Stephen Amell On The More Grounded Structure Of ARROW Season 5

Stephen Amell On The More Grounded Structure Of ARROW Season 5

In describing the structure of Arrow season 5, Stephen Amell says the new season feels very patient without a lot of cliffhangers although things could "go f***ing crazy" in the second half of the season.

By MarkJulian - Jul 24, 2016 12:07 PM EST
Filed Under: Arrow
Source: Comicbookcom

Can Arrow recapture the magic?  Once The CW's most popular show, The Flash now occupies that spot and it's likely Supergirl will retain enough of its CBS fanbase to push Arrow into the number three spot.  Still,  Stephen Amell and co. kickstarted the entire DCTV Universe and thus serves as the foundation so the producers and writers must be feeling a certain amount of pressure to return the show to its former glory. 

The cast and crew have all stated they're trying to recapture the tone of Season One and Stephen Amell told Comicbook.com as much, following Arrow's SDCC pane last night.  "Thus far, [I'm] very [happy with the tone of season 5].  There haven't really been any cliffhangers; this season feels very grounded and very patient to me. It's a patience that's earned over the course of a couple of years. If you produce a quality episode, someone doesn't need to appear from the grave at the end."  Funny enough, the season 5 trailer opens with a shot of Laurel Lance's grave, however, we now know Katie Cassidy has signed a contract to appear as a regular across the entire DCTV universe so odds are, there's going to be some grave rising at some point.  But will it happen on Arrow or on another show?  If it does occur on Arrow, it sounds as if it won't happen right away.   "It feels very much like we are taking our time and really setting things up for everything to just go f***ing crazy in the second half of the year."


As for what's happening in Oliver Queen's civilian life, it seems he's doing a pretty abysmal job as Star City mayor.  Stephen Amell has even harsher words for the job Ollie is doing.  "Oliver's doing a sh*t job as Mayor.  He's not doing a good job. He ran for the Mayoral office and got elected (unopposed) based on a lot of heartfelt sentiment, but because he is alone, and doesn't have his team, he doesn't have time to be the Mayor. So Thea's basically doing all that stuff for him."

Arrow season 5 will premiere on The CW  October 5 at 8/7c.

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BloodyBed
BloodyBed - 7/24/2016, 12:24 PM
no way
BloodyBed
BloodyBed - 7/24/2016, 12:31 PM
BloodyBed
BloodyBed - 7/24/2016, 12:33 PM
@ALostCause - the secret to getting first 7 times in one day:

don't leave the website for hours
GhostDog
GhostDog - 7/24/2016, 12:28 PM
People were walking out during the panel....

JohnnyTBP
JohnnyTBP - 7/24/2016, 12:34 PM
I don't believe a word he says
Mrsinister
Mrsinister - 7/24/2016, 2:02 PM
More characters doesn't make for better tv. I'm hopeful but I never saw character growth from Oliver Queen and that was another huge reason I stopped watching at the end of season 3. Being that I didn't watch season 4, idk how weird the Oliver/ Felicity relationship is gonna be to watch. Theres too many good shows on tv to waste time on Arrow. I'm hopeful but not really counting on this season being good.
CaptDeadpool
CaptDeadpool - 7/24/2016, 2:09 PM
I am well aware I am the only one thay feels this so this is strictly my own opinion: This show is so much better than the Flash!!! I don't get the hate, yes it has some cheesy acting, yes the romance is soap opera worthy but seriously the Flash does all that and worse. Arrow has had five hit n miss seasons with repetitive villians and plots. The Flash managed the same in just two seasons.
BloodyBed
BloodyBed - 7/24/2016, 7:15 PM
^^this is the only positive comment here
ota4lyfe
ota4lyfe - 7/24/2016, 10:46 PM
@CaptDeadpool - I dig the honesty man! I think much of the current hate comes from the fact that the show is now so much different than what it was when it started. So the things that made the first two seasons work for a certain fan demographic were lost and now the show is basically dead for those fans (this is me in a nutshell).

I think season 4 had a lot of great moments but really started falling apart just before Laurel died. For example, tonally, the bees episode would have been 100% out of place in the first season, but it's become something else to the point that it's just not fun for old fans anymore.

