The Flash demonstrated both an interest in and command of dramatic irony from the get go through its slow burn reveal that Dr. Wells wasn’t who he appeared to be, but the show upped the dramatic irony ante with its time travel narrative. “Out of Time” was a great episode not only for the killer cliffhanger that saw Barry jumping backwards in time, but for its crazy twists and satisfying character development: Dr. Wells kills Cisco. Iris admits she has feelings for Barry, and finds out he is The Flash. It was compelling, ambitious storytelling that I was so afraid would be completely wasted in the time travel re-set. It was not.

“Rogue Time” dealt with the fallout from Barry’s jump backwards in time to live the same day over again, and it was steeped in effective dramatic irony that worked on two important levels. First, it bonded the viewer to Barry’s character in structural ways. Like the viewers, Barry was reliving this day knowing how it was different in the alternate reality. It engendered further empathy, affection, and connection to Barry’s already hugely likeable character. We were in a similar narrative position as Barry, and that made us allies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OSEO8k-bgQ

Our dramatic irony didn’t just end with shared knowledge with Barry, however. We were privy to things that happened in the alternate timeline that Barry wasn’t — namely, Dr. Well’s murder of Cisco. Eventually, Barry, Cisco, and the rest of the gang find out about the alternate reality murder, but there are a string of episodes where it’s just us who is in the know. The Flash trusts its viewers enough to give us that additional layer of dramatic irony, to hold our hands with in-world expository discussion of the event. It trusts that we are paying attention.

In this context, the use of effective dramatic irony is about trusting your viewers enough to give them multiple narrative levels to think about — i.e. what the respective characters know, what the audience knows, and how those two tensions play against one another. It must be built on solid characterization and the fleshing out of consistent character motivation. Character is the building block of any serialized television show, and it is just as compelling in crafting dramatic irony as it is in anything else a show tries to do. Which leads us to…

The failure of dramatic irony in Arrow season 3.

For all the ways The Flash used dramatic irony to build empathy for its main character and tension within the narrative, Arrow failed. Every opportunity the show had to give us insight that might explain why the characters (especially Oliver) were acting the ways they were acting or to create tension were eschewed: We found out that Thea killed Sara at the same time as most everyone else. We didn’t know the alpha-omega virus was in present-day play until the penultimate episode of the season. Arguably worst of all, we were asked to believe that Oliver had been brainwashed into being Al Sah-him.