Arrow EPs Open Up About Flashback Woes, Why Season 5 Should Be Better 

‘s Season 4 flashback storyline, you’re on an island.

The storytelling device, which since the CW series’ launch has revealed how a mop-topped billionaire brat was honed into the hero known as Arrow, offered compelling correlations during Seasons 1 and 2, as Oliver Queen (played by Stephen Amell) first washed up on

Lian Yu and learned some hard lessons at the hands of Yao Fei, Slade Wilson and the

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The flashbacks began failing this series, however, with Season 3’s meandering trip to Hong Kong, while this season’s return to Lian Yu seemingly exists solely to tell us that Oliver encountered Damien Darhk’s mystical idol once before. TVLine recaps regularly sum up the island events in a single sentence, while The CW’s own press site hosts exactly one photo from the glacially paced arc.

‘s showrunners are not unaware of viewers’ escalating indifference to the flashbacks, and in fact addressed the topic head on at the Writers Guild Festival on Saturday.

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“Part of the appeal of the flashbacks – certainly in the first two years, but I think the first three years – is seeing what a big difference it is between Oliver Queen in the present day and Oliver Queen five years ago,” EP Marc Guggenheim shared. “The problem is that we

telling a five-year story in the flashbacks of Oliver becoming the guy you met in the pilot. So the deeper you get into the flashbacks, the closer he becomes to being that guy, and, thus, you lose that element of the flashbacks that was so interesting, which is how different he was…. That’s something we have struggled with this year.”

In addition to highlighting any disparity between Oliver then and now, the flashbacks endeavor to be “emotionally or thematically connected” to the current storyline, said EP Wendy Mericle, though the writers have also “experimented with having them not speak to what’s going on currently” — which is probably when the flashbacks are most met with ennui by the audience.

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Speaking with TVLine after the panel discussion, Mericle said that she “loved” Stephen Amell’s work in the earlier flashbacks, “because I thought he really inhabited that character. It was less the very stoic superhero and much more dimensional, because he was so flawed.” And though Oliver has evolved in the flashbacks to a point where, as aforementioned, he’s not a far cry from the man who set out to save his city, Mericle said, “The way we write the story is still very much married to that backstory, and trying to change it up at this point would feel weird.”

But looking ahead to next season, “We know what we’re working up to,” she shared, as the past timeline inches ever closer to where the series began. Thus, the flashbacks are poised to be more engrossing and focused. “The season will be easier to break because we have an endpoint, and we work backwards from there.”

might Season 5’s flashbacks take us? Mericle would not confirm the destination, but a recent reference to Russia by Taiana (that’s the name of Oliver’s island gal pal, by the way), would seem to offer a clue. “I don’t want to tip too much,” the EP allowed with a coy smile, “but it’s a very good possibility that we’ll finally find out how Oliver got that Bratva tattoo and how he learned to speak Russian.” (

, or for any other show? Email insideline@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.

They once more prove they dont know sh*t about what they’re talking these useless Arrow writers.

Who says I still watch the show? And I read the article because I want to? I read about shows i used to watch and shows I’ve never even watched so dont try to make me look silly or lile a hypocrite.

The flashbacks have truly been like brakes screeching in the middle of an episode this season. If they do lead to BratvaOliver it’ll be worth it though!

This season they’ve gotten me to flash forward a couple times, which is really hard to do.

Can’t wait for the Bratva storyline. Thanks for the article.

The Bratva story is an intergal part that made Oliver a killing machine. This backstory is what I want to see. Season 4 backstory was only about Oliver experiencing the magical aspects of Damian Darkh’s idol. A long season just to show that.

FINALLY the Bratva storyline. This was one of the fiercest aspects of Oliver in the first seasons. I don’t understand why they just couldn’t deal with it first since he is supposed to end up in the island anyway after those five years. That means that after the Bratva storyline, he’ll have to get back on the island, once again.

Or just give us a couple of flashback episodes per season and do away with flashback scenes completely. Not giving up on the show, but c’mon guys! Flashbacks I think are least of this season’s problems.

Yes. This. A flashback episode, then just episodes with the main story and no break in the action for the rest of the season. Otherwise it’s just a waste of space. The only great part about the FBs this season was John Constantine. It’ll make the entire season worth it, but otherwise, it’s a big fat NO. Plus… bad wigs. Thank you for the buzz cut.

At least the flashbacks don’t get more airtime than the current story like it does on Quantico.

Quantico is terrible and since there’s not a big change in appearance like on Arrow, it’s sometimes hard to tell which time period they’re in.

Also when shows like Arrow and HTGAWM began to use this device it was a bit of a novelty. Now many shows are using flashbacks, and some take up half the episode, so I’m just getting thoroughly sick of them.

I liked the flash enacts in Quantico initially. But, now it is confusing. I just want to get a conclusion in the finale. I won’t return next if there is one.

