The Flash Seasons Ranked

The Flash Seasons Ranked

The Flash is a show that I’ve been watching since episode 1, so this show has been a big part of my life. But recently the 7th season of the show finished, and we’ve seen all 18 episodes of season 7. So in today’s blog post I’m going to be ranking all 7 seasons of The Flash. Let’s get started! 

7. Season 5: This season had a bunch of interesting ideas. The idea of Barry and Iris’ daughter coming back from the future to help them save the future. Is a great set-up for a storyline on this show. The idea of Cicada, a meta-human serial killer, is a great idea for a villain on this show. BUT the ideas here are much better than the evacuation of the said ideas. In the first 9 episodes I really liked the Nora character, Jessica Parker Kennedy played all the fun sides of the character and had great chemistry with Grant Gustin and Candice Patton. But as the season went along and we learned that she was working with Thawne, and in the last 6 episodes she became antagonist didn’t work for me. And the writing for the character didn’t really work for me. But Cicada as a villain was pretty dreadful and boring whenever he showed up on screen. I think he would have worked better if his story was like 5 episodes, but when it’s 22 episode they have the keep on stretching out the storyline with lazy and dumb excuses. Also, I don’t think Chris Kline was a good fit for the character, the voice he was using and the performance that he gave I just didn’t care for. And this is a smaller thing, but I HATE Barry’s costume in this season, the no chinstrap on the cowl looks ridiculous, and it fits awkwardly on Grant Gustin’s head. So in general, this was a season that had potential to be one of the better seasons, but fumbled with it’s plotlines. 

6. Season 7: For me this is the most frustrating season on the list. Because I enjoyed a number of things about this season, but had a number of frustrations along the way. On the positive, I think there are a number of really solid storylines running through-out the season. The stand-out being Godspeed’s storyline in the second half of the season. I thought they characterized Godspeed so well, and I like how his storyline ties into Nora and Bart coming from the future to help defeat Godspeed. That was a nice touch, that helped make things personal for Barry and Iris. Joe’s storyline in the show with Kramer was great, and felt very human. In a show that has people running super fast, this plotline helped ground the season a bit. And with what happened in 2020, fits really nicely. In general, I thought Kramer was a very good character. Godspeed in general was a great villain, I thought how they used him in the season was really well done. But I think this is the worst written season of the show. Where episode 9-11 had some bad writing with the different forces calling Barry and Iris their parents, because they created them...no not like that, through science and sci-fi stuff. I hate it when movies or shows do that kind of writing, I don’t enjoy it and it pulls me out of the episodes when this show did it. Tied to that, multiple times in the season Barry defeated villains...by talking with them. And talking them out of being bad.  Also, the way they wrote Barry in this season, made him super unlikeable. Where he feels disappointed in himself for not being able to defeat the villain or something that he did caused something bad to happen. In general, I would still go positive this season. But this episode had some high highs but some low lows. 

5. Season 6: This is a season that I’ve come to appreciate over time, but it’s still not a great season. Now I think the best choice that Eric Wallace made (the showrunner for the show), was to have two big bads in the season and not one big bad stretched over 22 episodes. In the first half you have Bloodwork, and that is a great storyline, maybe the best villain storyline since Zoom in season 2. The actor they got to portray Blood Work is great, I thought he was a nice addition to the show. And in the back half I thought with McCulloch and Iris being trapped in the mirror world was good enough, not great though. I just don’t think that Eva McCullouch was a particularly compelling character, the characterization and the performance were fine. But the little sub-plots in the back half of the season really worked for me. You have Barry starting to lose his speed because of the choice that he made in Crisis, Nash getting visions of the other Wells that are dead is interesting. Even having Ralph get a love interest was a nice touch. On the negative side of things, while I really enjoyed the Bloodwork character in the first-half of the season I thought those actual episodes weren’t that great. At the end of episode 1, Barry learns that The Flash must die in Crisis, so episodes 2-8 you have Barry being sad and mad that he must die in Crisis so Barry is very unlikeable. But in general, a good season could have been much better. 

4. Season 3: Season 3 of the show seems to be the most polarizing season of the show. Some people on the internet seem to have this season in their top 3 seasons, or pretty close to last place. And I have it in the middle, and I would go positive this season. I’ve always liked the season a good bit, and the issues that most people have with this season I have as well. But they just don’t bug me as much as it does other people. First up, I liked that they went for it this season. They went bonkers and epic with the tone and vibe. This might be one of the more epic feeling seasons of the show. Barry creates Flashpoint. You have Savitar as the villain, heroes turning into villains. They went for it, and I think it worked really well. I think this is Killer Frost’s best season, where the writers knew what they wanted to do with the character and succeeded in doing that. It’s interesting to have Killer Frost be a villain towards Team Flash, even though she is Caitlin, one of the founding members of Team Flash, that is a great storyline to tell. Tom Felton’s Julian Albert is a nice edition, I wish we got to see more of him as the show went along. But some of the logic of all of the time travel that takes place doesn’t make sense, it’s confusing at points in time. Even some of the cast members said this, and time travel is tricky to do and I think this season was hurt a bit by that. Also the reveal on who Savitar is I think came way too late in the season, it was revealed in episode 20 I think it needed to happen in episode 15 or 16, so something like that. But still I think this is a very good season, that makes a couple mistakes along the way. 

