Arrow (Final Season)

[Majingir]

Re: Arrow (Final Season)

So was the final scene in the show something which essential signals

Spoiler

S1-5 flashbacks is basically Oliver telling Felicity every detail of what happened in those 5 years?

Like how she never knew Oliver met her years before she met him.

[KSUowls]

Re: Arrow (Final Season)

I'm actually only on season 7, but I don't want to have to dig up each season's thread. There is a lot to unpack here. Hopefully I won't need spoiler tags as I'm only talking about 1-7.

I started watching Arrow for the first time a little less than a year ago. I think I binged the first season and a half in 1 weekend. I would burn out on it for a bit, come back some time later and binge another season and repeat until here I am where I'm 5 or 6 episodes into season 7.

Season 1 - Fantastic. Secret identity/double life is one of my guilty pleasures in story telling. You obviously get this with any superhero story, but it was on full display early on. Bonus points to Oliver delving out true vigilante justice; it just was a nice change from the cookie cutter actions of every other superhero ever.

It was a great introduction into the show. I actually knew very little about the Green Arrow. My only real knowledge of him came from his appearances in Smallville which was probably close to 20 years ago at this point. It was cool seeing the rough edges around Oliver's character. This was before we knew just how much he got up to in those 5 years away, but just from the standpoint of being stuck on the island with the few things we knew about was enough to explain his 'dark' persona. John and Felicity were also great complimentary characters. Probably my favorite side kick characters of any show.

Season 2 - It killed me to have to hate Summer Glau's character. It was also really weird seeing the Sebastian Blood actor (whom I only knew as Detective ****** from Lucifer) in that kind of role. I did lose a bit of interest when Oliver vowed to stop killing criminals. It was the first moment where he really tries to move on from his 5 years in ****, but that was one of the defining features that made me love the show originally. Slade was a good villain for the season. Also, the romance with Sara Lance was just kind of weird. We do get introduced to Nyssa though, and I really liked her character.

Season 3 - Things really started to go a bit downhill for me. At no point have I liked Ray Palmer's character. He's Tony Stark without all of the things that make Tony fun. Also, at no point was Laurel ever believable as the Black Canary beyond her sonic scream (she goes from being a slightly above average female fighter to being able to take on the league of assassins after a few boxing lessons....), and it was equally dumb that Thea was suddenly at Team Arrow level after training with Malcom for just a couple of months. Despite these annoyances, I did enjoy the season overall. It was interesting seeing Oliver join the League of Assassins for a bit. Is that comic book canon that they trained both Batman and Green Arrow?

Season 4 - This was the first time that I started to get confused with the whole 'Arrowverse'. The episode where Oliver finds out that he has a son seemed like it may have been started from the Flash, but I never went back to check. A lot of the drama in the show also just felt kind of forced, like the fall out between Oliver and Felicity. Diggle's brother was an incredibly annoying villain. Damien Dahrk was slightly better, but he almost seemed to fall in priority at times. This was also the first time that I really hated the flashbacks. The John Constantine cameo was cool, but the love interest between Oliver and the girl was just silly. I remember burning out part way through this season and then burning out again once it was done.

Season 5 - The Diggle is a felon plotline was kind of dumb. He refused Lyla's help to fight the charges, but when Oliver comes to rescue him he has a sudden change of heart...instead of doing things to clear his name like Lyla originally offered though he decides to break out marking him as a fugitive of the state. I wasn't a big fan of the new Team Arrow at first, but they did grow on me. The Artemis betrayal was handled poorly though. Her character was barely developed (even compared to the other new recruits) before her betrayal. Her actions were a huge driver of the series plot, but even when she becomes one of the villains we barely see her. Also, can the Laurel sisters please just stay dead? The worst part of the season was Adrienne who was just a terrible villain. In reality he probably only told Oliver "I'm 10 steps ahead of you" (or something like it) a couple of times, but it was about 300 times too many. The one positive of the season was the invasion crossover event (Barry telling Kara that Oliver shot him during training was classic). That was pretty cool. Oh, and I did like the redemption of Slade on the island. I liked his character during the flashbacks when he was still Oliver's ally, and so it was cool to see them on the same side again.

