Arrowverse (DC/CW shows): Arrow, The Flash, etc.

[Ben X]

Ha ha, good to know he's continued to be an idiot after the first seven episodes

 

On 10/27/2015 at 9:35 AM, Ben X said:

Also, the Flash could defeat every single villain so far by running up behind them and conking them on the head. But instead he runs up in front of them, makes a quip and then waits until they start firing their fire-weapon or ice-weapon or whatever before he runs away and is like "how can I defeat this guy?!" It is infuriating. Like, we've all seen the powers on display (hero and villains) a ton recently (Matrix, X-Men etc) so we're used to them enough that this stuff is glaringly stupid.

 

 

[SecretAsianMan]

I finished up the first season of Flash and I can't get over the stupidity on display.  I feel they're going out of their way to create situations that need resolving.  The biggest example I have is transporting the metahumans from the their prison under STAR Labs.  Barry goes out of his way to ask for Cold's help which was clearly unnecessary and only got them in trouble.  They had no trouble sedating them before moving, I don't see why they couldn't have been kept under the whole time.

 

Speaking of that, I have issues with their method of incarceration too.  Oliver has killed which is a debated subject on both shows, but I think it would be preferable to how team Flash treats their villains.  Locking them in a tiny room until who knows when seems like very cruel and usual punishment.  It's pretty much permanent solitary isolation.  They make vague references to rehabilitation but they show nothing to indicate that's what they're doing.

 

Gripes aside, it's goofy fun which is what I currently need in my life.

[SecretAsianMan]

I finished the second season of Flash which is all that's currently available on Netflix.  Barry's ability to be a "hero" continues to puzzle me.  He has noble intentions and acts like the classic comic book hero but I think it's making him a crappy hero.  He never thinks ahead and just rushes into every situation as though he's just going to win by default cause he's fast.  He's supposed to be intelligent yet he never seems to figure out on his own how to win, instead he's entirely reliant on his support team.  Contrast this to Oliver, who relies on his team to gather information but when it comes to kicking actual butt he usually handles it on his own.  Granted Barry is facing people with powers while Oliver is fighting skilled but otherwise human opponents.

 

I also think it's really creepy that he wants to date what is basically his sister.  He even thinks of Joe, Iris's biological father, as his own dad.

 

One thing that consistently amuses me is that I've never seen anyone write anything down on a piece of paper, yet literally every time Barry zooms out of STAR Labs stacks of paper go flying everywhere.  It's like they keep paper around just so it can be tossed (which on a production side is probably the case).

 

Starting Arrow season 4 now.  I've already forgotten the events that have lead up to this.

[SecretAsianMan]

I'm almost done with Arrow season 4.  The drama is getting really heavy handed.  And I find myself constantly questioning their decisions.  Teaming up with Flash and Vixen in their respective episodes is fine, but when the fate of literally the entire world is at stake, they're NOT going to call the people with superpowers for a hand?  Also is there anything that isn't contained on that island?  It's got a Chinese prison, a Japanese submarine with super soldier serum, whatever artifact Constantine picked up, and the mystical idol that powers Darhk.  I feel like the island from LOST wasn't this complicated.

[SecretAsianMan]

I finished Arrow and have started Legends of Tomorrow.  I'm only 3 episodes in and already I don't like this.  Everything is so fast and loose.  The plot is disjointed and none of the actions taken make sense.  Character motivations are flimsy at best and the characters themselves seem very simple and shallow.  The action is meh and the effects aren't that great.  I might give up on this (but knowing me I probably won't).

[SecretAsianMan]

Since this thread is mostly me sitting here by myself, talking to myself I'll keep this post short.

 

Legends continues to be dumb in the not fun way, but one thing I did appreciate last night was an episode that involved going to 1958 America.  Prof. Stein (an older White man) remarks that the community they're in is very idyllic (think Pleasantville) at which point Jax (a young Black man) remarks "Yeah, if you're White" and Sara (a bisexual female) adds "And a man.  And straight.  And -" at which point Stein concedes and acknowledges the privilege.  It was actually quite refreshing to see this exchange.  I have to give the Arrowverse some credit for having a diverse cast and actually considering what that means instead of just being token characters (although I wouldn't mind some Asian mains).

[SecretAsianMan]

I finished Legends season 2.  The show is nothing but plot holes upon plot holes upon plot holes.  I might have enjoyed it more if I didn't find it so infuriating.

 

I started Supergirl.  I already like this way more than Legends.

[Apelsin]

I keep meaning to post in here, but much like these shows it keeps slipping from my mind.

 

I actually skipped the entirety of Arrow season 1 when I first started watching, on the behest of a friend who had already finished it and found too "soapy". Having barely even heard of the Green Arrow previously I appreciated most of the show (even the flashback segments) except the way that many of the characters just keep on making the same mistakes over and over. Especially as I got into season 3-4 and that trend just keeps on going.

[SecretAsianMan]

Arrow is very soapy.  Flash is more comic booky, Supergirl feels more playful, and Legends is just a mess.

 

And not learning from mistakes seems to be a common trend across all the shows.

