Arrow: 8 Ways Season 5 Has Saved The Show

2. A Retooled Team Arrow

While Diggle and Felicity have remained ever-presents (or near enough) on Team Arrow, the rest of it has underwent a few changes. First they brought in Roy Harper/Arsenal, mostly to perform a bunch of awesome-looking-but-ultimately-unnecessary parkour, then Laurel's Black Canary stepped up, as did Thea as Speedy.

By last year, though, those team dynamics were all over the place. Laurel had already been sidelined a fair bit, and was eventually killed off. Roy had left the scene long before that. And Thea couldn't be involved without completely losing herself.

Season 5 kicked off with just Oliver and Felicity left in the Arrowcave (though it was always just a matter of time before Dig returned), and set about establishing a new team. While it was interesting to see Ollie go solo for a spell, it's also been great for the character to be taking people under his wing. It's expanded the dynamics of Team Arrow and given us differing pairings and relationships, and also allowed Oliver a lot of growth as a person.

It helps that the new members all bring something (or brought something, in some cases). Rory was powerful and brought a more spiritual element to the show; Dinah/Tina is a fitting way of honouring and continuing the Black Canary legacy; Curtis brings a lot of humour and is completing the transformation into Mr Terrific; and Rene/Wild Dog has had the most development of the bunch, becoming a particularly interesting character in a short space of time. With new members and fresh dynamics, Team Arrow has its edge back, and so too does the series.