I have been a fan of this show since its first season, and have rewatched it many times since I first saw it. I remember when season 2 came out on Netflix it was a huge deal for me and I probably watched the whole thing in a couple of days. Season 3 was the first one I watched live week to week and would continue to do so through season 6 which I didn't like as much. I decided to give the first episode of season 7 the chance to convince me to continue watching, and it did not. After hearing the show had finally ended after 9 seasons, I decided to watch the whole show in its entirety starting from the beginning.
Right away I would like to clarify that after watching all 9 seasons, I view The Flash as 2 different shows. The first is "The Flash" which is seasons 1-5, and the other is "Bartholomew and Friends" which is seasons 6-9. I would highly recommend watching The Flash through season 5, but then strongly caution against continuing from there. "Bartholomew and Friends" has nothing to do with the superhero "Flash" and in fact succeeds in performing character assassinations on nearly everyone you care about. Not to mention the writing takes a nosedive and acts as if all their viewers are morons, proceeding to dumb down and spell out their barebone plots that even kids would've rolled their eyes at.
The Flash to me is a 6/10 overall. I would recommend you give this show a try, and luckily you can just stop at any season you want. The way this show turned out makes me grateful Arrow ended when it did.
This is what I thought of each season and rated them. There will be some spoilers.
Season 1 - 8/10
The cast is stronger this season than any other time in the whole show in my opinion. It doesn't get better than Dr. Wells, Caitlin, and Cisco all at STAR Labs helping Barry learn his powers. Barry is extremely fun to watch in this season, as he is still young, doesn't try to boss everyone around, and you can tell that Grant Gustin brought a certain energy to his performance here that you rarely get to see going forward. Iris isn't bad here either, and works well with Eddie. It definitely helps that this is the only season that she doesn't know Barry is The Flash, which means she has to be interesting on her own. The best part is Dr. Wells, aka The Reverse Flash. He's an extremely compelling villain, his performance is perfect and very memorable, and the writers were able to tie the villain, the heroes, and the plot together by the end in a highly satisfying way. My only real complaints are that some tropes are a bit forced and can become distracting, and that the villains of the week were sometimes kind of lame and not very interesting.
Season 2 - 9/10
Although I think Reverse Flash in season 1 is the better villain, the plot around Zoom was a lot tighter and took up more of the season. This made for season 2 to be my personal favorite in the end, as I think it was just a step up from season 1 in almost every way. All the characters have something going on at all times that you actually care about, plus all the new characters added I found to be intriguing. I think overall this is also the most rewatchable season, as so many things happen throughout that you tend to forget by the end all the specifics, which I like. Shockingly I thought Iris was even a good character this season, as she had Wally to work with and it all just worked for me.
Season 3 - 7/10
Some people say this is where The Flash turned into a bad show, but I disagree. Although not at the levels of the first 2 seasons for many different reasons, I always thought season 3 offered a unique tone and plot that made it stand out. I thought that knowing how the story for the season is supposed to play out early on made for a different but fun watch. Barry is a bit too serious for me here, but at least that was for a reason. Savitar was a good villain, but all the threat of him came from his looming actions, not exactly him. H. R. Is an interesting next Wells, and I like what they did with him. This season does just enough right for me to recommend it.
Season 4 - 7/10
Season 4 is when the tone of this show changes for the worse, but luckily it's not in your face right away. You can just tell how it's shot, how it looks, and how the characters go about their episode plotlines that it's a lot more formulaic than it used to be. Devoe is a nice break from the last 3 speedster villains and it was fun to watch Barry face a different kind of challenge. Ralph is a good addition to the cast, but is by no means an S tier character. I guess overall I would describe season 4 as a good season, but with a different feel almost everywhere.
