Season 8 of Arrow was not bad! I mean, it had kind of been on a downhill curve since Season 5, with Big Bads that were so repetitive that you could copy and paste their lines into each other’s dialogue, and plots that were recycled so poorly that you could predict it beat for beat. But Season 8 was different, refreshing, game changing. Perhaps that’s because they went into it know that this would be the last season, and also because this season was mercifully short.
Synopsis
Arrow is a superhero drama that focuses on the wealthy vigilante archer Green Arrow and his allies (some of whom have super powers). Thanks to Arrow, many other DC superhero shows were spawned that are set in the same universe, known as the Arrowverse (not the best name, but okay). Season 8 is the final season of Arrow, which primarily centres around Arrow’s “greatest hits” as he travels through time and space to assist a powerful cosmic being known as the Monitor.
Directors: James Bamford, Laura Belsey, Kristin Windell, Katie Cassidy, Tara Miele
Writers: Marc Guggenheim, Beth Schwartz, Jill Blankenship, Oscar Balderrama, Benjamin Raab, Deric A. Hughes, Emilio Ortega Aldrich, Elizabeth Kim
Cast:
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Stephen Amell (Green Arrow/Oliver Queen)
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David Ramsey (Spartan/John Diggle)
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Rick Gonzalez (Wild Dog/Rene Ramirez)
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Juliana Harkavy (Black Canary/Dinah Drake)
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Katherine McNamara (Green Arrow/Mia Smoak-Queen)
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Ben Lewis (William Clayton)
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Joseph David-Jones (Connor Hawke)
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LaMonica Garrett (The Monitor/Mar Novu, Anti-Monitor/Mobius)
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Katie Cassidy (Black Canary/Laurel Lance)
Return of classic characters
Okay so the first thing about Season 8 is that they brought back all the characters that made Arrow great. Thea (Willa Holland), Roy Harper (Colton Haynes), Quentin (Paul Blackthorne) (he’s irritating, but necessary), Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell), the al Ghuls, and so on. Woo hoo! No longer did we have to follow the dreary storylines of the boring new characters who were so terribly written that their storylines were inflated with artificial steroids. Instead, we got to see everyone who made Arrow great, instead of irritants like Wild Dog (Rick Gonzalez).
Revisiting the greatest hits
The “trip down memory lane” aspect of the season was a wonderful balance to the whole “space and time hanging in the balance” aspect of the show. I mean, it was great to see how the emotions and actions of a few had such a massive impact on the rest of the multiverse. It felt both grounded but expansive at the same time, which is what elevated Arrow this season. They owned the whole fact of being in the superhero genre, rather than pretending that fantastical aspect didn’t exist.
Better storytelling
Of course, a shorter season meant tighter storylines and focused storytelling. There was almost no detectable filler in this season! I mean you can’t really have filler when you only have 9 (minus 1 episode for Crisis) episodes to play with. So this made the pruning process so much more effective, because the boring storylines were really just thrown out with the trash.
Kids were a waste of time
I don’t like the kids plot line from Arrow (plus it seems like a boring and watered down version of the stories from Season 5 of The Flash) but they made it interesting by forcing kids and parents to work together. I mean, it would not have made sense in any other context besides that of a multiverses crisis where worlds were bleeding into each other. And this was definitely better than having the kids in their own isolated storyline that didn’t mean anything in the grander scheme of things.
Terrible backdoor pilot episode
But there was that awkward backdoor pilot episode in the 9th episode that was terrible. Firstly, I don’t like the kids. Secondly, the premise was boring. Thirdly, we could have spent that episode doing things that were so much more interesting. So seriously, boo to that second last episode. It should have been spent doing something more meaningful and giving a bit more closure to Arrow’s death.
Should you watch Arrow Season 8?
Season 8 was an excellent finish to Arrow’s run. It was good, but it certainly didn’t make up for the rubbish and repetitiveness of Seasons 5, 6 and 7. If you ask me, it wasn’t too bad a send-off (I would have done some things differently, but it’s a matter of style I suppose). And for a series that spawned such a beautiful multiverse of shows… it deserved an ending like this.
Rating: 3.4/5
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