The Arrow-verse Gets Off to a Promising Start

Now that we’re a couple weeks into the new season of the CW’s Arrow-verse, I thought I’d take a second to weigh in on the returns of Supergirl, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and The Flash.

Supergirl: This premiere was pretty good, though it suffered for being the first one after so many changes (Mon-El and Winn leaving, Alex replacing J’onn at the DEO, Sam and Ruby moving, etc.). It had to do some awkward exposition while also introducing new characters like Nia.

The second episode was much stronger and gave me hope for how great this season could be. It set up what’s probably going to become a contentious relationship between Supergirl and the new President, which will make it feel more relevant to the current times. It also had some of my favorite—and most hilarious—Kara/Lena scenes ever, with sweet Lena doing everything possible to protect her best friend, while Kara repeatedly tries to sneak away to become Supergirl. Plus, we got to know the already wonderful Nia with her protecting Brainy and coming out as transgender to James (and the importance of that happening with so little fanfare on network television shouldn’t be forgotten). Tack on Alex telling Brainy to send anyone who gives him trouble her way, and yeah…I’m very excited about the potential of this season.

Arrow: Very few aspects of Arrow‘s last season worked for me, but I was excited about new showrunner Beth Schwartz, plus the promise of Oliver’s decision in the finale to have long-term consequences. This one did the opposite of Supergirl: the premiere was excellent, but it was the second episode that left me slightly concerned about the season as a whole.

The first episode was my favorite of theirs in a long time, from the brutal Oliver/Felicity fight sequence to that crazy William reveal. For a show that goes back in the time so often, I don’t know why it never occurred to me that they could also go forward in time, but it opens up pretty endless storytelling opportunities for them.

The second hour had more Not!Laurel, who I’ve finally admitted is a character that will never work for me, and I still have a hard time buying even a professional relationship between her and Dinah. The Felicity/Diggle fight also felt out of character to me, just because I think John would know better than to leave Felicity out and would also be a better friend to her than he was in this episode, especially after she just spent five months alone with William. Also, one of the biggest issues with last season was that it upset the status quo too much, so with Oliver already in jail, it makes for a stronger story to have the rest of the team intact. This was also the episode where I started to get a little concerned about the flash-forward scenes going forward; they have a leg up over the flashback scenes in that they can dole out fun tidbits from the future (like how wonderfully casually William mentioned his ex-boyfriend), but that in and of itself won’t sustain them.

Legends of Tomorrow: This season’s a little more of a wild card since they’re only one episode in, but this premiere was classic Legends: nutty, fun, and surprisingly sweet. Truly, only this show could have a unicorn alternatively murdering people and spewing a rainbow-colored hallucinogen, a virgin nipple sacrifice, and a guy hugging someone he believes to be his beloved pet rat. But this premiere was enjoyable because, despite all of its antics, it also had Sara, a character with one of the Arrow-verse’s more tragic backstories, in a healthy, happy place with lady love Ava, Zara taking Ray on a most bittersweet trip down memory lane, Nate reconnecting with his parents, etc. It would be easy to let the show’s inherent zaniness take precedence over character, but that miraculously never happens. Hopefully, it will continue this season as well.

The Flash: They’re already three episodes in, so I have the most sense of what this season will look like. Unlike with Arrow and Supergirl, all of these episodes worked equally well for me. One of the best signs of the season to come is that they’ve moved past the kind of secrets that majorly bogged down the show in the past, like the real reason Nora went back in time, with everyone on the show finding out, not just the audience. Speaking of, Nora is just perfectly cast, with Jessica Parker Kennedy nailing down a mix of Barry and Iris’s mannerisms and making it look easy. There’s been a decent swell of actors playing parent to people their age (see Once Upon a Time and This Is Us) and it totally falls apart without commitment, which Candice Patton and Grant Gustin thankfully have.

Cicada is one of their creepier villains already, and the stakes were effectively raised by him “killing” Cisco, as well as Nora’s ominous warning that “you never catch him.” I’m also excited about the prospect of Caitlin finding her father, as well as the genuinely nice friend role Ralph is playing there. Between that and Ralph helping Cisco get over his heartbreak, these first few episodes continued the character rehab of last season after Ralph was introduced as the kind of sleazy womanizer that the writers quickly realized wasn’t a great character for these times. Also, gotta give a shout out to Tom Cavanagh creating what might be his most ridiculous version of Wells yet in Sherloque.

What did you guys think of the start of the Arrow-verse’s season? Overall, I’m most excited about Supergirl and The Flash, though I may be more excited about Arrow and Legends in a couple weeks. Let me know your thoughts in comments!