Arrow Season 7: 7 Ways It Has Reinvigorated The Show

At this stage, it's pretty clear that Arrow (and all Arrowverse shows) thrives on a certain type of formula. Usually, the season revolves around Oliver Queen and his team of superheroes doing their utmost to keep the city safe over the summer before a new Big Bad emerges from the shadows and tries to either kill the Green Arrow, or wrest control of the city away from him. However, by the end of the season, the hero overcomes evil and the status quo is reinforced.

There's no denying that the formula is successful, but it is a little repetitive - which is why Season 7 proved to be a welcome change.

With Oliver behind bars at Slabside and vigilantes banned from Star City, the season got off to a very different start. Not only were there no weekly adventures from the Emerald Archer and his merry band of misfits, there was now a grim prison story at the forefront of the show - something that promised to be quite different from the usual colourful capers. Furthermore, these striking differences continued, as the showrunners decided to further the storyline with Season 6's Big Bad, Ricardo Diaz, instead of introducing another villain.

But the real change is the fact that all of Star City now knows Oliver is the Green Arrow. By revealing this to the public, the writers have automatically removed the secret identity element from the show and, in doing so, they have changed things up permanently. There is no going back to the way things were and, for the time being at least, this has proven work in the show's favour.