The Flash TV Show Review (2014–2023) ⚡

The CW ran this man in circles for nine seasons

🎬 Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

Season 1:

Season 2:

Season 3:

Season 4:

Season 5:

Season 6:

Season 7:

Season 8:

Season 9:

Yep were finally taking a look at the iconic downfall of once a beloved show.


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Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

The Flash follows Barry Allen, played by Grant Gustin, a forensic scientist for the Central City Police Department who becomes The Flash after he gets struck by lightning during the STAR Labs particle accelerator explosion.

And honestly? Barry’s origin is one of the best things the show ever did.

Season 1 actually lets us understand who Barry is before he becomes a superhero. He isn’t just “guy runs fast.” He’s awkward, nerdy, emotionally damaged, and obsessed with proving the impossible happened the night his mother died. When Barry was a kid, he saw red and yellow lightning moving around his house, his mother Nora Allen was murdered, and his father Henry Allen, played by John Wesley Shipp, was blamed for it. Barry grows up knowing his dad didn’t do it, but nobody believes him because how do you explain “a man in yellow lightning killed my mom” without sounding like you need a blanket and a juice box?

That’s why Barry becoming a forensic scientist actually works. He built his entire life around evidence, justice, and proving that one impossible night was real.

And yes, I’ll say it now. Grant Gustin is a better Flash than Ezra Miller.

Grant Gustin actually feels like Barry Allen. He has the heart, the grief, the awkwardness, the kindness, and the emotional weight. Ezra Miller’s Flash always felt more like a hyperactive tech intern who wandered into the Justice League and nobody had the heart to tell him he was in the wrong movie. So yes, Grant is the better Flash, but also let’s be real, that bar is so low it’s basically buried underneath STAR Labs next to all the plot holes.

The show starts off really strong. On CW standards, Season 1 of The Flash is genuinely one of the best things they made. It has a great mystery, a great villain, a solid emotional hook, and a version of Barry who actually feels like he’s growing.

Then slowly, season by season, the show starts falling apart.

Not instantly. This wasn’t one giant crash. This was more like watching someone trip down a staircase in slow motion for nine years while everyone keeps yelling, “Run, Barry, run,” instead of calling an ambulance.

For me, the first four seasons are the strongest stretch. Season 5 is only passable because of Sherloque Wells, played by Tom Cavanagh, because he brings life to that season. Everything else in Season 5 is rough, especially Cicada. Good lord, Cicada. That villain is one of the weakest main villains in the entire show.

After Season 5, the show keeps declining. The writing gets lazier, the villains get weaker, Barry keeps learning the same lessons over and over again, Iris gets written horribly, Killer Frost gets mishandled, Cisco leaving hurts the show, the cast becomes bloated, and every conflict starts needing a hallway speech.

At some point, The Flash stopped being about the fastest man alive and became about a grown man needing eight emotional support speeches before he remembers how legs work.


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Character Rundown

Season 1

Barry Allen / The Flash, played by Grant Gustin, is introduced as a forensic scientist who becomes a speedster after the STAR Labs particle accelerator explosion. Grant Gustin is honestly one of the main reasons the early show works. He gives Barry heart, awkwardness, trauma, and that “I’m trying my best but also I’m emotionally seconds away from collapsing” energy. Season 1 Barry is likable because he actually feels like a guy who built his life around proving his father innocent and understanding the impossible thing that happened the night his mom died.

Iris West, played by Candice Patton, starts off as Barry’s best friend and Joe’s daughter. Early Iris is fine because she’s mostly grounded in the normal world. She’s not leading Team Flash yet, she’s not giving science orders, she’s just tied to Barry emotionally and slowly becoming connected to The Flash mystery. This is probably one of the more tolerable versions of Iris because the show hasn’t fully started forcing her into places she doesn’t belong yet.

Joe West, played by Jesse L. Martin, is Barry’s adoptive father figure and one of the best characters early on. He feels like an actual adult in the room. He’s protective, emotional, and grounded, and Jesse L. Martin brings so much warmth to the role.

Cisco Ramon, played by Carlos Valdes, is the tech genius of STAR Labs and one of the funniest parts of the show. He names the villains, builds the gadgets, and gives the team personality. Early Cisco is one of the reasons STAR Labs feels fun instead of just being a room where people stare at screens and panic.

Caitlin Snow, played by Danielle Panabaker, is the team’s doctor and scientist. She’s still grieving Ronnie Raymond, played by Robbie Amell, who was presumed dead after the particle accelerator explosion. Caitlin works well early on because she brings the medical/science side to the team and actually has emotional baggage without the show overcomplicating her yet.

Harrison Wells, played by Tom Cavanagh, is the Season 1 Wells, and this version is easily one of the most important characters in the whole show. He’s Barry’s mentor, the guy in the wheelchair, the genius behind STAR Labs, and the person pushing Barry to become faster. Tom Cavanagh is fantastic here because he plays him with this calm, creepy intelligence where you can tell something is off, but you don’t fully know what yet.

Eddie Thawne, played by Rick Cosnett, is Joe’s partner and Iris’s boyfriend. He’s not my favorite character ever, but he matters because he’s tied directly into the season’s big emotional and villain storyline. He also gives the Iris/Barry dynamic more tension.

Captain David Singh, played by Patrick Sabongui, is Barry and Joe’s boss at CCPD. He’s not a massive character, but he helps make Barry’s job and police world feel more lived in.

