Arrow Review: Green Arrow

Review by Nolan P. Smith

(Victor Valley)—When Arrow first started a few years back, it was a shot in the dark to say the least. To take a character not many non-comic book fans knew about and give him his own television series seemed risky already- changing the name of the hero to Arrow rather than Green Arrow had fans mumbling in protest. Yet, the show was good- no, better than good. It made you like this rich kid turned vigilante and now here we are, with season four now on its way. How do you keep the momentum going in the fourth season: the season opener, Green Arrow, hopes to do just that.

Spoilers ahead in case you haven’t seen it yet.

At the end of the third season, we saw Oliver Queen, also known as the Arrow (Stephen Amell) seemingly call it quits to enjoy life with his now girlfriend and partner in crime fighting, Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards), far away from Starling City. That’s where this season opens, as the couple is living in a ‘perfect world’ scenario, away from the darkness they have both seen. Back in Starling City, now known as Star City, the world is still engulfed in crime, and now missing two of its heroes- Arrow and The Atom, who looks to have perished at the end of last season’s finale (not likely). The remainder of team continues to fight the good fight: Oliver’s sister Thea (Willa Holland), now known as the Red Arrow, Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) fights on as the Black Canary, and John Diggle (David Ramsey), who now dons a helmet in battle. But a huge attack on the city leads the team to reach out to the happy couple and bring them back into the fold.

We see what appears to be the new villain for the season, Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough), a name fans heard a lot from last season. A powerful man with mystical powers, he is pulling the strings of the attacks on Star City, and is something our heroes haven’t faced as of yet. Some parts of this episode were great, and some of them didn’t make too much sense, like the rushed reasoning for Oliver to now go by the name of Green Arrow, and how quickly he and Felicity decided to move back home. Nevertheless, this was a good episode, it set the stage for what’s to come, especially the future foreshadowing end scene with The Flash, Barry Allen (Grant Gustin).

Rating: 4 out of 5. Not as strong as we have seen Arrow perform at, but a good opener for the season.