Arrow: The Complete Sixth Season - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Arrow: The Complete Sixth Season



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
The flagship show for the CW’s super hero “arrowverse” is back for a sixth year. I usually reiterate this each year, but Arrow was the show that got me INTO the DC TV superhero universe. Marvel had been failing abysmally at that angle (my how the tables have turned) and Arrow was the show that started it all with an INCREDIBLE bang. Seasons 1 and 2 of Arrow were so good that I still consider them the height of ALL the DC super hero shows in this shared universe. Season 3 was “good”, but suffered as they mishandled one of Batman’s and the Green Arrow’s biggest villains. However, season 4 went down even further, only to be saved by a really good season 5 (which also reintroduced Slade Wilson/Deathstroke once more as the most revered villain in the series). Then came season 6. The season that took a fantastic cliffhanger ending and then slogged through another 20+ episodes of mediocrity once more.

Following the devastating events that happened on Lian Yu, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) returns back to Star City to act as Mayor and midnight vigilante. This time he has to take a step back as he is “burdened” with the responsibility of fatherhood. He even goes so far as to hand over the mantle of Green Arrow to Diggle (David Ramsey). Only thing is, he’s going to be confronted with a corruption even bigger and more insidious. Corruption within his own department. Pitting friend against friend, team Arrow and the “B-team” consisting of Curtis Holt, Wild Dog and the new Black Canary, Dinah Drake, being to scrabble and claw at the threads of their alliance, threatening to tear their entire world apart when villains like Black Siren, Vigilante, Faust, and Cayden James all threaten to eat them alive if they don’t work together.

One of the biggest weaknesses of the really good season 5 is transferred across to season 6, and amplified. The world of Arrow started to really struggle in season 4 with the inclusion of too many new “allies” and forced tension between Felicity Smoak and Oliver himself. This gets worst as Team Arrow is bloated to new extents with the addition of his new minions, and the front runners of the series get left in the dust with not enough time to flesh them out fully. Speedy is faded out, and the rest of the cast are stuck playing second fiddle as Oliver/Green Arrow whines and broods his way through the show again, once again proving that he’s more of a green Batman than anything else.

The frustration that keeps coming back to me in regards to this season is the sensation of the show devolving into a kids show. Season one was INCREDIBLY brutal, with Oliver being more like The Punisher than he was the Green Arrow. Season two changed his resolve on killing, but he still kept a very mature and vicious take on the villains of Star City. After season 3’s encounter with Raz al Ghul, the show has felt more kiddy and tame as it goes on. There’s an episode where Diggle and Oliver save a school bus part way through that really feels like something out of Supergirl than Arrow. Even Deathstroke’s return is softer and more mild, with Slade being a more of a costumed stand in than the master of criminal workings he should be.

That being said, the 6th season is actually still pretty decent as a SHOW, but it marks the worst season that Arrow has had to date. The saving grace comes from tightening up the show a bit near the end and changing the game with an AWESOME cliff hanger. I hate to be the guy who says “but wait till next season!”, but I kind of have to. If you’ve watched the new Comicon trailer for season 7 it looks like the powers that be have seen some of the criticisms and put Oliver in a “live or die” situation once more. This time in prison and bringing forth a new vigilante who hints as the “Longbow” characters from the comics. Something which can easily turn the show on its ear if its played right.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Year to year, Arrow has maintained a very strong and repeatable look to the series. 4 Blu-ray BD-50 discs, a good 6 or 7 episodes per disc, and a decent bitrate provides a predictably good looking 1080p encode. The series is a grimdark show with lots and lots of shadows, with gothic night time shots and fairly dim lighting for the interior office buildings. Our heroes are decked out in black/green leather, and love to absorb light at every turn with the only real bright colors are splashes of red on Curtis’s face paint, or the bright blue/red of Slade Wilson’s Death Stroke outfit. There’s some highlights of neon green that add some lighting to the show, but otherwise this a a DARK superhero show that thrives off darkness. Outdoor shots show the usual pop and clarity of the series, but some of the really dark indoor scenes can show off some digital noise and some muddling in the black levels. Pretty much par for the course with Arrow.






Audio:

As with the video, the 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix for Arrow has been incredibly stable and REALLY impressive to listen to. Being an action adventure show, it is hot and heavy with the LFE channel, and fills all the surrounds and mains with near non stop action (and the typical action score). Bullets bounce around the room, the whistle of the Green Arrow’s ….arrows…. Shriek from one end of the room to the other, and the fisticuffs hit with resounding oomph. Dialog is crisp and cleanly located in the front of the room, while the echoing sounds of Star Cities non stop warehouse hideouts create the perfect environment for an immersive battle. I almost sound like a broken record, but the audio mix for the series is probably the single biggest technical highlight the series has, as I have ALWAYS been impressed the power and effortless excitement the track creates.





Extras:

• The Best of DC TV’s Comic-Con Panels San Diego 2017
• The Split of a Man: Deathstroke
• Inside the Crossover: Crisis on Earth-X
• Revenge in Ones and Zeros: The Story of Cayden James

Final Score: ​

One starts to wonder if Arrow is coming to an end in the next couple of years, with season 7 confirmed, as the series has gone through an IMPRESSIVE amount of seasons for a super hero show. While season 6 is EASILY the lowest quality season of the 6 years, it shows promise for season 7, and is still a pretty solid year for the crew. There’s some things I would like to see changed for the next year, but overall it looks to be on solid footing with this cliffhanger, and the teaser we see for season 7. Warner brothers once again provides a good looking video encode and stellar audio, with the traditional assortment of CW superhero extras that are typical of the Arrowverse. Recommended as a decent watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Steve Amell, Willa Holland, David Ramsey, Manu Bennett
Created by: Andrew Kreisberg, Greg Berlanti
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Portuguese, Spanish DD 2.0
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: NR
Runtime: 1098 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: Own on Blu-rayTM and DVD 8/14/18

Recommendation: Decent Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I have not seen any episodes of this so will have to visit the first season.