Henry Allen, played by John Wesley Shipp, is Barry’s father, who is in prison for Nora Allen’s murder. John Wesley Shipp gives Henry a lot of emotional weight, especially because he was the original TV Flash, so there’s a nice full-circle thing there.

Nora Allen, played by Michelle Harrison, is Barry’s mother, and even though she’s mostly tied to flashbacks and Barry’s trauma, she is basically the emotional wound that the entire first season is built around.

The main villain of Season 1 is Reverse Flash / Eobard Thawne, played by Tom Cavanagh and Matt Letscher. Without spoiling the full details here, Reverse Flash is the reason Season 1 works so well. He is personal to Barry, connected to the mystery of Nora Allen’s death, and easily one of the best villains in the entire Arrowverse.


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Season 2

Barry Allen / The Flash, played by Grant Gustin, is now more confident as a hero, but he’s also dealing with the fallout of everything that happened in Season 1. This is still a strong version of Barry because he feels like he’s growing, even though the seeds of his future “I must learn the same lesson every season” problem are starting to form.

Iris West, played by Candice Patton, becomes more involved in Barry’s superhero world. She’s still not at her worst here, but the show is clearly moving her closer to the inner circle.

Joe West, played by Jesse L. Martin, continues being one of the emotional anchors. He also has more family drama this season, especially with the introduction of Wally and Francine.

Cisco Ramon, played by Carlos Valdes, starts developing more important abilities and becomes more than just the funny tech guy. This is where the show starts building toward Cisco becoming Vibe, which is actually a cool direction for him.

Caitlin Snow, played by Danielle Panabaker, is still dealing with Ronnie and later gets tied into Jay Garrick’s storyline. This season also introduces the idea of Killer Frost through the multiverse, which becomes a big part of Caitlin’s future.

Harry Wells, played by Tom Cavanagh, is the Season 2 Wells variant from Earth-2. He is completely different from Season 1 Wells. He’s grumpier, colder, more abrasive, and much more direct. I actually like Harry a lot because he feels like a proper alternate Wells instead of just Tom Cavanagh doing a costume change for laughs.

Jesse Wells / Jesse Quick, played by Violett Beane, is Harry’s daughter. She becomes important because she gives Harry a personal reason to be involved beyond just helping Team Flash.

Wally West, played by Keiynan Lonsdale, is introduced as Joe’s son and Iris’s brother. Wally starts as the street-racing, rebellious new family member, and eventually becomes much more important later.

Jay Garrick, played by Teddy Sears, is introduced as another Flash from another Earth. He’s presented as a mentor figure and another speedster who understands what Barry is going through.

Patty Spivot, played by Shantel VanSanten, is a police officer and Barry’s love interest for part of the season. Honestly, I liked Patty. She had chemistry with Barry, she was smart, and she fit into the police side of the show better than some later characters fit into STAR Labs.

The main villain of Season 2 is Zoom, voiced by Tony Todd and physically played by Teddy Sears. Zoom is one of the show’s best villains because he actually feels dangerous. He’s brutal, scary, and gives the season a horror edge that really works.


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Season 3

Barry Allen / The Flash, played by Grant Gustin, starts this season dealing with the consequences of a huge choice he made. This is where Barry’s habit of messing with time becomes one of the biggest problems in the show. Season 3 Barry is frustrating because you understand why he does what he does emotionally, but you’re also like, dude, stop touching the timeline like it’s a broken TV remote.

Iris West, played by Candice Patton, becomes more central to the emotional conflict of the season. This is where the show starts pushing Barry and Iris harder as the main romantic pairing.

Joe West, played by Jesse L. Martin, is still great, but the family drama keeps growing around him.

Cisco Ramon / Vibe, played by Carlos Valdes, becomes more important as his powers develop. This is one of Cisco’s stronger periods because he’s not just comic relief anymore.

Caitlin Snow / Killer Frost, played by Danielle Panabaker, starts becoming a much bigger part of the story because her Killer Frost side begins emerging. In concept, this is great. Killer Frost should be scary and complicated. This season is where that idea really starts getting explored.

H.R. Wells, played by Tom Cavanagh, is the Season 3 Wells variant. H.R. is more goofy, theatrical, and not as genius-level useful as Harry, but he brings charm. He’s the kind of Wells who could have been annoying, but Tom Cavanagh makes him likable.

Julian Albert, played by Tom Felton, joins the show as a CSI coworker of Barry’s. He starts off as kind of a jerk toward Barry, but he becomes more connected to Team Flash as the season goes on. Also yes, it is weirdly funny that Draco Malfoy just wandered into The Flash and started judging Barry’s lab work.

Wally West / Kid Flash, played by Keiynan Lonsdale, becomes a speedster this season. Wally had potential, and Kid Flash should have been a bigger deal, but like a lot of characters, the show doesn’t always know how to use him properly.

The main villain of Season 3 is Savitar, voiced by Tobin Bell, with deeper story connections that I won’t spoil here. Savitar has a cool design and a cool concept, but this is also where the show starts getting messier with its big bad storytelling.


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Season 4

Barry Allen / The Flash, played by Grant Gustin, returns from a major situation and tries to get back to being Central City’s hero. This season tries to make Barry face a villain he can’t simply outrun, which is smart on paper.

