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Five Hopes for Arrow’s Season 4

By | May 28th, 2015
Posted in Reviews | 10 Comments

Arrow season three just wrapped up and, while the show is not quite in as strong of a place as it was following season two, the show appears to be making some key tonal changes that will greatly affect how season four looks and feels. So, today, I’m going to run through five different hopes that I have for this season, all of which I think will elevate the show to something altogether different.

1. A solid plan for Diggle

Longtime readers know how I feel about Diggle – he is totally and utterly misused at every turn. His purpose, more or less, ran out halfway through season one. But, the character is compelling, so let’s not settle for that. Season four looks to be about Oliver reclaiming his life, and so let’s give Diggle something to do that allows his own life to look a little better.

We know that he <3s being part of Team Arrow, and we know that Lyla, his wife, is an A.R.G.U.S. agent - maybe make him be headhunted this season. Why wouldn't A.R.G.U.S. want someone of his particular skillset? What would Oliver have to do/say to get Diggle to stick around, especially after their philosophical differences over Ollie's whole "no big deal, I was a hair's breath away from being Ra's al Ghul" deal. Or, send him undercover somewhere - use his and Ollie's arguments as the seed for Diggle to be a mole somewhere else. Just having him be Oliver's backup isn't enough.2. A re-purposing of Roy

As I’ve mentioned many times before, Roy Harper is among my five favorite comic book characters ever, and so I am really hoping that the Arrow folks have a plan for him – and there’s a really easy way for that plan to fall into motion: have him be the anchor of TNT’s Titans series.

It is the same production company, and both networks would benefit from having an intellectual property crossover, as much red tape as that might take, and it makes perfect sense. Roy leaves Starling, eventually settles in Gotham where he meets Dick Grayson and boom. Now, we just write it that Joe West’s older brother lives in Gotham with his son Wally, and all of a sudden that spin-off series is in the works. And here’s the best part: there’s no reason that we have to see an actual crossover right now – the hint of one is almost as good as actually seeing one.

We are never going to see Roy live out his full potential as part of Arrow, and I really don’t believe that Colton Haynes has the charisma in that role to carry a series on his own, and so this is the best way to see Roy’s story play out on television.

3. Laurel gets her groove back

Ever since the second Sara was brought onto the show as the Canary, Laurel has been out of sorts. There have been positive steps forward, and painful steps backward, but we never really have seen Laurel with the same swagger and purpose as she had when she was two-timing Tommy Merlyn in front of an open window in season one.

My advice to the show is for Laurel to double down on the attorney side of her character. Until we need her in costume for some big bad, let her attempt to stop crime from the other side of the desk. Katie Cassidy isn’t the most skilled martial artist on the show, so stop having her do as much hand to hand combat – you can keep working with her, but there’s no reason to push that. Think about this as the Team Arrow set up in year 4:

Ollie as vigilante, flanked by Thea
Felicity as tech queen
Diggle undercover
Laurel keeping them out of hot water with the law

Doesn’t that make a whole lot more sense than what we had this season:

Continued below

Ollie as vigilante, flanked by Diggle, Laurel, and Roy
Felicity as tech queen

I think this plan can also allow Cassidy to live up to the second billing she gets on the show – give her some really juicy stuff to work with in the courtroom, and let the rest of the cast deal with the street level crime.

4. Villains that can stick around

Even though Merlyn wasn’t really dead, and Slade Wilson is still in solitary on the island, Arrow isn’t great about giving the show villains that exist outside of two categories: dead and minor, one week players. The closest thing to a middle ground that we have is the Suicide Squad, and they don’t really act as villains anymore.

This season will, of course, have a big bad, but it might be more advantageous to have, instead, a dedicated effort to give the show 3-4 characters that can reappear throughout the season (or seasons) without being either criminal masterminds or veritable red shirts. (I can’t believe I’m about to type this) Think of Batman ’66 – give us a few recurring villains that have a specific purpose other than ‘bring down Starling’ – some lower stakes would really do some good, and by having Ollie not always able to capture them, it will make the week to week drama stronger, while simultaneously building up the big bad and shrouding their identity in mystery. “Hmm, we’ve met four villains thus far this season that have gotten away – who is really pulling the strings?”

Plus, having them able to return in future years might make the show more consistent across seasons, and not have such hard and fast dividing points to them.

5. A lighter tone

I’m not advocating for a new soundtrack of “Yakety Sax” and Three Stooges-like slapstick between Ollie and Thea, but I think that embracing some of the light that Barry Allen and his cohorts have brought to this universe would be a very wise thing. Let Ollie embrace some green, and rehabilitate his image; give Thea a bright red costume and let her have fun while fighting crime. Hell, give Laurel a real romantic interest and show them, The Naked Gun style, enjoying life.

This season seemed to end on a more optimistic than normal note, and seeing the success of The Flash, as well as the hugely positive reaction to the Supergirl trailer, it seems like Arrow might attempt a slight makeover. To which I say, do that, but keep the street level crime and darkness of the big city present, too. This isn’t an either/or scenario: the show can stay dark at times without being joyless. And I think season four is the perfect time to start that transition.

What do you want to see? Let me know in the comments!


//TAGS | Arrow

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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