Ranking Every Season Of Arrow From Worst To Best

8. Season 4

Every show suffers a decline in standard at some point but few of them ever fall as far from grace as Arrow did during its fourth season. A show that was once the darkest and most compelling crime drama on television had somehow devolved into an unwatchable daytime soap that prioritised whiny selfish caricatures of once-great characters over the importance of the show's overarching narrative.

Everything felt off about Season 4 and that's no overstatement. Felicity Smoak's ascension to the forefront of the show continued to both it and her own detriment as her out-of-character behaviour ruined any chemistry that she and Oliver ever had, while the whole 'Olicity' drama dragged the season down like a led balloon. And this was all made worse by the show's baffling decision to bring her whole one-note family into the mix.

Meanwhile, Damien Darhk was too powerful (and too exaggerated) for a show like this, the flashbacks were convoluted, Thea was off-screen for half the season, Malcolm Merlyn became a parody of himself and the writers undermined everything they had been building to by killing off Laurel Lance in the flat culmination of one of the most disappointing arcs the show has ever done.