ARROW Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim Reveals What His Biggest Story Regret Is So Far

ARROW Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim Reveals What His Biggest Story Regret Is So Far

Ahead of Arrow's milestone 100th episode later tonight, executive producer Marc Guggenheim has discussed one of the biggest narrative regrets he has from his time working on the CW show...

By MattBellissimo - Nov 30, 2016 04:11 AM EST
Filed Under: Arrow
Source: EW
While Arrow was the catalyst that helped usher in the smattering of DC superhero programs we now have on The CW, the show hasn't been without character and story issues during its five seasons on air. With the 100th episode of the series airing tonight, executive producer Marc Guggenheim spoke with Entertainment Weekly about one of the bigger narrative regrets he had during his time crafting the story. 

“The truth is, I don’t think I’ve ever been involved with an hour of television on any show where there hasn’t been something I wanted to take back,” Guggenheim said. “Doing 23 episodes a year, you’re just constantly running, so nothing ever turns out exactly the way you want it to. In other words, my list of regrets is actually incredibly long; it’s 100 episodes long. I’d say probably my biggest regret is I wish we had allowed the Oliver-Felicity storyline in season 4 to unfold at a more natural pace. We had set these tentpoles at the beginning of the season, and we were a bit too rigorous on how we hit them. That was a case where the planning overtook the storytelling. We didn’t do things as naturally and as elegantly as we should have.”

While many fans of the show might say it was a mistake to begin with, at least Guggenheim is somewhat apologetic for the way the relationship was handled on the show, as it drew a frenetic round of critcism from audiences. Do you agree with Guggenheim or do you think that Arrow has made bigger errors? Sound off below!

ARROW CELEBRATES 100 EPISODES; THE EPIC SUPERHERO CROSSOVER CONTINUES — Oliver (Stephen Amell) wakes up to a life where he never got on The Queen’s Gambit. Robert (guest star Jamey Sheridan) and Moira Queen (guest star Susanna Thompson) are alive and well. Laurel (guest star Katie Cassidy) is his loving fiancée and their wedding is imminent. Everything seems perfect, but Oliver starts to notice small imperfections that make him question this new reality. Meanwhile, Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and the recruits take on a new threat with help from The Flash (guest star Grant Gustin) and Supergirl (guest star Melissa Benoist). James Bamford directed the episode with story by Greg Berlanti and written by Marc Guggenheim & Wendy Mericle.
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MattBellissimo
MattBellissimo - 11/30/2016, 4:33 AM
CaptainElrond
CaptainElrond - 11/30/2016, 4:40 AM
TheEpicJuicebox
TheEpicJuicebox - 11/30/2016, 4:42 AM
Hahahaha but it really was a mistake to begin with
Craigferguson67
Craigferguson67 - 11/30/2016, 4:42 AM
Nah man [frick] that and [frick] that weak ass storyline and [frick] these CW shows
CaptainElrond
CaptainElrond - 11/30/2016, 4:43 AM
Yes it was a mistake, but now we rebuild
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 11/30/2016, 4:43 AM
I don't know about you, but when I think of Arrow's romantic storylines, I have a pretty high expectation for elegance.

Only the classiest romances set to the tune of Imagine Dragons' magnum opus: "Radioactive".
CaptainElrond
CaptainElrond - 11/30/2016, 4:44 AM
@Spock0Clock - should have veen laurel and oliver, this is is simple, i toddler could write it

Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 11/30/2016, 4:45 AM
@BillCipher999 - I think a toddler did, though.
MattBellissimo
MattBellissimo - 11/30/2016, 4:47 AM
@BillCipher999 - Should have been Laurel and Oliver if Laurel was a remotely competent and likeable character to begin with. Laurel only became somewhat tolerable near the end of her life on the show. It wasn't enough to make me want to root for them as a couple any more than Oliver and Felicity.
MattBellissimo
MattBellissimo - 11/30/2016, 4:47 AM
And Oliver is no better.
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 11/30/2016, 4:55 AM
@MattBellissimo - So I guess I'm the only Oliver/Thea shipper around here, right? Wait, did they turn out to be siblings or not? I lost track. Half-siblings? Who cares, though... the Targaryens wed brothers and sisters for three hundred years to keep bloodlines pure.
MattBellissimo
MattBellissimo - 11/30/2016, 4:56 AM
@Spock0Clock - LOL. Half siblings (by way of their mother) would be correct.
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 11/30/2016, 4:59 AM
@MattBellissimo - That'd be roughly 25% genetic similarity. That's half as much as full siblings or twice as much as first cousins. Is the incest glass half full or half empty?
TomSolo
TomSolo - 11/30/2016, 5:05 AM
@Spock0Clock - I feel Thea is the most unbearable character on the show. She in no way has a body that reflects the amount of training and physical activity her character undergoes almost daily. She's a skinny little tart, and, like her voice, her body is more akin to a young woman who has spent way to many late nights at the end of a bar drinking Michelob Ultras and chain-smoking Camel Lights while eating very little other than wangs.

Say what you want about Caity Lotz's eyebrow and manly physique... at least she tries to look like a superhero.
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 11/30/2016, 5:14 AM
@TomSolo - Talkin' 'bout my lady, there, bub.

I can't resist a lady with a bow. It's an compulsion. Must go back to that old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon I watched as a kid. (NOBODY GOOGLE THAT!)
CaptainElrond
CaptainElrond - 11/30/2016, 5:46 AM
@MattBellissimo - i actually laurel before she died, remember they could have uprgaded her charector if they concentrated on that olicity crap. Total cancer

also nyssa al ghul is really underrated
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 11/30/2016, 4:50 AM
Actually, watching that scene again, I had forgotten that the first season of Arrow (when it wasn't thoroughly mangling the vigilante-aspect) was actually a pretty decent story about a guy returning to his life after 5 years of being thought dead. That's... interesting. The Laurel/Tommy stuff wasn't the worst story in the world.
MattBellissimo
MattBellissimo - 11/30/2016, 4:52 AM
@Spock0Clock - When there was the possibility of Oliver being on an island for five years (just like how they originally intended before the entire thing went off the rails), there was definitely some great potential there. It became very clear very quickly that they had ZERO forethought in how they were going to execute that and opted instead to make it up as they went along.
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 11/30/2016, 4:58 AM
@MattBellissimo - Absolutely. They definitely screwed up doing the "two parallel stories" for all five years. The Island could be something that haunted Oliver by being mysterious and only doing flashbacks for something really important and live-changing that he experienced there.
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