Iris West, played by Candice Patton, becomes more involved with leading Team Flash this season, and this is where my issues with her writing really start kicking in. Iris being emotionally important to Barry makes sense. Iris suddenly acting like the commander of a scientific superhero operation? Yeah, that’s where I start making faces.

Joe West, played by Jesse L. Martin, remains the emotional dad figure of the show, and his relationship with Cecile becomes more important.

Cisco Ramon / Vibe, played by Carlos Valdes, is still one of the most fun characters, but the show is also slowly becoming more crowded around him.

Caitlin Snow / Killer Frost, played by Danielle Panabaker, continues dealing with her Frost side. Again, cool concept, but the show keeps pulling her between dangerous antihero and regular Team Flash member.

Harry Wells, played by Tom Cavanagh, returns as the main Wells variant for Season 4. Harry is still the grumpy genius, and he has his own arc this season involving his intelligence and identity. I still like Harry, even when the Wells gimmick starts becoming a little too familiar.

Ralph Dibny / Elongated Man, played by Hartley Sawyer, is introduced this season. He starts as an immature, sleazy private investigator, but he actually gets a real arc. Ralph is one of the better later additions because he grows in a way that feels clear.

Cecile Horton, played by Danielle Nicolet, becomes more prominent this season and starts developing powers. This is where the Cecile power train begins, and little did we know this train was not stopping anytime soon.

Marlize DeVoe, played by Kim Engelbrecht, is the wife and partner of the season’s main villain. She’s important because she gives the villain story a more emotional angle.

The main villain of Season 4 is Clifford DeVoe / The Thinker, played by Neil Sandilands. He is the first major non-speedster big bad, and the idea is good. A villain who beats Barry with intelligence instead of speed should have been refreshing. The problem is how dragged out and messy it eventually gets.


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Season 5

Barry Allen / The Flash, played by Grant Gustin, becomes a father figure this season because Nora West-Allen arrives from the future. This gives Barry a new emotional role, but it also highlights one of the show’s biggest problems: Barry keeps being treated like he’s learning life lessons he should already know by now.

Iris West-Allen, played by Candice Patton, is now more fully in the Team Flash leadership role, and again, this is where the writing for Iris gets rough. The show keeps telling us she belongs in that role, but it doesn’t always make it feel natural.

Cisco Ramon / Vibe, played by Carlos Valdes, is still around, but this is one of the seasons where you can feel the show starting to change. His personal life and feelings about being Vibe become a bigger part of his arc.

Caitlin Snow / Killer Frost, played by Danielle Panabaker, gets more backstory involving her father, Thomas Snow, played by Kyle Secor. This season tries to explain more about Caitlin and Frost, but this is also part of why her storyline starts feeling more complicated than clean.

Sherloque Wells, played by Tom Cavanagh, is the Season 5 Wells variant and my personal favorite version of Wells. He is a detective, he’s weird, he’s dramatic, he has a ridiculous accent, and he brings life to a season that badly needs it. Sherloque actually has a purpose because he’s investigating Nora and trying to figure out what she’s hiding.

Nora West-Allen / XS, played by Jessica Parker Kennedy, is Barry and Iris’s daughter from the future. On paper, she should be a great addition. In execution, she is written like a child even though she’s a grown adult. She acts way too immature for someone who is supposed to be around twenty-five.

Ralph Dibny / Elongated Man, played by Hartley Sawyer, continues developing as a hero and honestly has some decent moments. He works better when the show lets him be more than comic relief.

Cecile Horton, played by Danielle Nicolet, continues using her empath powers, and this is where her powers become more part of the team dynamic.

The main villain of Season 5 is Orlin Dwyer / Cicada, played by Chris Klein. Later, Grace Gibbons / Cicada II, played by Sarah Carter, also becomes important. Cicada’s motivation is tied to hatred of meta-humans, but this is one of the weakest villain seasons because the writing drags him out way too long.

Eobard Thawne / Reverse Flash, played by Tom Cavanagh, also has an important role in Season 5. Without spoiling the full details here, Thawne remains one of the only parts of the season that feels properly interesting because he’s still tied to Barry in a personal way.


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Season 6

Barry Allen / The Flash, played by Grant Gustin, spends a lot of this season dealing with a looming crisis and the possibility of death. This gives Barry some heavier material again, and honestly the first half of Season 6 is stronger than a lot of what comes after.

Iris West-Allen, played by Candice Patton, gets a bigger journalism-focused storyline again, especially with Team Citizen. I actually think Iris works better when the show remembers she’s supposed to be a journalist instead of forcing her to be the boss of STAR Labs.

Cisco Ramon, played by Carlos Valdes, is still part of the team, but his role continues shifting as the show moves further away from the original dynamic.

Caitlin Snow / Killer Frost, played by Danielle Panabaker, continues as both Caitlin and Frost, with Frost becoming more independent and more heroic. Again, I don’t hate Frost, but I do think the show keeps moving further away from what made Killer Frost interesting in the first place.

Nash Wells, played by Tom Cavanagh, is the Season 6 Wells variant. Nash is an explorer/adventurer type, kind of like if Indiana Jones was mixed with Wells but then filtered through CW drama. He’s connected to the bigger multiverse and Crisis storyline, so he has more plot importance than some other Wells variants.

Cecile Horton, played by Danielle Nicolet, continues being part of the team and using her powers.

Ralph Dibny / Elongated Man, played by Hartley Sawyer, has more detective work this season and gets tied into Sue Dearbon.

