First Thoughts on 'Arrow' Season 3 (Episodes 1-3)

Team Arrow

Arrow is back, and for the first time ever I can watch it on Sky 1 week after week!
There are many changes for this season. Firstly, the tone is much less dark and gritty, with the series embracing its comic book roots and providing some nice tie-ins to The Flash (including a Barry Allen cameo). This is greatly appreciated, and while some may not be happy about this, it comes across as a natural change and makes the darker moments more effective, not to mention fitting in more with The Flash's more family-friendly tone.
We also had the dramatic death of Sara in Episode 1, which was brilliantly executed. However, it seems to have lost its impact with it being mentioned so much. I understand this is a driving force for Laurel's character arc over this season (which I won't spoil, if you can't work it out already), but I think its being overdone a little too much. However, Oliver's response to this is fantastic, leading him to Corto Maltese to try and tempt Thea back.
In fact, that was a very interesting episode, and although it juggled a sub-plot with Diggle hunting a rogue ARGUS agent, it felt more focused on Thea - how much she's changed, and her choices. Her flashback scenes were fantastic with John Barrowman as Malcolm Merlyn, so it should be interesting to see where Speedy goes next.
Speaking of flashbacks, the Hong Kong scenes seem to not have really gone anywhere yet. The twist with Tommy seemed like a great idea, but was quickly squandered, leading us back to square one. They're not bad, but there's only so much of "you can't escape Amander Waller one can sit through". Maybe if Tommy had been a recurring guest star in the flashbacks, we could have had some interesting sub-plots, but sadly not. Maybe we'll see more Thea and Malcolm flashbacks across this season - either that or something interesting will have to happen in Hong Kong very soon.
I do feel the villains have been lacking in these episodes. From a rogue ARGUS agent to another archer to a new Count Vertigo, they've all seemed like great concepts, but not used to their full potential. Maybe Arrow is setting up a new Suicide Squad, but we'll have to see.
We do also have sub-plots including Felicity working for Ray Palmer (who looks suspiciously like Superman - interesting twist there Arrow) and Diggle as a father, but these are either starting out still or just aren't very interesting. Felicity gets great moments with Brandon Routh's Palmer, but the Olicity sub-plot is much, much more interesting...even if Oliver seems to have messed it up. Roy as Arsenal is a welcome addition to the series, but I'm still waiting for him to actually do a bit more this season. As we're only 3 episodes in though, I guess that is to be expected - plus he had several episodes focusing on him last season.
Overall, Arrow is taking an interesting turn. I hope that this season goes somewhere soon, although considering Nyssa's surprise appearance at the end of Episode 3, maybe we're getting back into it now...