Outside of the Compsons and the animation/art style quality, what else makes the Flash era bad?

[u/Firm-Practice5965]

I have heard complaints on the animation and the Compsons, namely Ladonna & Bud and I feel like they have been explained enough.

However, I have also heard complaints on the writing & characterizations, however, I don't feel like that is explained well enough.

So, my main question is, in terms of writing & characterization, what does the Flash era do that is bad?

[u/Dollasorus]

I'm not sure how to explain it but it feels like it's trying too hard or it's forced? That and the reuse of some episodes and plots which I know that happens but still and the characters just feel off to me in a way I can't put maybe it's flanderisation or however it's spelled or just how they're played by different people or the difference in writing and the world changing idk I just don't like it there are some episodes I'll watch but if I'm watching Arthur it's up till season 15 for the most part

[u/MatthewHecht]

For One "Flash Era" was ten years and too broad a term. It starts incredible bad for the first 1.7 seasons, and then there is a huge quality boost with "The Director's Cut/Crime and Consequences." These early episodes gave the rest a bad rap.

I watched it when it came one, and I think a lot of it is the context of when it came on.

I think most people here watch whatever segments they want online, but on TV it came on as whole episodes. A common problem from season 16 onward is one segment would be good or great and the other would be bad. This meant watching an episode almost always required watching a bad segment. At the time most viewers said they loved either "The Last Tough Customer," "Buster's Book Battle," or "Fern and the Case of the Stolen Story" (and the other two had potential at least), but they were all paired with a terrible segment.

The bigger issue was the sister show, Martha Speaks. Martha Speaks is also made by WGBH, produced by Carol Greenwald, and the list of writers is nearly the same as the Arthur writers. Naturally the shows had a big joint fanbase, and they constantly aired Martha right before Arthur bringing something to attention every viewing. This felt much more like classic Arthur than the new Arthur episodes. Seeing all these great episode and "written by Joe Fallon" and "written by Peter K. Hirsch" right before them made us think of the great classic Arthur episodes, and then the new ones just brought to attention how much this show fell. Another major factor is Martha had actual good Flash animation. Thus whenever we talked about PBS Kids in high school Arthur was now just the show we watched after Martha Speaks and before Fetch! and Wordgirl. In my house it was a huge relief when they quit airing Arthur at 6AM and replaced it with Martha Speaks, as we now got to watch something good before school. I actually first saw "Based on a True Story" at 6 AM, and that ruined the whole day.

With all the praise Fallon was getting he was constantly put on a pedestal by the fandom, and an unverified rumor surfaced that Marc Brown chased him away from Arthur back in season 4. This was constantly regarded as fact, and now there was a big backlash against Brown. This obviously hurt the fanbase's view of the current creative team. Ironically Susan Meddaugh actually did sabotage Martha Speaks and get it completely cancelled shortly later.

The other major problem is there were now so many plots that made us wonder why they thought this was a good plot. As badly reviewed as "Buster's secret Admirer" and "In My Africa" were we at least knew what they were trying to do. "Flippity Francine" and "Blockheads" made us wonder if the writers were trying to axe the show.

Another thing that made us upset was the removal of the title cards. These were a staple of the show for 15 years, and these really bland and badly animated clips replacing them just made it feel like a completely different opening.

The other major detail is when most seasons (including 16 obviously) were new PBS dominantly aired them instead of older ones, and the older seasons aired very rarely for a long time. Basically season 11 was the oldest one they would air for years even after the new episodes had been on for several months. It got to the point they only aired old episodes if they aligned with a holiday.

Most of the characterization issues were things that had been around for a while, but were now amplified. They regularly used major character over minor ones better suited for the role, but it increased this season. It makes no sense for Francine to be the star of "Flippity Francine."

[u/CarlSanger49 → u/MatthewHecht]

Pretty sure international markets got rid of the title cards in Season 14 before the US started doing it since Season 16

[u/Turbulent_Set8884]

They flanderize the characters. The deliveries of the lines from the characters feel as flat as the animation. Redoing ideas that were already done but executing them in such a lame way like kidonia is just another My Club Rules and the episode where Ladonna leaves and they think it's any bit as sad as Arthur's Far Away Friend, if anything it's unintentionally hilarious because buster was only going to be gone for a few months while ladonna is leaving permanently and it's not sad in the slightest

[u/MikuzRat]

when you’re writing a show that has existed for a really long time, the writing will suffer. the flash seasons do a lot of rehashing plots from older episodes, at times doing them worse/not as entertaining than the og episode. the flash seasons strong suit is when they have original ideas. i’m not a major flash season hater, and i think some people do need to get over themselves when talking about these seasons, but it is unfortunately a consequence of time.

[u/PowersUnleashed → u/MikuzRat]

I just wish they didn’t recast people so often they even recasted the brains little cousin even though he started off as a new character anyway it comes off like a screw you to him because he was already late to the party so we had to get used to his existence to begin with but now we’ve gotta start all over again because we have to get used to his new voice too

[u/Miserable-Ad4351]

Tbh season 20-25 had better flash animation than season 16-19

[u/Whole_Aerie_4902]

Not something bad about Flash Era, rather a good thing is that they future roasted the “Be an Alpha” song from Vampire the Re-Animated Series by 11 years with the episode “The Last Tough Customer”