Why The Flash season 5 needs Iris West-Allen’s journalism more than ever

Let’s start this article off with this: The Flash doesn’t need to be overtly a political show. We could say the same thing about any of the series within the Arrowverse. These series are meant to be escapism from the outside world and this function should remain the same.

Yet, there are opportunities here and there to use these shows as platforms in order to speak towards a larger message, and there is certainly a chance to do just that moving into season 5 of the CW series — especially with the character of Iris West-Allen.

As we know already, Iris is the team leader for much of the action at STAR Labs, but she’s also so much more than that. She’s also a journalist, and while she went away from that at times season 4 reinforced some of that as a plot point. Judging from future headlines and bylines, all signs point towards Iris eventually being one of the most important reporters in all of Central City. We need to build towards that.

Beyond that, we do think that the series has an opportunity now to paint Iris as a hero that translates to the real world, someone who is a purveyor of truth, a responsible leader, and finds ways to protect and inform with her reporting. Does the show need to resort of brow-beating or making their message extremely obvious? No. Instead, they can just show Iris doing some of what she does best and allow viewers to extrapolate the message.

The important thing for the show to reflect at this point is that journalists, at their core, are hard-working, responsible people who are interested in facts. Does that get distorted here and there in life with cable news and politics? Absolutely, and it’s unfortunate that it does; The Flash is a chance to go back to basics. There are so many young people out there who watch this show who can use an example of a hard-working journalist who is a hero in her own right. If this show can make even just five people strive to be like Iris West-Allen in the future, they have done a tremendous job. In this era of vitriol towards the media, especially after the tragedy in Annapolis this week, this is important now more than ever.

Related – Here’s a more lighthearted The Flash story about Caitlin’s romantic future

Do you think that The Flash season 5 should make more of an active effort to present Iris’ journalism over the course of the season? Share in the comments!

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