Moderator: Chief Couch Potato Kylie

THE SPECS:

Who: The DC Television Universe or DCTU Series Panel – Kyle, Hilary, Spencer, Kristen, and Nick – plus Chief CP Kylie as moderator.

What: “Crisis on Infinte Earths,” the five-episode 2019-2020 Arrowverse crossover event melding cast members from “Arrow,” “The Flash,” “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” “Supergirl,” and “Batwoman,” the five shows that comprise the so-called “Arrowverse” on the CW, at least through the airing of “Crisis,” otherwise known as the DC (Comics) Television Universe or DCTU.

When: The “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover began on December 8, 2019, with Supergirl (8:00 PM) and concluded on January 14, 2020, with DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (9:00 PM).

Where: The action is primarily set in the DC Comics Universe, specifically in Central City (The Flash), Star City (Arrow), Gotham City (Batwoman), on Earth-38 in National City (Supergirl), and throughout space, time, and the multiverse in keeping with the Legends of Tomorrow.

Why: To find out why individual podcast panelists started watching each of these shows, listen to tonight’s episode and/or to our DCTU series in full by clicking the floating box at the top right of our website header, the picture of the couch full of TV watchers, to search for all of the prior DCTU series episodes.  As for why we are covering this crossover separately, read on!

How – as in How Was It?

The Specially Formulated For Your Viewing Pleasure “Crisis on Infinite Earths” Crossover rating scale:

***** – HOLY SMOKES! This is the BEST. CROSSVER. EVER!!!!!

**** – Intriguing.  Please make more, CW/Arrowverse producers.  You get better each time, though you’re not perfect yet.

*** – It was fine/okay.  Nothing special.  There were parts I liked and parts I didn’t.  Allow me to explain.

** – Meh.  I was bored.  Nice idea, but the execution left something to be desired.

* – Not your best, Arrowverse.  Stop trying!

Crisis on Infinite Earths = 3.2, by average of the podcast panel.

SYNOPSIS

“Crisis on Infinite Earths,” inspired by the comic of the same name, continues plot lines established in the previous crossover, “Elseworlds.” The preceding episodes of Arrow Season 8 and much of The Flash Season 6 are a prelude to the crossover. In “Crisis,” the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) gathers Green Arrow (Stephen Amell), the Flash (Grant Gustin), Supergirl (Melissa Benoist), Batwoman (Ruby Rose), Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh), and several others from throughout the multiverse to stop the Anti-Monitor (Garrett) from destroying reality. The crossover’s events result in the Arrowverse being rebooted, affecting all composite shows of the TV universe.

THOUGHTS

This is the twenty-third episode in CPU!’s DCTU series.  Because we have reached double digits for this massive series, from here on out, we are only going to embed prior episodes from the immediately previous season at mid-season or only the previous episodes of the show in particular that we are covering if we are covering any of the series individually, which you can listen to for reference in advance of the current podcast episode.  All of our episodes, however, are searchable here at the website or, for audio-only types, you can find our page at our file host, the Internet Archive (archive.org), which has all of our episodes compiled in one handy menu.  It’s pretty nice, actually.  If you feel so inclined, please also donate to the Archive, so garage podcasts like your humble CPU! can continue to thrive. 

For now, here are the DCTU series episodes since the DCTU 2019 Mid-Season Roundup:

DCTU Series, Episode 17, the DCTU 2019 Mid-Season Roundup

DCTU Series, Episode 18, “Elseworlds”

DCTU Series, Episode 19, “Arrow,” Season 7

DCTU Series, Episode 20, “The Flash,” Season 5

DCTU Series, Episode 21, “Supergirl,” Season 4

DCTU Series, Episode 22, “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” Season 4

