Arrow "Green Arrow" Review

As we all know Arrow Season 3 was not that great, yet despite that i was still looking forward to the new season. I don't understand why some people have given up on the show. Yeah season 3 was bad but good shows have had bad seasons before, as far as i'm concerned the show is batting 2-1, that's still a winner in my books, so we'll have to see where it goes from here. So in the premiere episode of season 4, Star City is going through a crime spree that the remainders of Team Arrow (Now consisting of Diggle, Black Canary & Speedy) can not handle on their own, thus they turn to Oliver and Felicity for help. Learning that the threat known as Damien Darhk is behind it all they rejoin Team Arrow and now plan on stopping him.

So let's start with the best thing about the episode, Oliver Queen stops trying to be Batman. Okay really it's more of a promise that he's going to stop being Batman but it looks promising. For the first three seasons Oliver Queen has been dark, aggressive and like a ninja, inspiring the villains he creates, basically he's Batman. He even fought Ra's Al Ghul, that's how much they were trying to be Batman. Green Arrow is supposed to be more light hearted and down to Earth, fighting for the little guy and not having a corrupt bone in his body. Which actually kind of makes me glad that they didn't start calling him Green Arrow until now because he never was the Green Arrow. Here, they acknowledge that, Oliver talks about how he's always used the darkness as a tool and it's not who he can be anymore. In fact him as Oliver Queen got to tell a few more jokes than usual in this episode, which is a good sign, especially seeing as for the first time in his life he's supposed to be happy.

As for all the other characters well Diggle is still rightfully pissed at Oliver and thankfully his mask doesn't look as stupid in action (Though the visor being removed makes him look stupid as hell) but that's all that's going on with him. Felicity didn't cry and didn't mope, you know her and Oliver as a couple aren't nearly as annoying as them debating whether or not they should be a couple, maybe it's because it doesn't talk up half the fucking season (fingers crossed). Thea seems to be enjoying the superhero life, which i think is the first time in three seasons she's ever smiled, also she may turn out to be a psychopath. So we have optimism and psychotic tendencies, give em points for doing something new with the character. And then Laurel is just...there.

Then there's the villain, Damien Darhk, who so far just seems to be a positive version of Ra's Al Ghul. But the whole "I want this city to die" thing is getting old. Stop trying to kill this city! It won't work! Literally every villain so far has had that same plan! Though the positive outlook and the magic is a nice touch...Oh yeah they've introduced magic now. I like this, they've already got super powers, why not get magic, especially seeing as this is a good set up for Constantine to show up (Can't wait for that!). Then the final character to talk about is Captain Lance...i don't know what to think of this. On one hand it's an interesting twist with the character, but on the other i kind of hate it. Lance was my favourite character because he was a good cop, and really last season when he was talking about Arrow doing more harm than good, he has a point, he was the only person that i felt was emotionally justified in his decisions. But now he's working with the bad guy...dammit! Even if he says it's to save this city, i don't like the idea of Lance taking risks, that's not who he is, granted he may have to work with the worst police force in history, but he wouldn't do this, no matter how desperate he gets! I just hope this turns out for the best.

The final point to be made is that funeral scene, is it just a tease for a plot device that won't pay off for months? You betcha, but damn if it didn't work. Throughout the whole scene i was thinking "Don't show the name, don't show the name!" and they didn't, and that sealed the deal for me that this is a good set up, because if they did show it and it said "Felicity Smoak" then i would go "right, so Felicity is clearly not going to die because they're not stupid enough to spoil their own show and it's just going to be a bait & switch", not showing adds the level of mystery to it on who could die, why and when. I loved that set-up.

Overall this was a really good premiere episode, dare i say it did better than The Flash's premiere episode, but to be fair Arrow had more to prove so even just being good is an improvement. I'm giving Green Arrow an 8/10.

-Danny