The flashbacks arn’t that bad, if your patient. It’s the Olicity drama, specifically the Felicity drama that’s the main problem.

Sure it is. World War III will probably be caused by this fictional character. The moment you people realize that you’re so focused on felicity because you stopped liking other aspects of the show is the moment you’ll start discussing actual improvements that need to be made. Here’s a brand new information, the show is a drama and it’s been a drama since Oliver ran away with his gf’s sister only to come back to see that his gf is now dating his best friend while he impregnated, along the way, a random girl who showed up years later with the not-so-dead mass of cells who grew into a boy. He also happened to sleep with his dad’s mistress while oliver’s mother slept around with his best friend’s dad who happens to be oliver’s sister’s daddy. But with this clusterfudge of soap drama, Felicity, one character among a bunch of other characters, is an issue. Flashbacks don’t have Felicity, yet they’re so universally bad this year that the EPs had to talk about them.

Agreed. There’s a lot more problems with the show than just Oliver and Felicity’s relationship drama.

Here’s the bias Felicity fans making a stand ^

Oh really, so that’s why every episode there’s maybe a few comments on the flashbacks being bad. They’re slow pace sure.. But then the rest of the comments are just mostly full with arguements between the Oliver – Felicity drama.

I agree. The flashbacks aren’t nearly as bad as the olicity drama. The show has turned into a soap opera about olicity! Felicity should have been the one in that grave. Maybe that could have saved the show. Felicity has been ruining this show for the last two seasons! Al she does is cry and whine about everything!

Don’t lie. The show was always a soap opera, and Felicity does NOT cry and whine about everything. That was always closer to accurate with Laurel. The show is better off without the latter.

Loooooool well at least they’re not oblivious to the fact that they suck. The flashback girl (does she even have a name?) is so boring and bland. And I thought s3 was the worst they could get. Boy was I wrong. Only way they’d be better is if we get Bratva flashbacks next season.

Russian girl, haha I have no idea what her name is lol

I’ve enjoyed this season’s flashbacks as much as you have, Matt, which is to say “Why are you doing this to me????” I also feel that they’ve been unfair to Elysia Rotaru who can do much better than this very beige Taiana.

I’m wondering if there was something going on behind the scenes that we don’t know about. At the end of season 3, Oliver is boarding a Russian ship which made me think that he would end up in Russia for this season. But no, he’s right back on the island again (why? Amanda Waller has a secret base that, couldn’t she figure out what Reiter was doing with ARGUS?).

I’d really like to know if the original plan was to have Russia in the flashbacks this season but for some reason (availability of actor who plays Anatoli? wanting to put in a magic story to parallel Damian Darhk?) the plan was changed and we got this very poorly constructed set of flashbacks.

I think the behind the scenes issue was hijacking Arrow entire for *seven episode* to build Legends Of Tomorrow. So much of Arrow’s choices this year seemed about introducing magic to steer around super powers, make Constantine make sense (for one ep), explain Sara’s resurrection, bring in reincarnated hawk people, etc. all of which didn’t benefit Arrow at all (and now has people complaining “where did Season One & Twi Arrow go?” After demanding more and more comic book elements). Then it all got shuffled off to launch a new show. Again. For some reason the network seems to think that Arrow can be used to launch a thousand spinoffs at the detriment of its own show, storylines, & characters without the cracks starting to show. It’s crazy. Stop the spinoff madness! Make these shows responsible for carrying their own weight, telling their own stories, and building their own characters.

Although Legends is a great show, like half the CW schedule suffered from the launch of that series. It messed up a lot, even the shows outside its continuity, becuz of scheduling.

The problem with the flashbacks, and this also happened in season 2, is that present-day Oliver acts as if this is the first time he’s hearing things such as Mirakuru or magic being wielded using a powered idol. The show joked about the fact Oliver doesn’t tell any of his team anything about his past in the last episode, but it’s not really funny. It’s stupid not to share pertinent information. And that’s not what Oliver is supposed to be, he’s supposed to be a strategic fighter. I’m not sure this season’s flashbacks can be salvaged but I hope the writers learn the lesson for next year. Don’t worry about parallels and such, just give me an interesting story that also brings Oliver to the ruthless, dead-eyed fighter I first met in season 1.

well i gess this article shows how ignorant the creators are, why the flashbacks sucked this season. it was not because Oliver was close to what he is now, it was because they did a terrible job of writing a boring stories and did not deveoped his character at all. There was basicaly no compelling story at all, just walking and talking.

I dont agree with using the word “ignorant” but it is not a good sign that the writers dont seem to understand why the flashbacks are not working this season. Plus the season 3 flashbacks were problematic as well, while they dont share that opinion as well.

Bratva flashbacks sounds awesome. I’ve been waiting for them forever! I hope they get better because flashbacks have been a major downside to the show for 2-3 seasons now.