3. Season 4: I know for a lot of people this is where the show went off the rails. But I’ve always kind of dug this season, and I can understand why some people might not like this season. This is easily the goofiest season on the show. Every episode has multiple jokes that really make me laugh. Drunk Barry in episode 5 is maybe the funniest thing in the entire show, I always just laugh out loud whenever I watch that episode. But it’s also very campy where one of the villains is a girl who has luck, and stuff like that helps make this season campy. With the freak of the week villains, I like the way they were used where they were weekly villains in the first half of the season. And brought them back for the prison storyline in the back half of the season, I liked the way it was done. The introduction of Elongated Man is great and he’s just such a fun and vibrant character, his personality and skill set really fits the tone and vibe of this show. The Thinker as a villain is pretty frustrating, things about him I really enjoy but there are a number of things about the character that I really don’t like. When The Thinker is played by Neil Sandilands it’s great, and I think the villain is great. But once they started doing the body swap stuff, the character lost me and I don’t think it worked really well. But the biggest issue with this season, they made Iris the leader of Team Flash in this season, which makes ZERO sense to me. The only reason why Iris is the leader of Team Flash is because her main squeeze is The Flash. And that line that she says, “no Barry, we are The Flash '', is like the worst and most cringe worthy line on the show. So a very fun season that embraces the charm that it has, but makes some mistakes along the way. 

2. Season 2: A fantastic follow-up to the first season that really made the world of the Arrowverse bigger. This season introduced the multiverse, which really set in motion where the Arrowverse went in the future. And it’s just exploring the multiverse, and seeing all of these different worlds. I think that the 2 episode story arc where Barry, Cisco, and Harry go to Earth-2 are such fun episodes and I wish we got more episodes of them exploring different Earths. Another thing that really helps this season is it didn’t have to set anything up. Season 1 spent the first few episodes setting up the characters, this season can just go full swing ahead with it’s story. It doesn’t have to set anything up. Zoom is another great villain inside of the show, some people might say that he’s the best villain on the show. And they aren’t wrong, he’s a great villain that is menacing, poses a threat towards Team Flash, and just looks really cool. But even though it’s the second time in a row where the big bad is a speedster, I think doing it in season 2 was still good to do. It didn’t cheapen anything, and it didn’t feel like “another speedster yet again”, and Zoom is a very different villain from Reverse-Flash so I think it works. This season has a number of great things about it. I know some people on the internet think that season 2 is the best season. And I can totally see where you are coming from, but it’s not the absolute best one for me. And compared to the rest of the Arrowverse, this is a top 5 favorite season. With a season that expands the world, can go for it, and has a great villain you get a fantastic season of television. 

1. Season 1: The first season of the show I still think is the absolute best, and I don’t think any season of this show will ever top this season. You can tell that the writers and producers planned out this season, with some of the later seasons it felt like they came up with it as it went along. But with this one, it feels like they really thought through and put a lot of work into making this season. I love the season long storyline with Reverse-Flash and the ties to the death of Barry’s mother, it might be my favorite season long storyline in the entire Arrowverse. In the early phases of the Arrowverse, it was a nice campaign to Arrow where obviously Arrow is the much darker show, this is a very lighthearted show. This season has a number of really solid jokes inside of it, and it’s more organic. It’s not over the stop scenarios to get a laugh out of the audience. But just little jokes that Cisco makes about pop culture are really funny. They also created a great set of characters that are charming and likeable. I love Grant Gustin as Barry Allen, he’s my Flash, and he always will be my Flash. But he just embraces all of the different sides of the character of Barry Allen. Cisco is such a great character that makes every scene that he is in better. So I think this is the best usage of a number of the main and important characters to the show. It’s also an origin story season and I like origin stories, and I think this season really does a great job of telling the origin story of Barry Allen becoming The Flash. So this has all of the pieces that you have from a season of The Flash, but does all of them so well and the best of the show. So easily, after 7 seasons the first season of The Flash is still the best season. And like I said, I don’t think any other season of this show will top this season. I love this season, it’s near perfect in my mind. 

There you have it, my ranking of the 7 seasons of The Flash. How would you rank the seasons? Also over the course of the next week I plan on doing a number of Flash related rankings. Thanks for reading!