Neo. The Only. The One.
THE ONE
it was all good just a couple yrs ago
anybody remember when Arrow was so good, Spartacus actors were coming for work?
- Thread starter Neo. The Only. The One.
- Start date
it was all good just a couple yrs ago
Neo. The Only. The One.
THE ONE
here's a good review of season 3 (the season that marked the beginning of the end for Arrow)
Where ‘Arrow’ Season 3 Went Wrong: Demons, Legacies and Flash-y Crossovers
Kevin Fitzpatrick | May 15, 2015 @ 4:17 PM
The CW’s Arrow closed out Season 3 this past week with the surprisingly final “My Name is Oliver Queen,” but for many a creeping sense of indirection has permeated the emerald archer’s arc this year. Now, we attempt to pinpoint where Arrow went astray, including a character absence that may surprise you, and what hope we might find for Season 4.
I shouldn’t have to tell you to beware Arrow Season 3 spoilers from here on out, but I will! So there’s that. In any case, I don’t feel entirely alone in my assessment that Arrow went a bit off-base this year, and it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly where the blame lies. I’m going to steer clear of some of the more individual character failings, like Roy or Felicity (though there are some great write-ups around the web), and instead concentrate on a few key aspects that had Arrow feeling decidedly unconnected with its roots. That said…
The Flash Isn’t To Blame
It’s easy to sit back and draw connections between Arrow’s decline in Season 3, and the near-universal praise for The Flash’s first run, and certainly possible that division of creative minds between the pair left Arrow a bit exhausted this year. It’s a sentiment that often follows parents and children, that Arrow giving birth to a spinoff relegated the CW superhero drama to a support system for its flashy successor, though The Flash was always destined to distinguish itself from Arrow with a weirder, wilder tone, rather than eclipse it.
If anything, an aspect of The Flash that could be put to blame for Arrow’s suffering this year might lie in Barry’s adventures warping the internal reality that Arrow took two seasons to build. Arrow tended to approach this in two ways, whether directly testing Oliver against a metahuman threat, or indirectly ignoring the consequences of Central City’s heightened reality.
Death in particular proved problematic, as where we can attribute something like Malcolm Merlyn’s Season 2 survival to the then-unknown “other” of Nanda Parbat mysticism, mortal wounds in Season 3 proved of little consequence. It wasn’t that Caitlin and Cisco popped over with outlandish weekly inventions to stem mortal threats like Oliver’s mountainside ruin (though Ray Palmer’s nanites teetered dangerously close), but rather that Oliver could simply “will” himself to survive, and all this before any introduction of a magical healing hot tub.
In a world where Starling newscasters should nightly scream bloody murder at the supernatural goings-on a few towns over, Arrow forgot how gravely to respect injuries or any lasting limitations. The Flash regularly makes its outlandish scenarios a wonder to each character, where Arrow seemed more distracted by the supernatural than finding a grounded perspective on it.
Here’s Looking at You, Ray
The same trend of valuing concept over character held especially true of Ray Palmer, introduced as a bubbly combination of Felicity and Oliver, (or Barry and Oliver, according to Felicity), and new owner of Queen Consolidated. The problem with Ray’s presence in Season 3 lay mostly in the inability to connect Ray and Felicity’s interactions to the other characters early on, but also that Arrow couldn’t decide how to view the character. Billionaire, genius and philanthropist, but one who’s construction of the A.T.O.M. suit seemed entirely free of scrutiny, positioning him ambiguously as both hero and foil to Oliver, and only landing on one when the third act demanded it.
(dammit Ray
)
The Demon’s Head
That absence of clear antagonism also helped cement Ra’s al Ghul as the meat of Oliver’s arc, though Ra’s’ execution rang false for different reasons. Exciting though it was to see such a major comic figure realized onscreen, and after two seasons of teasing, it felt more as if Arrow believed the hype itself strong enough to eclipse Slade Wilson in the canon of Arrow baddies. Not to mention, the fluid distance between Starling and Ra’s Nanda Parbat stronghold (again stretching the inner reality) made the villain’s presence even murkier.