Sue Dearbon, played by Natalie Dreyfuss, is introduced as a thief/con artist type connected to Ralph’s storyline. She has a fun energy and gives Ralph something outside the usual STAR Labs drama.

Allegra Garcia, played by Kayla Compton, becomes more important this season. She has light-based meta powers and joins Team Citizen, later becoming more connected to Team Flash.

Chester P. Runk, played by Brandon McKnight, is introduced as a tech genius. He eventually becomes more important later, basically stepping into the tech support role as the show changes.

The first main villain of Season 6 is Ramsey Rosso / Bloodwork, played by Sendhil Ramamurthy. Bloodwork is actually one of the better later villains because his motivation is fear of death, and his powers bring a horror vibe to the show.

The second major villain is Eva McCulloch / Mirror Monarch, played by Efrat Dor. Her storyline connects to the Mirrorverse and Iris, and while the concept is interesting, the pacing becomes a problem.


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Season 7

Barry Allen / The Flash, played by Grant Gustin, is still the lead, but by this point the writing is really starting to feel repetitive. Barry keeps needing emotional talks and keeps making questionable decisions even though he should be way more experienced by now.

Iris West-Allen, played by Candice Patton, remains central to the story, especially with the weird cosmic family angle this season tries to push. This is one of those seasons where the show really expects you to go along with some bizarre emotional logic.

Cisco Ramon / Vibe / Mecha-Vibe, played by Carlos Valdes, is still around for part of the season, but this is where Cisco exits as a regular character. His departure hurts because Cisco was one of the original ingredients that made the show work.

Caitlin Snow and Frost, played by Danielle Panabaker, become more separated as characters. Frost continues becoming more of a hero, which is exactly what I mean when I say the show took Killer Frost and made her cleaner and safer over time.

Chester P. Runk, played by Brandon McKnight, becomes more important as the new tech guy. He’s basically filling the Cisco-shaped hole, and while the actor is fine, the character never fully replaces what Cisco brought.

Allegra Garcia, played by Kayla Compton, continues becoming a bigger part of the team and Team Citizen.

Cecile Horton, played by Danielle Nicolet, continues gaining importance with her powers.

The Wells situation is different this season because after Nash Wells and the multiverse-related Wells storyline, the show doesn’t have a traditional Wells variant in the same way as earlier seasons. Tom Cavanagh still appears, including as versions tied to Wells and Thawne, but the “new Wells every season” formula is mostly winding down here.

The main villain/storyline of Season 7 involves Eva McCulloch / Mirror Monarch, played by Efrat Dor, finishing her arc, and then the Forces storyline. The Speed Force appears as Nora Allen, played by Michelle Harrison, while the other Forces include characters like Fuerza / Alexa Rivera, played by Sara Garcia, Psych / Bashir Malik, played by Ennis Esmer, and Deon Owens / Still Force, played by Christian Magby. This whole storyline is where the show gets really weird because Barry and Iris are basically treated like parents to cosmic forces, and I still don’t know how anyone wrote that with a straight face.

Godspeed / August Heart, played by Karan Oberoi, also becomes a major villain this season. Godspeed should have been huge, but the execution is goofy and wasted.


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Season 8

Barry Allen / The Flash, played by Grant Gustin, is now supposed to be a more experienced and powerful hero. The show tries to present him as more confident, but he still gets dragged into the same emotional patterns.

Iris West-Allen, played by Candice Patton, deals with time sickness this season, which becomes one of her bigger storylines. Again, Iris gets important material, but the show’s writing around her can be exhausting.

Caitlin Snow and Frost, played by Danielle Panabaker, continue their split-character dynamic, and Frost gets a major emotional arc this season. This is where the show really pushes Frost as a hero, even though I still think Killer Frost becoming this clean heroic figure makes her less interesting than she should’ve been.

Chester P. Runk, played by Brandon McKnight, is now fully the team’s tech guy.

Allegra Garcia, played by Kayla Compton, continues as part of Team Citizen and Team Flash’s extended circle.

Cecile Horton, played by Danielle Nicolet, keeps becoming more powerful and more involved in superhero situations.

Mark Blaine / Chillblaine, played by Jon Cor, becomes more involved through Frost’s storyline. He’s one of those characters where the show clearly wants him to matter more, but your mileage may vary.

Nora West-Allen / XS, played by Jessica Parker Kennedy, and Bart Allen / Impulse, played by Jordan Fisher, appear as Barry and Iris’s future children. Bart has more chaotic speedster energy, and Nora is still tied to that future-family dynamic.

The Wells presence is again mostly tied to Tom Cavanagh’s appearances as Eobard Thawne / Reverse Flash rather than a brand-new Wells variant. The old Wells gimmick is mostly gone by this point, but Thawne is still hanging around because apparently no timeline, death, or common sense can keep that man away.

The major villain of the Armageddon event is Despero, played by Tony Curran. He comes from the future and believes Barry is destined to cause massive destruction. Reverse Flash / Eobard Thawne, played by Tom Cavanagh, is also heavily involved, and honestly Thawne is still the more interesting threat because his hatred for Barry is personal.

Deathstorm, voiced/performed through connections to Ronnie Raymond, played by Robbie Amell, becomes another major villain. This storyline is tied to Caitlin’s grief and has more horror vibes than most later Flash villains.


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Season 9

Barry Allen / The Flash, played by Grant Gustin, is in his final season, and this should have been the big victory lap for the character. By this point Barry has been through everything, so the season should feel like the culmination of his journey. Instead, it feels rushed and uneven.

