Ranking Every Season Of Arrow From Worst To Best
Arrow may be over, but which of its seasons were its best?
An era of television has come to a close as Arrow officially concluded with its series finale. A tearjerking episode no doubt, 'Fadeout' also served as the conclusion of the show's final season - one that heavily revolved around Oliver Queen's legacy. And that right there is a fitting way to close out this game-changing series.
Arrow had quite the run during its time on the air. Debuting on The CW all the way back in 2012, it introduced us all to a grittier version of Oliver Queen than the one comic book fans were used to as it told the dark tale of a tortured avenger who had returned home to right his family's wrongs. From there, it grew into a much larger entity and single-handedly launched what is now known as the Arrowverse.
With eight seasons, 170 episodes and countless characters to its name, Arrow had a lot of ups and downs throughout the course of its existence, so with that in mind, let's take a moment to reflect on each of those offerings as we rank every season 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.