[Credits: The CW]

In only a couple of years, The CW has become the land of the superheroes and home of mighty figures such as The Green Arrow, The Flash or Supergirl. The network which was once considered too corny to hang out with the cool kids suddenly became the subject of conversation and rightly so. Arrow surprisingly made its Batman-like character and darker tone, unusual for The CW, work. And two years later, The Flash managed to counterbalance the Emerald Archer with its fun and optimistic main character. Everything seemed to be well and the additions of Legends Of Tomorrow and Supergirl only expanding this big universe for the better.

Today, the picture is a little grimmer than expected. The Flash became way too dark for its own sake, Arrow’s third and fourth seasons were poorly received, and even though its fifth season was an excellent return to form, it is the exception that only highlights a problem that seems inherent to every CW superhero show currently on TV.

I thought I would be excited to see the return of my favorite superheroes on TV, but I left the premiere of each show with a weird sensation that took me a few minutes to grasp; it feels like the DC shows no longer have stakes.

‘Arrow’ [Credits: Warner Bros]

The Flash, Legends, and Arrow tried to end their seasons with a bang. Barry chose to remain into the Speed Force, Adrian Chase blew up Lian Yu, and the Legends literally broke time. You can hardly make a more bold cliffhanger to let your viewers wondering what’s going to happen next, but was it too much ambitious?

Twenty minutes into the premiere of The Flash, Barry is back and is wearing his new costume by the end of the episode and back to status-quo. On Arrow, Samantha, the character no one cared about, is the only revealed to have died on Lian Yu after months of teasing, Thea is in a coma and Diggle has degenerative nerve damage preventing him from shooting correctly, back to status-quo. Also, in Legends Of Tomorrow, the aberration of Los Angeles filled with dinosaurs teased in the finale is handled in a matter of seconds by the Time-Bureau and you guessed it, back to status-quo.

Everything that happened in last year’s finales is mostly inconsequential and doesn’t hold any, or enough weight in the story. It is not something new, and it feels like it has become a kind of habit of late. Last year, the writers’ of The Flash teased for months the consequences of Barry saving his mother and went as far as dubbing the first episode of season three Flashpoint. The result: a promising storyline that lasted only one episode by the end of which we were back to our regular timeline. Even Agents of Shield (which is one of the best shows on TV right now) did a better a job at a “Flashpoint” storyline than the time-traveling superhero show.

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ [Credit: ABC]

That is not to say that nothing happens. Arrow in its second episode this year did a good job at subverting viewers’ expectations, but you cannot see the woods for the trees, and other than that, Barry is back at being The Flash and the Legends back at correcting their own mess across time. It is discouraging to see the writers’ unwillingness to break the status-quo and get out of their comfort zone.

There’s one similarity between all those shows that could give a beginning of explanation: every one of them is written around a team of superheroes. In a way it is understandable, it gives the writers a framework around which they can wave their storylines and characters more easily; but it also comes at the risk of becoming redundant, which is what’s currently happening.

“It is no wonder the DC shows have been on the decline these past few years: they are not surprising anymore.”

‘The Flash’ [Credits: Warner Bros]

You cannot be 100% invested in a show if you know in advance what the writers are willing and not willing to do. I would have like to see Wally being The Flash for more than five minutes, but I knew before the premiere aired that it wouldn’t happen, because the writers pulled that trick before.

Similarly, Arrow backed itself into a corner when it decided to end season five by blowing up Lian Yu with every member of Team Arrow on it. We already knew a smaller team wasn’t the direction the show was aiming for and thus, the only thing that cliffhanger managed to accomplish is diminishing the threat Prometheus posed as a big bad because he didn’t manage to kill anyone important.

It is no wonder the DC shows have been on the decline these past few years; they are not surprising anymore. The writers don’t want to take risks with those shows, and the crucial decisions made by the characters often don’t have the lasting effect they should have. The Arrowverse at large seems to be stuck in a routine where it creates artificial conflicts, put characters at odds with each other in order to generate drama and stories.

This particular type of storytelling has been the trademark of The CW for years, and it is a shame that those superhero shows, which had the potential to be truly special, are trapped in this mold the network has claimed wanting to stir away from years ago.