Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Arrow: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 5, 2016

When did superheroes come replete with a requirement that their existences were exercises in angst? The original conception of Superman, arguably the first character to become a global superhero phenomenon, certainly had a bittersweet subtext, what with little Kal-El being orphaned and all, not to mention having to grow up on a planet that wasn’t his native Krypton, but let’s face it—the comic book version never really exploited the sadder aspects of the tale, instead (probably rightly) focusing on the, well, heroic exploits of the newly rechristened Clark Kent’s alter ego. Batman of course was a different entity altogether, and in fact it might be in the original formulation of this now iconic Caped Crusader that the elements of existential agony first started getting a prominent featured position in the unfolding story arcs through the years. That said, for Baby Boomers who grew up with a different Batman, there was absolutely no subtext whatsoever, and indeed the television series tended to emphasize comic (no pun intended) and manic presentational aspects. That’s probably one reason why for some (older) viewers the Tim Burton and, later, Christopher Nolan takes on the character and story had such an intriguingly menacing perspective. But angst is all the rage nowadays, as evidenced by the latest (and perhaps last) pairing of these two epochal superheroes, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and it probably goes without saying that anxieties of one sort or another tend to play into any number of other superhero franchises, including everything from the X-Men Trilogy and subsequent follow ups to Thor to the Spider-Man Trilogy (not to mention The Amazing Spider-Man). The so-called Marvel Universe often has seemed to be more at home with the psychological underpinnings of its characters, at least historically speaking, but while DC characters perhaps tended to float more comfortably at a surface level, shows like Arrow have attempted to invest more or less straight ahead superhero theatrics with what is ostensibly a more “realistic” underpinning, at least in terms of how the focal character goes about living his day to day life. One of the things that probably benefits Arrow is that the Green Arrow was never one of DC’s marquee characters, and in fact kind of shunted along on the sidelines of other, better known, characters for much of its early comic book existence. That has left the show’s creators a kind of free hand to retool the backstory and ongoing dramas surrounding Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and his emergence as a cowled (instead of caped) crusader. Not to put too fine a point on it, but there is angst aplenty in this version of the Green Arrow tale.

Our reviews of the series' previous seasons can be accessed by clicking on the following links:

Arrow: The Complete First Season Blu- ray review

Arrow: The Complete Second Season Blu- ray review

Arrow: The Complete Third Season Blu- ray review

Boy, does this show ever like blowing up semi trucks! (Contrast the fifth screenshot in our review of Arrow: The Complete Third Season with the 19th screenshot in this review.) This fourth season gets underway with a slam bang action sequence that involves the coterie of supporting characters who have “taken over” from Oliver, as they attempt to thwart some kind of delivery that’s evidently underway. Meanwhile, Oliver has settled into ostensible domestic bliss with Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) after having hung up his Arrow cowl. In fact, Oliver has plans to actually propose to Felicity, in a subplot that is both annoyingly drawn out and too patently obvious as to where it’s ultimately going to end up (like several other elements in this fitfully engaging—no pun intended—season). That peaceful home life comes to a rather abrupt close when the team begs Oliver to return to the fold, after “new, improved” villain Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough) starts wreaking havoc in and around Star City.

Darhk’s machinations provide the basic setup for this season, but as with previous years of this probably overstuffed series, the “good vs. evil” aspect is really only the tip of the iceberg. There is a ton of roiling dysfunction spilling through any number of subplots here, and some may find that they almost need a flowchart to keep track of it all. To cite just a couple of these sidebars, Diggle (David Ramsey) is still attempting to come to terms with Oliver’s treatment of Diggle’s wife and daughter, something that keeps Diggle from being able to completely trust Oliver once he returns to the Arrow team. Meanwhile, Thea (Willa Holland), a character whom this series’ writers seem to want to turn to in order to provide the requisite amount of psychological drama, undergoes an almost psychotic break due to her interaction with a Lazarus Pit (if you don’t know what a Lazarus Pit is, sorry, that’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax, or at least green goo). Oliver and Felicity have their own interpersonal drama to work through, though as tends to be the case with this series, this particular element is played a little bit more breezily at times, offering a respite from both the action and overwrought dramatic aspects.

