Top 10 Favorite Arrowverse Season Premieres
After 38 seasons we have 38 season premieres inside of the Arrowverse. And with Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman airing last month, and The Flash airing this month. I wanted to share my 10 favorite Arrowvers seasons premieres. Let’s get started!
10. The Adventures of Supergirl (Supergirl Season 2): For me this is easily the best season premiere of Supergirl. And honestly, it’s not even close. This was our introduction to Tyler Hoechlin as and right out of the gate, this episode shows that he is great as the character. He can play both Clark Kent and Superman really well, he’s perfect at both of them. And I love the dynamic between Superman and Supergirl in this episode, and something that was missing from later appearances where both of them appeared in an episode together. The episode also does a really good job of laying the groundwork for where season 2 of this show went. And it also has some really nice jokes sprinkled all through-out the episode. I think this is a great episode of the show, one of the better episodes of the show. So this is my number 1 favorite season premiere of Supergirl, and my 10th for the Arrowverse as a whole.
9. Pilot (Stargirl Season 1): A very fun start to a very fun tv show, and did a great job of laying the groundwork for the show. It starts off with one of the best opening scenes to any Arrowverse episode with this big long extended episode with Justice Society of America. From there, it turns into this fun high school show with likeable characters. We got some nice solid jokes in the episode that made me laugh, especially the ones with Mike Dugan, the son of Pat Dugan. It does a nice job of introducing us to these characters. It might follow a basic Arrowverse pilot episode template. But I think it does it rather well, so I really dug this show right out of the gate. I dug the tone, characters, and the humor of the episode. And I’m very excited to see season 3 whenever that comes out in 2022. So this is a very solid start to both a season and a show that I really enjoy.
8. All’s Wells that Ends Wells (The Flash Season 7): If you have seen any of my posts where I have talked about season 7 of The Flash, then you know that I think it’s pretty frustrating. And I just this is a pretty solid start to season 7, and it has set right with me. This movie has a number of great moments inside of it, whether they are heartfelt moments or moments of humor. I think the scene where Barry gets all of the different personalities of the different Harrison Wells across the multiverse. And it brings out Grant Gustin’s best acting when it comes to comedic work. What they do with Nash Wells in this episode I think worked, and brought out some nice emotions in the episode. A small positive but I liked the nanotech addition to Barry’s cowl on The Flash costume. So just in general, this episode is featured in a pretty uneven season but this is a strong episode.
7. Out of Time (Legends of Tomorrow Season 2): I think this episode is easily the best season premiere of Legends of Tomorrow. And I do think it’s the most well rounded of the season premieres for Legends of Tomorrow. It’s just fun to have Oliver Queen be a pretty prominent character in this episode and with him helping Nate and Mick find the Legends of Tomorrow. And I like how 90% of the episode is through flashbacks. But the last 5-10 minutes of the episode is in the present and the tem runited. And I think it’s a very clever way to do a season premiere for a show like this. And it does follow up with the storylines that were set up in season 1 and we get Sara getting revenge on Damien Darhk after he killed somebody close to her in the 4th season of Arrow. So put it all together you get a great season premiere inside of the Arrowverse.
6. Inmate 4587 (Arrow Season 7): Similar to The Flash season 7, Arrow season 7 is a frustrating season. Because so many things about this season are great, but there are a number of really frustrating things about it that hold it back. But similar to that season, it started off really strong. And this is the most intense and the darkest of the Arrowverse season premieres. Because there is this brutal action scene in the shower with Oliver and the other inmates, and just shows how tense and awesome this whole prison storyline is going to be. Overall, I think the flashbacks in season 7 weren’t the best. But I liked what they did here and thought it did a great job of setting up where those frustrating flashbacks (or I guess flashforwards went). And overall, I really dug this episode and thought it was a top tier episode in Arrow season 7.
