Team GATV Roundtable: Looking Back At The First Half Of Arrow Season 4

What is working least?

CRAIG: I hate to admit it, because I love John Diggle, but I’m not feeling the return of Andy Diggle. I don’t think there was any reason for it to happen, beyond a personal connection to Darhk. It also was annoying to me because it followed return episodes for Sara and Ray… does anyone stay “dead” anymore?

That storyline also hasn’t worked for me because there were times like the crossover where they, what, left him in the basement? At least they later did address the notion of Carly and his kid still being out there. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt, because as I said, I love Diggle, but the Andy story is just not connecting for me.

MATT: In agreement with Craig on this one about Andy Diggle. His storyline seems muddled and he seems a bit of an afterthought since his capture. I’ve always liked Eugene Byrd as an actor since first seeing him in an early ’90s series called Chris Cross, and I like what he can bring to Andy. They just haven’t tapped into it yet.

STEPHANIE: Thea’s bloodlust has been working the least, which is a shame because I have been begging to see what happens after someone emerges from the Lazarus Pit. There’s something about how killing snaps her out of it and how uncontrollable it is that’s just not clicking for me despite hearing the explanation. It almost feels as if the writers were like, “What’s the worst possible thing the Pit could make her do? Murder. Let’s go with that.”

Also, the grave isn’t working, maybe because I expected more than what they intended. After the season premiere, I expected it would be a continuing storyline that they’d touch upon every now and again, but so far, it’s been a one and done. That scene has generated more press about the series than story within the series, and I find that problematic.

DEREK: As with The Flash, I feel a lot of the spin-off set-up has thrown off the momentum every time it gets going. The Flash is a little bit worse, because Arrow has at least made Sara’s and Ray’s respective resurrections tie into the main arc more competently than, say, stopping the main plot to devote a standalone episode to Firestorm. But there hasn’t been the same sense of urgency that the first few seasons had, and I think that has to do with the main Dahrk story being kept at arm’s length until after the Legends of Tomorrow set-up was finished in the crossover.