6 Ups & 3 Downs From The Arrowverse In 2018 (So Far)

2. Contrived Storylines

One of the biggest pitfalls of the Arrowverse this year was the manipulative writing. There were multiple occasions where you could see the writers' work at hand as they tried to force certain storylines upon us that just weren't believable. This resulted in a quite a few major plot development coming off as contrived.

The civil war between the original and new members of Team Arrow was undoubtedly a low point for The CW's veteran show. Instead of having the characters resolve it swiftly and focus on saving the city, the writers decided to push the team members further apart by having Dinah, Rene and Curtis behave completely out-of-character. The storyline was not well-received by fans, with the majority of them turning on the new arrivals because of their bizarre behaviour (which was unfortunate because they were initially right to be angry at Oliver, Diggle and Felicity for their mistrust).

Supergirl was also guilty of this in its season finale when Mon-El departed without so much as a farewell kiss with Kara. The scene was intentionally written without any romantic tension between the pair whatsoever in an attempt to lessen the blow of Chris Wood's departure. But we weren't buying what the writers were selling simply because robbing us of the romantic reunion that was promised to us was nothing short of a letdown.

With these seasons now in the rear-view mirror, the writers can go back to the drawing board for the show's next outings. But let's just hope that whatever happens next, the events naturally progress and don't come off as forced or contrived.