Chain of Thoughts: 'Elseworlds' and the DCW Season So Far

The CW’s DC shows have just gone on mid-season hiatus.  Here are some thoughts on the season so far:

• Elseworlds, this year’s crossover event, was fun.  But last year’s Crisis on Earth-X is still the king of DCW crossovers.
• It was so awesome to see Tyler Hoechlin as Clark Kent/Superman again.  And this time around, he’s joined for the first time by Elizabeth Tulloch’s Lois Lane.  Some of Elseworlds’ best scenes involved them.
• The most epic part of the whole crossover is definitely the badass sequence where Barry Allen/Green Arrow, Oliver Queen/Flash, Supergirl, and Superman fight Amazo.
• Finally, the 1990’s Flash show starring John Wesley Shipp has officially crossed over to the Arrowverse.  I’m still waiting for Smallville to do the same.
• The Arrow opening montage recreated with Grant Gustin in the role of Oliver Queen/Green Arrow was hilariously pitch-perfect.  Speaking of which, I noticed that it usually takes these annual crossovers until we get to see Barry Allen revert back to the merry, geeky, Peter Parker-esque Barry Allen that we all loved in the first season.

• Okay, at one point, Smallville was referenced.  There was an aerial shot of a rural town while a few bars of Remy Zero’s “Save Me” played in the background, similar to how Smallvile’s opening credits begin.  For a nanosecond, I actually thought that a crossover with Smallville was finally happening.  My heart skipped a beat.  But it turned out being a mere scene transition to the Kent farm of Earth-38, where Clark, Lois, and Kara were currently at.  Honestly, I was more pissed than pleased.  I don’t want cheap references.  I want the actual thing.  I want to see a crossover with Smallville!
• Seriously… GIVE ME A SMALLVILLE-ARROWVERSE CROSSOVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111
• Martian Manhunter and Brainiac 5 showed up in the final battle, but basically, all they had was a glorified cameo.  Brainy got the chance to briefly do something badass though.
• Oliver being adamant that Batman is just an urban legend was adorable.
• Barry, Oliver, and Kara’s visit to Gotham City was cool.  Unfortunately, Batwoman was somewhat underwhelming, as Ruby Rose’s acting was kinda flat.  Plus, she only took part in one of the three episodes.

• So, next year’s crossover event was already revealed at the end of Elseworlds – it’s going to be Crisis on Infinite Earths.  And I have high expectations for it.   I’m envisioning it to be packed with spectacles, surprises, and – most importantly – various DC characters from all over the TV multiverse.
• Legends of Tomorrow was excluded from this crossover.  What a bummer.  Its episode while Elseworlds was ongoing, “Legends of To-Meow-Meow”, did a fun throwback to 70s-80s TV shows The A-Team, Charlie’s Angels, and Fraggle Rock, but it wasn’t enough compensation.  DCW should make up for it by doing something notably special for this show later this season.  A musical episode perhaps?
• Legends of Tomorrow is still my favorite of the bunch.  It’s as pleasingly wacky as ever.  It’s just incredible how it successfully reinvented itself once again to remain fresh.
• And I love the fact that John Constantine is now a Legend.

• On the other hand, Charlie is… eh.  I don’t hate her.  But I don’t care for the character.  It’s just hard when, not only is she not based – even loosely, like Zari – on a DC Comics character, but her basic character premise seems to be a mere hokey excuse to keep Maisie Richardson-Sellers in the show after Amaya left.  Don’t get me wrong.  I mentioned several instances in the past that I find Maisie Richardson-Sellers to be pretty hot, and thus, I’m absolutely happy that she’s still in the show.  But I wished the showrunners figured out a smarter way of writing her retention.  Moreover, I don’t like her hairstyle.  It makes her less attractive.
• Mona Wu, however, I hate.  She’s just there to be an irritating, quirky presence.  And we already have Gary for that.
• For the first time in years, I like Arrow more than The Flash.  Now, that doesn’t mean The Flash got worse.   Arrow just got really better this season – returning to the fun, gritty, “masked hero mystery action thriller” superhero show that it was of its first seasons.  The “Oliver in prison” arc has been very satisfying, and I tremendously like the idea of it doing flash forwards now instead of flashbacks.
• Dinah Drake and Laurel Lance are a sonic-screaming metahuman redundancy that I don’t mind the show has.

• The Flash is looking to have another engrossing season of twists and turns.  But it’s more due to Nora West-Allen a.k.a. XS – the future daughter of Barry and Iris that time traveled to the present – and the mysteries she brings with her, including her connection with an imprisoned Harrison Wells-faced Eobard Thawne, than the supposed big bad of season 5, Cicada.
• Tom Cavanagh’s Harrison Wells for this season is a French detective named Harrison Sherloque Wells.  It’s corny, but as usual, Cavanagh is making the character work.
• I’m a little disappointed of The Flash’s 100^th episode.  Don’t get me wrong.  It was great.  I love how Barry and Nora visited different points of the show’s past, especially their interactions with Thawne.  But I was expecting for a bit more.  Like a reunion/epic battle between all good and evil speedsters that have been introduced in the show so far.

• As usual, Supergirl is at the bottom.  It’s because it continues to spend most of its energies pretending to be a thoughtful critique on Trump’s America, but actually, it’s just really spewing false equivalencies.  Actually, I don’t really mind if a show or movie wants to convey some liberal propaganda.  It’s a Hollywood norm after all.  As a consumer of entertainment, I always do my best to discard whatever is negative and absorb whatever is positive.  I can even sometimes appreciate the delivery of a message, even if I don’t agree with it, as long as it’s delivered with nuance, cleverness, and creativity.  But when it begins to feel like that the production makes the agenda paramount over the art, it annoys me.  It seems to me that Supergirl is like this.
• Yeah, yeah.  I did say at the end of last season that I would drop this show if it didn’t improve in season 4.  But, here I am.  Still watching.  Maybe I already got too deep into it to quit.  Besides, I’m still mightily intrigued on what part that Kara doppelganger will play this season.  So far, she is irrelevant to the main storyline.
• I miss Winn Schott.  But I will admit that Brainy is a generally delightful replacement.  His personality and unique fighting style are both particularly winsome.
• I’m currently not watching the season two of Black Lightning.  Since there are no immediate plans of letting it cross over with the other DC shows, I believe it isn’t worthwhile to follow.