Bad: The Darker Tone
What was so celebrated in the first season was how The Flash separated itself from its CW counterpart Arrow by taking away the grim, dreary and perpetually grey Star City and replacing it with the irreverent optimism and light-hearted nature of Central City.
Where Arrow brooded in the doom and gloom of gritty, “real-life” problems, The Flash found a way to humanize its larger than life characters while still paying homage to its comic book heritage with characters like Gorilla Grodd and Captain Cold. Season two didn’t totally disperse of its humor (or, crucially, its heart), but it did allow Barry Allen to adopt a more self-serious mentality, which took some of the overall sense of fun away from his character.
Bad: Jay Garrick
There’s a way to be noble, pure and righteous without being an overly bland caricature (see: Chris Evans as Captain America or Melissa Benoist as Supergirl). Even with the late season reveal that he wasn’t actually the real Jay though, it didn’t make this character’s injection into the already cluttered and aimless first half of the season any better.
Garrick took up a lot of screen time, and while the acting did improve over the course of the season, he still never stole the show or livened up a scene in a way that such a pivotal character should (see: Tom Cavanagh’s Reverse Flash.)
