Flash Season 2 Finale-Is there a Berlanti Curse?

I’m noticing a pattern with these Berlanti Production DC TV shows. Around Season 2 the writing starts to fall apart. After Watching The Flash’s head scratching Season 2 finale I’m left wondering if there’s a Berlanti Curse on their productions.

I saw a similar decline in the quality on Arrow on Season 2 right after Deathstroke killed Ollie’s Mommy. The Flash was running right along into the finale until that proposal for a race from Zoom. So Zoom’s gonna cause all this terror on two or possibly three earths, kill a bunch of people, take Barry’s powers, Kidnap an Earth 3 Jay Garrick, Kill’s Barry’s dad all in an effort to get Barry Allen to race him.

What the Fuck?

Oh yeah, Zoom made this magnetron or whatever to destroy the universe. But the whole season’s storyline just collapsed with that climax. All setup with next to no payoff. The Flash spends 22 episodes building up Zoom into a superbad who’s supposed to be feared, kills a bunch of people including Barry’s Dad and all he wants is a race against a superhero from another earth?

Damn. Just Damn. He coulda did all that in one fuckin’ episode. Then we could have moved on to some of the more important rogues like Mirror Master or Mr. Element.

As The Flash built into the lackluster climax of the finale we have Barry splitting in two, The Speed force ghosts Ex Machina coming to get Zoom (Nice CGI) after Barry beats them and the revelation that Jay Garrick on Earth 3 looks like Barry’s Dad. I’ll have to say The Golden Age Flash costume was pretty odd looking. And the explanation for Jay wearing the tin cap was just crap. Then after everyone goes back to their earth Barry gets so EMO that he decides to run back in time and stop Reverse Flash from killing his mother.

Setting up a time paradox for Season 3 and another run around the vicious cycle of bad writing.

Again. Damn. Just Damn.

Er…Barry couldn’t have done that in Season 1? Then we could have built into Jay Garrick & Earth 2 in a nice organic fashion with a crisis on Earth’s 1 and 2 needing Arrow, Supergirl and the Legends of Tomorrow to face it in a 4-part crossover. But Death angst, and drama had to be padded out for an entire season with a LAME of a villain who paid off like a $5 food stamp without the book in 2016.  

For me, The Flash lost a lot of momentum after Tuesday’s Finale. An entire season worth of build fell into a Black hole of absolutely terrible writing. It seems like the show’s story model is running around in a circle that’s turning into a vicious cycle. Time travel is turning into a Deus ex machina for Flash writers to get themselves out of a jam and the storytelling is just going around and around instead of moving ahead. What started out as a promising sci-fi show is starting to head right off the rails creatively.

Seriously, I’m starting to think there’s there a Berlanti Curse. Because these Berlanti Productions crumble into dust in their sophomore seasons. They start out strong in the first season setting things up, but around the second season the writing starts falling apart. Arrow fell apart around season 2.5 and the Flash started slowing down around Season 2.75. With the way things are going Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow will start a similar decline as well. Can a Berlanti Production get to Season 3 without collapsing? I’m still waiting to see if it’s possible.

If Flash starts running down Arrow’s road of declining quality, I have a feeling we’re in for a shittacular season 3 that will make Arrow’s season 3 look like one of the best things ever produced on television.

Here’s some advice for the Flash producers: Less time travel, More Rogues. And get Wentworth Miller back on this show so he can chill out as Captain Cold. He’s chewing scenery on Legends of Tomorrow. 

Berlanti Productions has good production values and they know how to cast an actor for a role. But the big problem for all four of their shows has been the inconsistent, and sometimes AWFUL scripts being pumped out by their writers. It’s clear to me that they need new showrunners and new writers because the scripts being produced on all four of their shows just aren’t GOOD in most cases. That Flash finale and a couple of episodes leading up to it needed another polish, Many episodes in Supergirl needed a serious rewrite. Legends should have NEVER been greenlit, and Arrow just needs...to be cancelled The Season 4 finale was literally shit on a plate.

If Berlanti productions could just get its writing together they could make some classic superhero TV shows. But as it stands now the stories just aren’t compelling enough to be must see superhero TV. Berlanti productions needs new writers and they need them NOW.