Our cheeky and feisty DCTU panel, again this year, specially requested a separate discussion to dissect the five episode mega-crossover Arrowverse event entitled “Crisis on Infinite Earths.”  Why, might you ask? Well, we might answer. Though the panel’s average reception to the latest Arrowverse crossover proved surprisingly lukewarm compared to crossovers past, the panel enjoyed at least the concept of the new crossover event, especially given the fact that the Arrowverse’s producers and writers never fail to jam-pack the crossovers with all of the DC Comic Universe goodness, including a number of highly nerdy Easter Eggs and pop culture references outside of comic books (DC or otherwise). The panelists additionally felt, yet again, that a separate recording was necessary to digest everything included in this special event; plus, given our globally quarantined status in light of the current Coronavirus Pandemic, and in light of the fact that we had a gift card to give away, the panelists also felt motivated to go Live…at least the only way we could in these, our current times! Our DCTU panelists, therefore, went LIVE on Facebook on April 30, 2020, to talk about their generally and unfortunately middling assessment of the latest crossover of casts from Arrow, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, and Batwoman, as some of our panelists genuinely exhibited more qualms overall with this crossover compared to last year’s entry, “Elseworlds,” and to several of the preceding crossover entries as well. Watch below or listen at our typical outlets, and let us know if you agree or disagree with our thoughts!

This particular CPU! episode was recorded – LIVE via Zoom and Facebook – in April 2020, and there are, without question, MAJOR SPOILERS, as the panelists cover key plot points of the “Crisis on Infinte Earths” crossover. Listen/watch at your own risk, and let us know what you think by commenting below!

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@cpupodcast), Instagram (@couchpotatoesunite), Pinterest (@cpupodcast), or email us at couchpotatoesunitepodcast@gmail.com – or subscribe to this blog, the YouTube channel, our Apple/iTunes channel, our Stitcher Radio channel , find us on Google Play, or on Spotify (!) to keep track of brand new episodes.  In the meantime, let us know what you think!  Comment or review us in any of the above forums – we’d love your feedback!

Remember, new episodes and blog posts are published weekly – except this week! This week is special because this Thursday, Couch Potatoes Unite! is pleased to sponsor an encore presentation of an episode of a podcast on which Chief CP Kylie and frequent panelist Nick appeared on behalf of CPU! The podcast is called “Connect Grand Rapids;” the hosts, Rick and Brian, interviewed us about our podcast panelists’ recommended quarantine binge TV, as we fancy ourselves the local TV experts (naturally), and we were only too happy to oblige. Of course, the conversation didn’t stop at that topic – you’ll have to listen to find out how, but this also means that CPU! is providing you a rare two-episode week! Hey, it’s how we are filling our quarantine time. We’re also calling it even for late March, when we had to scramble as the pandemic began. Fair? Stay tuned!

Questions, Impressions, and Future Considerations

1) The predominant question arising from this crossover is what Earth Prime really looks like compared to the other Earths developing in the newly reconstituted multiverse. Does Earth Prime contain aspects of all of the Infinite Earths that were lost prior to Oliver Queen’s move to recreate the universe as Spectre? Are the Earth 2 characters that we’ve grown to love, such as Harry Wells (Tom Cavanaugh), Jessie Quick, and Laurel Lance’s (Katie Cassidy) Team Arrow, alive again? Are they on Earth Prime? Is Breecher alive again? Is he back the new Earth 19, or is he on Earth Prime? These are the unanswered questions…which we feel certain will unravel in some way on the remaining Arrowverse shows.

2) Does Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) retain his Vibe powers, or will he revert back to being an ordinary, non-meta human?

3) Are we left with only one Harrison Wells now, and is that Harrison Wells the Nash Wells we meet in The Flash Season 6? The panel would be disappointed to learn this news.

PARTING SHOTS

Our intrepid DCTU panel. almost unanimously but for Chief CP Kylie’s somewhat generous mood at the time of assessment, offered surprisingly middling, even lukewarm reviews of “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” especially compared to “Elseworlds” and to “Crisis on Earth-X,” the previous two crossover events.  The general panel consensus noted that this latest special presentation proved far more uneven in terms of pacing and story plotting, with the first two hours, the Supergirl and Batwoman episodes, deemed by our panel to be the strongest of the lot; the middle two episodes, The Flash and Arrow chapters, faltering with shoddy continuity and a lack of sufficient plotting for major devices used to advance the story forward; and the whole affair ending adequately if somewhat anticlimactically in the Legends of Tomorrow segment. The panel was quick to note that the network and the Arrowverse’s various producers and show-runners spent a year (possibly) over-hyping this crossover, given its adaptation of a seminal set of events in DC Comics history, without paying closer attention to the plotting of not only the five episodes of the event itself but of the episodes of Arrow Season 8 and The Flash Season 6 that were devoted to setting up the “Crisis” story arc. In fact, panelist Kyle said it best: the creators and writers behind “Crisis” appeared to spend more time trying to secure stunt casts, awesome though they might have been, than they did actually crafting the chronology and continuity of the story events themselves, since this live action version of “Crisis” deviates from its comic source material dramatically. As a result, the panelists expressed a variety of mixed emotions about what they saw, though no one could mistake the cautious disappointment on display as the panel discussed the crossover in the episode (and you, gentle listener and viewer, can actually watch facial expressions this time).

