Arrow Season 5 Episode 1, "Legacy" Review

Hi! I am a new reviewer on this site and wanted to explain my review process. For season/series reviews, I will give a overview of the season/series, reviewing it using segments before moving on. I will then discuss the characters one by one before moving on to judge the vfx or other factors. These reviews will be scored out of 10 with series reviews having the possibility of individual season scores. For normal week to week reviews, I will employ a similar style. I will discuss the episode and will highlight characters and performances I find important to discuss instead of reviewing every single character. These reviews will also be out of 10. I adjusted my scale for weekly reviews is: (1-2:Completely Disgusting, 2-3:Unwatchable, 3-4:Horrible, 4-5:Poor, 5-6:Mediocre, 6-7:Forgettable, 7-8:Adequate, 8-9:Good, 9-10:Great/Amazing)That's all folks! :)

**Spoilers**


Coming into this episode, expectations were low. After what was a pretty unfulfilling finale a couple of months ago, Arrow lost most of its pride, dignity, and its place among the CW DC TV shows. Some might even say that the show that they loved was gone even before that. So Arrow had a lot of work to do to get back its viewers for this season. And somehow, they did that. By bringing the show back to its roots, Arrow delivered a compelling episode with great action, good acting, and some interesting villains.

Story Structure:

The roots of Arrow have always been structured as a three segmented storytelling avenues which the writers used. These segments include gritty action, a captivating villain, and an oliver-centric story. Addressing the action, Arrow over the seasons has lost its captivating action due to many story elements. After taking killing off the table, the directors and stunt coordinators had a hard time creating visually appealing action which did not contradict what they have done before. In season 4, there were multiple moments (Oliver and the team vs Anarky) in which the action might have looked good but the consistency of skill was completely off. The fact that it took two people to take out Anarky who is not as skilled as Deathstroke or Ra’s Ah Ghul and the fact that Oliver struggled to take him out evidently brings the action down a peg. The lack of consistency in Oliver’s skill also made the action scenes less realistic in turn affecting the quality of the show as a whole. But the season premiere sort of fixed that issue. By bringing the action to this gritty style which Arrow once had and succeeded at, the action scenes became highlights of the episode and were actually entertaining. They were well-choreographed and pretty brutal which is what was great about Arrow Season 1 and 2. Arrow also brought back killing which helped the chair sequence and the overall drama of the episode but the actual history of the show conflicted the scene. When Tommy died, Oliver vowed to stop killing. After that point, the issue of killing when necessary isn’t really brought up in season 3 or 4 and it is just assumed that he will. But when Sara died, he did not go after Malcolm the same way Oliver has been going after random street thugs. These bits of logic inconsistencies ruined the story flow at that moment but overall, the action made up for it. The second segment involves a captivating villain. Last season, Damien Darkh, while extremely captivating and scene-chewing, lacked the actual motivation and grander scheme to make him a great villain. Neal McDonough played him perfectly and his role in Legends should hopefully make up for this. But from the start of this episode, it is clear that the roots of arrow have influence the origin and actions of this year’s big bad, Tobias Church. While extremely appealing, Tobias does not feel like something new and feels very similar to previous villains of the week from season 1. That is where Prometheus comes in. (side note- All of the DC TV shows seem to be doing multi-villain seasons). Prometheus looks intriguing but lacks actual screen time to get a clear picture of what he truly is. The last segment is an Oliver-centric story. For the past two seasons, Oliver has always been surrounded by a team and the lesser characters like Felicity or Diggle have more presence in the actual story. While this can be appreciated in certain situations, this often leaves Oliver out there just to be the Green Arrow. Especially in season 3, Oliver had no purpose in being Oliver except to pursue Felicity. Speaking of Felicity, I was very approving of the amount of screen time and presence she had on the story. Oliver is the main character and the focus should be one him, not on Felicity and her mother. It's just not appealing mainly due to the fact that felicity is a pretty one-note character. So to see her relegated to her primary function was good to see as that is the direction I wish the character to go in. Going back to Oliver’s story, this episode highlighted the struggle between a public persona and being a vigilante which was great to see as Stephen Amell highlighted both sides with quality acting. Overall, these three segments were evident in this episode making it a clear winner in my books.

Direction/VFX:

It is worth noting that the director, James Bamford, did an exception watch. From actually using arrows, to devastating hand-to-hand combat, James choreographed the camera to highlight what makes Arrow great. The VFX also felt like a step up. The ending action scene had pretty decent vfx and the trick arrows actually looked good. For the first time in a while, it feels like Arrow has an actual budget. 

MVPs of the Episode: (This section is where I will highlight actors and actresses who gave really impressive performances)

The three actors for this week was Stephen Amell, Paul Blackthorne, and WIlla Holland. Arguably the main characters of this episode, all of these actors/actresses gave impeccable performances. Stephen Amell conveyed the complexity in which his character is in now allowing us to see Oliver clearer than we have in the past seasons. Paul Blackthorne gave his classic A-grade performance filling his scenes with emotional and hope for the future. Willa Holland also gave a great performance, acting as the moral compass of the show. While some might have found her conversation with Lance to be a bit whiny, the truth of losing yourself in something you are not proud of was clearly expressed.

Overall Episode Grade 8.7/10