Five seasons is a healthy accomplishment in this era of television, and The CWs DC TV universe has no shortage of hits, but after an iffy third season and an abysmal fourth season it’s understandable if The Flash would be thinking of hanging up the cowl after this. What started promising in it’s season opener quickly turned sour as what the show was trying to do new inevitably was backtracked on. After the mid-season finale it was clear that they barely had a game plan anymore and reverted to their season four shenanigans leading the second half of the season into a slog.
The season opener picks up from last season’s finale and formally introduces Barry and Iris’ daughter, Nora, to the cast. Hailing from the future Nora, played by Jessica Parker Kennedy from Black Sails, is a welcomed breath of fresh air for the show. She’s not a moody speedster and her interactions with both her young Father and Mother are fascinating as her history, and their future, are slowly unraveled throughout the season. There are many scenes where Barry is training her that are familiar from his journey in Season 1 and Wally’s journey in Season 3, but after the last few seasons it plays more like The Flash is embracing its roots than easy storytelling.
Among the strong Father/Mother/Daughter storyline are a jumbled mess of side quests. This season we dived further into Killer Frost and Caitlin Snow as we learn that she was not indeed part of the accident with the particle accelerator and that her family is more sinister than we all thought. As tradition season five introduced a new Harry Welles, this time in the form of Sherloque…a detective that has his moments but is more often than not disposable and tired at this point. Sadly, that’s what most of the side characters are feeling these days as Cisco grapples with yet another character arc that felt forced upon him in the form of consent, and if he wants to stay a superhero or retire with his new love.
Now the first half of the season is solid. Their big bad is Cicada, a villain with a sacred knife going around hunting meta-humans. His story and identity reveal happens fairly fast making you think they’ll have a new big bad and story for the second half, but nope. Turns out they drag his ever formulaic attacks out and then replaces him with another Cicada until the very end where we get the confrontation with Reverse-Flash. This “switch up” really affects the pacing and interest of the show going forward because it’s just the same thing over and over again and we know The Flash has been better than that. Though I will give props to their introduction of Ragdoll. What a creepy and scene stealing villain.
What’s disappointing overall with this season is to see how Barry has evolved from the pilot. With over a hundred episodes under his belt it’s just exhausting to see how little Barry has progressed, and when he does the writers backtrack so that he could learn the same lessons all over again. And since Barry created “Flashpoint” he hasn’t been the same since, which was why Nora was such a breath of fresh air, and this season really showcased why Barry has become an unlikable lead. Primarily toward the later half of the season Barry finds out something big about Nora (which in itself was handled lousy) and instantly hits a switch by locking her up, sending her to the future, and then threatening her never to come back. Not only is this not the Barry that we’ve grown with, but when Nora does come back and acts out against him he’s like, “I don’t understand why she’s acting evil.” As if he wasn’t the cause…
Season five rights some of the wrongs from season four, but inevitably handles the characters in messy situations, and sometimes out of character, even though what they introduced was a step in the right direction. It has some great scenes and some frustrating scenes but overall it was all just okay. What gives The CW an edge with their DC TV universe is their attention to characters. Whenever a show is great it’s because of the characters involved, and whenever a show is bad it’s because we don’t agree with those characters, it’s rarely the stories themselves but The Flash has been missing both solid stories and solid characters, and if they keep this up it may disappoint long time fans.
4.5/10
Film Assist 
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