Suspenseful, Frustrating Sixth Season of Arrow Debuts on Blu-ray
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The biggest problem with CW's series, ARROW, is that it has to keep ratcheting up the action to top its previous season. The natural end result was that the writers have painted themselves into quite a corner with the way the sixth season has wrapped up. The good part of that, however, is that we get the fun of watching them try to write their way out of it.
This season sees Green Arrow, aka Oliver Queen (STEPHEN AMELL), take on several different challenges, not the least of which comes from a federal agent, who is convinced that Oliver is the Green Arrow and is looking to put him behind bars for his vigilante actions. The irony of all that is that the case is largely built on a digitally manipulated image of Green Arrow unmasking to reveal Oliver Queen's face -- a fake that tells the truth.
But the real "big bad" of the sixth season comes in the way of Ricardo Diaz, an analog for DC Comics hero Richard Dragon. Diaz is a low-level criminal who has stayed off the radar. Nobody has really ever heard of him. But his superpower is his utter ruthlessness, and the patience to get what he wants. If Prometheus (aka Adrian Chase, played by JOSH SEGARRA) was always a step ahead of Green Arrow last season, Diaz is six steps ahead.
But before Oliver takes on Diaz, he has to take on other old nemeses, like Anatoly Knyazev (DAVID NYKL), Cayden James (MICHAEL EMERSON), and Black Siren (KATIE CASSIDY) -- all of whom work for Diaz. And there are threats within Team Arrow itself, as Oliver spies on the team to find out who is testifying against him in the government's case, causing Black Canary (JULIANA HARKAVY), Wild Dog (RICK GONZALEZ) and Mr. Terrific (ECHO KELLUM) to split from the team to form their own vigilante band.
The season was frustrating, because every time the viewes would think that Green Arrow was getting the upper hand on Diaz, he'd be dealt one more blow, with the government case getting stronger and stronger against him. It's a good kind of frustration, though, as it gives the story more tension. What's to come next in Season 7? Well, that would have to be the biggest walk-back of them all, because Oliver ends up confessing to being the Green Arrow in exchange for immunity for all his other team members. He's going to prison -- a Supermax facility -- for life.
On an interesting side note: In the late 1990s, there was a proposal for a Warner Brothers film called SUPERMAX that was going to be about a superhero having to survive in a maximum security penitentiary after having been captured. That superhero was slated to be Green Arrow. The film never happened, but we have to wonder if the ARROW writing staff somehow referenced those notes to drive the plot of the next season.
This Blu-ray release includes all four parts of the crossover episode, CRISIS ON EARTH-X; however, it is worth noting that the digital version only includes the ARROW episode. The discs also include special features delving into the characters of Deathstroke and Cayden James, as well as the 2017 CW SDCC panel.
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Disc Index |
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Disc One | Disc Two | Disc Three | Disc Four |
01. Fallout 02. Tribute 03. Next of Kin 04. Reversal 05. Deathstroke Returns 06. Promises Kept 07. Thanksgiving Special Feature: The Split of a Man: Deathstroke |
08. Crisis on Earth-X: Part 1 * 09. Crisis on Earth-X: Part 2 10. Crisis on Earth-X: Part 3 * 11. Crisis on Earth-X: Part 4 * 12. Irreconcilable Differences 13. Divided Special Feature: Inside the Crossover: Crisis on Earth-X |
14. We Fall 15. All for Nothing 16. The Devil's Greatest Trick 17. Collision Course 18. Doppelganger 19. The Thanatos Guild 20. Brothers in Arms Special Feature: Revenge in Ones and Zeros: The Story of Cayden James |
21. Fundamentals 22. The Dragon 23. Shifting Allegiances 24. Docket No. 11-19-41-73 25. The Ties That Bind 26. Life Sentence Special Feature: The Best of DC TV's Comic-Con Panels, San Diego 2017 |
*Non-ARROW episodes not included on Digital Copy. |