Team GATV Roundtable: Looking Back At Arrow Season 5

Did the expanded Team Arrow work?

MATT: I liked them a lot. I was especially glad when they started to give them more depth rather than just being character pastiches. Both Rene and Dinah are welcome additions to the team who’ve earned their spots. Rory seemed a bit odd because I don’t think they paid off the Monument Point turmoil with Felicity particularly well. Then, he kills his Ragman suit with the nuclear explosion, which was very cool, but then he just vanishes. The Evelyn betrayal was fine, in concept, but I wish there was more insidiousness to her being a counteragent on the team. It didn’t fully spark for me.

MELISSA: I think the team works now but no, dumping that many new characters onto the show at once was a misstep. With a few exceptions, once the new recruits were officially on the team, the show shifted the emotional stakes away from the characters we’d spent years getting to know and onto the backs of the ones that seemed only to have a place on the team because others were pushed out of the way. (Thea off the team in the Mayor’s office, Diggle in jail, Quentin off the wagon and then rehab, Laurel dead). The audience connection to Wild Dog, Evelyn, Rory and even Curtis as he was thrust into the show in a very different manner, just didn’t have time to grow strong enough for that to work; so for too many weeks, there was an emotional disconnect to the show.

I tried to care about Curtis’s struggle to become a fighter and his marital problems with Paul. I could tell I was supposed to be invested in Wild Dog’s anger issues, inability to follow orders, and later why he was still not trying to see his daughter. I worked hard to be only mildly resentful that Havenrock and its potential for immense fallout became primarily about Ragman’s loss rather than anything to do with Felicity (to dubious success). And then there was Evelyn who was so disillusioned over who Oliver had been, that she became acolyte to a monster. If they’d spent more than an episode devoted to introducing Dinah, I think they would have broken me.

I desperately wanted to care about this show and what was happening, but the focus of the scripts locked me out for far too long. On top of the new team, there was Billy and Susan and Chase and Vigilante and all the faceless politicians that pointlessly passed through the Mayor’s office. We were overwhelmed with new characters that did not matter to me and old characters that were no longer interacting.

After the initial few episodes, even Felicity and Oliver who remained in the Bunker stopped communicating with each other like they used to. They acted like polite strangers. The team went from, well a team, to management and frequently disgruntled employees.

Oliver became a more formal, distant character that was there to give orders, go on missions, give speeches and once a week apologize for disappointing one or all of the new members of the team. He was ghosting through all parts of his life, not showing passion or joy for anything. Felicity was almost manic at times with her forced cheerfulness and jokes when Oliver was around and only having real emotions when he was gone. It was painful to watch. Diggle was gone a lot, but after he was broken out of jail, he might as well have still been gone since his function seemed centered around mentor and booster to Wild Dog’s character.

It wasn’t until the back half of the season that the characters I’d been watching the show for were back to interacting like real people and being the source of emotion driving the show. It was like night and day.

The writers found and kept a better balance with all the characters in those later episodes of the season, and that was when I stopped hating Wild Dog, applauded Curtis for finding his niche on the team, and enjoyed watching Dinah keep Rene and Curtis in check with her wit and wisdom. I’m optimistic that’s the direction the show will keep writing toward. New characters need to be included in the story, but not to the exclusion of previous, original, cast members.

STEPHANIE: I have a hard time getting invested in new characters, so it took me a while to warm up to Rory and Rene, but ultimately, I enjoyed their presence in the Arrowcave. Rene’s relationship with Quentin was a highlight of the season because I found it so unexpected, but so fitting and endearing. Dinah had me interested as soon as she threatened to send Team Arrow back to Star City with their nuts in a sling. With Arsenal and Speedy gone, it was nice to have fresh minds and attitudes running around.

CRAIG: Honestly, I’m not sure. The character dynamics certainly helped the narrative, from Evelyn’s betrayal through to the brief scene between Felicity and Rory about Havenrock. A character like Rene, while I love the Wild Dog costume, seemed almost more fun when seen opposite Quentin Lance in their scenes together. A guy with flying rags doesn’t really lend itself well to being “grounded” either, so I’m unsure about that. I’m glad there’s a Black Canary again… but there is certainly a part of me that is nostalgic for the times when there were only 2 or 3 people in the lair. Every superhero show becomes a “team” now, and I think there’s something to be said for the lone – or almost-lone – wolves.