Ranking Every Season Of Arrow From Worst To Best

Arrow's first season was the foundation upon which strong modern-day superhero TV was built, but its successor was undoubtedly the pinnacle of that genre.

Building upon the Oliver Queen/Slade Wilson saga showcased in the flashbacks of the first offering, the writers only went and introduced Deathstroke himself into the equation this time around. And being the iconic DC character's live-action debut, it had a lot to live up to - but it did in so many ways, as Manu Bennett's electric performance carried the season as the material (both in the flashbacks and the present-day scenes) went a long way in presenting him as that antagonistic antihero we know him to be (instead of just a straight-up villain).

Everything that worked in the first season was magnified here. Oliver's struggles to reconcile his past with his present were more effective than ever, as the flashbacks complemented the main narrative with the disintegration of his and Slade's friendship in the present mirroring what went down in the past.

Moreover, all of that delicious Lance family drama reached new heights due to the reintroduction of Sara (and how Quentin and Laurel ultimately processed that), while characters like Roy and Thea continued to come into their own and the full-time addition of Felicity Smoak, at this point, was highly beneficial to the show. And then there's Susanna Thompson, who turned in a show-stealing performance as matriarch Moira Queen.

All of this set the stage for a thoroughly compelling edge-of-seat narrative that was so well-plotted that it felt like it had been ripped from the pages of a comic book itself. It was darker, grittier and more ambitious than its predecessor, but it was so in a way that felt completely true to form, capitalising on - and improving - an already successful format.

It was, without question, Arrow at its absolute finest.

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Which season of Arrow was your favourite? Tell us in the comment section below.