[This is a review for Arrow season 3, episode 14: Uprising. There will be spoilers.] Oliver’s return to Starling is fairly short-lived, as he almost immediately takes off again—this time with Thea—to do some training back on Lian Yu.  The two siblings don’t get much time in before it’s discovered that Slade Wilson has escaped from his inescapable prison, and is free on the island, setting up another showdown with Deathstroke. Unfortunately, the arrow misses the mark in almost every way possible in this episode.  Most things that happen almost completely lack justification, and the episode plays out more like a piece of fan fiction than the show we grew…

[This is a review for Arrow season 3, episode 12: Uprising.  There will be spoilers.] To this point, the episodes since the midseason premier have focused more on Felicity, using her to tell the story of how any why people make the sacrafice that it is to be a hero.  This episode shows the other side of the coin and what it looks like when someone approaches justice from the wrong angle, putting the wight of the episode on John Borrowman’s shoulders to tell the story of how Malcom Merlyn became the Dark Archer. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, we get to see Oliver’s all-too soon return…

[The following is a review for Arrow season 3, episode 10, ‘Left Behind.’  There will be spoilers.] After the events of the midseason finale, Arrow viewers were left with several weeks of speculation as to the full extent of Oliver Queen’s fate at the hands of Ra’s al Ghul.  Oliver was very clearly stabbed and dumped off a cliff the last time we saw him, so the question of when and how he’ll recover is top of mind, right alongside the question: how will Starling City get by without him? This episode answers both questions, jumping right into the second one, focusing on (s the title states) those left behind…

Wow.  What a first half of Arrow season 3.  This episode was actually very accurate sample of the season as a whole so far.  It has yet to meet the high bar set by the last season, but there have also been some huge moments, as well as a very successful crossover. If you haven’t seen Season 3, Episode 9: The Climb yet, you should do that before reading this, as I do not shy away from some major spoilers. Despite having one the the biggest cliffhangers in recent TV memory, the rest of the episode seemed very lacking.  They attempted to use the time hops (we were basically playing…

[This is a review for Arrow Season 3, Episode 8, ‘The Brave and the Bold.’  There will be mild spoilers.] When Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon go to Starling City to visit (and hopefully check out the “Arrow cave”), The Flash follows and joins the Arrow for part 2 of the Flash/Arrow team-up crossover event: The Brave and The Bold. While Arrow’s visit to Central City in Flash vs. Arrow actually squared to the two heroes against each other, Flash’s trip to Starling city was on much more friendly terms in what turned out to be a very meta episode that not only used the two characters to contrast and define each…