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.
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Programme: Arrow, Season 6
Company: DC Entertainment
Year: 2017
Synopsis: After last season’s emotional showdown between Oliver Queen and Adrian Chase, the focus shifts into uncovering the fate of each and every member of Team Arrow – with their futures left hanging precariously in the balance. Having finally solidified and strengthened his crime-fighting team, the Green Arrow might be forced to rethink his relationships with his “family” in Season 6.
Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5
You might’ve guessed by the reviews over the last few months that I’ve been trying to catch up on Arrow. Having only got Sky in the last year, I can suddenly get on top of shows rather than having to wait for ages.
I’m not certain whether watching them so close together is affecting my opinion, but I didn’t find season 6 as engaging as previous seasons. I started to feel the story lines were getting repetitive – and this was despite season 6 taking a different approach to past seasons. You reach a point of feeling there can only be so many people determined to control Star City and/or have a personal vendetta against Oliver/Arrow.
The characterisations caused me problems. Having just got used to the new characters last season, the team fractures, they all refuse to talk to one another and the ‘newbies’ splinter off to form their own team. It’s all very well and good…only half of these characters we’ve been following for six seasons, the other half we’re only just starting to get to know. Whose side are we going to be on?
It meant that while there was nothing wrong with the scenes following the others, I just wasn’t as invested in them and actually found them a bit boring at times. Oliver, Dig and Felicity have been the characters keeping me engaged in the show: I don’t yet care about the others enough. This time, I grew to love Curtis but Dinah irritated me.
There was also a massive fight between Oliver and John. It was heart-breaking and emotional and all that, but it also felt like we had been here before. After all, John has walked away from the mission more than once, and ultimately come back. Why would this time be any different?
Despite Oliver and Felicity finally getting together properly and Oliver embracing his role as a Dad, the character development felt stunted and the divisions between the characters stopped the plot from developing to its full potential.
But enough talking about new characters…It was great to see some older characters making a return: some for just an episode, some for a few. It gives the show consistency and with the divisions, I loved seeing my old favourites turning up, usually with some insight into what was going on.
For the first season, there were no flashbacks. Which is ironic as this is the first season where the story felt stunted. But I’m glad: I was wondering what they were going to do when time had caught up with the beginning of the first season and it was refreshing they didn’t try anything unbelievable just to carry on with the same format.
While this review might not be the most positive, I did still enjoy the season and will continue to watch. I’ve watched a lot back to back and that possibly hindered how I felt. I hope the next season has a spark back though, rather than it running its course.
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Programme: Arrow, Season 5
Company: DC Entertainment
Date: 2017
Synopsis: In Season Five, newly appointed Mayor Oliver Queen finds himself challenged as he fights on two fronts for the future of Star City.
With his right hand, John Diggle, back in the military and his sister Thea adamant about hanging up her vigilante hood as Speedy, Team Green Arrow is down to just Oliver and Felicity – but they’re no longer the only vigilantes in town.
Green Arrow’s public defeat of Damien Darhk at the end of Season Four has inspired a new crop of masked heroes to step up and defend the city, though their painful inexperience makes them obstacles rather than allies in the field.
The arrival of a deadly new adversary will force Oliver to confront questions about his own legacy, both as mayor and as the Green Arrow.
Synopsis: After defeating his most formidable foe to date and riding off into the sunset with longtime flame Felicity Smoak, Oliver Queen (aka The Arrow) left Starling City with the hopes of beginning a new life.
But will Oliver ever truly be able to leave behind his past as the Arrow, and, if so, what becomes of the team he has worked so hard to assemble? Will military vet John Diggle, Oliver’s sister Thea Queen, and lawyer-turned-vigilante Laurel Lance be left to continue Oliver’s crusade without him? And with Malcolm Merlyn having ascended to the top of the League of Assassins as the new Ra’s al Ghul, is anyone really safe?
The action-packed series continues with new villains, new heroes and new challenges!
Plot: The police now accept him as a vigilante. His team of loyal and talented side-kicks are growing. He has fallen in love. Things should be looking up for Oliver Queen, aka The Arrow.
But they are not. The League of Assassins are after him. It’s not Oliver’s death they seek, but his ascension to become their next leader. While Oliver knows that is not who he is, he also knows he will do anything to protect the ones he loves – including his sister. But that doesn’t mean giving up his life. It means giving up his soul this time.
Plot: After the Undertaking, Oliver Queen and Starling City come to terms with what has happened. While the Arrow is still determined to protect his city, Oliver must now find a way to do it to avoid being a killer. He owes it to Tommy.
When a new threat arises – one that is almost impossible to stop – that newfound resolution will be put to the test. Oliver needs all the help he can get from friend and foe alike. But sometimes, the distinguishing between the two is harder than it appears. Oliver must face his past to secure his future.
Directed and written by a number of different people, Arrow (2012) brings onto the screen a range of known and new actors. Anyone who follows the “Superman” world will have an understanding of Oliver Queen’s story, yet Arrow brings it to light in a way not explored before.
After being stranded on an island for five years, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) returns to civilisation a very changed man. Society lost a playboy billionaire, scared of commitment and prone to hurting and disappointing those closest to him, including his girlfriend, Laurel (Katie Cassidy). What they got back, however, was something quite different.
A masked vigilante who is determined to fulfil his father’s dying wish and save the city. And what better way to do that than with a bow in his hand and a hood concealing his identity?
Despite sticking with the series the whole way to the end, I found it a difficult one to truly get into. The start seems slow while characters are being established and Oliver works out who he is going to trust with his secret. Old friends and new must both take their place once again and the result is a few episodes falling into a very cliché pattern of “bad-guy-of-the-week” while everything else slots into where it needs to be.
However, that being said, it then picks up. The second half of the series becomes a lot more engaging than the first, with an underlying story arc that has both depth and the emotional attachment to everyone involved that the audience needs to know how it plays out. While not necessarily racing for the next episode, the episodes do create emotion in their audience that has them gasping at the screen in surprise over what has just happened.
The plot lines are well written with no one quite being who everyone else believes. The romance between Oliver and his ex-girlfriend is almost refreshing the way they have both moved on and changed since he has been gone and that doesn’t mean they are necessarily right for each other even if they do both still have feelings. Oliver might be roaming the streets at night and trying to stop exploitation and other high-ranking crimes from occurring, but he still has to find his place again in a world that believed he was dead and moved on without him.
An engaging series over all, even if it might have seemed stronger if it had just been half the number of episodes. The switch between the “then-and-now” as Oliver’s time on the island is explored adds depth to his character that might have otherwise been lacking, so the producers knew what their audience would need. An ending is created that leaves the audience intrigued for the next series. However, the knowledge that there is at least another two series after this first one does provide some uncertainty of precisely where the story is going to go next considering how the characters were left at the end.
Enjoyable and watchable, but not necessarily one to get your heart racing.
A Rambling Reviewer 