11 things nobody wants to admit about The Flash

5. It should have ran for 10 seasons

Look, it’s common knowledge that The Flash‘s final season wasn’t very good. It’s also common knowledge that the show’s standard continued to decline with each season. But it came so dangerously close to 10 seasons that it just feels like an injustice that it never quite made it that far.

Smallville currently holds the record for the longest-running live-action superhero show of all time, with 10 seasons under its cape. As it paved the way for the Arrowverse, fans always wondered if any of the shows under that umbrella would ever match (or break) that record. Arrow bowed out with eight seasons, Supergirl concluded with six, and Black Lightning with four (before DC’s Legends of Tomorrow was cancelled after seven seasons and Batwoman after three). That left The Flash as the show that could do it, and it seemed fitting given that the show changed the game for superhero television.

The Flash‘s legacy is unmatched when it comes to the genre, and its longevity made it one of the few that could have achieved such a feat. Television is changing and longer runs are unlikely these days, so we may never see a superhero show run for this long ever again. And while Smallville is a worthy champion sitting alone at the top of that mountain, The Flash would have been an excellent companion to join it there.

It didn’t have to be a long season. A 10-episode outing would have been perfect. The CW’s decision to end the show just shy of making history is almost as senseless as the cancellation of the majority of its own original slate. But that’s an argument for another day.