Television Review: Arrow, Season 7

Show: Arrow, Season 7

Company:  DC Entertainment

Date: 2018/2019

Plot: The 7th season sees the team adapting to their new reality at no longer hiding in the shadows. As a new threat arises, old friends return to try and help save the city.

Do you ever feel loyal to a show because you’ve watched it from the beginning, and when it starts to deteriorate, you feel guilty for thinking it? I’m going through that exact thought process with the newest season of Arrow.

Just like with the latest season of The Flash, this is the first time I haven’t binged the lot but kept up-to-date on a week by week basis. I think watching in this manner does undermine some of the tension because when you get a really strong episode, you can’t continue on that high but have to wait.

I wince to say it, but I was really bored in this season.

As I’ve mentioned in reviews for the previous seasons, the characters have spread out and there are a lot of independent stories occurring than just Team Arrow and their fight against the bad guy. But I’ve never completely connected with these characters: Renee and Dinah are fine, but I’m not that bothered by their story-arcs.

Oliver spends half of this season in prison, isolated from the rest. It was definitely better when Oliver, Felicity and John were back working together, but there has been a shift in the dynamic and you don’t feel their bond in quite the same way.

I loved Roy returning to the series: he was always a favourite so it was good to see him return. He’s still just as haunted and conflicted as he was back in season 2 and I felt more of a connection with him immediately than any of the others.

The familiar flash-backs have now become flash-forwards. Although these should be characters you care about (Oliver and Felicity’s daughter for starters!), I found Mia’s stubbornness a little annoying at times. Again, you’re suddenly asked to care for characters you don’t know, without any real knowledge of them. With both Oliver and John missing from these scenes, it felt flat; I want the heroes we’ve been with since the beginning, not them missing and implying the final season might be without them as well.

The bad guy didn’t cut it for me either: it’s getting predictable where the betrayals are going to come from and they just aren’t Slade Wilson these days. Yes, she was a threat and had a complicated history with Oliver – but who doesn’t now we’ve reached season 7? I wanted something fresh and it didn’t deliver.

I found the pacing to be slow, the tension low and, I really hate saying this, I kept getting bored. Yes, there were some strong episodes, but I never was waiting anxiously for the next one.

So saying, I still like the characters. I will still watch the last season. And yes, the final episode did have me in tears – because it was focused on the characters we love rather than other people.

I’m apprehensive about the final season, but I hope they do it justice. This season felt tired, and I hope that won’t be the case for the next.

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