The Flash on the other hand, started out much more lighthearted and silly and made that work for itself. Arrow worked better for most people when it was more serious. And it's not the cheesy acting or the soapy relationships that's killing the show, it's the goofy writing, the castration of the lead character, the elevation of Felicity to basically the center of the show's universe, and the abandonment of the source material.

At least that's my view on it. I used to be die hard for the show, but it's really lost pretty much everything that made me, and I'm sure a lot of other people, like it in the first place.

That said, knowing Katie Cassidy will return in some capacity is enough to keep me around for now. I have hope that it can get better.
CaptDeadpool
CaptDeadpool - 7/24/2016, 11:50 PM
@touchthetable - great points. Oh god, I forgot about that bee episode haha. I'm really hoping next season brings back what we used to love about this'd show! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
ota4lyfe
ota4lyfe - 7/25/2016, 9:31 AM
@CaptDeadpool - That stupid bee episode was a greater crime against Arrow than Batman and Robin was against the entirety of the Batman franchise.

When Oliver gets mad about all the jokes in that episode, I was like "Thank you!!" But it was still one of the worst things I've ever seen, lol.
ota4lyfe
ota4lyfe - 7/25/2016, 9:34 AM
@CaptDeadpool - And actually I would agree that when Arrow is doing its thing well, it's better than The Flash. I think just lately the Flash finished out on a much better note than Arrow.
CaptDeadpool
CaptDeadpool - 7/25/2016, 12:20 PM
@touchthetable - how would you feel about Flashpoint affecting Arrow? What or when would the timeline change? Eventually the show is going to address it, seeing how the CW is connecting the shows even more.
ota4lyfe
ota4lyfe - 7/25/2016, 2:17 PM
@CaptDeadpool - I'd be all about that! And you know, the answer to that question would turn out to be just a laundry list of things I would change about the show, regardless of Flashpoint, haha.

On a "that would be cool" level, I'm all for it affecting Arrow, but as far as respecting the craft of storytelling, it could be a cheap way to fix certain issues or just make them worse, lol.
ota4lyfe
ota4lyfe - 7/25/2016, 2:19 PM
@CaptDeadpool - Although awhile back I thought it would be cool if it changed the Lance family a lot, to the point that Laurel always went by Dinah, she became Black Canary on her own, and Sarah had never been born.
CaptDeadpool
CaptDeadpool - 7/25/2016, 3:44 PM
@touchthetable - I always felt the Lance family had it the worst out of anybody! Not that I'm particularly fond of any of them but c'mon! The family was ripped apart, Lauren finds out her sister was banging her bf behind her back then died...the parents split, dad becomes a drunk and every few months his daughters come back only to die again!!! Hahaha when I type it out, it's even more depressing!

It would definitely be the easy way out for the writers to basically reboot the entire show but it could work. Personally I liked Sarah as Black Canary and Laurel as Oliver's only love interest. Guess we'll have to wait n see...
ota4lyfe
ota4lyfe - 7/25/2016, 4:00 PM
@CaptDeadpool - Yeah, the Lances get it the worst for sure. That's why (outside of the fact it's Black Canary) it was so not on my radar that they would kill Laurel. It's like seriously? Gotta go through all that with Quentin AGAIN?

Yeah, I really haven't given it much thought so it could turn out to be pretty cool.
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 7/24/2016, 2:10 PM
After 3 years of ramping up the lunacy, I sincerely doubt even a well-written series could ground itself. This Green Arrow has basically no personality or morality or essence to him. He's a walking talking plot point.

To the extent that the Flash is good (and it took a severe hit last season), a lot of it came from Barry being consistently a good dude, and the stories they told played off against that. But Arrow is just lurching from idea to idea, story to story, cliche to cliche trying to keep itself above water. There are no "basics" to get back to, because the only compelling version of Green Arrow they ever created was motivated by a mysterious list of names MacGuffin instead of an actual mission with any sort of moral clarity. "You have failed this city" is fine as a refrain, but he never had a clear vision of what he even meant by it.

In an era of severe wealth inequality, Green Arrow could have been the Occupy Star City superhero. Instead, he's been gimmicky less-interesting Batman.
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