Under the lens takes a deep look at films by focusing in on one or two particular areas of the picture that helped to define it for better or for worse.
Arrow is a Comicbook TV adaptation of the Green Arrow stories. It stars Steven Amell, Katie Cassidy, and David Ramsey, and was created by Greg Berlanti. Arrow Season 4, follows The Green Arrow and his team as they fight a menace unlike any they have faced before in the form of Damian Dahrk. A sorcerer with a cult intent on world destruction.
UNDER THE LENS: SERIALIZED AND VILLAIN
Serialized: While the season had some very memorable episodes it also suffered from the writers attempting to turn the season from a superhero procedural into a sterilized drama. While the previous seasons did not reveal the main storyline until almost halfway through the season, season 4 began by introducing the main villain and having a big throw down with him and Oliver.
This in itself is not a problem, what became the issue over the course of the season was that the writers tried to find ways to work the main villain into all the storylines throughout the season. This caused a bit of fatigue seeing team Arrow fight the same “ghosts” every episode. That being said season 4 handled some story arches very well. The story arc’s involving Lonnie Machin aka Anarky were very well done, and flowed in and out with the H.I.V.E storyline in a way that felt natural.
Villain: Comic books are all about villains, without bad guys who would be the ones to hold our heroes to a high standard. Arrow has over the years had some very memorable villains Malcolm Merlyn (John Barryman) Slade Wilson (Manu Bennet) Ra’s al Ghul (Matt Nable) and lastly, Damian Dahrk (Neal McDonougn) While some have been better than others, they have all been the lynchpins for their perspective seasons.
When it comes to McDonough there has been no better on Arrow, he simply chews the scenery in every scene he is in. His character is all at once psychopathic and hilarious, killing someone one second and then cracking a joke the next. He gets great lines and even better fight choreography, over all he was a fantastic villain. Sadly it is terrible that such a wonderful interpretation of a bad guy has to make do with a perfectly horrible villain plot. The plot involves Dhark obliterating the world in a nuclear holocaust, preserving himself and his followers in an “Ark” under Star city. Arrow has always had the season’s finale involving a city leveling event.
But this season simply went too far, the storyline of nuclear apocalypse was simply too big, and more appropriate for a Legends of Tomorrow team adventure, not a solo Green arrow season. The writers needed to realize that smaller finales where the threat is only on the heroes can be high stakes enough without world-ending plots. The season 4 finale of Arrow would have been more powerful ending with just the street brawl between Arrow and Dhark, leaving out all the missiles.
HIGHLIGHTS
- The fight choreography is as good as ever
- The dynamic of “Team Arrow” is as good as its ever been
- Steven Amell is electric as Oliver Queen
QUOTABLE QUOTE
Damien Darhk : Gentlemen, the world’s a funny place. It resists change. It fights progress. So the only way to move things forward is to fight back.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Who is your favorite member of Team Arrow?
CONCLUSION
Overall Arrow Season 4 was a vast improvement from season 3, this season of Arrow was designed by the showrunners as a semi-reboot to fix the many problems that plagued a very promising season the year before. We got a dynamic villain, improved fight choreography, and better costumes. With the good came a lot of bad sadly, as good as Arrow seeks to be it suffers from wanting to take risks while being too afraid to actually take them.
