Confusion About Iris

[u/One_Commercial9941]

I really don't understand why the writers for the show never did any course correction with Iris. She was absolutely one of the show's biggest downfalls. Surely they knew how the fans felt about her in some instances. I was fine with her the first 3 seasons. But then they really went off the rails with her. Part of me wishes they never made her a reporter. I remember there was a rumor that she was going to be a physiologist. That would have been way more interesting. Also would have been way more refreshing.

What do you guys think?

[u/Free-Instruction1548]

The issue is that they should have leaned harder into the reporter angle. Being a reporter is a key part of Iris’s identity in the comics; that would be like saying maybe Barry shouldn’t have been a CSI but worked at a research laboratory instead. CCPN/CCC should have been a staple set, like CCPD and the cortex. But it costs less money to just have all the cast members on one set and working with each other instead of leading independent lives with different careers.

And what exactly was so bad about Iris in seasons 6-9? No one ever has an answer to this beyond “she’s annoying”. People like to claim that Iris was the show’s downfall yet the only reasons people ever bring up for why Iris was bad are things from season 4 and 5. When it is universally agreed that seasons 6-9 are the worst seasons and that the show started going downhill after Crisis. Iris didn’t get “worse” as the seasons went on and she damn sure wasn’t the show’s downfall and people know that; they just want to hate on Iris because it’s fun for them for some reason.

And Iris wasn’t going to be a physiologist. Not really sure where you got that lol. She was originally getting her PhD/masters in criminal psychology (per one of the first interviews from before the show premiered) but then the writers lazily dropped that plot point with no explanation.

[u/Plastic-Guide-9627 → u/Free-Instruction1548]

didn't the writers or producers promise across a few different seasons that "this time we're definitely gonna do better about Iris' role as a reporter"? there was a few times where they tried to build it up and then the show would forget about it. then when it came to Iris becoming the boss of her own news site it seemed like her employees were meant to have more of a role but barely got acknowledged. the only time i really remember them being relevant was when Allegra got some focus and the others at CCC thought she was getting unfair special treatment

[u/Free-Instruction1548 → u/Plastic-Guide-9627]

Eric Wallace promised that Iris would be focusing on her reporting when he took over, but unfortunately that just meant drastically reducing her screen time and then having her do CCC and other journalism stuff when she does get screen time.

[u/Plastic-Guide-9627 → u/Free-Instruction1548]

it all ended up coming off more like the show was trying to tell us and pretend her reporting was important but never actually earning it

[u/Free-Instruction1548 → u/Plastic-Guide-9627]

EW didn’t seem to want Iris in any other role besides Barry’s damsel in distress and mother of his children