Arrow: The Eighth and Final Season - Digital Review

[Michael Scott]

Arrow: The Eighth and Final Season

Movie:
Video: N/A
Audio: N/A
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
It’s an end of an era. 8 years have passed, and we finally have the end of the series that started it all. Back in 2012 superhero TV shows were not that solid, and most of them were a 1 or 2 season deal and then vanished. Much like Marvel’s cinematic universe, The CW and DC got together and made their own shared universe with Arrow helming the entire thing (thus dubbing the entire set of series and spinoffs as “The Arroverse”). Season 1 was absolutely epic, and season 2 only got better. The vicious vigilante nature and the show’s obviously higher than average budget allowed Berlanti and crew to tell a cohesive action, superhero, storyline that resonated with many comic book fans, as well as the average viewers. It didn’t suffer from the teenage angst of so many shows on The CW, and was a BLAST to watch. Seasons 3-4 were solid, but a step down, and after that the long running series DID have some major issues to overcome. Mostly fatigue and the inclusion of said relationship angst that was typical of The CW (Olicity being the biggest offender). However, by Season 7 the show had turned around once more, gearing everyone up for another massive crossover in the form of DC’s “Thanos” encounter. That being Crisis on Infinite Earths. Season 7 teased us with it when the Monitor showed up, and with Oliver sacrificing himself for everyone else to protect against the anti-monitor coming.

A few spoilers for season 7, but I can’t help it. We last left off with Oliver (Stephen Amell) following the Monitor through time to prepare everyone for what was coming. Now he’s jumping through time and space, following specific missions laid out for him by the Monitor (Lamonica Garrett) in order for the crisis in the multiverse to be avoided. Simultaneously we have the rest of “Team Arrow” jumping forward through time to 2040 where they have to protect a Starling City that is a remnant of it’s former self, being protected by a new Green Arrow.

The final season of Arrow was certainly interesting. As someone who has watched it from the very beginning it’s fascinating to watch how the show has evolved and changed. Many ways for the worse, but in other ways, for the better. Oliver is much more powerful and focused this season, and I put this squarely on the shoulders of not having Felicity Smoake around. I really liked Felicity and Oliver’s little romance in the first few seasons, but it was sooooooooo popular that Berlanti and crew put it front and foremost in each season, and by the end of season 5 we were all so tired and fatigued from their on again, off again relationship that it was a breathe of fresh air to see that angst left by the wayside. There is some confusion with the missions that Oliver goes on, as you’re never sure which ones are real, which ones were possibly fake, and which ones actually seemed to make a difference to the viewers.

That being said, the 8th season was very enjoyable, especially when we got down to the massive crossover. It was everything I could have hoped for on a TV budget , and was WAY better than most of the crossover’s that The CW shows are known for. It also acts as a bittersweet moment to say goodbye to Oliver Queen after 8 years of watching him don the hood and bow. The final episodes after the Crisis crossover did a great job sending the series off into the sunset, as without Oliver Queen and his fantastic first few seasons we never would have gotten The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl etc….




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video: N/A

As with all these digital reviews, I was given a Movies Anywhere code to activate and viewed it through Vudu streaming services. Outside of the typical banding and compression from being a streaming service, the show looks largely unchanged from previous discs I’ve reviewed. The show is dark and grim, with bright daylight shots, but mostly bathed shadows with dark greens, maroons and other various shades of blues and blacks. Fine detailing was great for the HDX 1080p stream, and overall clarity was spot on.








Audio: N/A

The 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus track on the stream is solid, but not up to the heavy duty 5.1 DTS-HD MA track of the Blu-ray discs. It’s exciting and surround filled, and even has some great bass rips during the fight scenes. Vocals are crisp and cleanly located up in the front of the room, but once again, the stream feels a bit thin and not nearly as robust. It’s good, gets the job done, but still a bit lacking when compared to the physical Blu-ray release.









Extras:

• Comi-Con Sizzle

Final Score: ​

Looking back on the show it’s been a solid, but sometimes bumpy ride. Arrow started out as one of the best superhero shows in the last 15 years, and ended up somewhere in the middle as seasons progressed. However, the consistency and ability to keep a cohesive universe in the DC TV world was unheard of at that time, and The CW pulled it off amazingly well. I knew going in that the 8th season was going to be a shorty in order to wrap up the show, so I liked this little build up to the biggest crossover we’ve seen on DCTV, and was very satisfied (despite some small hiccups). You’ll be missed Arrow. Like usual with these digital reviews, their is next to no extras that are found on the discs, and the audio and video scores are left blank simply due to the fact that it's not as objective when your source is dependent on bandwidth.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Steve Amell, Willa Holland, David Ramsey, Emily Bett Rickards
Created by: Andrew Kreisberg, Greg Berlanti
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Plus 5.1
Subtitles: English
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: NR
Runtime: 426 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: Own on Blu-ray and DVD 4/28/20

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Now, that it is ended, time for me to binge watch.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I'm impressed this show ran for 8 years. They got a lot of mileage out of it. Bummer you couldn't enjoy this on blu-ray. Do you have a decent idea of when titles like this will get released?

 

[Michael Scott]

Arrow got released on cue on the 28th... what happened is the PR firms that handle these releases had their shipping houses in California get locked down due to being non essential and reviewers are kind of left in limbo at the moment.