The flashbacks have always been the weakest part of the show for me. I understand the need to see how Oliver went from spoiled brat to skilled vigilante but I never enjoyed the flashback storylines or characters. They’ve always been meh but this season’s are truly terrible. I groan every time they go back to that godforsaken island.

All the flashbacks could have been so much better, if only the flashback storylines weren’t so horrible!!

That’s one of the reasons I stopped watching the show earlier this season.

Thank goodness! Let’s get to the Bratva story. I think the flashbacks would benefit the most by not tying in so literally to the present day Star City events. If they want to explore a theme (family, loyalty, trust) between past & present, that’s wonderful, but when the story arcs themselves toe together so coincidentally *all* the time (and take forever to move somewhere interesting), the flashbacks just go stale. I don’t think it’s helped, either, to reduce Oliver’s action roles so much in both past/present. Build a good story for flashbacks to stand on its own merits and go from there.

“I don’t want to tip too much,” It’s OK. No one cares.

I’m not a fan of the flashbacks either, it be nice if they were reduced to specific episodes, not an entire season, or even a couple of episodes that are all about something that happened in the past that directly relates to the current story. as a viewer I’m barely hanging in there, killing Black Canary, useless Flashbacks, Oliver and Felicity either put them together or separate them, it’s gotten old, also think it’s stupid that they feel they have to kill at least one character as season on the team arrow side. I think season five should try something totally different and don’t kill off the supporting cast

You! I like you. I’d also like it if we could get a decent villain that isn’t boring. The only exciting thing Darhk has done the WHOLE season is shoot Felicity and kill Laurel which relates to your comment about why they feel like the death of a character is the only way to move the story forward. Now that’s just bad writing. I think they need to go back to the baddie of the week or every couple of episodes format, because just having one overall villain doesn’t do it for me. Darhk and Ra’s were just too boring to hold my attention for the whole season. And as for Olicity, they are okay together and okay apart, but if they were going to stay broken up then she would have been the one to die, not Laurel, so that means they are going to get back together which means their stupid breakup meant nothing and used up valuable screen time for something meaningless. Uuugh season 4, you have failed this series.

Except for the Constantine Episode, the flashbacks have been boring this season!

I’ve always hated the flashbacks of Arrow. I watch the show the next day just so that I can fast forward the island scenes lol

I’ve always found flashbacks interesting. A bit tired of seeing people whine about them.

Arrow has so much story in the present day that when it does move to the flashbacks it kills the momentum of the show. I didn’t mind them the first few seasons but now they kind of seem pointless.

Never watch any of the Oliver flashbacks (least appealing aspect of the show) but if it’s for another character (once in a blue moon as it should be) than I do. I want more present time focus and the flashbacks (if they have to be) as needed not in every bloody episode.

The flashbacks worked at first because they had to show us what happened on the island. I feel they take me out of the episode now. I either FF them or check my email until it’s switches back to the present day. I also watch Quantico and feel they do a better job with their flashbacks.

And Season 4 is lighter in tone. Haha Trust no one.

My fast forward button LOVES the flashbacks. Me, not so much.

I thought I am the only one who has flash forwarded this season’s flashbacks… All but the one with Constantine. That was awesome! ^^

I’ve stopped watching Arrow because the flashbacks got too boring and never really add anything to the story any more. If something needed to be added to the backstory, a couple of lines added to the script could do more than the monotony of the flashbacks every 10 minutes.

The flashbacks are a sh**show. They just said that the upcoming flashbacks will be good because they have an endpoint in mind and are working backwards from there……ummm, then what the he** have they been doing with the other seasons???????

The Constantine episode was the best use of flashbacks. They are especially boring this season and I am looking forward to Bratva next season.

I love how an article about the flashbacks brings out the Olicity haters.

I think the flashbacks became pointless since they took Oliver out of the island, I mean he was supposed to be in “the hellish island for five years” but come one he was even in the then called Starling City one so…

The flashbacks became pointless since s3 but at least they had cool characters like Tatsu and Maseo.

If you took all the flashbacks this season and cut them together into one continuous story, I bet they would be better and flow a lot more.

I love the show but I started watching it cause it had no magical stuff in it. But with all the magic I have to shut it off. I hope next season will be better. Cause if not I have to abandon it altogether which sucks cause I love this show. The actors and actresses are awesome as an ensemble. I will miss Larel though. Here’s to no more magic.

Season 5 arrow flashbacks will be about how Oliver got his tattoo..

Enough with the flashbacks. Thankfully, I DVR Arrow so I can FF through the flashbacks which do nothing but interrupt the story line of interest.

The actual problem is their focus on a completely irrelevant romantic subplot and shoehorning that plot (plus fan appeasements) into the main arc.

Cut Felicity and we’re good, as long as Arrow’s writers don’t get that their show will remain a sinking ship

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