Arrow: Season 4 (2015) - TRAILER REACTION

I'm close to giving up on Arrow. I really am.
The series started off pretty well, and by the end of season two had really become a great show. Then, season three happened, ruined most of the arcs established previously and set Arrow from a course of no return, but here we are at season four.
The show-runners are clearly pandering to the fans now - Oliver is now Green Arrow, this whole "Olicity" thing is being taken seriously, Diggle now has a super-suit, Thea is Speedy, Laurel is Black Canary and we even have Matt Ryan appearing as John Constantine after his own series was cancelled earlier this year.
Its clear that everyone on the production knows that season three went almost horribly wrong, but they're not prepared to start afresh yet.
The season four trailer begins with...Olicity. Yay. As much as I would love to actually be invested in this relationship, it feels awkward and forced at so many points that it doesn't feel like Oliver and Felicity are actually in love. It also doesn't help that Oliver's had loads of love interests across the first three seasons for me to believe he's really in love with anyone.
Anyway, Speedy, Black Canary and...Diggle...? Wait, that's Diggle's new look? What?! This has gotta be some kind of joke...no, okay. Diggle now has a very terrible Magneto helmet and is still working with Team Arrow, who are facing a new enemy who's a bit strong. So, instead of training or forming a plan as season one/two Oliver would, they just go "hey Oliver, can the Arrow come back?"
Part of the reason Oliver stopped being the Arrow was because Lance found him out, and told the entirety of Starling City! So yeah, Oliver and Felicity are cool with this, and return to Star City - renamed after Ray Palmer, who people believe is dead, despite clearly not being dead in DC's Legends of Tomorrow trailer, where one of the lines is "you weren't dead, you were just small".
Oh dear. So, we also get introduced to our season villain - Damien Dark (or however you spell it), who seems so un-threatening that all he needs is a Hello Kitty dressing-gown.
I might sound like I'm being really picky and pessimistic here, but Arrow is giving me no reason not to be. This trailer is fan-pandering, dull, and shows a lot of stuff I don't like. Remember how the season three trailer showed the characters moving on, becoming heroes - and season two's trailer showed Oliver learning from his season one mistakes to become a better man? Yeah, all we have here is terrible comedy (oh no, the comedic sidekick has a comedic sidekick).
Cut out the new comedic sidekick and Damien Dark and focus on Oliver's reasoning for becoming the Green Arrow and I'll be happy with this trailer. Maybe the season itself will be better, but I worry for Arrow. Also, boy does the title card look terrible this season.
Anyway, some positives - the Green Arrow suit looks cool and Stephen Amell looks pretty badass in it. The consequences of Thea's Lazarus Pit resurrection are teased (an element that Season 3 completely forgot about), which I'm hoping will get at least a full 45 minute episode of focus. The new annoying sidekick (who's apparently a superhero the actor doesn't look like at all) is only listed for Episodes 1 and 2 on IMDB so far. Also, who doesn't wanna see what John Barrowman does with Malcolm Merlyn now the new Ra's al Ghul. I'm also looking forward to seeing Constantine appear (glad to see these DC TV show are all connected in some way) and that the series isn't revealing any Flash cameos. I do really hope that the first episode shows a much better direction for the show though, and I really want my criticisms to be proved unjustified in the final product. Just make sure you remember that Laurel's still there writers!
So yeah - looking forward to Arrow season four?
Arrow: Season 4 begins on October 7th this year on The CW in the US, with a UK Sky 1 premier date to be confirmed.

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