So now that the 4 shows I've been reviewing since the fall are on hiatus until September, I thought I'd give you my thoughts on each season, my favourite episodes and what I want from the next season.
Just an important note: My season reviews are of the season as a whole. So I'll be judging them based on how well the storyline worked, the villains, etc. rather than how much I enjoyed each episode. Does that make sense? If it doesn't, hopefully it will as you read.
Sooo, let's go!
1. Agents of SHIELD (Season 3)
Like I believe I mentioned in my review of the finale, I think that SHIELD's third season was another success. I do, however, believe the first half was better than the second half. Those first 10 episodes were all pretty much fantastic, effortlessly picking up the loose threads from Season 2's finale while, at the same time, seemingly taking the season in a different direction than the previous one. With the second half, I felt like as it reached the finish line, the season's story started to blend in too much with Season 2's. You know, the bad guy intends to spread Terrigen mist across the world, Daisy's allegiances are called into question, etc. Now, is it exactly the same? Of course not. That quick list is just from a surface level. There's still plenty of new ideas and issues introduced in the last 12 episodes and I enjoyed pretty much all of them, and that means something. So overall, Season 3 was great, but could have used some newer, different ideas for its back half.
Rating: 8.8/10
Top 5 Episodes (in chronological order):
- "4,722 Hours" (Episode 5) (Review)
- "Many Heads, One Tale" (Episode 8) (Review)
- "Closure" (Episode 9) (Review)
- "The Team" (Episode 17) (Review)
- "Ascension" (Episode 22) (Review)
Expectations for Season 4: I think the show should take a break from having such a huge focus on Inhumans and Inhuman lore. It's not that I didn't enjoy it (I did, very much so), but I was starting to feel a bit of Inhuman-fatigue towards the end of this season. Luckily, it does look as though that will happen next season. Yay! Also, if this is indeed the final season (as many fear), loose threads like the Gravitonium, Ian Quinn and Deathlok need to be addressed. That would make me a happy SHIELD fan,
2. The Flash (Season 2)
After an excellent first season, The Flash had a bit of a quality dip in its second. I think the dip's origin can be traced back to how weak of a villain Zoom turned out to be. While well-designed and voiced, Zoom was a villain who's motivations were muddled, and who's identity reveal seemed too out of left field. On top of that, the whole "my nemesis turned out to be someone I thought I could trust" song and dance had been done already. And much better. Other than that, I still really enjoyed this season. I loved how Earth-2 was introduced, and the episodes spent there,. I thought Barry thinking he could never truly be happy made for some really emotional content. Wally and Jessie grew on me as the season went on. Sure,maybe Season 2 wasn't as good as Season 1, but boy was it still a heap of fun.
Oh, but I did also hate the show's freaking confusing and stupid time travel logic.
Rating: 8.3/10
Top 5 Episodes (in chronological order):
- "The Darkness and the Light" (Episode 5) (Review)
- "Enter Zoom" (Episode 6) (Review)
- "Legends of Today" (Episode 8) (Review)
- "Welcome to Earth-2" (Episode 13) (Review)
- "Flash Back" (Episode 18) (Review)
Expectations for Season 2: Flashpoint! Also, a villain who's not a speedster. If it is, that's just one too many. And where else could you possibly go with one?
3. Arrow (Season 4)
First off, I didn't hate this season. I'd say it was just the tiniest bit better than Season 3. Arrow's fourth season started out very well. New suit, awesome villain, lighter tone, the grave mystery. It looked as though Arrow was mixing things up a bit while still remaining true to what made the show great. But it was during the season's back half that things went downhill. The mystery surrounding Darhk's plot became sluggish, as did the flashbacks. The relationship drama between Oliver and Felicity felt unneeded and just way too overblown, the writing became lazier (Apparently hacking solves everything), and the show quickly became a shadow of what it once was. There were times during this season where I felt like Season 4 was an entirely different show compared to Season 1, and not in a good way either. In summary, Season 4 of Arrow was a mess. A big, initially enjoyable, recently frustrating, mess.
Top 5 Episodes (in chronological order):
- "Beyond Redemption" (Episode 4) (Review)
- "Brotherhood" (Episode 7) (Review)
- "Legends of Yesterday" (Episode 8) (Review)
- "Unchained" (Episode 12) (Review)
- "Taken" (Episode 15) (Review)
Expectations for Season 5: First and foremost, bring the show back to its Seasons 1 and 2 roots. Make me excited for Wednesday night again. Other than that? Get rid of Donna, bring back Deathstroke (even of it's just for a 3-episode arc or something), just decide whether or not Oliver and Felicity should be together or not and then leave it alone, come up with a bad guy plot that doesn't revolve around the city being destroyed, improve the flashbacks, and find something worthwhile for Lance and Malcolm to do. I could go on, but I'll leave it at that.
4. Legends of Tomorrow (Season 1)
I've said this numerous times in my reviews, but the best aspect of Legends of Tomorrow is its cast. Having all these characters, most of whom we've already gotten to know and love/hate on Arrow and The Flash, interact and get some much-needed character development was an absolute treat. However, that also sort of turned out to be a weakness with the forced and horribly-written love triangle between Ray, Kendra and Carter. The quest to kill Vandal Savage had some hiccups, as I felt like there wasn't enough content to fill up a season of story. The pacing was certainly off, but the episodes that dealt with the Time Masters turned out to be a lot more interesting. And fortunately, Legends was the only one of the three CW DC shows to really stick the landing with its finale. Legends of Tomorrow, though flawed, turned out to be a heck of a lot of fun to watch, even with its absolutely confusing time travel logic, and I can't wait for Season 2.
Top 5 Episodes (in chronological order)
- "Star City 2046" (Episode 6) (Review)
- "Left Behind" (Episode 9) (Review)
- "Last Refuge" (Episode 12) (Review)
- "Destiny" (Episode 15) (Review)
- "Legendary" (Episode 16) (Review)
Expectations for Season 2: I'm looking forward to seeing just what kind of missions the crew will go on and what threat they will face. Some new crew members wouldn't hurt and seeing Snart again wouldn't either. Get rid of any forced CW romance and you've got me excited.
I'm hoping to do a few things this week that'll give a preview of what I want to do with the blog over the summer, so stay tuned!
Noah
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