Season 6 - I "finished" this season without actually watching it. After the first few episodes, I ended up skipping through large portions of each episode just to get through it all. It probably didn't help that I started this right on the heels of season 5 (which I obviously didn't love), but the whole thing with the FBI was just dumb. If they wanted the Green Arrow so bad, then why did they wait until there was some proof that Oliver was the Green Arrow before entering Star City and going on the attack? Also, why are they even after him? Just a few months prior (in season 5), Green Arrow was honored standing next to the president for helping to save the world from alien invasion. That seems like a pretty good excuse to NOT be on the FBI's most wanted list, but even if the government did want him. A pretty good opportunity to apprehend him would be when he's standing on stage next to the president...Agent Watson was incredibly annoying with her tough cop attitude (which proved to be hypocritical in the early parts of s7). Laurel coming through to blow Diaz off the building when Oliver had him was just a tad too convenient as well. I do wish I hadn't skipped so thoroughly through some of the middle episodes. I came to realize that something happened to cause major division within team Arrow, but I don't have the energy to re-watch those episodes in their entirety to find out.

It was sad to see Quentin go. Despite having 6 seasons on Arrow, I still think of him from his 1 season of the Dresden Files. The 'moment' between him and Oliver was a bit awkward though. Just in the way that Oliver called him a father figure when they had ben at odds for most of his life. Also, can Agent Watson be any more of a *****? First arresting Oliver in front of his son at a food drive and then when he's at the hospital waiting on a friend's recovery..

Season 7 - I'm only a few episodes in. So far it's better than season 6, but that may just because the damage has already been done. The alliance between Tahlia and Oliver in prison was a little too easy (considering how much she hated him in s5). I've grown to really like Rene's character. He's still that "wild dog", but he's grown a lot since he was first introduced. Dinah's character has become rather annoying. I'm thinking that it stems from whatever caused the drama within Team Arrow in the prior season, but I'm not a fan on how she has this hardline stance while also acting like she's still ok with off the books stuff. It's also kind of crazy how Felicity is the only one gunning for Diaz at this point. Her obsession does make the most sense as she's a target and her husband is in jail, but I would have thought that there would be a little more commitment to protect their friend and pay back Oliver's sacrifice for them. The flash backs (or flash forwards) are interesting. It seems that time travel will play a role in this season. I'm not sure if I'm going to take a break from the show or not. I kind of want to power through and finish it, but I've binged s5, super-simmed s6, and watched the first like 5 episodes of s7 in the last 2 weeks.


Probably sounds like I'm very critical of Arrow. In general I loved the first few seasons, but I've loved the last few seasons less so. The characters have been what has kept me going with it despite what I view as silly story points as of late because the characters in this show are great (I didn't even talk about Thea and how good she was).

[Majingir]

Re: Arrow (Final Season)

I'm actually only on season 7, but I don't want to have to dig up each season's thread. There is a lot to unpack here. Hopefully I won't need spoiler tags as I'm only talking about 1-7.



I started watching Arrow for the first time a little less than a year ago. I think I binged the first season and a half in 1 weekend. I would burn out on it for a bit, come back some time later and binge another season and repeat until here I am where I'm 5 or 6 episodes into season 7.



Season 1 - Fantastic. Secret identity/double life is one of my guilty pleasures in story telling. You obviously get this with any superhero story, but it was on full display early on. Bonus points to Oliver delving out true vigilante justice; it just was a nice change from the cookie cutter actions of every other superhero ever.



It was a great introduction into the show. I actually knew very little about the Green Arrow. My only real knowledge of him came from his appearances in Smallville which was probably close to 20 years ago at this point. It was cool seeing the rough edges around Oliver's character. This was before we knew just how much he got up to in those 5 years away, but just from the standpoint of being stuck on the island with the few things we knew about was enough to explain his 'dark' persona. John and Felicity were also great complimentary characters. Probably my favorite side kick characters of any show.



Season 2 - It killed me to have to hate Summer Glau's character. It was also really weird seeing the Sebastian Blood actor (whom I only knew as Detective ****** from Lucifer) in that kind of role. I did lose a bit of interest when Oliver vowed to stop killing criminals. It was the first moment where he really tries to move on from his 5 years in ****, but that was one of the defining features that made me love the show originally. Slade was a good villain for the season. Also, the romance with Sara Lance was just kind of weird. We do get introduced to Nyssa though, and I really liked her character.