Iris West-Allen, played by Candice Patton, is still central to Barry’s life and the ending of the show. Her pregnancy and future family setup become part of the final season’s emotional direction.

Caitlin Snow / Khione, played by Danielle Panabaker, is now changed again after everything with Frost and Caitlin. Khione is basically another example of how this show kept reinventing Caitlin’s role instead of letting her have one clean arc.

Chester P. Runk, played by Brandon McKnight, continues as the tech guy.

Allegra Garcia, played by Kayla Compton, continues as part of the team and has her romantic tension with Chester.

Cecile Horton, played by Danielle Nicolet, is basically a full superhero by this point. Her powers keep expanding, and again, it gets to the point where I’m wondering how this became such a big part of the final season of The Flash.

Mark Blaine / Chillblaine, played by Jon Cor, continues appearing, especially tied to the fallout from Frost and Caitlin’s story.

Joe West, played by Jesse L. Martin, is still around but less central than he was early on, which is sad because Joe was one of the original emotional anchors.

The Wells situation in Season 9 is mostly about Tom Cavanagh returning as Eobard Thawne / Reverse Flash rather than introducing a new Wells variant. By this point, the show has mostly moved away from the yearly Wells replacement gimmick.

The first major villain of Season 9 is Red Death, played by Javicia Leslie. This version is tied to Ryan Wilder / Batwoman instead of the comic Batman version, and honestly this is one of the roughest final-season villain choices. Red Death should feel terrifying, but this version feels cartoonish and weirdly small for the final season.

The final major villain is Eddie Thawne / Cobalt Blue, played by Rick Cosnett. Eddie returning should have been huge because he mattered in Season 1, and bringing him back for the final season makes sense on paper. The problem is that it happens too late and doesn’t get enough time to breathe.

The final season also brings back major speedster villains like Reverse Flash / Eobard Thawne, played by Tom Cavanagh, Zoom / Hunter Zolomon, played by Teddy Sears with Tony Todd’s voice, Savitar, tied to Grant Gustin, and Godspeed / August Heart, played by Karan Oberoi. On paper, that sounds awesome. In execution, well, we’ll get into that in spoilers, because good grief.
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Pacing / Episode Flow

The early seasons actually move pretty well. Season 1 has mystery and emotion. Season 2 has danger and multiverse expansion. Season 3 has a future tragedy Barry is trying to stop. Season 4 at least tries to change things by giving Barry a non-speedster villain.

Then the pacing starts getting worse.

Storylines drag. Cicada should not have lasted an entire season. Mirror Monarch drags. The Forces storyline feels like it was written by someone who wanted superhero mythology and family therapy mashed together in a blender. Later seasons feel like the show is filling time because it already used its best ideas.

And one of the biggest problems is that so many conflicts could be solved if characters just sat down and talked like normal human beings for five minutes.

But no.

Someone lies. Someone storms out. Someone hides information. Someone gives a speech. Barry looks sad. Piano music starts. Then somebody says, “Run, Barry, run,” and we all age five years.

This show becomes allergic to normal communication.


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Pros

The first season is genuinely great. Barry’s origin works. The Reverse Flash mystery works. The emotional connection to his mother’s death works. The show feels focused.

Grant Gustin is good as Barry, especially early on. He is easily better than Ezra Miller’s version, even though that comparison is like saying a home-cooked meal is better than eating drywall.

Tom Cavanagh is fantastic. Even when the Wells gimmick gets overused, he usually makes it entertaining.

Reverse Flash is one of the best villains in the Arrowverse. Eobard Thawne works because his hatred of Barry is personal, petty, and weirdly hilarious at times.

Zoom is also a great villain. He feels like a horror villain speedster, especially with Tony Todd’s voice.

Sherloque Wells is one of the best things about Season 5.

Some crossovers are fun, especially Crisis on Infinite Earths, which is basically the CW’s Infinity War. It is messy, but I respect the ambition.


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Cons

Barry becomes stagnant.

Iris is badly written.

Killer Frost gets wasted.

Cisco leaving hurts the show.

The cast gets bloated.

The villains get weaker.

The writing gets lazy.

The Speed Force rules become nonsense.

The later seasons feel cheap and repetitive.

And “Run, Barry, run” needs to be locked in a vault and guarded by Batman.

At first, that line worked. It had emotion. It meant something. Then the show acted like it had a catchphrase on its hands. No, you don’t. Please stop. After the umpteenth time, it stops being inspirational and starts sounding like Barry needs verbal permission to use his legs.


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Final Thoughts

The Flash is frustrating because it didn’t start bad.

It started good.

That’s what makes the downfall hurt more. Season 1 had heart. It had focus. It had a great villain. It had an emotional reason for Barry to become a hero.

Then the show slowly buried itself under repetitive writing, bloated characters, lazy conflict, weak villains, confusing mythology, and endless pep talks.

The first four seasons are the strongest stretch. Season 5 is only passable because Sherloque Wells is carrying it like a man dragging a broken shopping cart uphill. After that, the show falls off hard.

This was once one of CW’s best superhero shows.

Then it became one of the best examples of why shows need to know when to stop.


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Rating

With everything I’ve laid out, I’m giving The Flash:

4 / 10

It had good seasons. It had great moments. It had strong villains early on.

But as a full series?

