TV Review: Arrow (Season 6)

*This review contains minor spoilers*

Click here for my SPOILER YouTube review

After the amazing cliffhanger from season 5, “Arrow” starts off the season by revealing almost everyone survived the explosion of Lian Yu, mostly by uninventive methods, allowing the show to go right back to (almost) normal.

By leaving the fate of all the “Arrow” characters besides Oliver and William uncertain at the end of last season, there was a lot of mystery coming into the season premier. Unfortunately, we learn quickly that nobody of any major importance was killed, and Team Arrow is almost just as strong as ever. (Aside from Thea’s and Diggle, both of who eventually get back to more or less a hundred percent.) The only significant change is that Oliver is now a single father, and the dialog in the first few episodes between him and William is cringeworthily at times. However, their interactions improve a lot by the end of the season and they do have a solid bond.

Since all of Team Arrow survived the island deathtrap, we’re left with a bit too many characters. The solution was to put them at odd with each other, giving us the “Arrow” version of “Civil War.” So much of the conflict seems manufactured solely to drive the two groups apart that it often feels out of character for all involved. And they all seem to move past a point of no return, only to end up with an “all is forgiven” mentality by the final few episodes. Also, Oliver’s short-lived attempt to go at it alone seems forced, and doesn’t last long enough to make any real impact on the show or his character. On the other side of things, the redemption arc of Black Siren is uninteresting. The constant back and forth on her loyalties leaves the audience apathetic about what she chooses in the end. And Quentin’s blind faith that he can change her, even if it means tying her up and holding her prisoner, just feels pathetic and a little creepy. The acting sells it at the end, but it’s kind of too little, too late for us to truly care.

The plot for this season is kind of odd. Cayden James as the evil mastermind that wants revenge on Oliver for the death of a family member was basically the same plot from last season with Prometheus. The midseason twist that Ricardo Diaz is the true big bad comes out of leftfield, and is fairly underwhelming considered how little his character was used up to that point. It takes a few episodes, but once we understand his character and we see the methodical approach he takes to taking Oliver out of the picture, he becomes a menacing villain. This is especially evident with the nineteenth episode that focuses almost completely on Diaz. You really have to suspend disbelief at times to buy his ability to corrupt every level of Star City’s government, particularly in the final few episodes where he turns the police department into his home base and every single cop is on his payroll. While he becomes an interesting villain, once he goes off the rails in the final stretch of the season, you’re ready for his story to wrap itself up. But, the saga appears that it will continue.

The other major storyline about Oliver being outed as The Green Arrow and the subsequent investigation and trial is moderately successful. It’s not the most original thing to happen in the show, but they do take it much farther than they have in the past. While the season ending cliffhanger leaves things off in an interesting place, it will be hard to satisfactorily resolve the story next season.

After a disappointing start and a mediocre first half a season, “Arrow” does a solid job of turning things around for the remainder of season 6. While the melodramatic friction between Team Arrow and Team Not Arrow rarely feels natural, splitting the teams actually helped the show out until all the burned bridges are miraculously repaired. The villain swap ultimately works, but the story didn’t seem like it needed another season to finish telling it.

Season’s best episode: “Docket No. 11-19-41-73” (Episode 21): A decent court room drama that works within the craziness of the show. While the Human Target twist was obvious, the Tommy angle was pretty fun. Nice to see Team Arrow finally get a win.
Season’s worst episode: “Fallout” (Episode 1): The reveal that the big game changer from season 5 changed little makes for a disappointing start.

*** out of *****

TV Review: Gotham (Season 4)

*This review contains minor spoilers*

Click here for the SPOILER YouTube review

Although it once again goes in dozens of different directions and tries to service too many characters, “Gotham” delivers an overall enjoyable fourth season.

The show was all over the place this season. It goes from the Sophia Falcone mafia angle, veers off course with the Professor Pyg story arc, and then brings those stories together with minimal payoff before finally stumbling into the season-ending Jerome storyline. Then there’s the big Ra’s al Ghul stuff that’s quickly dropped and not picked up again until late in the season. It was given so much importance at the end of last season, only to become an afterthought after the fifth episode. Even the Solomon Grundy plot twist is wasted as we get basically just end up with Butch again when it’s all said and done.

There are some cool characters in “Gotham,” but there seems to be too many to invest the proper time to develop many of them…not to mention all the quickly shifting character arcs and alliances. Gordon is stuck with same basic storyline he gets every season as he makes questionable alliances and then regrets what he did for the rest of the season. Bruce starts off the year finally becoming a masked vigilante, but that’s dropped for a slightly-too long “drunken douche bag Bruce” arc that doesn’t quite get his character where he was late last season. The majority of the characters spend their time playing musical chairs with alliances. Enemies become allies. Allies become enemies. And the whole thing repeats. The new Queen of the Narrows story arc actually gives Lee something interesting to do, and the makeover suits her. But that eventually runs out of steam and leaves her in limbo. The Riddler stuff is okay. There’s interesting dynamic between his struggling personalities, but it’s more fun to see him in full Riddler mode then to be redeemed. And as usual, the stuff with Jerome is gold. But the unnecessary plot twist to replace the fan favorite proto-Joker with a much more subdued alternative swings and misses. It will take time to see if this alterative take on the character can win fans over.

Although season 4 of “Gotham” struggles to with a messy narrative, it takes a few more steps forward towards classic Batman story elements as many of the villains come into their own. But the show takes a step back by pushing Jerome within inches of becoming the Joker, only to swap him out with a more low-key take on the infamous madman and leaves a few characters out of position to fulfill their destinies in the Batman mythos.

Season’s best episode: “The Resurrection” (Episode 17): Lee trying to outsmart Riddler at his own game was fun, and the site of most of the show’s rogue’s gallery teaming up was cool site. Meanwhile, all the pieces seemed to fall into place for Jerome to become The Joker.
Season’s worst episode: “The Demon’s Head” (Episode 4): Ra’s comes off more corny then intimidating, while the dog-man assassin was just laughable.

*** out of *****