Season 3 - Things really started to go a bit downhill for me. At no point have I liked Ray Palmer's character. He's Tony Stark without all of the things that make Tony fun. Also, at no point was Laurel ever believable as the Black Canary beyond her sonic scream (she goes from being a slightly above average female fighter to being able to take on the league of assassins after a few boxing lessons....), and it was equally dumb that Thea was suddenly at Team Arrow level after training with Malcom for just a couple of months. Despite these annoyances, I did enjoy the season overall. It was interesting seeing Oliver join the League of Assassins for a bit. Is that comic book canon that they trained both Batman and Green Arrow?



Season 4 - This was the first time that I started to get confused with the whole 'Arrowverse'. The episode where Oliver finds out that he has a son seemed like it may have been started from the Flash, but I never went back to check. A lot of the drama in the show also just felt kind of forced, like the fall out between Oliver and Felicity. Diggle's brother was an incredibly annoying villain. Damien Dahrk was slightly better, but he almost seemed to fall in priority at times. This was also the first time that I really hated the flashbacks. The John Constantine cameo was cool, but the love interest between Oliver and the girl was just silly. I remember burning out part way through this season and then burning out again once it was done.



Season 5 - The Diggle is a felon plotline was kind of dumb. He refused Lyla's help to fight the charges, but when Oliver comes to rescue him he has a sudden change of heart...instead of doing things to clear his name like Lyla originally offered though he decides to break out marking him as a fugitive of the state. I wasn't a big fan of the new Team Arrow at first, but they did grow on me. The Artemis betrayal was handled poorly though. Her character was barely developed (even compared to the other new recruits) before her betrayal. Her actions were a huge driver of the series plot, but even when she becomes one of the villains we barely see her. Also, can the Laurel sisters please just stay dead? The worst part of the season was Adrienne who was just a terrible villain. In reality he probably only told Oliver "I'm 10 steps ahead of you" (or something like it) a couple of times, but it was about 300 times too many. The one positive of the season was the invasion crossover event (Barry telling Kara that Oliver shot him during training was classic). That was pretty cool. Oh, and I did like the redemption of Slade on the island. I liked his character during the flashbacks when he was still Oliver's ally, and so it was cool to see them on the same side again.



Season 6 - I "finished" this season without actually watching it. After the first few episodes, I ended up skipping through large portions of each episode just to get through it all. It probably didn't help that I started this right on the heels of season 5 (which I obviously didn't love), but the whole thing with the FBI was just dumb. If they wanted the Green Arrow so bad, then why did they wait until there was some proof that Oliver was the Green Arrow before entering Star City and going on the attack? Also, why are they even after him? Just a few months prior (in season 5), Green Arrow was honored standing next to the president for helping to save the world from alien invasion. That seems like a pretty good excuse to NOT be on the FBI's most wanted list, but even if the government did want him. A pretty good opportunity to apprehend him would be when he's standing on stage next to the president...Agent Watson was incredibly annoying with her tough cop attitude (which proved to be hypocritical in the early parts of s7). Laurel coming through to blow Diaz off the building when Oliver had him was just a tad too convenient as well. I do wish I hadn't skipped so thoroughly through some of the middle episodes. I came to realize that something happened to cause major division within team Arrow, but I don't have the energy to re-watch those episodes in their entirety to find out.



It was sad to see Quentin go. Despite having 6 seasons on Arrow, I still think of him from his 1 season of the Dresden Files. The 'moment' between him and Oliver was a bit awkward though. Just in the way that Oliver called him a father figure when they had ben at odds for most of his life. Also, can Agent Watson be any more of a *****? First arresting Oliver in front of his son at a food drive and then when he's at the hospital waiting on a friend's recovery..



Season 7 - I'm only a few episodes in. So far it's better than season 6, but that may just because the damage has already been done. The alliance between Tahlia and Oliver in prison was a little too easy (considering how much she hated him in s5). I've grown to really like Rene's character. He's still that "wild dog", but he's grown a lot since he was first introduced. Dinah's character has become rather annoying. I'm thinking that it stems from whatever caused the drama within Team Arrow in the prior season, but I'm not a fan on how she has this hardline stance while also acting like she's still ok with off the books stuff. It's also kind of crazy how Felicity is the only one gunning for Diaz at this point. Her obsession does make the most sense as she's a target and her husband is in jail, but I would have thought that there would be a little more commitment to protect their friend and pay back Oliver's sacrifice for them. The flash backs (or flash forwards) are interesting. It seems that time travel will play a role in this season. I'm not sure if I'm going to take a break from the show or not. I kind of want to power through and finish it, but I've binged s5, super-simmed s6, and watched the first like 5 episodes of s7 in the last 2 weeks.