For the first half of the season, Ra’s menaced Oliver and co. over the blood debt owed by Malcolm, a convoluted arrangement that regrettably pulled Sara down with it, but also one that Season 3 never rationally attempted to resolve. Whether or not Ra’s would have recognized Thea’s innocence in the ploy, Ra’s agenda shifted in the second half to making Oliver his heir, an equally indecisive arc that only served to put Starling City in ecological danger once again.
Where Slade had reasonably straightforward motivations of revenge, Ra’s only grew more vindictive toward placing Oliver in a position of ambiguous power. Could Oliver simply disband the League, or absolve his force marriage to Nyssa upon the ascent, and Matt Nable’s exit? These and more questions were never answered, leaving Arrow to cover by making Starling’s destruction a late-in-the-game condition, a lazy moral absolute to conquer, rather than invent around.
The Kids Aren’t All Right
In earnest, the biggest failing of Arrow Season 3 overall isn’t an obvious one, but rather an absence, a tether that helped keep its increasingly superpowered world in check. Legacy, and the wisdom of adulthood were nowhere to be found this year, and may in fact have died with Moira Queen.Arrow’s first two seasons painted it as an intensely personal quest for redemption, one increasingly complicated by revelations of family, and sins of the past. Slade brought this motif more directly as a remnant of Oliver’s own past, but one that dovetailed nicely with the series’ overall sense of familial tragedy.
This time around, Arrow began on a carefree note of Oliver enjoying the spoils of his crusade, apparently released from the burden of his family’s legacy, and ruminating on his path as a general hero. Trouble is, the absence of Moira or any other general “adult” voices this year stripped Arrow of its sense of history. Gone too were the Queen Mansion and company holdings (another unresolved aspect of Season 3), as Arrow seemed to abandon its past, and dive headfirst into a new mission of fleshing out the larger universe.
A grounded perspective gave the first seasons of Arrow extraordinary focus, cemented by adult characters like Moira or Quentin Lance. In losing Oliver’s mother and sidelining his surrogate father figure, whether by a desk job, or ignorance of Sara’s death, Arrow Season 3 lacked the sense of lived-in history that made its costumed characters so worthy of awe to begin with. Instead, this year kept its gaze on exaggerated and inaccessible adult figures like the immortal despot leagues away, a slimy survivor of seasons past, or yes, even a cocktail waitress uncertain how to relate to her daughter.
So, What Now?
There are a number of other avenues one could take in dissecting Arrow Season 3, whether the difficulty connecting Oliver’s Hong Kong flashbacks to the present day, or the indulgence of past cameos like Tommy or Slade, but the question stands: Where does all this leave the DC drama in Season 4? Certainly Legends of Tomorrow will end up compounding Arrow’s issues with stolen focus, as will Oliver’s apparent decision to leave the life behind entirely, but a soft reboot might actually end up doing the series some good.
The double-edged sword of Season 2’s intensity burned through a lot of Arrow’s core concepts, unfortunately leaving Ra’s al Ghul the only viable option to inflate Season 3’s sense of scale. That might actually allow Season 4 to pull back with a smaller focus on Damien Darkh, and presumably H.I.V.E., which itself would return a bit of the “legacy” focus through Diggle. If nothing else, the wealth of heroes established over Season 3, whether Black Canary, Speedy or even a masked Diggle should allow some breathing room for Oliver’s next arc, leaving Season 3 a muddled, if necessary transition period.
Well, did Arrow Season 3 live up to expectations, suffer against The Flash, or damage the series beyond repair? Could we see Season 4 returning the series to its past heights, or will The CW’s expansive DC roster only complicate the story? Stay tuned for the latest on all three series, and don’t forget The Flash‘s first season finale next Tuesday!
Read More: Where 'Arrow' Season 3 Went Wrong | Where 'Arrow' Season 3 Went Wrong
season 3 was the beginning of the end. I agree with the article. Show lost its focus and sense of grounding after season 2. Now it's just utter ridiculousness.
I'm done, brehs
I'm joining @Reinscarf. I refuse to watch any more of this crap called Arrow
The end of an era
Where ‘Arrow’ Season 3 Went Wrong: Demons, Legacies and Flash-y Crossovers
Kevin Fitzpatrick | May 15, 2015 @ 4:17 PM
The CW’s Arrow closed out Season 3 this past week with the surprisingly final “My Name is Oliver Queen,” but for many a creeping sense of indirection has permeated the emerald archer’s arc this year. Now, we attempt to pinpoint where Arrow went astray, including a character absence that may surprise you, and what hope we might find for Season 4.
