At the time of writing, Supergirl’s opening hour of the crossover (originally broadcast on 8th December last year in the US!) is available to stream on NOW TV until 15th July 2020 along with the other episodes of the fifth season that have dropped in the UK so far (and, I suspect, those still to drop between now and then). A NOW TV Entertainment Pass costs £8.99 per month and you can sign up for a week’s free trial here. However, I would strongly recommend purchasing a two-month Entertainment Pass from Currys instead as, at just £10.00, it offers much better value than NOW TV does directly, and, locked down as we are, two months will probably give you enough time to catch up on all of this season’s Arrowverse episodes broadcast to date in addition to its centrepiece Crisis.
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| Above: Batwoman takes us back to Smallville |
After the first part, though, things get much trickier. The second hour should air on E4 on Sunday 24th May 2020 as part of Batwoman’s first season. This hasn’t been confirmed by the channel yet, but the one positive in E4’s habitual holding back of DC content is that when they do eventually air their shows, it’s typically without any breaks in transmission. Batwoman episodes generally drop on the free All 4 catch-up service shortly after the live broadcast, albeit with several ad breaks. For those like me who simply can’t tolerate commercials, iTunes generally make Batwoman episodes available to download or stream in 1080p HD the day after their UK transmission for just £2.49 (or as part of a £19.99 season pass).
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| Above: Flash of Two Worlds... The DCEU's Flash meets his Earth-1 counterpart |
As with Supergirl, The Flash’s third part of Crisis is already available to stream on NOW TV and is scheduled to remain there until 30th July 2020 alongside the season’s other UK-broadcast episodes (1-11 at the time of writing). However, by the time that Batwoman’s Crisis episode airs, Arrow’s will have been pulled from NOW TV. It might not, of course – last year I rushed through Supergirl’s last clutch of episodes as the NOW TV website announced that were only available until a certain date, only to find that they hung around for much longer. Nonetheless, we can’t rely on NOW TV to continue to make the fourth episode available if, as I suspect, other factors are forcing them to pull it. Once such factor is the season’s Region B Blu-ray release, which is slated for 25th May 2020 according to Amazon, who have it available to pre-order for £30.00. Unfortunately the Amazon listing is silent as to whether the Blu-ray will include all five episodes of Crisis on Infinite Earths, as the Region A release does, but if not we should at least be able to get our hands on the Arrow instalment on Blu-ray disc, which is certainly my plan as a collector of Arrow seasons. However, for those just in it for the Crisis, iTunes have already made the episode available to download or stream in 1080p HD for just £2.49. Unfortunately the full season pass includes only the Arrow instalment.
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| Above: Kevin Conroy's iconic take on the Caped Crusader takes a live-action turn |
The fifth and final episode of Crisis on Infinite Earths, which nominally opens DC’s Legends of Tomorrow’s fifth season, is already available on NOW TV and should remain there until 1st August 2020. At the time of writing it is only accompanied by the season’s second episode.
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| Above: Black Lightning's back... and so is Earth-90's original Flash |
It’s come to something when you need to be a superhero just to be able to work out how you’re going to watch your favourite superhero shows, but at last, the end (of the worlds!) is in sight.
Update - 10th May 2020
The NOW TV iOS apps allow you to download programmes to watch within thirty days - even those like Arrow that are leaving the service within those thirty days. If you’re content to watch on an iPad screen, you should download Arrow’s Crisis hour before it leaves NOW TV on 14th May 2020.
Update - 25th May 2020
The adventure continues.
For reasons known only to them, E4 have stated that they will air the Batwoman episode of Crisis on Infinite Earths at the end of the season later this summer. If you to try to stream what is erroneously labelled as “Season 1, Episode 9” on All4 you will in fact get Season 1, Episode 10 - “How Queer Everything is Today!” This comes as a particularly nasty shock if you try to stream it via the Apple TV app, which pulls some of its metadata from Apple rather than E4.
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| Above: E4 show that they can mishandle a crisis as well as the UK government |
The silver living is that the iTunes Store have made the episode available to stream and download for just £2.49 as expected, meaning that us UK viewers won’t have to regress two formats to standard-definition DVD to be able to enjoy the complete, high-definition Crisis - provided that they get the Batwoman episode downloaded before Apple realise that they’ve made the “wrong” episode available (“How Queer Everything is Today!” has not dropped as it should have).
For those not troubled by picture and sound quality, a DVD containing all five episodes is being released today. You can order it from Amazon for £6.99. There’s no Blu-ray, frustratingly.
Finally, both Warner Brothers’ and Amazon’s updated product information for the Arrow Season 8 Blu-ray suggests that the box set (also released today) does not contain the Crisis on Infinite Earths bonus disc. Despite one hopeful reviewer’s comments (who posted his musings a month before the release date), the set is slated to contain just two discs (not three) and only ten episodes (not fourteen). I can confirm though that the NOW TV app is letting me watch the episodes of Arrow that I downloaded prior to them being removed from the service.
For those not troubled by picture and sound quality, a DVD containing all five episodes is being released today. You can order it from Amazon for £6.99. There’s no Blu-ray, frustratingly.
Finally, both Warner Brothers’ and Amazon’s updated product information for the Arrow Season 8 Blu-ray suggests that the box set (also released today) does not contain the Crisis on Infinite Earths bonus disc. Despite one hopeful reviewer’s comments (who posted his musings a month before the release date), the set is slated to contain just two discs (not three) and only ten episodes (not fourteen). I can confirm though that the NOW TV app is letting me watch the episodes of Arrow that I downloaded prior to them being removed from the service.
