Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
The idea of change can be unsettling for a television series. You don’t want to alienate your viewers, but you also don’t want to remain complacent. Entering its fifth season, The CW’s Arrow was a show in flux. The diabolical Damien Darhk? Vanquished. Team Arrow? Dismantled. Oliver (Stephen Amell) and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards)? Broken up. But the series has once again risen from the rubble of uncertainty and temporarily reinvented itself with a new ragtag group of rookie vigilantes known as Team Arrow 2.0.
It was a bold choice to disassemble The CW’s favorite Scooby squad, but with Laurel’s (Katie Cassidy) untimely death and Diggle (David Ramsey) and Thea (Willa Holland) in desperate need of a superhero sabbatical, the decision to have the notoriously skeptical Oliver form a new squad has been a beacon of light in the historically dark streets of Star City. Actors Rick Gonzalez and Joe Dinicol have joined the team as Rene “Wild Dog” Ramirez and Rory “Ragman” Regan, while Madison McLaughlin’s Evelyn Sharp must have impressed producers with her brief season four appearance as Black Canary because she’s been upgraded from part-time troublemaker to full-time vigilante. And then there’s Echo Kellum’s Curtis Holt.
Debuting last season as Felicity’s personality doppelgänger, Holt’s inclusion in the Arrow-verse has provided the often dour series with some much needed levity. Adding Holt’s jubilant personality and offbeat temperament to Team Arrow 2.0 has infused the series with a jolt of humor while serving as a perfect foil to Oliver’s solemn demeanor. Much like Hugo on Lost, sometimes a show can benefit immensely from having an optimistic audience surrogate around to be like, “Hold on a second, everyone. This is awesome.” Deepening the roster not only provides us with exciting new character combinations, it helps add new depth to Oliver and Felicity, who have a pretty adorable game of good cop/bad cop going on with the new recruits, as they collectively tackle the unfamiliar role of teacher.
Plus, adding a few rookie vigilantes into the mix really vitalizes the storytelling. Showcasing the growing pains of novice superheroes is inherently interesting. During my first month at Decider, I broke the coffee machine. During Wild Dog’s first month as a vigilante, the intractable hockey apparel enthusiast accidentally created a villainous superhuman.
“Cause you had a bad day. You’re taking one down. You sing a sad song just to turn it around.”
I completely understand if some Arrow fans feel a bit of trepidation towards embracing the new recruits. Team Arrow 2.0 means that the original squad will remain estranged. But this is Star City, people! Has there ever been a dearth of unsavory types looking to wreak havoc, take over the city, and then… actually, I don’t know. What would they do with an entire city? Build malls? Ransack Chipotle? Create a minor league baseball team? Silly, villains. You need tangible goals!
Prometheus isn’t going away anytime soon, so my guess is that Spartan and Speedy will be suiting up next to The Green Arrow sooner rather than later. Until then, I say enjoy the entertaining growing pains of Team Arrow 2.0!
