ARROW - S5E1, Legacy - A TV Review

Mayor Oliver Queen is back, kickin' ass and smokin' fools in the fifth season premiere of 'Arrow'. Let's put killing back on the table and break this sucka down!

Hail to the chief, bitch

Well, I can say this for "Legacy", it wasn't boring. It wasn't particularly interesting and didn't break any new ground - in fact, it felt distinctly at times like a regression on the part of the writers. Like olden times, we spend a significant portion of the episode discussing the morality of Oliver killing his enemies, and his willingness to kill being called into question by those he loves. Oliver wavers back and forth between wanting to work alone and being repeatedly told he's not alone. And we're back to watching Oliver and Felicity not be together (although the sight of her with another man, with whom she appears to be happy DID sting a bit, because I am an unapologetic Olicity shipper). Thea, too, is once again consumed with her emotions. I'm all for my characters having legit emotions, but Thea seems to just be going in circles, and it's starting to feel like the writers just don't know what to do with her.

And while I respect the idea of the city honoring the death of the Black Canary, when her statue is unveiled, I was hit hard with three thoughts: one - this is a straight rip-off of the end of 'The Dark Knight Rises', which did the statue unveiling much better; two - this would have worked better as an epilogue to season four; and three - that statue looks like crap. I expect more from the props department, not a fake statue that looks like it belongs in a junior high school play.

Oh, and we're given yet another archer-themed villain, too. After Malcolm Merlyn, various league of assassin thugs, Cupid, and a handful of other arrow-slingers, I'm a bit worn out on that whole M.O. And it's very hard to top John Barrowman's wonderful performance over the last four years, so I'm not going to be giving this new dark archer a whole lot of slack.

But despite what feels like a lot of familiar territory, "Legacy" also brought in some interesting things. The idea of "Mayor" Queen fighting battles the Green Arrow can't, dealing with the SCPD which seems to be backsliding into corruption, and without the inside help of Quentin (I'm totally down with Paul Blackthorne going back to being a depressive drunk - he does it very well, and it almost always breaks my heart). As the episode's primary bad guy, Tobias Church was actually pretty cool, because he's a return to a street level gangster rather than an obvious big-bad. Plus, I still love Chad Coleman from back in his Cutty Wise days, so he earns a lifetime hall-pass. And while I'm grousing about Oliver's alone/not-alone business, I do like the idea of him trying to do his night job without Diggle by his side, who has literally been there since the premiere.

There was also a ton of pretty good action. From one dude just slamming another dude in the face with brass knuckles, to Oliver throwing it back to the pilot with not one, but two patented "no one can know my secret" neck-snaps. And for the first time in two seasons, I'm actually somewhat interested in the flashbacks. Maybe it's because I know that Ivan Drago himself, Dolph Lundgren will be playing a part in them, or maybe it's because Oliver's connections to the Russian mob have been teased since season one. But after one year wasted in Hong Kong and another on Lian Yu (not counting the awesome cameo from John Constantine) the flashbacks need to return to relevance, and I'm really hoping that this final year of them is exciting.

Perhaps the most interesting concept introduced in the premiere is the idea of Oliver and Felicity attempting to assemble a new Team Arrow from scratch. Everyone who has joined the team thus far has always been slowly integrated into the scene. These guys are literally coming in for try-outs. It's a novel concept, to be sure. And I like Curtis a lot (Echo Kellum) and since they've been making Mr. Terrific teases for a full season now, I'm glad we're finally getting into a space where he's got room to start making that transformation. We'll see about all these other spares, though. 

Yes, this was a pretty fun season premiere, but fun is not going to hold my attention forever. Guggenheim and Berlanti need to start breaking some new ground with 'Arrow' because they ground they're treading on now is pretty worn out. And, hey, I love spending time with all these characters, and it's not like I'm going to stop watching. But give me a reason to tell my friends that 'Arrow' has not gone downhill. Impress me.

FINAL SCORE - 6.5/10

Arrow airs Wednesday nights on The CW at 8/7c.