Arrow, Season Two (2013-2014)

Note: May contain spoilers from Season 1.

After the Undertaking kills 503 people in the Glades, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) is exhausted from crime fighting, family situations, and grief. He leaves Starling City to return to the island where he spent five years after the wreckage of the Queen's Gambit in 2007. To his chagrin, his fellow crime-fighters, hacktivist Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett-Rickards) and war vet John Diggle (David Ramsay) find him on Lian Yu, urging him to return to Starling City -- because, of course, the destruction of the Glades did not prove a “cleansing” for the city, but rather a new garden for rioting and zealots.

If all or any of you read my Arrow Season 1 review, you know I really, really loved it. It hooked me on the first episode. I continued to like it through Season 2, pretty much as well as Season 1, although there were some minor “changes” of which I wasn't so fond at first (I can hardly remember them now, so you see how insignificant they were). I found the plot this season much much darker than the commencing season; it dealt with a lot of Oliver's time on the island, some of which was a little exhausting to watch. There were some episodes in which the majority of time was spent explaining Lian Yu, and I confess that was not my favorite element. Sometimes the island was the main draw to my watching the show -- like, I really wanted to know what happened after that scene! -- but other times I was just like, Can you please return to Starling City already? 

All in all, the storyline got pretty intense and somewhat alarming in some episodes, and I hear that Season 3 gets even darker. Woohoo. (That was sarcastic by the way.)

Characters, characters . . . you know how I really disliked Laurel and #Lauliver (apparently there is a ship name for the two of them)? Laurel actually gets much more character development this season, and while she's certainly 100% absolutely not my favorite on the show, she's more likable than in season 1, where she appeared a cold, diligent, perfect, beautiful lost love to Oliver because she was too “sensible” to date him again after he secretly dumped her (if only for a month) for her sister Sara. (If you've actually watched the show, you'll know why I put “sensible” in quotations.) Giving her a little baggage from grieving the loss of a friend's death was an excellent choice on the screenwriters' part. 

Roy, Roy, Roy . . . I hit it off with him immediately in Season 1. He was the ambitious save-the-world type. In Season 2, for reasons which become clear when you watch it, he's kind of a jerk and kind of monopolizes a lot of the story. His being a jerk was not actually his fault, but it was still irritating -- and a little freaky and stressful. Because you know how these action movies/shows can be.

BUT. If there is only one saving grace to this season -- ONLY ONE -- it has to be when Barry Allen comes to town. Yep, if you've watched The Flash, you know how hilarious and sweet Barry is. He's even more hilarious and sweet in the only two episodes he guest stars in in Arrow. He also really hits it off with Felicity, so much so that #Olicity has a run for its money! We also get to see some of the footage of the night he “becomes” The Flash, which is even cooler.

Regarding the immoralities of this season . . . there were a bunch. As is typical Oliver style, he has no self control regarding women, and sleeps with at least two different people in the season that I can remember. Though nothing graphic or inappropriate is shown, there is one scene in which the characters are apparently nude while being appropriately covered. And this kind of shocked me, but there's also a gay kiss in one episode (thirteen or fourteen, I think?). The series does deserve its TV-14 rating.

Netflix won't get Season 3 on for a couple more months, but I'm eagerly awaiting its arrival! -- especially for the crossovers between Central and Starling City :)