Probably sounds like I'm very critical of Arrow. In general I loved the first few seasons, but I've loved the last few seasons less so. The characters have been what has kept me going with it despite what I view as silly story points as of late because the characters in this show are great (I didn't even talk about Thea and how good she was).

General consensus on the show is that:
S2 is the best season
S1 is second best season
2nd half of season 5 is one of best arcs in the series

Season 4 was the worst

4 like I said sucked, s6 and 7 werent as good as 5, but were still decent. But season 2,1,3,5 were the top parts of the show.

Not much to spoil about s8, but you absolutely need to watch the crossovers for s8 to be worth it as that season wraps up the show and ties directly in with the final crossover.

[tarheelguy4736]

Re: Arrow (Final Season)

I agree with Majingir.

I started Arrow from the get go and watching that first season created my comic book obsession [emoji23]. I wanted to know more about the character which led to me buying tons of comic books over the past 8 years, specifically in the DC world.

But I, like many, noticed it going downhill at the end of season 3. Season 4 was not the same Arrow it was from Season 1 to 3. They tried to delve in the magic works too much and it just didn't seem organic at times.

Season 5 was very promising. I absolutely loved the Prometheus character. The back and forth between him and Oliver was very well done. I wish the season wouldn't have ended the way it did because it would have been nice to see more interaction between the two.

I am going to be honest, with Season 6, I just watched two episodes and basically gave up. To this day I have only watched those two episodes of Season 6 and then skipped the season. I just can't get through it because it was so bad.

Season 7 was better with prison stuff. Still not on par with the original seasons of Arrow but it was still enjoyable to watch.

I enjoyed season 8 and I guess was satisfied with the conclusion of the Green Arrow character. Not really much else to say on Season 8.

My ranking would be (Season 1 and 2 are basically interchangeable):

1
2
3
5
7
8
4
6

My final thoughts... Arrow would have been a great show to have on the HBO Max site. Much like Doom Patrol and Titans, but it was just before it's time. However I feel like it was responsible for giving us a lot of the superhero shows we have today, which I really respect.

Sent from my J8170 using Operation Sports mobile app

[KSUowls]

Re: Arrow (Final Season)

Interesting that people seemed to like season 5.

I thought that prometheus was ok before he was unmasked, but as soon as Oliver found out the story went down hill. It was the 2nd time that the series had played on this theme of "I'm not going to kill you I'm going to hurt you" which already made it kind of tired as a story mechanic, and Adrienne's taunting came across as very juvenile. Then there was the huge story contradiction after Oliver was captured and broken. Oliver was made to realize that he's a murderer, and decides to throw his morals out the window. Not enough to actually kill Adrienne himself, no of course not. Just enough to bring his old gangster friends from Russia into do the dirty work and give up medicine that the community needs. Only long enough that a heartfelt talk with one of his friends makes him reverse course back into the light.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. These annoyances are just fresh in mind for me.

Sent from my S10 using Operation Sports mobile app

[Majingir]

Re: Arrow (Final Season)

Prometheus being unmasked is what made it better.

Everyone was hoping for Tommy, and as soon as he got unmasked and we found out it's just the son of somebody Oliver killed, it didnt seem so great, but then when you see what happens after, it was so good. The actor himself was great too. Funny backstory on that, the actor who played Adrian(who had been plotting revenge on Oliver for years) was actually at Summerslam when Stephen Amell was competing, and they never knew each other back then, and he happened to be shown on camera during the match. Talk about being 10 steps ahead.

[KSUowls]

Re: Arrow (Final Season)

Prometheus being unmasked is what made it better.

Everyone was hoping for Tommy, and as soon as he got unmasked and we found out it's just the son of somebody Oliver killed, it didnt seem so great, but then when you see what happens after, it was so good. The actor himself was great too. Funny backstory on that, the actor who played Adrian(who had been plotting revenge on Oliver for years) was actually at Summerslam when Stephen Amell was competing, and they never knew each other back then, and he happened to be shown on camera during the match. Talk about being 10 steps ahead.

