Superhero Media: Arrow - Season 6

This will probably be something of a short one, as I'm finding that I'm pretty much done with Arrow. There were a few episodes in Season 6 that I really enjoyed, and the programme is still well-produced, but I simply don't care about Oliver Queen and his journey any more. There is one element of Season 6 that is actually stronger than those before it, in that there are no flashbacks to Oliver's life before his return to Star City. I don't know about anyone else, but I got sick of the flashbacks sometime around Season 3. No story-informing flashbacks means, however, that we can focus more on Oliver's relationships, particularly with his teammates, as Team Arrow soon splits into two rival teams, perhaps heading towards some kind of superhero 'Civil War'? Sadly nothing so exciting happens in this season, as the overarching villain turns out to just be some gangster. 

The crossover episode "Crisis on Earth X" shows some promise, but due to the nature of streaming, I have no idea what happened on the other eleven CW DC programmes to fill out the plot. I'm still way behind on The Flash, not to mention I haven't even started Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Titans, Doom Patrol, Pennyworth or Gotham yet, which random nerds on the internet assure me are all linked somehow and that the queen is an alien Lizard Person. Evil Laurel from Earth 2 becomes a major player in this season, playing both sides against the middle and not really having much to do or any real development. The television programme that this season of Arrow reminds me of is the last few years of Happy Days, where most of the cast had left and only people under ironclad contracts are still kicking around. Seriously, Oliver has defeated the League of Shadows and Damien Dark, why is a gang boss giving him so much trouble? Except for the crossover, only the last few episodes of this season are really worth watching. 

I'm glad that I'm almost at the end of Arrow, the programme really should have finished after the defeat of Damien Dark, if not before. There's not really anywhere left for the characters to go narratively, and the 'need' to escalate the antagonist each season means we'd be staring down the barrel of Green Arrow versus Lady Styx by the time season ten rolled around. As I've said before, I like good endings, concise endings that actually wrap-up the story. Season 3 of Luther and season 5 of Supernatural have these kinds of ending, even if they weren't actually the last episodes of their respective programmes, and I feel that Season 5 of Arrow was the same, with the entire city rising up to fight alongside Green Arrow against the literal forces of evil. Arrow is done, and if it weren't for the bizarre ideal of completion that I can't help but chase, I would be done with it.