The Flash: Five things to improve in season 5 moving forward
Photo Credit: The Flash/The CW Image Acquired from CWTVPR
3. Less filler episodes
Now, unlike Japanese animation, ‘filler’ is not a necessity, but can be positive in some areas in American live-action drama most fiction like this fall between the 18 and 22 episode format. As for the case of The Flash, it is 23, but in the next season it will be a 22-episode order. There are a couple theories I have as to why the one episode decrease, which I will get to later. Filler episodes are a form of narrative that is unrelated to the main plot.
Whereas anime use filler as the purpose to distance the episodes in conjunction with the manga it is based on, especially with a saga with a major story arc, in live-action it can be used in many ways, possibly make the protagonist(s) or recurring characters experience a task or maybe a random chore, which can expand a different aspect of the character that has not been shown before to an audience without losing characterization or a plot element can be implemented that could match their main goal.
Other times, it can give an audience space to breathe before the next segment comes in. No matter how it is used, it can affect pace of a given season-long arc, depending on the overall plot structure. Remember, filler can be utilized in good and bad ways.
As the seasons progressed, a lot more filler has been spread across the major storylines, Season 4 in particular. The crux of that was in the ‘Meta of the week’ episodes. Some were crucial to Dibny’s development as a hero and Barry’s role as a mentor and leader of Team Flash. While other times, they served as an ill-conceived MacGuffin of The Thinker’s grand plan. Something of note Helbing touched on during his SDCC interview was power scale.
The approach last season was ‘fastest man alive versus fastest mind alive,’ which allowed Barry to put his detective work more to good use. The body possession of bus metas was a brilliant concept, but after the break-in at Iron Heights, it got old quite fast and did not allow for the story to switch up the pace, therefore, more episodes being padded out and less emotional weight. The next problem was the suspension of disbelief, neither Team Flash nor Barry time around the better. Hopefully the lighter and darker tones can blend together as a whole.
As for the 22-episode order, due to the rise of streaming, according to TVLine the ‘usual’ 22-episode order is gradually becoming non-existent and is more of a case-by-case basis depending on contracts, budget, schedules and other factors. In my view, I believe it comes down to negotiations between the CW network, tight clarity and plot development of the scripts and maybe just an easier format to use rather 23 episodes.
Another problem with season 4 had been the tone. This has a lot to do with a theory from Robert McKee called ‘The Law of Diminishing Returns’ it is about the emotional impact a story has with an audience in film theory – positive or negative – just like in economics and life itself. Hopefully this can be resolved, so the less filler the better.