TV and Movie Crossovers! Are They Fun or Just A Pain? Part 1

This is a subject I have a lot to say about so I will share my thoughts on the subject of crossovers in part one of this article.

So it looks as if Ray Palmer(who will soon become The Atom) and Felicity from Arrow will guest star on a future episode of The Flash this season.  You can read the Variety article here.  To me this is exciting news because I love crossovers of any type and love seeing the dynamic and interaction of characters from different worlds react to eact other.  The Flash/Arrow crossover was awsome and it didn't seem overly gimmicky.  While this is all fine and good for my viewing pleasure there are some that are not interested in crossovers and don't like them used as a device to get them to watch another show they don't normally watch.

I guess my beef with those types of people are, why not?  If a network plans a crossover that is just hand over fist used to promote another show then I can maybe see the point but when people start talking about this character should never be in that world because the tone doesn't fit is ridiculous.  Here you have 2 shows, The Flash and Arrow, who have very distinctive tones where one is very lighthearted and the other one is darker, one would think the oil and water of those 2 shows would should never mix.  Really the only thing that holds them both together(besides the fact that they already exist in the same universe in the comics)is that both shows have the same creative teams.  What's good about that is that the creatives have a great understanding of all the characters involve and with the benefit of airing on the same network they can be really creative with playing around with character dynamics between the shows.  I love how Diggle reacts to Cisco when they are in a close nit situation because you know both characters and their respective backgrounds somewhat so you're not actually having to side with one perspective over the other.  You can have fun looking at both points of views from supporting characters from each show. For those that only watch one show and see an interruption when a character from another show guest stars shouldn't be that big of a deal to them.  It would be no different than the creatives plugging in a random character and making them fit for story purposes.  Why not have the crossover?  It make the episode, in my opinion, less boring and more fun because you have an established character in another world to figure out.
 

Which brings me to another point of this new Supergirl show coming on CBS next year.  Now that we know that the "Glee" star Melissa Benoist will star as Supergirl, how will she fit with The Arrow and Flash?  The show alone would probably not excite me as much because I generally have no interest in Supergirl as a character but the fact that she will share the same universe as The Flash and Arrow with the same creative team as both of those shows has me TOTALLY on board.  I read a lot of the comments to this show and there are mixed emotions about the possibilties of Supergirl crossing over with those other shows and some say that it should stand alone.  That the tone doesn't fit in the Arrow world.  And how could a flying girl exist in an Arrow universe anyway?  Again people...

...THESE ARE THE SAME CHARACTERS THAT EXIST IN THE COMICS IN THE SAME UNIVERSE SO WHY WOULDN'T IT WORK ON TV??

So what that's it's a different medium?  The fun in seeing Supergirl cross over is that we'll see the reaction of how the Arrow characters deal with a world of flying metahumans.  The characters on Arrow are firmly grounded so something like this shouldn't rock their world too much because they've already witness pretty out there stuff already.  It would be a whole different thing where this would NOT WORK if they tried to cross Supergirl over with NCIS:Los Angeles.  That would be wack to even mention the idea.  

The concept of crossover in media entertainment is nothing new.  Most of the time though it's used in a manipulative way to get the person consuming the media to try out another product related to it.  It's shameless but in certain cases it can be effective and as far as i'm concerned so long as it doesn't hurt the over all story I'm all for it.  So for those who are against these crossovers I say just lighten up and have fun with the concept.  

Look out for the second part of this article on the subject of movie crossovers next time!

-Krayzeman

Follow me on Twitter @krayzeman