What makes it so bad compared to seasons 1-3?
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RightfulFireLordIroh — 9 years ago(October 13, 2016 12:03 PM)
Adding magic, especially in the flashbacks is one of the most contrived things ever done.
Bad James Bond villain, nay, bad Austin Powers parody of a James Bond villain.
Cheap flash forwards to build hype.
Choreography gets even worse.
Terrible excuses to not end the threat early on. Not that I think they should defeat the main villain so early, but don't put yourself in positions to do so at all.
Lame new characters like Curtis, Anarky, the flashback gang, and many of the weekly threats.
The flashbacks could have been condensed to the first 9 episodes, but still wouldn't have told an interesting or compelling story.
The timeline of Diggle's brother's murder by Deadshot becomes even more convoluted. (we have 3 separate dates of the assassination.)
There's more, that's just off the top of my head.
Darth Maul: "He Lives" -
lurknomore-86044 — 9 years ago(October 13, 2016 01:15 PM)
I'm an outlier around here, but I actually liked the first half of the season.
I thought it went off the rails, BIG time, in the back half - but not for the reasons most people around here do. Overall it hung together OK, I guess? -
yeahclowns-24160 — 9 years ago(October 13, 2016 04:57 PM)
People are overreacting, as always, when it comes to DC property, but season 4 was indeed the weakest of all Arrow seasons. Even so, it still had some of the greatest episodes of all Arrow seasons as well (episodes 1,5,8,9,13,15), especially the first half of the season was a blast (it looked like it could be the strongest season back then). Things fell apart in the end, when the stories needed to conclude, and it became clear that this season (despite the early greatness) wasn't supposed to include magic. Adding to that, the early Suicide Squad plans that the Arrow writers had for the show, that had to be scrapped because of the movie, we get a season that couldn't not fall out of place. They still did a great job, if you ask me, regarding the first 10 episodes and some other bright spots later, but the overall story was doomed from the get go.
Season 5 looks like it'll make up for the 2nd half of season 4 though, judging by the great 2 first episodes. -
lilune79 — 9 years ago(October 13, 2016 09:40 PM)
I agree with yeahclowns-24160- the seasons started really strong then downhill
The olicity thing was actually fine- we get to see Oliver actually having a semi-normal life- he was relax, he hang back and let the team blossom their skills and he was in good solid relationship with the woman he loves- something he never did with his prev. exGF.
when the season first started most comic fan said he was like the comic book oliver-less broody, more happy.
Diggle had a solid story line with his brother
Laurel story was actually ok
Damien Dhark- made the rest of the season just impossible to enjoy= this show was meant to be more grounded- with dhark always having the upper hand with his stupid magic and his stupid soldiers who just blindly obey- was just not enjoyable.
Thea and her emotionally abusive father was just ugh!! the circle of abuse made majority of the audience scratch their head. Merlyn over stay his welcome
let's add drama and once again make oliver suffer baby mama drama- made oliver look semi sympathetic while making most of the fan hates felicity because reasons..
Dhark story line was stupid, so much plot hole and nothing was resolved.I gonna wipe out the world because humanity sucks and I'm special
let's have end of the world story with only a few hackers and by the grace of gods (luck) that we did not end the world and only a few thousands were killed by making a bright and optimistic character who never hurt anyone b4 commit the act-
they had no idea how to wrap up the show peroperly. They need new writers who can come with fresh ideas same can be said for the Flash writers too. -
ninthcentury — 9 years ago(October 13, 2016 10:09 PM)
Pretty good critique, here, and I agree with most of what you say. It was far from "horrible" but it's hard to stay positive when 75% of the threads and posts are just self-styled "critics" who have nothing better to say than to drop their pants and take a dump in our monitors.
Because supporting your thesis is tough, but throwing adjectives is easy. -
Bag_of_Cancer — 9 years ago(October 13, 2016 10:43 PM)
- Olicity. Had to be the most groan-inducing piece of the series for me so far. I used to like Felicity before she became more prominent; she was great in a much smaller side role.
- Fight choreography was beep awful.
- Damien Darhk was too strong, so there always had to be outs in order to keep the heroes alive, like him giving them more time to live because they saved his daughter's life (which gives him more dimension, but still). It became ridiculous after his power-up where he was bulletproof and could dust anyone. He could've easily snapped Oliver's spine from across the Atlantic if he wanted to, but what did this dumbass do? He took him on in hand-to-hand combat. Sure, his magic had been nullified due to Oliver's BS, but it could've all been prevented if he just did what he COULD HAVE DONE ALL ALONG.
- Inconsistent character strength. Pretty much every character was as weak or strong as the plot needed, regardless if it made sense. Case in point: Malcolm Merlyn ("he's dangerous as hell, he's THE Malcolm Merlyn, he's trained by RAG"gets whooped by a bored Oliver in 20 seconds).
- Speaking of Merlyn, he was completely arbitrary. He didn't need to be in this season at all, save for maybe a few scenes sprinkled about interacting with Thea or advising the gang about Darhk. The time he pretended to be the Green Arrow and actually fought Darhk was one of the coolest moments in the series IMHO. Then it was ruined when he joined Darhk anyway because he figured it'd be better to be guaranteed life rather than try and stop the cleansing of the planet. I mean, the guy was the Big Bad of S1, had sort of a redemption arc going through S2 and S3 (other than the whole killing Sara thing), and then became a butt monkey for Darhk. Then he switches sides
again
to help Oliver, doesn't really do anything even then, and disappears. With the last face turn, nobody questions him at all they just accept him back on the good side like he simply took a beep vacation. Terrible writing. - Magic. Stupid, unnecessary, retarded, out of place. It took the series way off the grounded level it used to be on, and that's after season 3's mystical elements.
- The bastardization of the Laurel Lance/Black Canary character. After doing beep all with her for most of the season, finally the writers gave her some good development (like acknowledging she still loved Oliver) and good scenes with Oliver, but that was all just to troll the Laurel fans. And hey, look, they're bringing Black Canary back for the third time when they could've just kept Laurel beep Lance around.
- The flash-forward grave scene was the only thing keeping the season together, but at the same time it held the season down in terms of creativity. They had to kill
someone
, so - The entire nuke sequence.
- Diggle and Andy. They should've just kept Andy dead if this was how they were going to deal with his involvement.
Cena doesn't overcome any odds. He's a wrestler with a God Mode cheat on.