Arrow Season 5: 8 Ups And 2 Downs From 'Legacy'

Brutality, badassery, and brilliance from the season premiere.

by Andrew Pollard
Arrow Ups Downs
The CW

After much hype and anticipation, The CW's Arrow has now returned to our screens, and what a return it was.

We've all seen how much negativity surrounded the show's previous season - be it the uber-dull flashbacks, the fall from grace of Felicity Smoak, or the odd 'Truman Show' bubble - but there was so much hope that Season 5 was going to be taking Arrow back to the high standards that it had set with its first two seasons.

Picking things up with Oliver Queen now as Mayor of Star City, we've got a Green Arrow who's largely working alone. Felicity is in the Arrowcave to help out, but Diggle is away in the military, Thea is trying to leave her Speedy moniker behind, Quentin Lance has hit the bottle again, and Laurel Lance, of course, is dead.

With the new threat of Tobias Church, and Prometheus arriving too, Oliver is sure to have his hands full on both fronts - both as Mayor and as the Green Arrow. Whilst Prometheus' presence was kept to a perfectly-played minimal here, we did at least get a nice introduction to Church in an episode that felt fresh and vibrant whilst also capturing so much of the charm that has previously made Arrow must-see TV.

So, with all of that in mind, let's have a look at what this season premiere got right, and what maybe didn't quite hit the mark.

10. Ups - Starting With A Bang

Arrow Ups Downs
The CW

In the build-up to Arrow’s fifth season, we’d heard plenty from the show’s executive producers, and even Stephen Amell himself, about how this upcoming season was to be more full of brutal, bloody action that we’ve seen since the days when Oliver Queen was happily killing people as ‘The Hood’.

Living up to that hype, when we’re reintroduced to Ollie here, he’s in the middle of a brilliantly-choreographed battle with another returning face: Lonnie Machin, aka Anarky.

The fight between the Emerald Archer and Anarky here, whilst brief, was arguably as good as any fight scene Season 4 had to offer bar Thea Queen’s elevator-driven brawl with one of Damien Darhk’s Ghosts. Added to that, when the Green Arrow was done with Lonnie, he turned his attention to the fresh-on-the-scene Wild Dog.

Never one to be labelled much of a people person, the Master Bowman gave Wild Dog a verbal beat down before then firing an arrow into his leg. Nice.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.