7 Ups & 5 Downs From The Arrowverse In 2019

1. Too Many Episodes

For yet another year, it just feels like the Arrowverse shows have a few too many episodes. It's hard to maintain a running narrative for a certain number of episodes (something Netflix's Marvel shows began showing us when multiple of their 8-13 episode-seasons lost their way midway through) so having to do so for 22 can be exhausting.

Now, don't get this writer wrong, if the narrative requires all of those episodes then good for it as the Arrowverse has given us some perfect 22-23 episode seasons in the past. However, it's been some time since we've seen any of the shows successfully maintain a high standard throughout the season, and the beginning of this year was an example of that.

Both Arrow Season 7 and The Flash Season 5 began to flail following their midseason returns, as the writers had to keep coming up with contrived obstacles in order to drag the storyline out until May. But, like, how many times were we expected to sit through Cicada showing up, losing and hightailing it before we call the competence of Team Flash into question?

Even Legends of Tomorrow felt like it was beginning to go around in circles as it came to the end of its 16-episode fourth season in May - something that had never happened before.

As Arrow proved in the fall, sometimes less is more.

Now, for the ups...