First Thoughts on 'Arrow' Season 2 (Episodes 6-23)

Oh boy, this will be difficult. 18 episodes to talk about. Put simply, I have really enjoyed Arrow's second season, from story to characters.
If I'm honest, Sara is a character I was looking forward to seeing a resolution with her at the end of the season, but from the looks of the Season 3 trailers, it seems that's still to come. She was beginning to outstay her welcome, featuring in both the modern scenes and the island scenes each episode.
Speaking of the island, it was great to see the full character arc of Slade Wilson come to a close by the end of the season, even if it wasn't in chronological order exactly. It all added up and worked perfectly well.
We also didn't have every episode focused on the island, with one on Diggle's past, and one showing an event that helped conclude Moira Queen's character arc. Oh, and speaking of Moira Queen - her death scene was quite possibly the best written sequence Arrow has ever delivered us. The pacing, direction, acting, lighting, music...everything came together to produce a wonderful sequence, and the final flashback did almost choke me up!
Her character was a complex one, and her arc of doing anything to protect her children came full circle, and I'm certainly glad about it.
There was also a continuation of the Deadshot arc from Season One, with a really nice moment in the season finale just showing how far Diggle has come. I'm intrigued to see where they take a soon-to-be-father Diggle, Deadshot and the Suicide Squad (of which Sean Maher was wasted in as Shrapnel).
There has been a really good selection of comic book villains as well, ranging from the Doll Maker, to Shrapnel and the Clock King to Deathstroke.
For the future of Arrow though, I'm excited to see Roy become Arsenal, to see Thea's relationship with her biological father Malcolm Merlyn develop, to see if Felicity isn't captured as much and perhaps Summer Glau will redeem herself after her disappointing role this season (even if she is dead).
As for the final moments...well, he did say he wasn't always on the island!
Oh, and I'm sure someone out there wants to know my thoughts on Olicity (as its been nicknamed). Well, I hope so. There you go, there's your answer.
Overall, Arrow is one of the best TV series' on at the moment, and if these two seasons have anything to say about it, Season 3 should be pretty darn good as well. Maybe we'll get to see Laurel do a bit more next time round.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor (2022) - Review

Image
And with that, the Thirteenth Doctor's era has come to a close. It's easy for regeneration stories to be overshadowed by the programme's future - understandable given the show's constant change and renewal - but suffice it to say that The Power of the Doctor makes for a fitting conclusion to this era of the programme. Kicking things off with a heist on a space train, we're reintroduced to the Cybermasters, returning from The Timeless Children back in Series 12. It's good to see them return, even if their ultimate roles in the narrative serve mainly as cannon fodder more than anything else. Their Cyber-converted planet, which I'd speculated to Gallifrey, was a nice idea even if it served as a backdrop to the events unfolding rather than playing a significant role. Quite why Ashad and his Cyber Warriors were brought back, other than fan popularity, I'm not sure. An off-hand comment about the Master cloning Ashad doesn't quite resolve the character'...
Read more

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 2, Episodes 8 & 9 Review

Image
Agents of SHIELD started off as a fun, enjoyable spin-off from the Marvel films dealing with monster-of-the-week formulas to build interesting and complex characters, while also setting up arcs that would carry through the series that would be built up and concluded at a later date. This was something simple and I was happy with it. However, towards the end of Season One the show became more focused on the arcs, lost a lot of the fun and began to feel like one continuous story building up the characters. We get to Season Two though, and a lot of the character building that made Season One so great is now lost. Agent May is still lacking in actual background; Skye magically turns from being the likeable newbie to SHIELD with a mysterious background to a badass SHIELD veteran with a mysterious background over the course of a few months; Simmons is still the same person she was at the beginning of Season One, only without Fitz; Ward is still a bad guy who thinks he's a good guy; a...
Read more

Doctor Who: Last Christmas (2014) - Review

Image
Doctor Who Christmas specials have certainly been a mixed bag over the years. Few have truly been bad, but almost all have been mediocre to 'just about bearable'. I was uncertain about this special. I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised, I was expecting something disappointing and I also was promised something surprising...I was really underwhelmed overall. I can't call Last Christmas bad at all, but its flaws are plain to see, making it difficult to just love it despite its flaws (as I can for such episodes as Asylum of the Daleks), and I just feel so underwhelmed and little fed up at the end of the episode. The big selling point of the episode was whether Clara would stay into Series 9, and I feel that this episode was re-written in some way so that she did. Clara's role felt rather small in the story as a whole, and the character of Shona felt like perfect companion material. In fact, I actually thought Shona would join the TARDIS at the end! It would be nice t...
Read more