ARROW: Civil War Breaks Out Between New Team Arrow & Original Team Arrow In "Collision Course"!
Arrow returns after its two week break with an episode that puts Original Team Arrow against New Team Arrow... here's my full review of "Collision Course"
After two weeks, Arrow has returned with a new episode which pits OTA against NTA as they both fight over Earth-2 Laurel Lance and what should be her punishment for the murder of Vincent Sobel, aka Vigilante. From the fight between the two teams to the interactions between Quentin and E-2 Laurel Lance, this was yet another mediocre episode. Here's my review:
Let me start off by saying that New Team Arrow are officially the worst thing about this season. Their very existence in this season serves literally no relevance. If the writers were to recreate this season with the same story and script, there wouldn't be any difference if they removed NTA, other than that they would be removing the worst part of this season. Dinah, Renee and Curtis are just awful to watch and a lot of moments they have tend to be cringe-worthy.
The worst part about NTA is that they don't seem to be leaving the show anytime soon. It seems the writers actually think what they're doing with these characters is good, when in reality they're just bad. This entire "Civil War" story arc between NTA and OTA is pathetic at this point and serves no purpose other than to give NTA the slightest hinder of relevance.
In season 3 and 4, people complained that Felicity was really bad and I was one of those people but in no way was she ever as bad as this new team. That's coming from someone who utterly hated Felicity during the fourth season of Arrow and almost quit the show because of her.
The problem with these three characters are NOT the actors at all, in fact the actors are actually quite lovely, however, due to terrible writing and directing the actors are being given horrible scenes and situations to act out.
The biggest issue with NTA in this season is that we as the audience have not been given a reason at all to care about them or to even like them. Seeing as a big chunk of this episode was focused on NTA, the entire episode suffered overall but let's move on.
I absolutely loved the scene between Quentin and Laurel at the safe house when they were alone and Quentin goes over the villains who served as "father-figures" to her, the dialogue and acting in that scene alone was amazing. I hope they continue building on this complicated father/daughter relationship between Quentin and E-2 Laurel as it is one of the better elements in terms of story this season. Also, it seems they're hinting at Paul Blackthrone and Katie Cassidy leaving the show by the end of this season, I really hope not but if it does happen I wouldn't exactly be surprised.
The build up to this storyline just didn't work this season and honestly it wouldn't have worked even if it was done in a future season because the characters of NTA have not been developed whatsoever. Reene being angry at Oliver makes literally no sense and it's very hypocritical, Curtis at first seemed iffy about the whole situation and while Dinah did suffer the loss of Vincent Sobel, it still doesn't justify the way she's acting at all especially as she should be used to being more mature due to her police background.
If the Civil War arc was done after NTA had been well-developed and we as the audience genuinely liked them than this whole story could be so much more meaningful and interesting but this isn't the case at all therefore the story overall is extremely weak.
The issue is that when NTA and OTA were fighting, the scene was far too dark to really be able to tell what was happening, there wasn't anything lighting up the scene which is a shame because I couldn't even tell if it was choreographed well or not.
The promo for the episode was trying to seriously build up the fight between the two teams but came down as another element that was bad. Typically the fight scenes on Arrow all usually turn out to be good or mediocre at worst but this episode really dragged down the quality.
The only time I was really able to see any form of light was when Curtis would use his T-Spheres but other than that, it was basically pitch dark. It doesn't help that they all wear very dark clothing other than Felicity and Thea. I was glad though this fight didn't just conclude with no-one getting hurt, as much as I hate Renee, his injury also cemented this fight as something to be taken serious.
The issue I have with Oliver's Mayoral situations this season is that I feel like the writers are just throwing more and more issues just because they can. The DA is also on Oliver's case as we see at the end of the episode, let's not forget the FBI is still investigating Oliver, we also now have the issue of the 70$ million dollars and we also have the corrupt Captain of the SCPD.
Next week we'll be 15 episodes into this season so are we going to see the writers resolving these issues or are they going to lead into next season? It seems as though they've lost almost all direction this season with what they're trying to achieve. At this point, Oliver's Mayoral issues are actually worse than his problems as Green Arrow.
For me this was one of, if not the worst episode this season which I gave a 5/10. Look other than Quentin and E-2 Laurel, Renee getting hurt and E-2 Laurel's redemption arc evolving, nothing much at all was good. Usually I'm able to positively praise the fight scenes but even that was really lacking due to bad lighting.
What do you think though? What did you enjoy from this episode? What did you dislike?