User Reviews

I don't get all the hate this ending gets. For me it was perfect.

All around this episode was really good and I applaud the risks they took. I can only hope they follow through.

Season six of Arrow has been a real rollercoaster of qualities and never fully reached potential until its last half. It was no secret that "Life Sentence" had to solidify whether this season was a bummer or not and it made a very clear statement. While it's certainly not as good as "Lian Yu" from last year, "Life Sentence" surely ranks amongst Arrow's strongest episodes and finale's. With James Bamford in the director's seat, I was treated to some top-notch action and plenty of explosions (something that has been consistently excellent throughout this season), but in the end, it was the emotional resonance of this finale that really hit hard. All cast members got a moment to shine and each made the most of themselves. Oliver (Stephen Amell), Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) Quentin (Paul Blackthorne) and Diaz (Kirk Acevedo) all earn my praise for their committed attitudes. What is probably most interesting about this chapter is that it doesn't feel like a very high-stake battle and yet it means so much to each and every character of Team Arrow. Add to that the hints of possible future villains and a few shocking twists towards the end, Arrow ended season six on an absolute winner of an episode and properly established its seventh outing. It's going to be a very interesting time when the show returns...

I could go into detail about how this series has declined so precipitously this season, but to be honest, it's gotten so bad, I don't even want to put in the effort. Instead, I will cut and paste selections from someone else's words, in hopes that the opinion of a more well-known reviewer will have enough weight to save others from investing (i.e., wasting) any more time on this series. I hope Chris King won't object. If interested, that person's full review can be found here: http://www.tvovermind.com/the-cw/arrow/arrow-season-6-finale-review-life-sentence

"The team can't take down Diaz and his men themselves, even though they've dealt with Slade's Mirakuru soldiers and the League of Assassins before.... The Arrow writers miss too many of the little and even big details to truly make this storyline fulfilling. I won't harp on Diaz for too much longer, but the fact that he's the villain who finally forces Oliver to out himself as the Green Arrow is insulting to the character of Oliver Queen. No matter what Black Siren or anyone else tries to tell me, Diaz has always been a drug-dealing, bullying thug, who is maybe worth one episode of Oliver's time, not an entire season. The fact that the creative team never showed us how dominating of a foe he was throughout Season 6 but had to consistently tell us is one of this season's most destructive flaws. Worse than Diaz, though, is what the writers did to characters we loved or were growing to love throughout Season 6. Rene, Dinah, and even Diggle suddenly behaved wildly out-of-character during this season strictly for the means of the plot. The writers had an idea in their minds, to make Oliver feel at his most lonely and vulnerable and desperate, so that he would be in a place where he felt he had to make this type of sacrifice at the end of the season. However, in order to push Oliver to that place, we had to have Rene choose to betray Oliver in order to save Zoe instead of working with his friend and leader to help protect her. We had to have Dinah hypocritically call Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle out for lying while she was hiding her relationship with Vince from them. We had to have Diggle want to be the Green Arrow for reasons he can't even fully articulate during this finale and question Oliver's leadership after five-plus years of standing by him. All of this conflict has been unearned and manufactured, and unfortunately, it's why so many of Oliver's conversations (I refuse to call them apologies cause Oliver has nothing to apologize for) with his teammates, even with Dig, fall flat for me throughout "Life Sentence." There's no real emotional foundation for these exchanges to stand on after the inconsistent character work of Season 6, and therefore, what are supposed to be these authentic moments between friends feel just as hastily assembled as the original problems that pushed them apart. Even parts of these scenes that do somewhat work for me, such as Diggle telling Oliver that having two Green Arrows would diminish the importance of what the GA stands for and Dinah saying that she respects him more than he could ever know, still ring false. In these moments, Diggle and Dinah feel like the versions of who their characters used to be before their dramatic personality shifts, and there hasn't been enough ownership of their own faults and self-reflection to explain how they could suddenly switch back to the people they used to be.... Black Siren has done a lot of reprehensible things throughout Season 6, but I don't think I'll ever forgive her for helping to let Diaz go, even if it was accidental. The fact that Diaz is still alive after this season has me furious, and I don't care how cool the Longbow Hunters sound."

One last point. Chris King ends his review with wishes for an improved Season 7. I don't believe they can do it.

I simply hate Watson! I hate the people of Star City! Why am I still watching?

Obviously, this show's writers have no imagination!

Anyone that thinks that the current quality of Arrow is acceptable is the reason that so many series that should be awesome aren't - *because they don't have to put in an effort to keep fans happy!*

Arrow should be rebooted. All the characters are unlikeable, as they've deviated so much from their original identifiers.

Ollie, who is supposed to be our hero, is a criminal, you can't deny that. He's perjured himself under oath, so "his word" can never be trusted, he allowed a murderer (Laurel) to escape justice, and was complicit in the illegal harbouring of her by Quentin (another corrupt politician using his office for personal use).

This perpetual garbage with the bad guy never being finally stopped is boring, too. Every season! On, and on. "Woops, that didn't work, let's try this, that, the other thing! Felicity! Quickly! Pretend to type really fast on the keyboard and give me another unsuccessful solution!"

And, the biggest detriment to this series is the soap opera drama. That can work with other shows, but as I said, these characters are unlikeable, *so who cares!*

Reboot! They do it in the comics, they did it with Spider-Man movies, they can do it with Arrow television.

Oh, yes -- fire the writers!

The episode was really good, filled with action, betrayal and forgiveness ... the finale attempt to finally get the best of Diaz.

The season over all was just on the edge of being good,, there were some episodes were i literally fast-forwarded the whole episode into a 10 minutes time.. but there were a couple of episodes where things were more focused and related to the plot,, but after all with this finale things somewhat paid off even though we still might see "looney" Diaz again next season, but still i think things worked out fine, more than a couple of other conflicts have been resolved like with Loral and the team Aaaand a final surprise losing one of the key characters we had since episode one.

Final thought,, the series is good the way it was back in 2013 the one with Merlyn in and memories of the Island,, Oh i miss that Arrow,, i think by crossing over so many shows together and bringing some aliens and i had to watch a couple of episodes in DC Legends or superwoman or whatever made me a bit agitated so hopefully they don't do that next season.

Arrow is now beyond ridiculous and fade....writers seem exhausted and producers r not able to hold the current level on A current TV show.... actually the whole DC universe of CW has a problem - "i need to talk", "we need to talk" blablabla.... solution: cut each season of each DC hero into 12 episodes more or less, boost the storyline like Stranger Things, cut the rubbish talks(we dont have time to watch this over and over again)....then the story will be interesting like the beginning, and the rating will grow....the cancelled episodes run more shows for transferring the risk.... but now it feels like CW cant kill any hero from DC universe because DC universe already went there, losing any hero is almost telling the audience that we want DC universe to end, but if CW doesnt kill some drags, they will be the pain in the A** until the whole DC universe cant last anymore....