Arrow: The Season 5 Midseason Report Card

THE HEROES

Here's the hardest thing to talk about.

Of course, over the last couple of years there's been a lot of conversation around the Oliver/Felicity (Olicity) romance. A vocal portion of the fandom had been complaining that it dominated too much of the show, while another vocal portion seemed to be watching primarily for the relationship.

In the second half of season 4, the couple broke up, while at the same time, Oliver's primary love interest from the comics (Black Canary) was killed in action.

The dissolution of the relationship, the death of Laurel Lance, and other elements introduced at the end of season 4 scattered Team Arrow and, in the eyes of some fans, rolled back a lot of the character development established in the first four years of the show when Oliver started a new team, led them with a firmer hand, and started being more violent and killing with less discrimination at the start of season 5.

There's certainly an argument to be made that some of the characters, most especially Oliver, have backslid somewhat, although that's less likely a result of bad writing and more likely setting up a season-long arc that mirrors season 1, since the flashbacks are ending and season 1 is playing such a key role in the current storyline.

Felicity and Diggle, meanwhile, are still continuing their arcs from the first four years, and Thea...oh, Lord, how can you not love Thea Queen this year? With the exception of a few moments here and there that are iffy, she deserves to be the mayor of Star City, not Oliver.

On balance, especially since they're introducing some interesting characters in the new Team Arrow and doing some interesting things with them, we're going to call it a win, although we'll acknowledge taht it isn't perfect.

THE VILLAINS

The week-to-week villains on Arrow this season may be a bit on the forgettable side, but the recurring stories are great.

This is also the first time in a while that we've had a truly interesting villain in the flashbacks in the form of Konstantin Kovar, whom we will not touch on in the later section on "the big bad," since it's pretty obvious who the big bad actually is.

Where The Flash feels like it's running in place a bit as far as the villains of the week are concerned, Arrow has managed to keep the show feeling fresh and kinetic even while they do very little different. That's likely at least in part a function of how the villains interact with Team Arrow and the story, but it's also telling that some of their throwaway guest stars (like Cody Rhodes, for instance) have been really stand-out parts of the show.

THE STORY

With the end of the flashbacks coming at the end of season 5, it was pretty clear that in some ways this season would be about closure, about drawing elements to a conclusion that we've been waiting on since season 1.

With John Barrowman's Malcolm Merlyn gone over to Legends of Tomorrow, that leaves a lot of season 1 elements that haven't had as much play in the last few years, and the show is expertly mining the remaining elements as sources of Oliver's angst, the villain's motivation, and more.

If there's one downside it's that there seems to be numerous mysteries on the table all at once, and it's making everything a little hard to follow, in a big-picture kind of way, but more than it has in recent years, Arrow has reverted to a villain-of-the-week kind of format, and that has helped to contain what's going on in any given installment.

Even some of the seemingly-throwaway elements, like Oliver and Felicity's rebound relationships, have turned out to be big plot drivers, meaning that when/if those characters are out of the picture, the time invested in developing them and their relationship to the leads wasn't "wasted."

They're threading the needle of both telling this year's story and giving closure to the five-year mega-arc of Oliver's decade of suffering, and so far, it's mostly working well for them.

THE BIG BAD

Prometheus, who drew some skepticism right away from hardcore fans because he's not part of the comics canon, has been the breath of fresh air that Arrow needed after a couple of years that got so bogged down in mythology building that the villains were arguably the least interesting element of the storylines.

The build of the mystery was one of the best Arrow has done yet, and the fact that his identity hasn't been revealed as of the season's "midpoint" is a nice thing for the writers to have in their pocket (assuming his identity is important at all).

Tying him to closely to a former victim of The Hood is a great thematic move, although it would strain credulity if most of the fan-favorite theories turned out to be true and somebody like Tommy was somehow Prometheus. That means setting up a character who is interesting even without a big, sexy reveal a la The Flash's annual villain unveiling, and to this point, Prometheus -- obsessed serial killer, Green Arrow imitator, and Riddler gimmick-stealer -- fits the bill.

Hell, that thing about making his weapons out of Oliver's melted-down arrowheads? That's some Hannibal Lecter stuff right there.

THE NUTS & BOLTS

The effects this year have been less dramatic than last season, leaving more breathing room for other elements. Without Darhk's magic, Arrow has fallen back on its tried-and-true fight choreography and street-level superheroics, limiting its potential technical missteps significantly.

Performance-wise, almost everyone has been really impressive. Rhodes's stunt casting was fun enough to overlook a wobbly performance, and while Madison McLauchlin's Artemis never fully gelled with the rest of the New Coke Team Arrow, it seems as though that was actually on purpose, so good on them.

THE VERDICT

Arrow hasn't stopped being controversial, and there are elements of it that may not be firing on all available cylinders, but it's clear that the show has a sense of direction, a pair of compelling villains, a great, cinematic look, and a lot of ambition for season 5.

Grade: A