Hello, everyone! This is lilfresh, and I'm going to take a look back at Arrow's sophomore season. Join me, won't you?
OVERVIEW:
First of all, in case you're one of the two people who actually read my individual episode reviews every week, thank you. I apologize for not writing a review for the last two episodes. In case you were wondering, I thought they were both good. Now, on to the overview!
Even though Arrow's first season started out a little slow and episodic, I still very much enjoyed it and hoped that it would grow into its full potential by season's end. And it did. The first season's finale was absolutely amazing (for a CW show), and ended in a way I don't think anyone saw coming.
This season had the tough assignment of following that amazing ending, and, for the most part, it succeeded. Pretty much from the first episode ("City of Heroes") to the midseason finale ("Three Ghosts"), the show delivered high quality content that contained an impressively unified story as Oliver continued his transition from vigilante to hero.
During this first half, comic fans also got way more amazing name drops and geek out moments than we could have ever hoped for. From hearing Ra's al Ghul's name for the first time (seriously, how awesome was that?) to seeing Barry Allen, the first half was littered with great details and surprises that excited even casual fans. Also, it was great to see the writers finally make a one-off villain actually interesting in the Dollmaker, since that was one of the major criticisms that many had for season 1.
However, we did see some cracks in the Arrow armor during the second half of the season. To me, the quality of the episodes was a lot more hit-and-miss than it was during the first half. Where there were fantastic episodes ("The Promise"), there were also boring ones that ultimately could have been skipped ("Blast Radius"). In my opinion, this was due to the sheer amount of plot arcs they built up for themselves early in the season. There were too many characters, many of which they seemed to have a general plan for, but had no idea how to fully incorporate them into the world (ISABEL).
But, thankfully, the writers hunkered down and pulled through, bringing the season to a fantastic close with the final six episodes of the season (aside from that whole boring Roy meltdown plot in "Seeing Red"). While the overall plot didn't quite come together as well as I hoped (ex: Blood seemed way more important during the first half of the season than he ultimately turned out to be), I was still very pleased with it. After all, the first season had its fair share of problems (seriously, I'm still confused as to what the list did, why it was written, why Robert Queen had it with him in his boat, etc...).
As for the finale, I saw a lot of people complain that it wasn't as surprising and impactful as the previous season's had been. Yes, Stephen Amell WAY overhyped it by saying it was going to be the best episode of TV this year, but I still thought it was a strong finale. I liked that they wrapped the whole Slade plot up with having Ollie actually win outright for a change. Having another major character death would have been too expected and would have felt like they were just copying last season's finale.
Now, to the fun stuff!
LILFRESH'S ARROW SEASON 2 AWARDS:
Best Episode: "Three Ghosts"
Almost everything in this episode was perfect, from Ollie's mental battle to Tommy's surprise appearance to that amazing final scene where we finally got to see the origin of the Flash. The only thing that was off was Ollie's weird fight with Slade in the Arrow Cave. Like, he had to feel pretty crazy to fake throw himself on a table. But other than that, it was awesome.
Honorable Mention: "Deathstroke"
Worst Episode: "Birds of Prey"
This episode was not very good, plain and simple. The Huntress has been written pretty poorly in my opinion during her short Arrow run, and everything about her revenge plot was lame. Also, if you want revenge against your father so bad, just shoot him and be done with it. Don't monologue. Read my review on this episode (
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/lilfresh/news/?a=96950) if you want to read more of my ranting. P.S. looking back on that review, I was probably too generous with my score.
Honorable Mention: "Blind Spot"
Breakout Character: Slade
Duh.
Honorable Mention: Ivo (who could totally play The Illusive Man in a Mass Effect movie. Seriously, look at him. Put some blue in his eyes and dub in Martin Sheen's voice and he IS The Illusive Man.)
Worst Character: Laurel
Duh.
Honorable Mention: Roy (only during his mirakuru phase)
Best Moment: The intercut fight scene between Slade and Oliver in the finale.
The fight we were all waiting for delivered and then some. Seeing both fights on the Amazo and in the present day at the same time was so exciting, and the music blaring in the background fit perfectly. Also, for the record, I totally called that that's how they were going to shoot those scenes. Just sayin'...
Honorable Mention: Slade and Ollie's tension filled stroll through Queen Mansion
Worst Moment: Slade's motivation
After all the build up, all the anticipation, we finally got to witness Oliver and Slade's transformation from best friends into mortal enemies. And it...could have been SO much better. Don't get me wrong, Manu Bennett did such a great job as Slade that I almost forgot that his villianous motivations were incredibly weak. If only Slade and Shado had been the couple on the island, not Oliver and Shado. Then we could have truly felt for Slade as he witnessed the love of his life gunned down. But the way the writers decided to go left a lot to be desired, using the TV convention of the villain blaming something bad that happened to him on the hero even though it was actually not the hero's fault at all. Because we the audience know that Oliver had nothing to do with Shado's death (and really didn't "choose" either Sara or Shado), lines from Slade like, "Shado's dead because of you!" don't resonate with us.
And don't get me started on the whole "Slade is doing all of this because of the mirakuru. He doesn't really hate Oliver" explanation. I'm sorry, but that just seems like bad writing to me. The entire plot of season 2 dictated that Slade had to act in an extremely insane way, so the writers had to give him a reason to be insane. But instead of giving him a real, emotional reason to be that insane, they took the easy way out and just injected him with a substance that apparently just makes you crazy with no explanation.
Honorable Mention: Sara's arc being entirely thrown away in the finale. I mean, she spends the entire season running away from the League of Assassins and pouting about what a terrible person she has become, and then at the very end, she just goes back with the League anyway and seems perfectly happy about it. Why? Was it because of Laurel's really awkward "then why would they give you such a beautiful name" speech, cuz honestly, that was awful, too.
Best Small Moment: Oliver killing Count Vertigo to save Felicity
Personally, I think this was one of the best moments in the series. It differentiated Oliver from the character he is often compared to, Batman, in a crucial way: Oliver WILL kill if he has no other option. I just thought it was really great.
Honorable Mention: Dat Ra's name drop
Worst Small Moment: Laurel reaching for a drink WHILE SHE IS BEING HUNTED
Perhaps my least favorite moment in the entire series, and the moment that cemented Laurel, at least in my mind, as narratively irredeemable and the absolute worst character on the show. Huntress's goons are searching for Laurel and Black Canary, guns in hand, ready to shoot them at a moment's notice. The two duck behind a desk and Laurel spots a bottle of liquor next to them. She reaches for it because she ACTUALLY WANTS A QUICK DRINK. Like...really? Are you sure there isn't something more important that you should be worried about here? I'm pretty positive even the biggest alcoholic in the world would not be worried about getting a drink in that situation, but no, of course Laurel is. Because she's Laurel. Ugh.
Honorable Mention: Isabel's mask. EWWWWW
There you go! Those are my awards! Overall, I did think this was a great season, and, minor hiccups aside, I can't wait for the next. I shall leave you with three things I hope are in store for Season 3...
1. Diggle getting a heavier load in Team Arrow. He's ex-special forces/probably the most qualified of the bunch to be a superhero. He deserves more than essentially being Alfred.
2. Malcolm being awesome again.
3. Slade escaping from the island.
As always, I'm lilfresh, and this is now my favorite article on CBM.com!