With DC’s Legends of Tomorrow returning for its sixth season in a few weeks, the Arrowverse seems to be fully up and running again. As such, it felt natural to do a ranking of the five worst seasons from the Arrowverse as a way of hoping that the new seasons from each show don’t follow the mistakes of these five installments:
5. Arrow Season 6: After Arrow’s spectacular fifth season, it seemed like the show had finally found its footing again, and with a shocking cliffhanger to an already incredible finale, I was genuinely curious to see how everything would turn out in the sixth season. However, I was unbelievably disappointed by what I was given. The season 6 premiere already started things on a bad note by squandering nearly all of the potential that the season 5 finale presented on a silver platter. It turns out that everyone survived the explosion on Lian Yu aside from Samantha (Anna Hopkins) the mother of William (Jack Moore), who only died because she impulsively ran off to find her child when it was already established that Oliver (Stephen Amell) found their son on Adrian Chase’s (Josh Segarra) boat. In addition to the awful payoff from the season 5 finale, season 6 squanders its potential even further by having the identity of the criminal Vigilante turn out to be Dinah Drake’s (Juliana Harkavy) former partner (Johann Urb). Before the season originally began, the producers revealed that Vigilante would be someone the audience was already familiar with. That clearly did not turn out to be the case as the character was only briefly seen during a flashback in season 5 and is now played by a completely different actor. Then we have a pointless story arc where Oliver is at odds with his newer teammates as well as Diggle (David Ramsey) who is bitter that he doesn’t get to be the Green Arrow. The villains are also terrible during this season. We have a boring computer hacker named Cayden James (Michael Emerson) and the return of Black Siren (Katie Cassidy), Laurel Lance’s evil earth-2 counterpart. Top it all off with the show bringing back the romantic relationship between Oliver and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and you have an absolutely abysmal season, which is even more upsetting due to the fact that it came off of the show’s outstanding return to form with its fifth season. The only thing that made this season watchable was the main villain Ricardo Diaz (Kirk Acevedo), who managed to be a very threatening and sometimes even terrifying villain during the back half of the season. Rating: 3.5/10.
4. The Flash Season 4: The third season of The Flash received a heavy amount of criticism for taking things way too seriously and I can honestly understand why people had a problem with the overly dark tone. The first season of The Flash was praised for being a lighthearted show in contrast to Arrow which was meant to be the dark and brooding series. It made sense to lighten things up after season 3 took things too far with the depressing tone. However, the show decided to do a complete pendulum swing and make it’s fourth season a comedy-drama (with a rather large emphasis on the comedy). While some of the actors like Tom Cavanagh and Carlos Valdes are capable of being funny in their roles, The Flash was not meant to be a comedy, especially when some of the actors weren’t even that funny to begin with. As a result, this season suffered massively. As an audience, we are forced to sit through several unfunny scenes of the characters acting awkward and getting into wacky situations and all of it is unbearable, especially when the scenes are with Joe’s (Jesse L. Martin) love interest Cecile Horton (Danielle Nicolet), who is given mind reading powers to provide cringeworthy comedy to a story that absolutely didn’t need it. We are also introduced to Ralph Dibny/Elongated Man (Hartley Sawyer), a comedic relief character who got more annoying in each episode that he appeared in. It’s insane just how many times they show Ralph act like a jerk, doubt himself as a hero and need a motivational speech to have him help save the day. It would be fine if they did it once or twice, but they do this more than five times during the season. Another baffling aspect of this season is that Iris is now the leader of Team Flash. Why does being married to Barry suddenly make her the right person to lead the team? Iris contributed to the team here and then in the previous two seasons, but that doesn’t mean she is the perfect person to lead the group. If there is one thing that worked about the season, it would be the main villain Clifford DeVoe/The Thinker (Neil Sandilands), whose powers made for a refreshing change of pace from the previous three seasons which used a speedster as the big bad. However, DeVoe only worked when he was played by Sandilands as his performance elevated the character, who was often poorly written. This season is awful and aside from the actor who played the main villain, does not have much going for it. Rating: 3/10
