This week's Arrow was pretty decent at best. Here are some things that did and didn't work for me overall in this episode as well as a little bit of my feelings towards the season overall:
I've notice a decrease in quality within the action and fight scenes after around the midway point of Season 3. I'm not too sure what's going on behind the scenes, but when I look back at all of the action scenes in season 1 and 2, my mind was blown by how much better and impactful they were then compared to now.
Now, I do have to give props to the bold direction of this episode for having long takes of fighting throughout different settings (that entire action scene when the Arrow team goes into infiltrate the Ghosts' hideout to get Andy), but the actual fight choreography was honestly dull and uninteresting to look at. Like I said, I highly recommend looking back at the first seasons.
I did however like the Diggle heavy story this time around focusing on his family and dilemma on whether or not his thought to be dead brother is worth saving (a pretty deep story arc for the character). I especially loved the dialogue that both Diggle and Oliver has about his Andy's life and reputation being worthy of redemption as well as Diggle finally considering Oliver to be his brother. This was definitely a drama-heavy episode in terms of storyline and it worked for the most part.
Oliver's mayor campaigning arc this season is admittedly the least interesting thing, but it is fun to see the character completely step out of his comfort zone and attempt to become a hero in a different and more spotlighted public fashion. When you think about where the character was from season 1 up until now, you start to realize the fascinating evolution that he's gone through. I'm actually really impress with how much they were able to pull off in terms of story arcs for Oliver Queen in the span of four seasons. A big kudos to the writers for achieving what I thought was the impossible in making the Green Arrow an interesting character worth following along.
It's always great to see Ray Palmer as he remains to be one of my top 4 favorite characters on the show and of course it's great to see the A.T.O.M. suit in action (the best part of the episode action-wise).
Thea's bloodlust character arc is interesting as it finally puts her Lazarus Pit resurrection under a large magnifying glass, but I'm not entirely sure if I'm as invested in it as much as I could be. Whenever she randomly lashes out on people threatening to kill them, I never seem to feel the impact of those scenes as much as I anticipated beforehand. It may be a performance flaw on the actor/director's part or simply her small physique never coming across as anything threatening (not to say that the actress playing her can never come across as powerful in her own right).
I think this problem can be solve if they show her completely brutally murder someone in cold blood, but what I'm imagining probably cannot be done on the CW visually, bit they can heavily imply her engaging in some violent massacre. Another thing worth mentioning is that I've always enjoyed the Malcolm Merlin character so his small little appearances are always welcomed with open arms (perhaps we can get a Malcolm and Damien confrontation this season).
Overall, this episode wasn't bad at all, but definitely not an improvement towards the issues that I've been having these past two seasons. What's needed for Arrow to elevate back to the level that it was praised for in Seasons 1 & 2 is significantly improved the action scenes, introduce more interesting characters for the team to face off against, and showcase more constant reminders as to why the season villain (Damien in this case) is a huge deal and one worth paying attention to.
The series isn't dead to me whatsoever, but I have been sadly witnessing it ever so slowly decline towards the "Why should I continue to watch this show?" pile. Perhaps the Arrow/Flash crossover episode will re-energize the franchise once more, but that only shows how weak Arrow has gotten on its own.
Episode Rating: 8/10
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