[SecretAsianMan]

Finished Supergirl season 1.  I think I might like it more than the other shows?  At the very least I find Kara to be cute and quirky in a refreshing way compared to Oliver or Barry.  My complaints with the show are similar to the others in terms of plot.  Lots of poor decisions and ill-conceived notions.  In particular I didn't like the way the big problem at the end of the season was resolved.  But overall it was good.

 

I saw that Netflix is getting Flash season 3 and Supergirl season 2 at some point, presumably next month.  So it'll be at least that long before I start bumping up this thread again.

[SecretAsianMan]

Netflix added the newest seasons of Arrow, Flash, and Supergirl (which actually surprised me quite a bit given how recently they aired).  I'm not going to annoy everyone and bombard this thread again every time I watch more.  I'll just wait until I finish a season then annoy everyone at the end.

 

To that end, I watched Flash season 3.  All the big payoffs were ruined in advance by Youtube spoilers but I'm pretty sure I would have figured them out anyway.  A lot of my previous complaints from earlier seasons remain.  My new complaint is their rules regarding time travel.  There's almost more time travel in this show than Legends, and that show's set on a time travelling spaceship.  They're constantly contradicting themselves for the sake of drama.  I realize it's a comic book superhero show and things like logic are basically nonexistent but it bothers me that they keep saying "We can't do this" and then they go and do it.

[jennegatron]

The CW has been super fast about getting things up on Netflix. Season 2 of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend went up a week after it ended and Riverdale season 1 is already up. They don't put their stuff on Hulu anymore so I assume they have an exclusive external streaming deal with Netflix. (They have their own site/app that everything goes up on within 24 hours)

[SecretAsianMan]

I've finished both Arrow and Supergirl's latest seasons.  Lots of spoilers ahead if you haven't seen them yet.

 

Arrow continues to be shitty Batman.  I found the Prometheus story to be really weak.  The motivation for Evelyn's betrayal of the team felt especially weak to me.  The whole team knows that Oliver is not above killing, but learning that he had a specific list of evil doers is what makes him wrong?  And the answer to that is by siding with a guy who is arguably worse in every way?  I don't buy it.  At the very least I'm hopeful all the island flashbacks will be done with now that the flashbacks have progressed to his getting off the island and it was blown up in the present.

 

Of all the Arrowverse shows, Supergirl continues to be the best.  Not only some great, strong (in multiple senses of the word) female characters, but also prominent LGBT ones as well.  I like that Mon-el starts out as a the literal prince of the dude-bro planet but gets some sense knocked into him by Kara, in both the physical and figurative way.  I also like Kara's relationship with the Luthor family.  I legitimately hope that Lena doesn't go bad because the parallels to Superman/Lex are too obvious.  I also didn't realize how great a character Cat Grant was until she left and came back.  The last thing that stuck out to me was Hank Henshaw calling himself cyborg superman.  I know that's his comic book identity and was waiting for him to appear but having him say it out loud was far too hilarious.

[SecretAsianMan]

Rather than wait and binge the entire season at once, I've started watching the current runs of the Arrowverse via the CW app.  I'm caught up on Arrow and almost caught up on Flash.  I'm saving Supergirl for later and may not even bother watching Legends.

 

In a couple ways I commend Arrow for trying to do something different than a complete retelling of the comics such as

Spoiler

not having him hook up with the new Black Canary or turning over the mantle of the Green Arrow to Diggle (which can't be permanent but is still somewhat interesting)

but I'm pretty disappointed that they're doing so by such forced methods.  None of the plots feel natural or logical.  Granted those are two characteristics that are super hard to pull off when your source material is comic books but I wish there was less soap opera twists and drama and more actual character.

 

The Flash continues to be the Flash.  It's dopey as hell but compared to the forced gravitas of Arrow it feels refreshing in a way.

 

Looking forward to starting Supergirl.

[Ben X]

I know we weren't going to discuss Gotham in here, but as the series finished a month ago and there's no point in starting a new thread:

 

The series has always been half ace half awful, but this final season was mostly awful. They picked some boring Big Bads and went with the most boring versions of pretty much all their regular characters. A real shame, as at their height they were doing some great stuff with Riddler, Penguin, 'Joker' and even young Bruce Wayne, plus occasional villains like Prof Pyg and Hugo Strange were done well.

 

How's the Arrowverse/Berlantiverse these days, @SecretAsianMan (and anyone else watching it)?

[SecretAsianMan]

On 5/19/2019 at 3:40 AM, Ben X said:

How's the Arrowverse/Berlantiverse these days, @SecretAsianMan (and anyone else watching it)?

 

To be honest, I haven't watched anything recent.  The last thing I saw was last season's awful crossover episode.  I got tired of how repetitive every one of those shows are (except for Legends which has it's own unique brand of terrible).  The only one I'm considering watching again is Supergirl and frankly I just don't feel motivated to do it.

[Ben X]

Not tempted by the upcoming Batwoman?

[SecretAsianMan]

I forgot that was a thing.  As a concept I'm glad its going to exist but I'm just not really interested in getting back into that universe.