I shouldn’t have to tell you to beware Arrow Season 3 spoilers from here on out, but I will! So there’s that. In any case, I don’t feel entirely alone in my assessment that Arrow went a bit off-base this year, and it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly where the blame lies. I’m going to steer clear of some of the more individual character failings, like Roy or Felicity (though there are some great write-ups around the web), and instead concentrate on a few key aspects that had Arrow feeling decidedly unconnected with its roots. That said…
The Flash Isn’t To Blame
It’s easy to sit back and draw connections between Arrow’s decline in Season 3, and the near-universal praise for The Flash’s first run, and certainly possible that division of creative minds between the pair left Arrow a bit exhausted this year. It’s a sentiment that often follows parents and children, that Arrow giving birth to a spinoff relegated the CW superhero drama to a support system for its flashy successor, though The Flash was always destined to distinguish itself from Arrow with a weirder, wilder tone, rather than eclipse it.
If anything, an aspect of The Flash that could be put to blame for Arrow’s suffering this year might lie in Barry’s adventures warping the internal reality that Arrow took two seasons to build. Arrow tended to approach this in two ways, whether directly testing Oliver against a metahuman threat, or indirectly ignoring the consequences of Central City’s heightened reality.
Death in particular proved problematic, as where we can attribute something like Malcolm Merlyn’s Season 2 survival to the then-unknown “other” of Nanda Parbat mysticism, mortal wounds in Season 3 proved of little consequence. It wasn’t that Caitlin and Cisco popped over with outlandish weekly inventions to stem mortal threats like Oliver’s mountainside ruin (though Ray Palmer’s nanites teetered dangerously close), but rather that Oliver could simply “will” himself to survive, and all this before any introduction of a magical healing hot tub.
In a world where Starling newscasters should nightly scream bloody murder at the supernatural goings-on a few towns over, Arrow forgot how gravely to respect injuries or any lasting limitations. The Flash regularly makes its outlandish scenarios a wonder to each character, where Arrow seemed more distracted by the supernatural than finding a grounded perspective on it.
Here’s Looking at You, Ray
The same trend of valuing concept over character held especially true of Ray Palmer, introduced as a bubbly combination of Felicity and Oliver, (or Barry and Oliver, according to Felicity), and new owner of Queen Consolidated. The problem with Ray’s presence in Season 3 lay mostly in the inability to connect Ray and Felicity’s interactions to the other characters early on, but also that Arrow couldn’t decide how to view the character. Billionaire, genius and philanthropist, but one who’s construction of the A.T.O.M. suit seemed entirely free of scrutiny, positioning him ambiguously as both hero and foil to Oliver, and only landing on one when the third act demanded it.
(dammit Ray
)The Demon’s Head
That absence of clear antagonism also helped cement Ra’s al Ghul as the meat of Oliver’s arc, though Ra’s’ execution rang false for different reasons. Exciting though it was to see such a major comic figure realized onscreen, and after two seasons of teasing, it felt more as if Arrow believed the hype itself strong enough to eclipse Slade Wilson in the canon of Arrow baddies. Not to mention, the fluid distance between Starling and Ra’s Nanda Parbat stronghold (again stretching the inner reality) made the villain’s presence even murkier.
For the first half of the season, Ra’s menaced Oliver and co. over the blood debt owed by Malcolm, a convoluted arrangement that regrettably pulled Sara down with it, but also one that Season 3 never rationally attempted to resolve. Whether or not Ra’s would have recognized Thea’s innocence in the ploy, Ra’s agenda shifted in the second half to making Oliver his heir, an equally indecisive arc that only served to put Starling City in ecological danger once again.
Where Slade had reasonably straightforward motivations of revenge, Ra’s only grew more vindictive toward placing Oliver in a position of ambiguous power. Could Oliver simply disband the League, or absolve his force marriage to Nyssa upon the ascent, and Matt Nable’s exit? These and more questions were never answered, leaving Arrow to cover by making Starling’s destruction a late-in-the-game condition, a lazy moral absolute to conquer, rather than invent around.
