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THE CW
Culture > Entertainment

Shows That Have Been “CW’ed”

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Bradley U chapter.

If you love CW shows as much as I do, then you know that sometimes, shows on the CW network continue for much longer than they really should. It’s almost like the creators of the show run out of ideas, so they implement stories that don’t make any sense anymore. I am going to talk about just a few of them, and maybe you will agree. This article contains spoilers about certain CW television shows, so read at your own risk. 

The 100 is one of my favorite shows of all time, but that love stops around the fourth or fifth season. This is because I was really into the storyline and the characters until the CW took a beeline for the toilet. The creators decided to send the characters to a completely different planet, without aging after many years in space because they were frozen. If that wasn’t wild enough, the season after was about time travel and going to different realities where you can age very slowly or very fast. It got so confusing because you had no idea which reality anyone was in. However, in the end, they got to live happily ever after (don’t ask me how, because I still don’t fully understand).

Riverdale got “CW’ed” faster than any show I’ve ever seen. The first season was great, the second was okay, then the third was ridiculous. I stopped watching after the creators decided to make everybody join a cult, make human sacrifices and partake in different rituals. Now, the characters apparently have magical powers and they can bring people back from the dead. I don’t remember any of these plots occurring in the comics. Honestly, it may be worth it to continue watching if you want to see how wild the story can become.

The Vampire Diaries is controversial about whether or not it got “CW’ed”. I would say “sort of.” I am a huge TVD fan and have probably rewatched the series at least ten times. However, the fact that after Alena “dies”, I want to stop watching the show and skip to the series finale says something. It would be difficult for any show to keep their fans interested after they kill off the main character, but the CW really struggled. It wasn’t really about the storyline becoming bad or confusing for me, it was more about the focus of different character developments that I wasn’t too happy with. Then the TVD added another spinoff in addition to the Originals, which was not successful for them. I think that ending the series after season 6 or even season 7 would have been better for the show and its fans. 

One Tree Hill is, to this day, my ultimate favorite tv show of all time. However, I will still be the first to admit that the show was, in fact, “CW’ed”. The first four seasons were absolutely amazing, and then in the fifth season, the creators decided to jump many years forward, giving everyone a different life. It took me a while to begin liking the show again after that because I was not satisfied with the jump since you had to relearn everything about all of the characters. I thought that they could have continued with the timeline that they were on because they were only graduating high school. By the sixth season, I was back on board because the story settled down, but the show was “CW’ed” for a little while. 

A couple of other CW shows, such as Charmed or Arrow, were also “CW’ed” in my opinion. I am sure there will be more shows in the future as well. But, we still continue to watch them because sometimes the storylines are so ridiculous that you can’t help it. They will remain some of the most iconic shows for people like me. 

Becky Rose

Bradley U '23

Hello! My name is Becky Rose and I am a nutrition and dietetics major at Bradley University. I have a passion for sharing with others about how to improve their health and wellness and cannot wait to share more through my writing for other students. Follow me on Instagram @becky32301 to get to know me more!