There’s an undeniably Apocalyptic facet to this season of Arrow, with threatened nuclear annihilation becoming the focus of the show’s climactic showdown (not to mention the perhaps small a apocalypse of Oliver maybe taking public office, and, yes, that's a joke). The problem with ginning up such a terrifying prospect is that no matter how the writers choose to resolve the “problem”, it’s going to seem contrived. All of this trauma plays out against Oliver’s backstory on the “Lost island”, something that supposedly gives yet more psychological underpinnings to this character’s fraught psyche, but which increasingly plays like a weird travelogue that features elements of torture and psychological manipulation.

Arrow: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arrow: The Complete Fourth Season is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Brothers Home Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This fourth season continues with several trends, both good and occasionally bad, that I mentioned in our Arrow: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray review. In decent lighting conditions and when grading isn't an issue, the palette looks nicely natural and is often quite vividly saturated. Detail and fine detail also tend to be excellent in these sequences. The show's flashbacks to "island time" this year are a bit more aggressively color graded (see screenshots 5 and 6), and detail is probably minimally depleted as a result, at least at times. The tendency to bathe many scenes in a sickly green-yellow hue also tends to affect fine detail levels at times. The many dark sequences, including both interior shots of the team's operational headquarters as well as outright nighttime shots, often suffer from less than stellar shadow detail, and there are often noticeable dustings of noise (see screenshots 14-18 for some examples). Finally, occasionally CGI elements can look less than convincing. All of this said, generally speaking the series continues to look very good and often excellent.

Arrow: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Arrow: The Complete Fourth Season continues the series' winning ways with sound design and audio presentation on Blu-ray with a great sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. Every episode features at least one (and often more than one) action sequence, and those generally feature booming LFE and excellent sound effects which often include nice panning effects and discrete placement of individual effects. The show can be bombastic at times, offering pretty noisy sequences that can sound hyperbolic, but dialogue is generally very well prioritized. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range extremely wide on this problem free track.

Arrow: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Deleted Scenes

  1. Green Arrow (1080p; 00:27)

  4. Beyond Redemption (1080p; 1:14)

  5. Haunted (1080p; 3:19)

Disc Two

• Star-Crossed Hawks (1080p; 11:20) focuses on Hawkman and Hawkgirl.


• Star Crossed Hawks: The Hunt for Vandal Savage (1080p; 11:02) profiles the villain.


• Deleted Scenes

  10. Blood Debts (1080p; 1:26)

Disc Three

• Deleted Scenes

  13. Sins of the Father (1080p; 00:52)

  14. Code of Silence (1080p; 1:35)

  15. Taken (1080p; 00:45)

Disc Four

• Arrow: 2015 Comic-Con Panel (1080i; 23:19) features Stephen Amell (in costume, no less) in a prelude before a session with show's creative team.


• Smooth Criminal: The Damien Darhk Story (1080p; 14:57) looks at this season's chief bad guy.


• Gag Reel (1080p; 6:02)


• Deleted Scenes

  19. Canary Cry (1080p; 7:23)

  21. Monument Point (1080p; 00:34)

  23. Schism (1080p; 1:12)

Arrow: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Well, gosh, how do you think threatened nuclear annihilation plays out in the climax to this season, at least when one considers the show is about to begin its fifth season? That none too surprising denouement aside, Arrow suffers from a certain predictability this season which this very example probably makes pretty clear. The show continues to mine a kind of cheeky humor which helps it glide past some overly melodramatic plot developments, and the action set pieces continue to be generally well staged and exciting to watch. Angst abounds, of course, but that seems to be unavoidable for superheroes these days. Technical merits are generally strong, the supplemental package well appointed, and Arrow: The Complete Fourth Season comes Recommended.