The Kids Aren’t All Right
In earnest, the biggest failing of Arrow Season 3 overall isn’t an obvious one, but rather an absence, a tether that helped keep its increasingly superpowered world in check. Legacy, and the wisdom of adulthood were nowhere to be found this year, and may in fact have died with Moira Queen.
Arrow’s first two seasons painted it as an intensely personal quest for redemption, one increasingly complicated by revelations of family, and sins of the past. Slade brought this motif more directly as a remnant of Oliver’s own past, but one that dovetailed nicely with the series’ overall sense of familial tragedy.This time around, Arrow began on a carefree note of Oliver enjoying the spoils of his crusade, apparently released from the burden of his family’s legacy, and ruminating on his path as a general hero. Trouble is, the absence of Moira or any other general “adult” voices this year stripped Arrow of its sense of history. Gone too were the Queen Mansion and company holdings (another unresolved aspect of Season 3), as Arrow seemed to abandon its past, and dive headfirst into a new mission of fleshing out the larger universe.
A grounded perspective gave the first seasons of Arrow extraordinary focus, cemented by adult characters like Moira or Quentin Lance. In losing Oliver’s mother and sidelining his surrogate father figure, whether by a desk job, or ignorance of Sara’s death, Arrow Season 3 lacked the sense of lived-in history that made its costumed characters so worthy of awe to begin with. Instead, this year kept its gaze on exaggerated and inaccessible adult figures like the immortal despot leagues away, a slimy survivor of seasons past, or yes, even a cocktail waitress uncertain how to relate to her daughter.
So, What Now?
There are a number of other avenues one could take in dissecting Arrow Season 3, whether the difficulty connecting Oliver’s Hong Kong flashbacks to the present day, or the indulgence of past cameos like Tommy or Slade, but the question stands: Where does all this leave the DC drama in Season 4? Certainly Legends of Tomorrow will end up compounding Arrow’s issues with stolen focus, as will Oliver’s apparent decision to leave the life behind entirely, but a soft reboot might actually end up doing the series some good.
The double-edged sword of Season 2’s intensity burned through a lot of Arrow’s core concepts, unfortunately leaving Ra’s al Ghul the only viable option to inflate Season 3’s sense of scale. That might actually allow Season 4 to pull back with a smaller focus on Damien Darkh, and presumably H.I.V.E., which itself would return a bit of the “legacy” focus through Diggle.
If nothing else, the wealth of heroes established over Season 3, whether Black Canary, Speedy or even a masked Diggle should allow some breathing room for Oliver’s next arc, leaving Season 3 a muddled, if necessary transition period.Well, did Arrow Season 3 live up to expectations, suffer against The Flash, or damage the series beyond repair? Could we see Season 4 returning the series to its past heights, or will The CW’s expansive DC roster only complicate the story? Stay tuned for the latest on all three series, and don’t forget The Flash‘s first season finale next Tuesday!
Read More: Where 'Arrow' Season 3 Went Wrong | Where 'Arrow' Season 3 Went Wrong
season 3 was the beginning of the end. I agree with the article. Show lost its focus and sense of grounding after season 2. Now it's just utter ridiculousness.
I'm done, brehs
I'm joining @Reinscarf. I refuse to watch any more of this crap called Arrow
The end of an era
yeah the first season was think they had a fight in the hall way that looked like the raid, ollie was merking cats left and right on soime punisher ish. Then the season with crixus was 
now its pure garbage, show fell off when felicity went from funny techy nerd who said sexual things that werent meant to be sexual to this poc
lsat good episode was when rahs merked ollie off that cliff
think they had a fight in the hall way that looked like the raid, ollie was merking cats left and right on soime punisher ish. Then the season with crixus was now its pure garbage, show fell off when felicity went from funny techy nerd who said sexual things that werent meant to be sexual to this poc
lsat good episode was when rahs merked ollie off that cliff
Neo. The Only. The One.
