TV review: Arrow, season 2

So, Oliver Queen sort of saved his city from Malcolm Merlin’s plot (apart from the big disaster that essentially was the plot), but totally failed to save his friend Tommy. Now that his raison d’être plot is over, what’s a Vigilante to do?

My name is Oliver Queen. After five years on a hellish island, I have come home with only one goal – to save my city. But to do so, I can’t be the killer I once was. To honor my friend’s memory, I must be someone else. I must be something else.

Well, he can reform (not be the killer he once was, that is, he was just last year), get a new name and a proper mask, and still go after bad guys to “save his city”. Save it from what precisely is not initially explicit, but soon enough a new Big Bad appears, and Oliver is now hampered in his fight by his new morality. And by the ever-increasing number of people who know his “secret” identity: a regular Scooby Gang’s worth.

The villain of the week, plus the arc, are again fun. People fight. People agonise over fighting and over putting their loved ones at risk (hint: keeping someone in the dark about Important Facts in order to Protect Them never works). People become super-strong psychopaths. Some people die. Other people stop being dead. Yet again, the best bits are the flashbacks to The Island, and what happened there to make Oliver Queen the recovering psychopath with superior archery skills he is today.

Worth watching.

---

For all my SF TV reviews, see my main website.