What a year for us DC nerds. Now that the 2014-2015 TV season has officially concluded, we can all start to weigh in our favorites for the year, including which superhero show dominated over all others. If you’ve ever read any of my episode recaps and reviews, you probably already know that I think that The Flash is the winner of the 2014-2015 season of DC TV, just based on the tone of my posts alone. But in my own defense, The Flash accomplished quite a few feats that the other DC TV shows couldn’t.
Consistency
One thing no one can deny about all the DC TV shows is that DC does TV way better than their movies—for the most part—which is likely due to their singular creative vision for the TV shows as opposed to with their movies. A big part of that vision has been to obtain high quality writers who really have a sense of the characters that they are writing about as they attempt to bring them to life on the small screen. As much as I give credit to the writing on The Flash, the truth is Gotham delivered in that department as well this season.
Despite the inherent hurdles that came along with newly created characters like Fish Mooney and Don Maroni, Gotham was able to successfully bring fans of the Batman comics into a re-imagining of the Batman origin. This was the first time that something like that has ever been attempted, and to the writer’s credit, they indeed pulled it off. Gotham had one of the most consistently written seasons of all the DC TV shows, right next to The Flash, of course. Although one could successfully argue that it is the exact opposite of The Flash, given its darker tone and foreboding eventuality, Gotham managed to leap over a hurdle that other DC TV shows like Constantine couldn’t quite overcome…the ability to win over audiences. Gotham’s problem, if you had to name one, was that it wasn’t nearly as visually enticing as it could have been.
Special Effects
If you have any question about how good The Flash is, let me answer your concerns with two words: Grodd Lives. What is Grodd Lives? Well, it’s only the name of the most epic episode of The Flash that single-handedly gave The Flash the edge for the entire 2014-2015 DC TV show season, thanks to amazing special effects. All season we were teased about a potential Grodd and Flash showdown and finally the show delivered on May 5, 2015. In case you still want to watch it I won’t spoil it for you, but I will say this: The Flash has officially raised the bar for special effects on television…just saying.
Freshman Luck
In all fairness, this past 2014-2015 season was the first season of The Flash on CW. And with that being said, there was probably very little that the showrunners could have actually done to screw up the show from the perspective of potential fans of the show. The only thing fans had to compare The Flash to was the previous Flash show back in the early 90s, so we were pretty much open to whatever they threw at us. Luckily for us, it wasn’t crap…at all.
Speaking of disappointments, Arrow was in a much different situation. This past season of the DC TV show was in fact its third, which presented a number of potential issues for the creative team to overcome. Sadly to say, many of them they did not. I know I’ve said this before, but seriously, what were they thinking with the Ra’s Al Ghul storyline? Traditionally, Ra’s Al Ghul is not an Arrow villain, he’s a Batman villain and while introducing the notorious eco-terrorist as a subplot could have worked, the show diverted off track when they decided to make Ra’s Al Ghul the major threat of the entire season. And to add insult to injury, they didn’t even fully realize Ra’s potential until the season finale when he tried to destroy Starling City with the alpha and omega biological weapon. Finally, the real Ra’s Al Ghul could stand up.
More DC TV On The Way…
DC isn’t anywhere close to being done with new TV shows. The upcoming 2015-2016 season will introduce five—that’s right five—more shows: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Preacher, Lucifer and Blackbirds. And, we also can look forward to another season of the very interesting iZombie along with the returning Arrow, Gotham and this season’s winner, The Flash.
Who do you think is the winner of this past season’s DC TV shows?