3. DC’s Legends of Tomorrow Season 4: What is it with the Arrowverse and having terrible fourth seasons? I absolutely adore the second season of Legends of Tomorrow and very much enjoyed the third season. However, I’ll admit that I wasn’t the hugest fan of the season 3 finale. It left a very sour taste in my mouth for having the supposedly all powerful main villain be defeated by a giant Beebo doll and killing off Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) in a rather lazy way. That being said, I was very excited to see John Constantine (Matt Ryan) join the Legends during their fourth season. With one of the best actors to ever portray a comic book character in the starring cast, I expected Season 4 to be the strongest year for the show yet. I expected too much it seems. Not only did this season fail to deliver on what it promised, but it also managed to be one of the worst seasons ever to come from a superhero show. I’m all for comedy but not when it hijacks the entire story. The comedy from The Flash’s fourth season was awful, but at least it didn’t undercut the dramatic scenes with a dumb joke. This season is full of nothing but dumb jokes. It seems like the writers just pitched ideas on the spot and nothing was turned down no matter how bizarre or unfunny the idea might have been. The characters that have been added to the starring cast are horrible and might honestly be some of the worst characters to ever appear in the Arrowverse. Charlie is a shape-shifter who is only there so Maisie Richardson-Sellers can stay on the show. Meanwhile, Ava (Jes Macallan) is now part of the main cast and is still extremely bland and annoying. Why should I care about her relationship with Sara (Caity Lotz)? The two actors don’t really have that great chemistry and Ava is arguably the least interesting of all the love interests that Sara has had. Gary (Adam Tsekhman) is annoying, not funny and was not meant to be a main character. How does someone this stupid and childish manage to join a strict and supposedly efficient organization like the Time Bureau? Finally, we have Mona Wu (Ramona Young). I am not kidding when I say that she is the worst character to ever appear in the Arrowverse. These shows have created characters who are absolutely insufferable, but she just takes it to a whole new level. I’m sure the actress is great in other things, but I cannot stand this character. The season was already bad, but it became nearly unwatchable whenever she entered the picture. Also, I’m sorry, but her superhero name of “Wolfie” is the dumbest superhero name that I have ever heard. From what I understand, the plot to the second half of this season was also rewritten. Nate Heywood’s (Nick Zano) father Hank (Thomas F. Wilson) was originally supposed to be the main villain but the writers decided to change that because Zano and Wilson apparently both had great chemistry with each-other. Basically, there was never even a road map for this season. Aside from Ryan as Constantine and Dominic Purcell’s always delightful performance as Mick Rory/Heatwave, this season is a train wreck and should not be viewed by anyone unless they really want to understand the plot of the fifth season. Rating: 2.5/10.
2. Arrow Season 4: You all knew this season would be on the list. If there was one season from the Arrowverse that everyone can agree was awful, it would definitely be the fourth season of Arrow. It’s honestly kind of hard to blame the people who hate this season. After an already bad third season, there was no reason for the show to be even worse moving forward, and yet the writers somehow found a way to go even lower. This season is just embarrassing. It was our first taste of how truly awful the Arrowverse could be. The action was pathetic during the season, with such poor choreography and stunt work. The characters that were introduced this season were also insufferable, particularly Felicity’s mother Donna (Charlotte Ross), who is the most over the top and annoying character to ever appear in the series. However, the biggest problem with Arrow season 4 was its writing, which was at its absolute here. I’m not asking for perfect writing but it should at least feel like you’re actually trying when you tell a story like this. The main villain Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough) is still one of the most out of place characters to appear in a superhero show. He was too overpowered for a character like the Green Arrow and the stakes never felt genuine because of it. I feel bad for criticizing the character because McDonough seemed to having a ton of fun in the role and was the only semi-decent thing about season 4. However, let’s get down to the absolute worst thing aspect about this season. Felicity is unbearable. I’m not just talking about the cringeworthy romance between her and Oliver. She is genuinely a horrible person during this season. She breaks up with Oliver for not telling her about his son immediately after he himself just found out about his existence, acts self-righteous for making decisions as a parent without her when his son is not her child and literally directs a nuke to another city and plays millions of people’s deaths off like a joke. I have absolutely nothing against Emily Bett Rickards. She is a phenomenal actress and is great in the role, but this character was never the same after this season. If you want to watch Arrow, I highly advise you to avoid this season at all costs and all you have to know about it is Laurel’s death and the character of Damien Darhk who worked much better as a villain in Legends of Tomorrow. Rating: 2/10.
