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

3. Stepping Up

Arrow Ups Downs
The CW

When Arrow first debuted, there was no The Flash, no Gotham, no Supergirl, no Daredevil, no Jessica Jones, no… you get the idea.

Arrow was more-or-less the only real comic book show on TV at that point, and as such it had a huge head-start over those other shows. Since those times though, the ante has been well and truly upped; The Flash has brought in meta-humans; Supergirl has brought an other-worldly charm; Gotham has explored corruption and dirty streets; and Daredevil has given us fantastic fist-on-face action rarely seen before in a television show. As such, some have said that Arrow has fallen behind its contemporaries.

After a third season that was decent at best, then a fourth season that was simply dull when highlighting its flashback elements, Arrow needed to step up to the plate with Legacy. And boy, did the show deliver.

Back to basics, we’d heard. A grittier edge, we’d heard. Brutal violence, we’d heard. Firmly living up to the build-up and hype, this fifth season premiere stepped up to the plate in a way that we’d all hoped and all yearned for since the phenomenal Season 2 came to a close.

Legacy has raised the bar once more for Arrow, giving us something far superior to the previous season. Now the rest of Season 5 just has to live up to these high standards.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

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.