tough superheroes with steel resolve, even in the face of an overwhelming threat!
MISPLACED LOVERS
Rarely do we see an Arrowverse property where the main character can hang on to a relationship for more than a few minutes. Supergirl lost Mon-El, Cisco lost Gypsy, Roy lost Thea (but managed to get her back in the final Arrow episode), and the list goes on and on.
We know that relationships can drastically change the dynamic of characters in a TV show, which can end up affecting the entire storyline, but if they keep tossing these budding romances out, only to snatch them away for the sake of shock value, then we’re not going to play anymore!
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER THREATENED CITY
The premise of many Arrowverse shows involves the main character protecting his or her city from villains and threats. We get that. However, not every story arc needs to focus on putting the entire city in danger, just for the sake.
We’re quite happy with smaller-scale conflicts that are more personal, rather than constantly building up the narrative until the entire city gets caught in the crosshairs. It’s a bit hokey at this point, and quite frankly, we don’t feel the threat after you’ve cried wolf so many times.
INTERNECINE WARFARE
Sometimes, a team just isn’t going to get along very well. There will be conflicts, disagreements and perhaps all-out fist-fights. Recently though, this trend has become more common among the Arrowverse team members. Rather than working together, multiple members of a team might end up loathing each other.
This was taken to its most obvious extreme in Arrow when a harsh disagreement led Rene, Dinah, and Curtis to abandon Team Arrow, which permanently shook the show up and took it in a darker direction. The “fight now, make up later” motif is losing its luster.
TOO MANY VERSIONS OF THE SAME CHARACTER
We hope that this cliché will already have bitten the dust in the wake of “Crisis On Infinite Earths,” but one can never be too certain. The Arrowverse has a real nasty habit of recycling different versions of the same character, for reasons unknown.
It all began with Flash character Harrison Wells. The Season 1 plot twist was more than welcome, but for some reason, the writers couldn’t contain themselves. They started writing new a Harrison Wells into each new season; all of them from different parallel Earths. Okay, maybe it was a gimmick of the show, but the infection soon began to spread to other properties, most notably Arrow, with an evil Laurel Lance. Now that the other Earths are effectively kaput, let’s sink this plot device in liquid nitrogen and call it a day, yes?
FIGHTS THAT MAKE NO SENSE
The Arrowverse is pretty good at handling action sequences, and most of them are spectacular. However, they can sometimes go off the rails into nonsensical territory, leaving us scratching our heads as to what exactly is going on.
We do notice moments when the fight choreography isn’t quite up to snuff, or perhaps the stunt coordinators started scraping the bottom of the barrel for another idea. Fight scenes should make sense, instead of culminating into a jumble of meaningless punches that send enemies into perfect back-flips, or showcase characters like Wild Dog and Diggle battling a team of highly trained League assassins with no weapons to speak of. We realize that filming a show with this many episodes per season must be a daunting task, but it’s high time to take a page out of Netflix’s Daredevil playbook!
