Should we officially state that Warner Bros. has confirmed that Arrow will jump the shark this year with the introduction of Barry Allen? If you have been listening to what the creators of Arrow have been saying since before the show officially went on the air, you might be concerned with the introduction of Barry Allen and the Flash in the next season of Arrow.
Arrow on The CW
What was Said
Before the first episode of Arrow aired, Marc Guggenheim, the show’s executive producer, told Blastr that he was not interested in having any of the other major characters from the DC Universe on the show. He explained how his vision was to have a show without super powers, the paranormal, or monsters.
Enter Barry Allen and Flash
Yesterday, HitFix did a live blog of a presentation by The CW’s president Mark Pedowitz about the upcoming season and some of the shows coming out. One of the things he discussed was how The CW plans on having some DC Comics shows in a shared universe. Arrow was the first step, but there will be many more. The next step is that they are going to introduce Barry Allen on Arrow, give his backstory and have him acquire his powers on the show. So we will see Flash on Arrow. If all goes right, there will be a Flash TV series on The CW shortly.
Jumping the Shark
Typically, when people think about a show jumping the shark, they think about a moment in which a show spiraled out of control and could not be recovered. A variant view is when a show’s creator has to veer so much from the original plan for a show that the show becomes morphed into something which was never intended. Due to the Guggenheim comments, we realize that the introduction of a super power, and the introduction of a main DC Universe character, is a shark jump for Arrow. One season down and the series is already off the intended track.
