Search results
When presumed-dead billionaire playboy Oliver Queen returns home to Starling City after five years stranded on a remote island in the Pacific, he hides the ways the experience has changed him. As...
- (307)
- Stephen Amell
- TV-14
- 8
- "He saved his city."
- Arrow: "Fadeout" Photos
- How would you score the series finale of Arrow, "Fadeout"?
- Verdict
By Jesse Schedeen
Updated: Apr 21, 2020 4:30 pm
Posted: Jan 29, 2020 4:33 am
Warning: this review contains full spoilers for the series finale of Arrow! If you need a refresher on where we left off, here's our review for Season 8, Episode 9 and our full review of the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover.
It's a strange experience writing the final review for a series that's been a part of my personal and professional life for eight years. Before Arrow existed, Smallville was the closest thing to a fully realized, live-action superhero universe on TV. Now we have a whole Arrowverse, one that keeps getting bigger and crazier and comic book-ier with each passing year. Oliver Queen changed a lot over the course of eight years, as did world around him. It's fitting that the series takes its final bow not by putting Ollie in the spotlight, but by examining how his crusade affected the lives of everyone around him.
To be frank, Arrow didn't even necessarily need a series finale in the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Ollie already made his grand, heroic sacrifice and finally achieved his goal of saving Star City. What more even needs to be said at this point? But in a way, that works to the benefit of "Fadeout." The hardest part is already over. There's really no way to unstick the landing, so the finale is less an epic climax to the series than it is a quiet epilogue and an opportunity to spend one last hour with old friends.
It's great seeing so many familiar cast members back, including Susanna Thompson's Moira Queen, Colin Donnell's Tommy Merlyn, Katrina Law's Nyssa al Ghul and even Joe Dinicol's Rory Regan. The complaint with nearly all these returning characters is that we didn't get to see enough of them, but there's really only so much that can be expected of one episode.
And certainly, writers Marc Guggenheim and Beth Schwartz knew their biggest priority had to be Emily Bett Rickards' Felicity. Season 8 has been able to coast by without Felicity up to now, but it would have been unthinkable to wrap up without bringing her back. Rickards delivers an emotionally charged performance to cap off her Arrowverse tenure, with Felicity juggling her grief over Ollie, her fear at losing William too and the profoundly strange sensation of meeting an adult version of her infant daughter. And fittingly, it all culminates in a sequence that finally reveals what became of 2040's Felicity at the end of Season 7. This episode is somewhat vague (intentionally, no doubt) as to whether Ollie still exists in Spectre form or is truly and completely dead, but all that really matters is he and Felicity finally get that happy ending they failed to achieve at the end of Seasons 3 and 7.
If "Fadeout" does anything right, it's in passing the torch from Ollie to Diggle. David Ramsey really shines here as a man mourning his brother and struggling to decide what his purpose is in a world that no longer needs Team Arrow. The flashbacks help highlight that brotherly dynamic and show just how far the two have come since 2012. And happily, this episode implies we'll be seeing a lot more of the Diggle family beyond Ramsey's guest role in next week's The Flash. Their move to Metropolis suggests John and/or Lyla might be part of the supporting cast on Superman & Lois. And it sure seems like that John Diggle: Green Lantern fan theory has well and truly come to pass.
The actual conflict in the finale is nothing terribly remarkable. Post-Prometheus, the idea of an old enemy from Season 1 returning to strike at Oliver Queen where he's most vulnerable seems a little redundant. But that subplot and the flashback scenes get the job done in terms of adding a little variety to the mix. You don't want to devote an entire hour to people crying in front of tombstones and statues, especially when James Bamford is directing. And there's something highly amusing about the very last villain in Arrow being named after the influential and infamously cantankerous comic creator John Byrne.
While emotionally stirring in all the right ways, "Fadeout" does fall short in a few key ways. Anyone who's followed my Arrow reviews over the years probably knows what I'm going to say next. It's hugely disappointing that Manu Bennett's Slade Wilson never made a significant return appearance in Season 8. Slade is easily the best villain Arrow ever produced, and he only Reverse-Flash rivals him as the best Arrowverse villain of them all. The series will always feel irritatingly incomplete in that regard. We do get that early rehash of the pivotal Slade/Moira scene from Season 2 early on, but one has to assume Bamford and his team fudged the end result using archival footage rather than actually flying Bennett out to film a couple quick shots of being punched in the face. Otherwise, why not give Slade a meatier role and actually provide the character with the closure Season 6 never quite achieved?
There are several possible reasons why Bennett never returned for Season 8 when nearly every other fan-favorite actor did. Maybe the scheduling never worked out. Maybe, as with Michael Rosenbaum's refusal to take part in Crisis, The CW was never able to provide Bennett with the compensation he felt he deserved. Or maybe Slade is just another casualty of WB's strange dislike of having multiple simultaneous versions of the same character. With Deathstroke playing such a huge role in Titans: Season 2, it could be that Bennett's return was never going to be an option. Whatever the explanation, the almost complete lack of Slade Wilson in the finale causes the series to end on a needlessly sour note.
"Fadeout" is an imperfect but ultimately effective conclusion to a long-running superhero saga. With Crisis already having handled Oliver Queen's last and greatest sacrifice beautifully, this episode is free to explore the aftermath and spend one last hour with old friends. The finale makes excellent use of the series' two most critical supporting ...
Watch Arrow — Season 8 with a subscription on Netflix, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV. Oliver Queen's final adventure hits emotional peaks while spearheading the game ...
- (125)
- Stephen Amell
- Laura Belsey
- October 10, 2012
Arrow: Created by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg. With David Ramsey, Stephen Amell, Emily Bett Rickards, Katie Cassidy. Spoiled billionaire playboy Oliver Queen is missing and presumed dead when his yacht is lost at sea.
- (447K)
- 2012-10-10
- Action, Adventure, Crime
- 42
Oct 15, 2019 · Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 13, 2020. Andrew Pollard Starburst. Full of Easter eggs and nods 'n' winks that are utterly rewarding for long-time fans... gives a marvellous send-off to...
Arrow is absolutely the best of the CW DC shows (except Smallville). The show had its ups and downs throughout its run but it was still an overall really good show and the last season was one of the best!
People also ask
Is Green Arrow a good show?
Is Arrow a good series?
Where can I watch Arrow?
Is arrow still a good movie?
Oct 10, 2012 · Based on the DC Comics title, published by DC Entertainment, this hourlong drama is a modern retelling of the legendary DC Comics character Green Arrow. Stephen Amell stars in the title role ...
8.0/10 (1522 reviews)
Free UK Delivery on Eligible Orders
