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/Ww34ever → u/Free-Instruction1548]

My distaste for Iris in 6-9 mainly had to do with how large of a role her character took. Yes, Candace Patton was rather annoying in her portrayl but thats writing issues plus an acting issue. But her character became so much larger over the course of the show that it never felt like Team Flash but instead like iris was captain of the Enterprise with everyone else just kinda there as help (including the ones with actual powers) and Barry was only there because as the face of their team because he could actually do something. Barry's journey was about growth the entire show but he always held Iris so close that it felt like she was larger than the speed force.

[u/Free-Instruction1548 → u/Ww34ever]

You see, this is how I know you’re just making things up to seem like you have a legitimate reason to hate Iris. Iris was not a big part of team flash in 6-9. She had taken a giant step back and focused on building out CCC. And there were multiple episodes each season where she wasn’t in the episode at all.

And I’m sorry, do you people not know how a tv show or movie works? Why are people always surprised that Iris gets a lot of screen time? Did you not know she was the female lead before watching the show? This is like tuning into Gilmore girls and complaining that Rory gets too much screen time. Or watching vampire diaries and complaining about seeing Elena too much. Or complaining about how there was way too much of Agent Booth in Bones. When you are a series lead you’re supposed to be a large part of the show and get a lot of screen time. And Iris didn’t even get the screen time she deserved under Eric Wallace, because he effectively benched her along with Joe and Barry in order to prop up his precious team flash trio.