People thought it was Tommy? I thought that it was pretty obvious who it was. Maybe that's just the benefit of having watched the entire series so close together since the show followed a very predictable pattern. My biggest problem with Adrienne being unmasked is I just felt like the writing got very lazy, with his character, Oliver's motivations, the instant flip he had later on, etc...



Anyways, I finally finished the series, including all Crisis on Infinite Earth Crossover episodes.

Season 7 - Pretty good. An improvement over the prior few seasons, but it could have been better. Having a 3rd villain in 7 seasons (2, 5, 7) wanting to ruin Oliver's legacy was a bit disappointing. It didn't seem like they took advantage of the relationship between Oliver and Emiko nearly enough. I did think though that it was the best use of flashbacks/forwards since the early parts of the series.


Season 8 -

Spoiler

The entire season was an all-in-out great great swan song for the series with revisiting old characters, Oliver meeting and working with his kids, the buildup to the Crisis and the funeral episode after that. I thought that the entire season was just progressed to a very natural goodbye.

The entire season plus the Crisis event had a very Tony Stark-ish feel from End Game (which I'm sure is what the writers were going for).

Diggle's funeral speech was classic Diggle. I'll mark it as one of the best parts of the entire series.

The cliffhanger with Mia's brother being kidnapped in the 2nd to last episode was kind of odd. It does seem like they want to set up a spinoff, which might be interesting as I really liked Mia, but it just seems odd to have that kind of cliffhanger in a series that is ending without the spinoff series even officially announced.

It's always bittersweet when you get to the end of a story. I tried to calculate how many hours I had spent on watching Arrow since I first started it in early January, and I think that it was close to a full week of actual time.

Stephen Amell was great as Oliver Queen. He really nailed the persona that the show was going for, always on the edge of being dark while still trying to stay in the light.

Emily Bett Rickards quickly became my favorite female character on the show, long before Oliver ditched Laurel.

David Ramsey was amazing as Diggle. The character was always this kind of rock for Oliver, reminding him when to sheathe the darkness.

While I may disagree with some on the quality of season 5, I think that everyone acknowledges that there were times where the series wasn't that great. I think that those 3 actors/characters provided such a strong foundation that it was able to weather any poor showings though.


edit - One more thing regarding s8

Spoiler

I loved the Lucifer cameo. Really cool having Tom Ellis do his "what do you desire" on Mia, and just being there period.

I also liked seeing a brief flash on one of the Earths, showing the characters from the Titans

[Majingir]

Re: Arrow (Final Season)

People thought it was Tommy? I thought that it was pretty obvious who it was. Maybe that's just the benefit of having watched the entire series so close together since the show followed a very predictable pattern. My biggest problem with Adrienne being unmasked is I just felt like the writing got very lazy, with his character, Oliver's motivations, the instant flip he had later on, etc...



Stephen Amell was great as Oliver Queen. He really nailed the persona that the show was going for, always on the edge of being dark while still trying to stay in the light.



Emily Bett Rickards quickly became my favorite female character on the show, long before Oliver ditched Laurel.

It was a big guess that it was Tommy. I mean would it have been surprising that Malcolm eventually went to the LOA or simply found a pit himself and resurrected Tommy? It wouldn't have gotten more personal than Tommy vs Oliver. Nobody knows Oliver better than Tommy (at least until Oliver became the Arrow, which Tommy did feel betrayed by when he found out).

I mean theres a big reason why they made Tommy Prometheus during the crisis crossover.

Stephen Amell is literally the only reason I got into the Arrowverse. I knew nothing about Green Arrow, Flash or any of that. Didnt know if the shows were even good. I just saw him on WWE, and at Blue Jays games (helping Donaldson get into the ASG) and figured he's a cool guy in real life. Started watching the shows and realized how good they were, and how he actually is a cool guy in real life.

And Emily as Felicity was great. Like I've said before, S1-2 Felicity might be my fave character in the entire Arrowverse history. She was perfect in the comedic role.

[zello144]

Re: Arrow (Final Season)

I hated Felicity. Early Felicity was fine but as the show went on she got more and more annoying. Not just her though the team grew a bit too big and too fast.

They should have kept Team Arrow Small. Oliver, Diggle, Felicity, and either Roy or Laurel/Sara. Then there's the Laurel situation. They made her unlikable early on and then when she's finally turning a corner they kill her off.

IMO the Show was great Seasons 1-3 and Season 5. 4,6, and the later part of season 7 were terrible. 8 tied things up as best it could because of crisis.