This thing ran too long, ran in circles, and somehow ran out of steam while being about the fastest man alive.


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⚠️ Spoiler Warning

Alright, now we’re getting into everything. Every season, major villains, big twists, important story details, and where this show started falling apart.


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Spoilers

Season 1, which aired from 2014 to 2015, is still the best season of the show. This is where Barry Allen’s origin actually gets handled with care. When Barry was a kid, his mother Nora Allen was murdered by something impossible. He sees red and yellow lightning moving around the room, his mother is killed, and his father Henry Allen is blamed for the murder. Barry grows up knowing his father is innocent, but nobody believes him because what is he supposed to say? “A yellow blur murdered my mom”? That sounds insane.

So Barry becomes a forensic scientist. That detail matters because Barry’s whole career is built around evidence. He wants facts. He wants proof. He wants to prove that the impossible thing he saw as a kid was real. That is a strong origin. That is why Grant Gustin’s version works better than Ezra Miller’s version. Grant’s Barry has grief and purpose built into him from the start. Ezra’s version mostly feels like awkward comic relief with lightning effects.

Then the STAR Labs particle accelerator explodes. Barry gets struck by lightning and falls into a coma. When he wakes up, he has super speed. Harrison Wells, Cisco Ramon, and Caitlin Snow help him understand his powers, and he becomes The Flash.

The early villain-of-the-week format works because the meta-humans are tied to the particle accelerator explosion. Barry is cleaning up the consequences of the same event that created him. That gives the show structure.

But the real story is Harrison Wells.

The twist is that Wells is actually Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash, who stole the real Harrison Wells’s identity after traveling back in time. Eobard is the man in yellow. He murdered Barry’s mother, framed Henry, and has been secretly training Barry so Barry can become fast enough to help him get back to the future.

That is great villain writing. Thawne is Barry’s mentor and his worst enemy at the same time. He destroyed Barry’s life, then helped build him into The Flash because he needed him. That’s twisted, personal, and actually clever.

Season 1 ends with Barry finally getting the chance to go back and save his mom, but future Barry tells him not to. So Barry just says goodbye to her as she dies. That scene works because it is heartbreaking. Then Eddie Thawne sacrifices himself because he is Eobard’s ancestor, which erases Reverse Flash from existence. At least for five minutes, because this show later treats timeline erasure like a mild headache.

Season 1 works because it has focus. Barry wants justice. Thawne wants to go home. The team is small. The villain is personal. The emotions actually land.

Season 2, which aired from 2015 to 2016, introduces the multiverse. We meet Jay Garrick, played by Teddy Sears, who claims to be The Flash from Earth-2. We also meet Harry Wells from Earth-2 and his daughter Jesse Quick, played by Violett Beane.

The main villain is Zoom, voiced by Tony Todd and later revealed to be Hunter Zolomon, also played by Teddy Sears. Zoom is genuinely scary early on. He feels brutal. He feels faster. He feels like Barry cannot beat him. The scene where Zoom beats Barry, breaks him, and drags him around Central City is still one of the best villain moments in the entire show.

Zoom’s motivation is basically power. He wants to be the fastest speedster alive, steal Barry’s speed, and rule through fear. It’s not as emotionally strong as Reverse Flash, but it works because Zoom feels dangerous.

The Jay Garrick twist is messy but entertaining. The person Barry trusted as another Flash turns out to be Zoom. Then the real Jay Garrick is revealed to be Henry Allen’s Earth-3 doppelganger, also played by John Wesley Shipp, which is a fun nod to the original Flash show.

Then Zoom kills Henry Allen. Barry loses his father right after getting him back, and this breaks him. Instead of accepting the loss, Barry goes back in time and saves his mother.

This creates Flashpoint.

And this is where Barry’s problem really begins.

Season 3, which aired from 2016 to 2017, starts with Flashpoint. And honestly, Flashpoint should have been a bigger deal. In the comics and animated movie, Flashpoint is massive. In this show, Barry lives in the changed timeline for a little bit, then resets it pretty quickly. But when he resets it, things are still different.

Cisco’s brother Dante is dead. Caitlin starts developing Killer Frost powers. Diggle has a son instead of a daughter. Iris and Joe’s relationship is damaged. Barry changed people’s lives because he couldn’t handle his grief.

This should have been the season where Barry finally learns that messing with time is dangerous.

But does he learn?

Kind of.

Until the show needs him to learn it again. And again. And again. Barry’s character development sometimes feels like it’s written on a napkin that gets thrown away after each finale.

The main villain is Savitar, who is eventually revealed to be a future time remnant of Barry. This matters because Barry creates time remnants while fighting Savitar, and one of those remnants gets rejected, broken, and eventually becomes Savitar. So once again, Barry creates his own problem.

On paper, that is a great idea. Barry’s enemy being a future broken version of himself could have been amazing. It turns Barry’s guilt, ego, and trauma into a literal villain.

But the execution gets messy.

The season revolves around Barry seeing the future where Savitar kills Iris, and Team Flash spends the whole season trying to stop that moment. There is good tension there, but this is also where the show starts leaning harder into CW melodrama. Secrets, arguments, hallway speeches, Barry looking miserable, Iris being treated like the center of the entire universe, and everyone acting like the timeline exists purely to emotionally torture Barry.

H.R. Wells sacrificing himself by taking Iris’s place is actually a good twist. H.R. was goofy, but he was likable, and his death works emotionally.

