Review 723: Arrow (Season 8)

 

I can’t think of a show in recent years that’s had as many ups and downs as Arrow. The show that kickstarted the biggest and expansive superhero shared universe on TV has gone through so many trials and tribulations  every time I think I’ll stop watching, something comes along to pull me back in such as was the case with Season 5’s back to basics approach and the prison arc from the first half of Season 7

In the wake of discovering what the future holds, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) will find himself pit against his most challenging battle yet, one that will leave the multiverse hanging in the balance. He is also forced to confront the reality of what it means to be a hero.

At the beginning the season, we find Oliver in a similar situation where he was at the start of the show; he thinks he can go it alone 

The show also managed to solve the “too many characters” problem that’s plagued Arrow for a few years. By focusing on a few select characters like Oliver, Diggle (David Ramsey) and Laurel (Katie Cassidy), Season 8 felt more streamlined than it had been in years and didn't feel as crowded as previous seasons.

To round off this show were 10 juicy episodes that feel like miniature movies. The Season premiere “Starling City” was basically an Earth-2 retelling of Season 1  and seeing Susanna Thompson, John Barrowman, Colin Donnell and Josh Segarra return as Earth-2 doppelgängers of Moria Queen, Malcolm Merlyn, Tommy Merlyn and Adrian Chase was a welcome surprise. Coupled with the shocking ending of Earth-2 being destroyed by a wave of Anti-Matter and Arrow’s 8th and final season was off to a spectacular start.

Episode 6: Reset was another highlight; directed by Diggle himself David Ramsey, the episode embraces the larger than life impending doom of the Crisis  as someone who’s a sucker for Groundhog Day-esque timeloops, this episode was just right up my street and   and the return of Paul Blackthorne as Quentin Lance 

Because he knows that he’s going to die in the Crisis, he’s not going to go gently into that good night, he’s going to rage against the dying of the light.

It's kind of tough to sum up my feelings on Arrow as a whole. It's gone through so many changes, starting dark, gritty and grounded and then it's had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, cast members have departed, returned and then departed again. Not all the plot developments lived up to their full potential but when