Season 5 - 7/10
The final season that I think is worth watching is season 5. Nora works in this season only because of how they USE her character, not BECAUSE of her character. For some reason she acts like a whiny teenager the whole time even though she's supposed to be in her mid to late 20s, which can be very annoying at times. This is also the last season that actually gives its characters things to do, like Cisco and Caitlin working on the metahuman cure. Joe didn't have much to do this season so he wasn't in it as much, which I appreciate especially in hindsight after seeing the next 4 seasons. Cicada wasn't all that great of a villain, but wasn't terrible either. I just think something better could have easily been come up with. Reverse Flash works in the end and is a nice surprise, although I've always wished that they set him up a bit better.
Season 6 - 4/10
I would like to start with a quick rant on Crisis on Infinite Earths. This is the Endgame equivalent for the Arrowverse, but actually managed to do more harm here than what was done to the MCU. Oliver dying in the first episode was dumb, and was only done because the writers wanted Barry to be reflecting on his death, but that doesn't matter because Barry will be reflecting on Oliver's death until the end of the show - no joke. Iris and Lois are not superheroes, they need to be left out of the main plotlines in big crossovers like this. Supergirl and Batwoman getting a whole episode dedicated to their friendship was a complete waste of time, especially considering Ruby Rose quit her show not long after and Supergirl only got one more season. Lex got too much, Smallville was cool, Kevin Conroy was wasted, Brandon Routh Superman was ok. This season narrowly manages to avoid performing any character assassination, but comes dangerously close with moments like Iris demanding respect from Barry because she has her "Team Citizen" now (yes they actually want you to believe that her dumb newspaper is just as important as a team of superheroes protecting the city), or Wally throwing a fit at Barry after being MIA for like 2 years. The villains, Bloodwork and Mirror Girl, or whatever her name is, suck and make for pathetic storylines that I did not care about in the slightest. This season is when "the formula" becomes standard practice, but gets even more offensive going forward.
Season 7 - 3/10
I consider this season to be the worst season. I know a lot of people may point out right away that the characters at this point in the show suck and that's why the show sucks, and they're not wrong, but it's much more than that. The Flash as a show is 100% writing; writing good characters, good character interactions, good episode stories, and good season long stories. All of these were present, I would argue, in seasons 1-5 and are completely absent in seasons 7-9, 6 being the exception because the characters individually were barely passable. Season 7's characters have zero chemistry with one another, they never do anything compelling, and the stories being told each episode are filled with generic obvious plots and forced conflict. Barry is constantly acting like a jerk to people from here on out just because the writers wanted a little drama, with no regard for how out of character this is for him. Barry sucks to watch in seasons 7-9, and any and all character growth he had in the first 5 seasons has been completely thrown out; he is now a prop for the writers to use whenever they need. The same can be said for every cast member at this point, and it is infuriating as much as it is insulting to me not only as a previous fan of this show, but as a human being with intelligence. Bart sucks too, his whole plot with Godspeed is comically lame, and they even go so far as to claim Godspeed is Bart's Reverse Flash, which is as dumb as it sounds. I hate this season, Gotham Knights was better.
Season 8 - 4/10
It is at this point I stopped caring at all so season 8 didn't upset me as much as 7 did. I left a lot of dumb stuff out of season 7, but I don't want this review to go on forever. Reverse Flash manages to get his character assassinated here; the writers apparently ran out of ideas and just threw him in all over this season. It's all just as dumb as you would expect.
Season 9 - 4/10
Again, I didn't care anymore at this point, but there are some horrible things I wanted to address. Caitlin hasn't been a good character for a while now, but she actually dies in the first couple episodes somewhere, and nobody cares. Literally none of the characters show a hint of sadness toward the death of their friend that some of them have known for almost a decade at this point, but I shouldn't have expected anything more from this show at this point. They try to drag Oliver back and ruin his character too. This is only the millionth time Oliver has had to spell out to Barry that he's being an idiot and slap some sense into him, so that was a nice bit of character regression. Regardless of what that episode is rated and what people say, it is not good. It is only good in comparison to the 50 that came before it. The finale is forgettable and was everything it shouldn't have been. Every single speedster villain is brought back only to get killed by Allegra and flying Cecile. Great. I'm done now.
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