THE ONE
yeah the first season was
now its pure garbage, show fell off when felicity went from funny techy nerd who said sexual things that werent meant to be sexual to this poc
lsat good episode was when rahs merked ollie off that cliff
the ONLY way this show can be redeemed is if they kill off everybody but Diggle
I take that back... Diggle needs to go too
Kill off everybody
move Oliver to a new city (seattle), take away all his perks (his fancy bow, his hi tech lair, the new suit)
take away EVERYTHING... strip him down to bare essentials.... hell, put him in the face paint again
and make him go back to season 1 ruthlessness
that's the ONLY way this show can come back. And until the writers do it, I refuse to watch this trainwreck
Neo. The Only. The One.
THE ONE
in fact, don't put hm in Seatte.
put him on the island. Make it where he gets stuck there, and everybody he knows is gone or dead, and he has to fight his way back.
put him on the island. Make it where he gets stuck there, and everybody he knows is gone or dead, and he has to fight his way back.
Norrin Radd
To me, my board!
Writers got everybody talmbout it
That review of Season 3 left out the biggest problem with it: Olicity.
It was in Season 3 that Olicity ate the show and the majority of the shows failings could be traced directly back to that coupling and its prominence in all aspects of every storyline.
It was in Season 3 that Olicity ate the show and the majority of the shows failings could be traced directly back to that coupling and its prominence in all aspects of every storyline.
O.T.I.S.
Veteran
Thing is, Olicity got its bytchass fans that got the fanbase divided. LaurL sucked but how do you kill off the Black Canary
Only thing that can save this show is if the felicity thing fizzles out and they bring back Sara from LoT to replace LarL.
But these Olicity bytches wanted Laurel dead and their zesty ass, soft ass romance to keep this shyt weak.
I rather go back to Ollie bodying nikkas, the Red Arrow with mericuru in his system, Deadstroke offing families, etc.
And Dhark/Hive is kinda wack as well
Only thing that can save this show is if the felicity thing fizzles out and they bring back Sara from LoT to replace LarL.
But these Olicity bytches wanted Laurel dead and their zesty ass, soft ass romance to keep this shyt weak.
I rather go back to Ollie bodying nikkas, the Red Arrow with mericuru in his system, Deadstroke offing families, etc.
And Dhark/Hive is kinda wack as well
came thru and Snoop Dogg the Building
Looking back the character of Laurel sucked mostly through Season 2 when she was a drunken crackhead but in Season 1 she was fine, not my favorite but also not the worst aspect of the show. And by Season 3 the character stopped sucking completely as she went on that struggle journey to become a superhero. Even her training wasn't the most outlandish thing ever when you think back to how often she was whooping grown men's asses in Season 1, so she already had some combat training.Thing is, Olicity got its bytchass fans that got the fanbase divided. LaurL sucked but how do you kill off the Black Canary
Only thing that can save this show is if the felicity thing fizzles out and they bring back Sara from LoT to replace LarL.
But these Olicity bytches wanted Laurel dead and their zesty ass, soft ass romance to keep this shyt weak.
I rather go back to Ollie bodying nikkas, the Red Arrow with mericuru in his system, Deadstroke offing families, etc.
And Dhark/Hive is kinda wack as well
Compare Laurel's Black Canary training to how Thea went from spoiled trust fund baby to deadly assassin in the span of 3 months on an island with Malcolm Merlyn. Which one was more unrealistic?
O.T.I.S.
Veteran
I didn't say it was unrealistic I said she sucked
And compared to Sara she was a struggle Black Canary but her training with Ollie and Talia was getting her a lot better.
And even Thea is annoying af at times so I don't need to compare them. Laurel was becoming a lot more likable (more than Felicity) and they killed her off for this Olicity mess
Remember when ollie came home and Slade was on his couch, that was TV 
How messed up it is that they best ollie we saw this year was in lot where he had one arm
How messed up it is that they best ollie we saw this year was in lot where he had one arm
I'll never forgive them for what they did to Arrow post season 2.
Phaggot Tommy destroyed Oliver, all Olly wanted to do was save people and got called a murderer
How can you start off so great and then give us season 3 and 4?
What once was...
.Phaggot Tommy destroyed Oliver, all Olly wanted to do was save people and got called a murderer
How can you start off so great and then give us season 3 and 4?
What once was
...
Wow 
I'll never forgive them for what they did to Arrow post season 2
Phaggot Tommy destroyed Oliver, all Olly wanted to do was save people and got called a murderer
How can you start off so great and then give us season 3 and 4?
What once was