#arrowseries4

Arrow:  Brotherhood

Well this episode was certainly action packed, as we see some of the best choreographed fight scenes I have ever seen on a TV show. The stun team on Arrow deserve a round of applause, there’ve done some amazing things throughout Arrow’s run and it was much more apparent within this episode.

David Ramsey stole the show this week. As Diggle came to terms that his brother is no longer dead, Ramsey played the emotional scenes very well, as the hard hitting revelation was revealed. Especially when loses his temper towards his brother, the emotion nearly brought me to tears. Also it was nice to see the bromance return between Oliver and Diggle again, which was lost in series 3. I think fans were screaming hell yes when he said he was “here to save his brother, the green one.” Brilliantly written.

Oliver’s campaign is under way, and Diggle being the voice of reason came through for Oliver again, telling him that fighting Darhk in the shadows was not the way to go. After season 3 we as an audience don’t want that either. So the conflict with Darhk will not only be a hero and a villain but become a political fight, which I see will be more interesting to see, as it adds another dimension to their conflict. Also what does this mean for Detective Lance, Darhk must know he’s a double agent. That’s going to have some ramifications that may show us just how menacing Damien Darhk really is, so looking forward to that.

Ray Palmer appeared again but and quickly left. Didn’t really have the same problem when Sara left, as it was more a continuation from last weeks, and I felt the storyline had a bit more time to breathe. Also he coming in during the fight scene, taking out a number of guys was just awesome to watch. Brendon Routh is just born to play a superhero, it’s a shame Superman Returns didn’t find success, as he was rather a highlight in that movie. Just a quick shout out for how excited we are for DC Legends of Tomorrow.

The flash back scenes although usually a problem are a lot more brutal now than they ever have been. Last season I felt that there needed to be dropped, as it was acting to much as a plot point to move the story forward. However I feel it’s working well in this season, as it is a more brutal story-line and we see Oliver have no choice but to do some hideous things to succeed in his mission, also did I mention I’m glad the wig is gone. However, it has to come back at some point unfortunately.

Arrow: Haunted

Arrow had one of its best episodes ever this week, and it’s all thanks to one amazing TV return. The one we’ve all been waiting for, John Constantine. Yes it was unclear how Arrow would fit Constantine into the series after his own show was wrongfully cancelled. Did the CW deliver? You bet they did and we thank them for it. Especially as I was a huge fan of Constantine and felt it wasn’t given enough time to find its audience.

Matt Ryan is by far one of the best actors ever to play a comic book character, especially one as unique and messed up as Constantine. From the beginning watching Ryan play Constantine was the true high point of Constantine. He came back and charmed us all with his classic wit and charisma. A nice introduction showing us that he was part of Oliver’s past on the island, those scenes were the true highlight, being beat up and yet has the cheek to ask for a cigarette. Straight away brilliantly introduced fans of Arrow to the foul mouthed scouser, who may not have been familiar prior to this episode. Constantine did bring back that nice balance of darkness and humour, that Arrow has been missing since series 2.

It also was a nice introduction to bring supernatural elements to Arrow. However it did feel like Constantine was not brought in sooner in the present time scale, because it does feel a bit rushed and a wasted opportunity. Especially when it was set up to be this big confrontation that only lasted a few minutes, rather disappointing. Thankfully it did give the impression that he will make a return to the show, and that would be fantastic, possibly to help Oliver deal with Damien Dahrk at the end of the series? He shouldn’t just be attached to Arrow though, and it does feel it would be a missed opportunity not to have him turn up in DC Legends of Tomorrow, bringing all the secondary characters into their own spin off, no character would be more suited.

Anything else in this episode however did get over shadowed by Constantine’s presence. Sara Lance is back which is great as she was such a fascinating character that made some of the episodes from series 2. It would have been nice to see the payoff from this episode and not to see Sara all zombfied, but I’m sure we’ll see that in later episodes.

Diggle and Detective Lance, were forced to work together and I thought these scenes worked really well. Seeing two different characters who have never really shared any screen time together, interact as a unit for the first time. It was rather nice seeing them exchange banter which I felt has been missing from both these characters over last season and there worked well as a team. Also fans finally got to learn more about Diggle’s brother and his involvement with HIVE, which has been a mystery to the audience since the beginning of season 2. It does suggest that we will get a close to this storyline in the weeks to come, are there closing this storyline because Diggle is leaving the show and it’s him in the grave at the end of episode 1? I sincerely hope not.  

Oliver had a choice to make in this episode, weather to stay friends with Laurel as she could be a threat to his campaign should any scandal about his relationship with her and her sister come out. It got down to the core of what Laurel’s and Oliver’s relationship is now, as there’ve lost the trust in their friendship not been able to rely on one another. It was nice to see Laurel and Oliver coming to terms with the fact they no longer see each other as friends, and try to find a way to fix it. Nice conclusion that brought the episode to a heart warming close.