10 TV Shows That Chose The Wrong Main Character

4. Arrow - Oliver Queen

The Walking Dead
The CW

Who It Was

Oliver Queen returned to his city after spending five years in hell... and that's part of the problem.

Green Arrow's character development on Arrow has been mostly told through flashback. Over the course of five seasons we've seen Stephen Amell's Oliver Queen go from a spoiled rich brat to an archery proficient badass and honestly, that journey has easily been the best part of the show.

The only problem is, it hasn't left much room for the current-day Oliver to grow. The version of Ollie we see in the present is already a hyper-competent vigilante and so the show has always seemed unsure what to do with him. Its more or less stuck in a holding pattern for most of its run.

Oliver doesn't grow as a character so much as he just oscillates between various levels of angry and brooding every season. The best example of this is how he constantly seems to flip-flop over killing people, making a decision one season only to change his mind the next.

Who It Should Have Been

That's why characters like Arsenal and yes, even Black Canary work much better. They're characters who we've seen grow over the course of the series, transforming from ordinary people into hardened crime-fighters. It's a clear arc of progression that's seen their characters develop towards a definite end point.

Or at least it did until they were arbitrarily gotten rid of for shock value.

Contributor

I was just a mild-mannered NCTJ accredited journalist until one day I found out the truth... that I could share my nerdy ramblings with people on the internet! It's just like mumbling to myself on the train, but without all the strange looks.