On the other hand, the panel feels strongly, especially those panelists who have watched the five constituent shows beyond the crossover, that the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” treatment, including the collapse of the initial version of the multiverse, may do well to inject new and fresh energy into several of the Arrowverse shows, particularly Supergirl, which has struggled to galvanize around a convincingly plotted and paced story arc in recent seasons. In addition, the crossover further cements and legitimizes the presence of Batwoman, the rookie on the Arrowverse block, which has also unfolded via a somewhat disjointed beginning season, though all signs point to improvement, as described by the panelists who have watched more of the season beyond the midway point. As such, the panelists find themselves excited to continue to explore the shows comprising the Arrowverse, but for Arrow itself, which has since aired its series finale, and with the addition of Black Lightning, which has been folded into this television universe via the deft stroke of the multiverse compression as depicted in “Crisis.”

Furthermore, in their review of “Elseworlds” in 2019, our DCTU panel postulated that the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover event would not be an exact copy of the major DC comics story of the same name.  Because this prognostication became fact, our panelists are more reluctant to recommend “Crisis” to anyone who does not already love superhero/comic book adaptations, particularly from the DC universe.  The panel believes that viewers who have tuned into previous crossovers will likely enjoy the plethora of new Easter Eggs as well as the cameo appearances by DC character actors from television and film past. The panel also surmises that Arrowverse and comic book fans will enjoy the nostalgia conjured up by the use of those Easter Eggs and cameos as well as the use of the story itself, given its importance to the DC Comics lexicon. Still, the panel strongly cautions that a potential viewer not expect to see a carbon copy of the comics story and to be aware that some segments of the five episodes feel bloated and consequentially fall flat while, at the same time, fail to properly introduce key character insertions as well as to appropriately flush out important plot points, such as the characters of Harbinger, Spectre, Pariah, and the ability of science-oriented characters like Ray Palmer (Routh) and Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath) to develop large, novel pieces of technology in what seems like hours or even minutes. These underdeveloped elements left the panelists underwhelmed and, at times, especially if not already familiar with the original “Crisis” story, confused by the action and unfolding story that they were watching. To that end, if we were confused or caught off guard by these developments, we expect that casual and even some devoted and comic knowledgeable viewers would no doubt feel the same, which does not bode well for the overall success of “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” In fact, our panel would likely characterize this crossover as “barely successful” but still largely entertaining, given the ambitious concept and the efforts of the writers to cater to DC fans of all types.

LOOKING AHEAD

The five Arrowverse shows returned from their mid-season hiatuses as follows:

Batwoman: Sunday, January 19, 2020, 8:00 PM
Supergirl: Sunday, January 19, 2020, 9:00 PM
Arrow: Tuesday, January 21, 2020, 8:00 PM
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: (premiered) Tuesday, January 28, 2020, 9:00 PM.
The Flash: Tuesday, February 4, 2020, 8:00 PM

In January 2020, the CW renewed all Arrowverse shows except for Arrow, which has since ended, for an additional season, all of which will likely premiere some time in fall 2020 and likely in or around October, if the trend from prior seasons holds (and based upon the progress of the COVID-19 pandemic).  In the meantime, the DCTU podcast panel will next convene around the CPU! Water Cooler next week, and not live, to review and to recap Season 8, the final season, of Arrow as well as to Look Back at the show as a whole, now that all is said and done.  Until then!  Stay tuned!