Arrow: Season 2

Things were looking good for Starling City and its masked vigilante hero at the end of its highly successful first-season run. Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell) was crushed under a building (hurrah) leaving this less than useless individual to say his final parting words to his best friend Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) aka the Green Arrow. Tommy’s evil father Malcolm (John Barrowman) was also killed off (this deserves another hurrah) although not before setting off an earthquake machine that destroyed a significant portion of the city leaving 500+ people dead. The only person they forgot to kill off was Thea Queen (Willa Holland), Oliver’s immature little sister with very few redeeming features. But oh well, there’s always room in season 2 for more deaths in Starling City...right? But Arrow is quickly looking to become a boring dull procedural the first season tried so desperately to avoid. New additions to the cast aren’t exactly working out, and isn’t it about time we tied up the loose ends relating to Oliver’s 5-year absence storyline on the mysterious Asian island? Yes, that’s where he went through rigorous training and became the buff superhero he is now. Do we really need to introduce more and more mastermind-like villains to fill up the time? As season 2 opens, months have passed, and Oliver is sulking on the very same island he spent his years in disappearance. Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and John Diggle (David Ramsey) come to bring him back to the city, saying that they need him to restore order and balance to a place where everyone is going mental following the disaster. His mother Moira (Susanna Thompson) is in prison having played an instrumental part in Malcolm Merlyn’s plot, Thea’s in charge of Oliver’s nightclub (urgh), where she’s being actively sought after by a superhero-wannabe pretty boy Roy Harper (Colton Haynes) who we know will end up as some sort of a welcome sidekick but is taking a mighty long time to actually show us something impressive about himself. Detective Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne) has been demoted to a regular police officer, and his daughter Laurel (Katie Cassidy), a tough-as-nails lawyer who once used to work providing legal aid to the poor is now at the district attorney’s office, prosecuting criminals, whilst also holding a grudge against Green Arrow for a reason that doesn’t make sense and making it her life mission to track him down. None of the major characters are where we’d ideally want them to be. Oliver’s a moody, hesitant hero who now has a philosophy to not kill anyone, supposedly in an attempt to honour his memory of Tommy (huh?), Laurel is on a quest no-one wants her to be involved in (she should trade in her lawyer suits for a cop uniform because she can definitely hold her own against a fight), Diggle is as smug as ever constantly clashing with Oliver on how to handle a situation, how Moira’s not ended up dead yet in her prison cell is a mystery, Roy has potential although the writers are doing nothing to develop him in anyway, Lance is and Thea’s...breathing. Trapped in the flashback plot is the younger version of Oliver Queen who is quickly coming to grips with his studies in martial arts and archery (yes we GET how he learned to fight - no need to take us back to the island every single episode), as well as his developing romantic feelings for Shado (Celina Jade), a female warrior and his growing bromance with Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) Fun, bombastic action is no more, as Oliver finds himself in action sequences that are either too difficult to follow in all the smoke and darkness or are far too simple and generic to be truly enjoyed. He is a physically capable fighter as everyone who’s seen season 1 knows, but his assets aren’t being put to good use here. Gratuitous shirtless shots are shown like clockwork in every single episode, and frankly it’s a method that is getting quickly tiresome. Only Felicity has her moments every episode, as without her contribution the vigilante wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. He may wield a bow and a set of arrows that can do a variety of fancy tricks, but without her brains he wouldn’t even know where to start when it comes to catching the bad guys. Plus her not-too-subtle crush on Oliver, one that will go on no further than being a mere schoolgirl crush (let us hope), is often amusing to watch for sure. Not everything is a total disaster at the moment. With a new superhero in town (action heroine Summer Glau made a very brief appearance in an earlier episode of this new season - hint, hint), interesting dynamic could be struck up between the two. Will they work together or will they be on opposite sides? Only time well tell and the sooner Roy Harper suits up for action, the better, because all he’s doing now is handling luggage being Thea’s new pet dog. And let’s get on with Moira’s trial and put that behind us before the midseason finale, because a season-long legal battle is not something audiences want to put up with in a superhero show. “Arrow” has certainly stumbled into the sophomore slump phase with its first few episodes, but there is still hope left to salvaging its reputation.