No matter which of The CW's DC superhero show is your favorite—Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow—there was something for you in the network's gigantic four-show crossover. It had EVERYTHING: fighting, time travel, aliens, fast running, grumpy men, alternate universes, women being referred to as items of clothing, mind control, friends fighting friends, nerds having the best day of their lives, C3PO impressions, Princess Bride references and much more.
Regardless of what part was your favorite, there's one thing we can all agree on: whoever's responsible for the logistics of getting the actors on four different major TV series all in one place for an entire week deserves a major raise.
Below, E! News' resident DC TV fans, Jean Bentley and Lauren Piester, discuss the ins and outs of this year's crossover. What was the best part? What was the worst? What can the producers learn from this year as they begin to plan the next humongous crossover event?
Check out our discussion below!
Jean: So, Lauren, I think this was my favorite of the three crossover events so far, and it had everything to do with how massive and cool it all felt. Would you agree?
Lauren: Yes. Definitely the best crossover so far. It was so much fun, and you could really feel how many people and characters and other elements had to come together to make it all work.
Jean: I certainly do not envy the clearly very talented line producers on all of these shows (and everyone involved in making this gigantic logistical nightmare happen). But it was all for the best, because the more all of these superheroes join together, the more exciting it is.
Lauren: And I totally get why they didn't put much of the crossover on Supergirl. That would have been too much. Which hour do you think was the strongest?
Jean: My personal favorite was The Flash, simply because I loved the whole "getting the band back together" vibe of it all, and I loved all the scenes of everyone training together. It was fun and exciting and the part where everyone was brainwashed into fighting each other lasted just long enough to not get annoying.
Lauren: I agree, though I really did love the Arrow episode. Somehow they managed to perfectly incorporate a 100th episode of Arrow with the crossover, and it all made sense. The Flash was more fun, but I got more emotionally attached to Arrow.
Jean: And that's not to say Legends was bad, because it wasn't. The Legends hour tied everything together in a very satisfying way—it just wasn't as downright enjoyable or nostalgic as The Flash and Arrow. What did you think of the Invasion storyline?
Lauren: It was a great way to bring everyone together. It's something a little different from what any of them have fought before, so no one had an advantage—except for maybe Supergirl, which they acknowledged. And the Dominators' mind control capabilities provided a lot of different options for interesting stories. Though I'm kind of getting tired of heroes being mind-controlled to hate each other just so we can watch them fight. The fighting is not what I'm here for!
Jean: I agree, though I acknowledge that is what some people are here for. But for me, the reason why I love The Flash and Supergirl more than the other DC TV shows is that they're not afraid of levity, and I'd much rather cut a few seconds from a fight scene for a funny joke than cut the joke—but I'm not running a superhero show, so it's not my decision.
Lauren: Yeah, I would much rather have the jokes and the interactions between characters we don't normally see interact. It makes me sad to hear that the thing that were cut were always the jokes. I also think the levity is also why I liked the Arrow portion so much. It was very Arrow, but with some lightness added to it, and it felt refreshing without being a different show.
Jean: If you were trying to get someone to start watching the CW DC superhero shows, would you recommend they watch this crossover to get into the world? Why or why not?
Lauren: You know, I hadn't thought about that before, but I really would. It's a great little window into each show, and while there's definitely backstory that would help, you wouldn't be too thrown off.
Jean: I think I would too. Since there are so many seasons of so many different shows now, I think it would be any easy entry into the Arrowverse. I would not say the same for last year's crossover, since it involved the least interesting characters from Legends of Tomorrow (like, they were so boring that they're not even on the show anymore), but I think this one was pretty great.
Lauren: I had basically forgotten about last year's crossover. This year was a thousand times better, and hopefully they learned that you should not focus a much-hyped crossover on two random characters we've never met before, who you're just going to kill (or send away) anyway.
Jean: What do you hope the DC powers that be take away from this year's crossover as they begin planning next year's event?
Lauren: More jokes! Fights are fun but it's a whole lot more fun to watch everyone interact. And the crossovers should focus on the main heroes, not random side characters. Jokes are also cheaper and easier than fights.
Jean: Agreed! And let's not forget to have characters interacting with people whose paths would never cross normally. It's such a unique thing they're able to do with these episodes, so let's milk as much humor out of them as possible!
What did you think of the crossover? Hit the comments below to discuss!
Supergirl airs Mondays, The Flash airs Tuesdays, Arrow airs Wednesdays and Legends of Tomorrow airs Thursdays, all at 8 p.m. on The CW.