First Thoughts On 'Arrow' Season 4 (Episodes 21-23)

Looking back over Arrow season 4, its difficult not to see huge chunks of it as damage control after season 3 left the show in the most awkward place imaginable, trying desperately to get the fans back on the show's side by basically re-launching the entire show. Did it work? Well, here I am writing this 23 episodes later and I can safely say that season 4 is good enough to make me genuinely excited for season 5...even if the from what the writers have been saying it'll be a rip-off of Daredevil season 2. Random, I know, but maybe it won't be so bad.
Making the whole arc of this season being about Oliver overcoming his darker side and becoming an inspiring figure for Star City was actually present in all 23 episodes and reached a satisfying conclusion here, with Oliver encouraging the people of Star City to stand up against Damien Darhk as both the Green Arrow and former Mayoral candidate. As for the point of the flashbacks though...I have absolutely no idea. I'm pretty much left speechless at how badly the flashbacks were handled this season. Like, I thought season 3's flashbacks were bad. These...these were just pointless. Not flat-out awful or even boring, as they didn't go far enough in character, plot or running time to be anything other than about 30 seconds of padding in every episode. And at the end of all this, Oliver learnt....how to have a haircut? I'm really not sure what the writers were thinking. In fact, I'm not sure if the writers were thinking at all.
But yes, I liked the Arrow season 4 finale. Shocker. I think it's good, not great, mainly because the show still finds time to put Felicity center-stage and those flashbacks were just...I mean what the hell happened?!
I like Damien Darhk's ultimate plan - even if I did compare it to the plot of The Simpsons Movie ("Dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooome!!!"), and how it was explored as his idea of a Noah's ark. While HIVE felt more like one man and a couple of other interchangeable evil people with disposable henchmen as opposed to a sinister organisation working in the shadows, causing all sorts of evil in the world...at least the show ended the story of Darhk in a more satisfying way than Ra's al Ghul.
So, where will Arrow go next? Will it get better, worse, or stay the same? Only time will tell, but its safe to say that Arrow's future is looking a lot brighter (and greener) now than it did this time last year.

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