1. The Flash Season 5: After The Flash’s abysmal fourth season, I assumed that it couldn’t get any worse. I thought that this show would follow Arrow’s example of getting back on track with an incredible fifth season. I clearly had too much faith in this show. The Flash season 5 is not only worse than its previous season. It is the worst season to ever come out of the Arrowverse. Let’s start with the biggest problem surrounding the season. Barry’s daughter from the future Nora West-Allen/XS (Jessica Parker Kennedy) is quite possibly the worst character to ever be part of the main cast in the show. She isn’t the worst Arrowverse character (Mona from Legends of Tomorrow takes the gold medal on that subject), but she is still extremely annoying, poorly written and steals way too much of the spotlight from Barry. There are even episodes during this season in which Barry has two scenes at most and Nora is the main character of the story. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t this show called The Flash and not XS? Nora wasn’t even a fun character. She constantly complained, messed up and lashed out against Barry or Iris for something that was clearly her own fault. She acts like a bratty child throughout the entire season when the actress is even older than both Grant Gustin and Candice Patton. I remember the intrigue that surrounded her when she first appeared during the crossover Crisis on Earth-X. I sincerely wish that we were never introduced to her as she was genuinely awful. I did not feel a thing when she died. Truth be told, I was actually relieved that we wouldn’t have to deal with her as a main character anymore. Another problem that surrounds this season is the main villain Orlin Dwyer/Cicada (Chris Klein), who is quite possibly the worst main villain to ever appear in a comic book show. On paper, the concept of a serial killer who wants to rid the world of meta-humans sounds brilliant for a story. Unfortunately, the writers butchered that concept to the extreme. His dialogue sounded like he was from the Adam West Batman series and the amount of scenarios in which he fought Team Flash and they accidentally let him get away became so repetitive that it became comical. The actor’s performance was also embarrassing and not in a fun way. I know Chris Klein can be an amazing actor, but the performance that he gives feels both over the top yet also somehow completely phoned in. He’s not a fun villain, he doesn’t have a personal connection with any of the main characters and he isn’t scary in the slightest. There was also Cicada II (Sarah Carter), Orlin’s niece from the future who took over the role of main villain and was not an improvement at all. They also introduced the meta-human cure which should have solved all of their problems, but the team not using it on Cicada’s present-day niece who is in a coma because they want her consent is literally the dumbest excuse I have ever heard. Innocent lives are at stake. The question of whether she wants to take the cure or not shouldn’t matter. There’s also the botched introduction of the villain Icicle (Kyle Secor), the underwhelming fight between King Shark and Gorilla Grodd, the team getting angry with the new Harrison Wells of the group Sherloque Wells for exposing Nora when it was clearly the right thing to do and the show scrapping the plot line of Weather Wizard (Liam McIntyre) forming the iconic Flash villain team The Rogues, because why have an interesting concept when you can just watch Barry’s annoying daughter fight Chris Klein while he growls through his lines? I could go on for hours on why this season is awful, but I think I’ve made my point. If you have given up on The Flash because of this abysmal season, I do not blame you. There is absolutely nothing to like about it and I hope that the mistakes of this dumpster fire of a season are never repeated. Rating: 0.5/10.