Savitar is a cool concept with messy execution. That basically describes Season 3. Good ideas, uneven writing.

Season 4, which aired from 2017 to 2018, tries to move away from speedster villains by introducing Clifford DeVoe / The Thinker, played by Neil Sandilands. I respect the idea. Barry facing someone smarter instead of faster is a good direction. Barry can’t just run faster to beat this guy.

At first, DeVoe is interesting. He’s a brilliant professor whose body is failing, and his wife Marlize DeVoe, played by Kim Engelbrecht, helps him with his plan. His motivation is that humanity has become too dependent on technology, so he wants to “enlighten” the world by basically wiping people’s intelligence and resetting civilization.

That could have worked.

But then the season gets too convoluted. DeVoe starts transferring his mind into different meta-human bodies, and after a while, it stops feeling smart and starts feeling exhausting. The body-swapping makes the villain less interesting the longer it goes on.

This season also introduces Ralph Dibny, played by Hartley Sawyer, who becomes Elongated Man. Ralph starts off sleazy, immature, and annoying, but he actually gets a real redemption arc. Barry has to mentor him, which should be interesting because Barry himself still needs a pep talk every twenty minutes.

Barry also gets framed for DeVoe’s murder and sent to prison. This has potential because Barry ends up in the same prison where his father was locked up. That should be powerful. And some of it works. But like a lot of Flash storylines, it gets resolved and the show moves along.

Season 4 is still watchable, but this is where the show starts feeling less tight. It’s still The Flash, but you can feel the bolts loosening.

Season 5, which aired from 2018 to 2019, is where the show really starts sliding downhill. Nora West-Allen, Barry and Iris’s daughter from the future, arrives in the present. She says she came back because Barry disappeared during Crisis and she grew up without him.

That idea should work. Barry meeting his future daughter should be emotional. It should give Barry and Iris something powerful to deal with.

But Nora is written so strangely.

She is a grown adult, but she acts like a kid. She lies, throws tantrums, hides information, works with Thawne, and then gets emotional when consequences happen. She’s supposed to be around twenty-five, but the show writes her like she’s a middle schooler who stole a time machine. It’s hard to take seriously.

Then we get Cicada.

Orlin Dwyer / Cicada, played by Chris Klein, is the main villain for most of the season. His motivation is that his niece Grace was injured because of meta-human chaos, so he hates metas and uses a dagger that can dampen powers.

On paper, a normal guy hunting meta-humans could work.

In execution? Jesus Christ.

Cicada shows up, growls like he swallowed gravel, throws his dagger, almost gets caught, then flies away. Over and over again. Team Flash has so many chances to stop this man. Barry is faster than him. The team has tech. They have powers. They have brains. And somehow Cicada keeps escaping because the season needs him to.

This is one of the best examples of lazy writing stretching a conflict. Half of this season could be solved if Team Flash used one decent plan or if everyone stopped standing around waiting for Cicada to throw his knife like he’s auditioning for discount horror movie Batman.

Then adult Grace Gibbons becomes the second Cicada, played by Sarah Carter, and it still doesn’t save the season. It just makes it feel more dragged out.

The best part of Season 5 is Sherloque Wells. Tom Cavanagh plays him as this weird detective version of Wells, and he brings life to the season. He investigates Nora. He figures out she’s hiding something. He has personality. He’s funny. He feels useful. Every time Sherloque is on screen, the season wakes up.

The Nora and Reverse Flash storyline is also one of the better parts. Eobard Thawne is imprisoned in the future and manipulates Nora into working with him. That works because Thawne being petty enough to ruin Barry’s life through his daughter is completely in character. Reverse Flash is basically a man who wakes up every morning and says, “How can I make Barry Allen’s life worse today?”

Season 5 ends with Nora being erased from the timeline. It should hit hard, and there is emotion there, but by this point the show has used timeline nonsense so much that erasure doesn’t feel as permanent as it should.

Season 6, which aired from 2019 to 2020, is split because of Crisis on Infinite Earths. The first half focuses on Bloodwork, Ramsey Rosso, played by Sendhil Ramamurthy. I actually think Bloodwork is one of the better later villains. His motivation is fear of death. He wants to cure mortality, but his experiments corrupt him and turn him into this blood-controlling monster.

That works. It’s creepy. It has a horror vibe. It gives Barry something darker to deal with. And Barry preparing for his possible death in Crisis gives the season some emotional weight.

Then Crisis on Infinite Earths happens.

This is basically the CW’s Infinity War event. It brings together Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Black Lightning, and a bunch of cameos. Brandon Routh returns as Superman. Tom Welling’s Clark Kent appears. Kevin Conroy plays Bruce Wayne. Ezra Miller’s Flash meets Grant Gustin’s Flash, which is still surreal because you’re literally watching the better Flash stand next to the theatrical Flash and thinking, wow, they really picked the wrong guy for the movie universe.

But Crisis is messy.

The biggest issue is that The Flash had teased Barry vanishing in Crisis since Season 1. This was built up for years. The newspaper. The future date. The idea that Barry disappears. The show kept telling us this was coming.

Then when it happens, Earth-90 Barry dies instead.

Now, yes, that is a nice tribute to John Wesley Shipp. But it also feels like the show found a loophole. Like, “Well, technically a Barry died.” Sir, get out of here with that prophecy lawyer nonsense.

They hyped Barry’s disappearance for years and then sidestepped it.

