2. Arrow
There is no denying success of The Flash has changed Arrow for both better and worse, but in Arrow’s fourth season the writers team has mostly found the show a perfect sweet spot between delightful campiness and grim character angst that begun in a Post-Smallville sera. Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak return to Star City to reunite with their friends and their drive to protect people, but for Oliver, it is also to find that he can be a hero by focusing on the light within himself, to prove to himself more than anyone else that he is a good person despite all his bad deeds. A lot of relationship melodrama keeps the season from having a lot of great episodes, however Diggle has much more impactful, character defining moments in the season, Thea struggles with side effects of being brought back from the dead, and Felicity has a lot of parental issues resolved. Unfortunately, the Lances, previously the most interesting supporting characters on the series, have the least to work with throughout season four, to the degree that Katie Cassidy as Laurel has more impact on the team after her death than she ever did standing beside them in seasons past. Undoubtedly, Neal McDonough as the season’s villain, Damien Darhk, offers the most variety in character and power since Manu Bennett as DeathStroke in season two, but with darker magic powers and campier jokes than any foe that Oliver has faced. – Evan Griffin
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