5. Pilot (Arrow Season 1): The very first season premiere of the entire Arrowverse, and this is a great start to the show and this franchise of tv shows. It did some nice world building for Starling City, later Star City. And I liked how this episode felt like the first 60% of Batman Begins. And the entire season in a lot of ways felt like Batman Begins as a season. I liked the character of the show, and I think Stephen Amell is just as great as Oliver. And I think Tommy is a great character, it’s a bit of a shame that he only stuck around for this season. But I think the bromance between Oliver and Tommy is great, Amell has great chemistry with Colin Donnell who plays Tommy. You get the early stages of the relationship between Oliver and Diggle and there are some nice moments with that. And I’ve seen this episode 3 or 4 times now, and I always forget how great of a sense of humor this episode has. So this is another top tier Arrow premiere that I think is great.
4. Pilot (Superman and Lois Season 1): I wasn’t really sure what to expect going into the show and wasn’t sure if this episode was going to be great, good, or bad. But given the placement on this list, I really dug this episode and thought it was a great start to season 1 and the show as a whole. And I do think it is one of the better episodes from season 1. Right out of the gate, they established that this is a very different type of Superman than what we have seen before. This is not the super patriotic American superhero type show. But it revolves around Clark’s dynamic and relationship with his family. And the conflict of the episode is more so Clark wondering when he should tell his kids that he is Superman. And that does have payoff in this episode. And I think this episode is only 15 episodes inside of it, so they can use their budget better. And I think that’s on display here in this episode, where the big fight between Superman and Captain Luthor in the third act of the episode looks incredible. It honestly looks like something that could have been in a movie and you couldn’t tell the difference.
3. Legacy (Arrow Season 5): After a weaker season with season 4 they delivered an episode that I thought was better than anything they did in season 4. This episode returned back to the tone of seasons 1,2,3 and I thought that really worked. And one of the big issues with season 4 is that the team was way too big when you have Oliver, Diggle, Felicity, Thea, and Laurel are on Team Arrow. It’s simply way too big and I don’t like it. This episode it’s just Oliver and Felicity, Thea is retired and Diggle is in some other country. So the group dynamic was better for me. I liked how this episode felt like a great continuation from where season 4 ended things for these characters. You get some great action sequences in here with some cool thoughts in all of them. And the cliffhanger with Prometheus showing up was a great way to end the episode.
2. Starling City (Arrow Season 8): For whatever reason, this episode has always been one that I’ve really enjoyed. So much so that I think it’s the best season premiere of both Arrow and one of the best of the entire Arrowverse. I loved that this episode was basically a love letter to the fans of this show. Where you get old characters returning for the episode, and it’s a whole bunch of them. With Tommy, Malcolm, Moira, and Adrian. And since they are from Earth 2 they are the same characters but different in other ways. I think the episode has another great cliffhanger that made me shocked and I really wanted to see episode 2 with where this episode ends things. So put all of it together, and you get a great episode that feels like a love letter to the fans. But the episode doesn’t feel like fan fiction and it ties into the larger story within season 8.
1. Pilot (The Flash Season 1): For me this is my personal favorite of the “pilot” episodes. And I think that this is just a fun and light-hearted show that has a great sense of humor. The opening to the episode is a bit dark with Barry's mother being killed. But from there, every minute or so is a really solid joke that makes me laugh. Like always, Cisco gets some nice moments here and there. And the episode does a great job of setting up all of the story arcs that are going to be running all through-out the season. It teases that something was involved with the murder of Nora Allen, and this episode has a great cliffhanger setting up Reverse-Flash as the main villain for season 1. And I love the “Run Barry Run” scene in the climax of the episode, it’s one of the best seasons from season 1. This episode has a great sense of humor, great moments, great characters, and great cliffhangers. This is what I want from a season premiere, so this is my number 1.
There you have it, my 10 favorite Arrowverse season premieres. What is your favorite season premiere? Also, I’ve done a whole bunch of Arrowverse related content on my blog. Thanks for reading!
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