After Crisis, the multiverse resets, Earths merge, and the rules become even messier. The second half of Season 6 focuses on Eva McCulloch / Mirror Monarch, played by Efrat Dor. Iris gets trapped in the Mirrorverse, and a mirror version of Iris replaces her.

That idea could have been creepy. Barry not realizing his wife has been replaced should be disturbing. But the storyline drags too long. Once again, The Flash takes an interesting idea and stretches it until it starts losing power.

Season 7, which aired in 2021, is where the show gets really rough. It finishes the Mirror Monarch storyline, then introduces the Forces storyline, and wow.

The Speed Force comes back looking like Barry’s mother, Nora, played by Michelle Harrison. Then we get the Strength Force, Still Force, and Sage Force. And somehow Barry and Iris are treated like these cosmic forces are their children.

I’m sorry, what are we doing here?

Barry and Iris acting like parents to cosmic forces is one of the weirdest choices in the show. The Speed Force starts acting jealous and emotional like it’s in a soap opera. The whole thing feels like superhero mythology written during family counseling. I don’t know who thought this was the emotional core the show needed, but wow.

Then Godspeed finally becomes a major villain. August Heart / Godspeed, played by Karan Oberoi, should have been a top-tier speedster villain. He looks cool. He has a cool name. The idea of a Godspeed war should be awesome.

Instead, he feels wasted.

We get Godspeed clones, weird noises, cheap-looking fights, and then the lightning sword battle.

Lightning swords.

I still can’t believe they did that. It looked less like an epic Flash fight and more like a Power Rangers fan film where everyone found glow sticks and got too excited.

Season 8, which aired from 2021 to 2022, starts with Armageddon. Despero, played by Tony Curran, comes from the future because he believes Barry will destroy the world. The arc also brings back Reverse Flash, and Thawne rewrites reality so he is The Flash and Barry is the villain.

That idea is actually kind of fun because it is exactly the type of petty nonsense Thawne would do. He doesn’t just want to kill Barry. He wants to steal his life, his legacy, his happiness, everything. That’s why Reverse Flash still works. His motivation is hate, and he commits to it like it’s a full-time job with benefits.

Season 8 also gives us Deathstorm, connected to Ronnie Raymond, played by Robbie Amell. This storyline has creepy visuals and ties into Caitlin’s grief, so it has more emotional weight than some later arcs. But by this point, Caitlin and Frost’s story is already a mess. Frost is separate from Caitlin. Frost dies. Caitlin wants to bring Frost back. Then this leads into Khione.

It’s too much. Caitlin’s character becomes less of an arc and more of a software update that keeps installing wrong.

Season 9, which aired in 2023, is the final season, and this should have been the victory lap.

Instead, we start with Red Death.

Red Death is played by Javicia Leslie, who also played Ryan Wilder / Batwoman. In the comics, Red Death is connected to Batman and Flash mythology. In this show, it’s an alternate Ryan Wilder with speed powers. And I’m sorry, this storyline is rough. The costume doesn’t look good, the performance feels cartoonish, and the whole thing feels like a filler villain somehow got promoted to final season boss.

Then the final arc brings back Eddie Thawne, played by Rick Cosnett, as Cobalt Blue. This should have been huge. Eddie sacrificed himself in Season 1 to stop Reverse Flash. Bringing him back as the avatar of the Negative Speed Force could have been a strong full-circle ending.

And honestly, Eddie’s resentment makes sense. He lost his life. Barry got Iris. Barry got the future. Eddie got erased and forgotten. There is a good story there.

But the show brings it in too late.

Cobalt Blue should have been the main villain of the full final season. Instead, it feels rushed. The show suddenly remembers Eddie exists and tries to make him the final threat without giving it enough time to breathe.

Then the finale brings back Reverse Flash, Zoom, Savitar, and Godspeed. On paper, that sounds awesome. Barry’s greatest speedster villains coming back for one last fight should feel massive.

But they get defeated way too quickly.

Reverse Flash, Zoom, Savitar, and Godspeed should not feel like disposable cameos. But that’s exactly what happens. It feels like the show brought them back for trailer shots, then shoved them out the door because the episode was almost over.

The final battle should have felt like an event. Instead, it feels rushed and weirdly small.

The ending has Barry sharing his speed and creating new speedsters, trying to end on a hopeful legacy note. And I understand what they were going for. Barry is not alone. The legacy continues. Fine.

But by that point, the show had already lost too much of what made it special.

The downfall of The Flash happened because the show stopped progressing. Barry kept repeating the same emotional arcs. Iris kept being forced into importance instead of being naturally written well. Caitlin and Frost kept getting rewritten. Cisco leaving damaged the core team. Wells variants became a crutch. The villains got weaker. The cast became too bloated. The Speed Force became nonsense. The rules stopped mattering. And the phrase “Run, Barry, run” became less of an iconic line and more of a script checkbox.

Every time Barry hesitated, you could practically feel the show loading the line like a soundboard.

“Barry is sad.”
Press button.
“Run, Barry, run.”

At first, it meant something. By the end, I wanted to run away from the phrase myself.

The Flash started as a strong superhero show about grief, justice, found family, and heroism.

Then it became a show where half the problems could be solved if people stopped lying, stopped giving speeches, and talked like normal human beings for five minutes.

And that’s what makes it sad.

Because this show was once good.

Then it ran too long.

Then it ran in circles.

Then it ran straight into the ground.