Arrow: The Complete Seventh Season (Blu-ray Review)
The CW DC TV universe’s flagship program, Arrow, will conclude its run this fall with a ten episode eighth and final season which sees it taking part in the most ambitious crossover event they may ever pull off; Crisis on Infinite Earths. Oliver Queen and company have spent seven glorious seasons grounding and building up the DC world to fill up CW programming to the wildest dreams of my DC childhood. It’ll be sad to see it go, but we will be eight seasons long and well over a hundred episodes deep. I assume Batwoman will thematically/aesthetically attempt to fill in the void left by Arrow and best of luck to her and her crew. This eighth season of Arrow will be making its debut on Blu-ray with a 4-disc set, featuring some new extras (That are also available on the other super hero season sets like Supergirl and Flash). You can lock yourself in a copy for your collection by clicking on the Amazon link following the review.
Season 
Following Oliver Queen’s shocking decision to turn himself over the FBI and reveal his identity as the Green Arrow to the public, Oliver has spent the past five months in prison while his team was left behind to protect Star City. In the wake of Ricardo Diaz’s escape, Oliver has yet again turned into someone else inside Slabside Maximum Security Prison. Determined to keep a low profile to shorten his sentence for the sake of his family, Oliver’s limits will be tested when he and Team Arrow are pitted against the most ruthless villains they have yet to face.
Arrow’s Seventh season sees the team split up and Oliver in jail. Many different paths are taken and characters are in quite interesting predicaments and at odds with one another. The dynamic is fun to see swirl around combat and then finally come together for one last big hurrah. This is Arrow working at its best and once again telling these stories by delivering high class television action sequences that are top of the line and what the show is known for. In all honesty, the choreography, camera-work and editing even feels like its stepped up its game in year seven. I found myself many times looking up other things the director for a particular episode had worked on in hopes to enjoy more from them.
Setting it’s sights ahead, Arrow actually doesn’t wrap around with flashbacks in this season. Instead, we see the future of what will become of Star City. Seeing where our heroes have landed and watch how the offspring of them are carving their own paths. There are many secrets and surprises that curtail in here and this choice found the show adding an extra level of fresh toward the very end. An added bonus, I really geeked out with the casting of Highlander’s Adrian Paul in a villain role for this season.
For all intents and purposes, Arrow’s seventh year kind of truly is the final season or grand finale for things as they were. The season’s arc takes things back to square one, digging up the past, showcasing what had been while looking forward to what will be. It all sort of wraps up for the status quo and goes into a wildly different direction for Arrow to head into season 8, looking mostly to contribute to the upcoming Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline. Its satisfying, somber and leaves you wanting more. And I couldn’t think of a better way for the show to say farewell (While still having some more in the can) by getting one emotionally worked up, getting the series on a high and leaving you wanting just a tad more. They did not fail this city.
Episodes
1. Inmate 4587
2. Longbow Hunters
3. Crossing Lines
4. Level Two
5. The Demon
6. Due Process
7. The Slabside Redemption
8. Unmasked
9. Elseworlds: Hour One
10. Elseworlds: Hour Two
11. Elseworlds: Hour Three
12. My Name is Emiko Queen
13. Past Sins
14. Emerald Archer
15. Star City Slayer
16. Brothers & Sisters
17. Training Day
18. Star City 2040
19. Inheritance
20. Lost Canary
21. Spartan
22. Confessions
23. Living Proof
24. You Have Saved This City
Video 
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Clarity/Detail: Arrow is the darkest and most rugged in appearance of the 4 current shows in the running DCTV universe. The fifth season lightens things up a hair, though its still pretty dark. Details run pretty rampant though, as costumes show every bit of texture and pattern. Surfaces also tack a lick and show their fine damage. Forests, dirt paths and such also come in pretty nicely detailed.
Depth: Movements are free, spacey and cinematic in appearance. The dimensional aspects on display here are decent.
Black Levels: Blacks are very inky and the detail that resonates through them. Despite being a very dark show, detail is not hidden and no crushing was found.
Color Reproduction: Everything errs on the side of dingy, but still manages a bold appearance in its own right. Greens and reds stick out. This season is a bit more bright and colorful than the previous three, if not by that much.
Flesh Tones: Skin tones appear natural and have a consistent look throughout each episode of the season. Some episodes may vary on their given look or lighting angle they take for story purposes. Detail is always high with freckles, wrinkles, blemishes make-up and stubble.
Noise/Artifacts: Clean
Audio
Audio Format(s): English 5.1 DTS-HD MA
Subtitles: English SDH
Dynamics: Arrow is a an action-based show and definitely delivers in that aspect. All explosions, gunshots, punches, kicks and arrows being plucked carry a fine layer of detail and distinct follow through on their sound. Effects are heightened but they weave in perfectly with the tracks scoring and vocals.
Height: N/A
Low Frequency Extension: Explosions, arrows piercing things, magical bursts of energy, impaling, guns, vehicle engines and all the like thunderously pound through the sub woofer.
Surround Sound Presentation: From the rear comes mainly ambiance, but some battle scenes and environments provide some interesting action sounds and other kinds of noises to give a good sense of place. The front speakers wonderful connect the action, following it around and accurately depicting pitch and volume.
Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue is crisp, clear and at an ideal volume.
Extras
Arrow: The Complete Seventh Season is a 4-Disc set that comes with an episode guide insert sheet and a digital copy of every episode.
Disc 1
Deleted Scenes (HD, 1:22)
Best of DC TV’s Comic-Con Panels San Diego 2018 (HD, 1:00:59) – Featuring footage of all DC TV super hero show panels (Likely the best moments) that are intro’d by some autograph session footage and some back stage interviews. I assume this exact feature will be on every show’s 2018-19 season set.
Disc 2
Deleted Scene (HD, :53)
Inside the Crossover: Elseworlds (HD, 45:01) – This set up like a talkshow, features a roundtable of the all DC TV shows’ creators discussion the big crossover event. It also features some interviews and thoughts from a few comic creators and writers (If you’ve seen DCAU Blu-ray special features, you’ll recognize many familiar faces). I imagine that this feature will be replicated on the Supergirl and Flash season sets that will be releasing soon after this Arrow set.
Disc 3
Deleted Scenes (HD, 6:18)
Villains: Modes of Persuasion (HD, 38:05) – A rather terrific mini documentary on the history and psychology of the legendary and rich history of DC villains. Showrunners (Like David Goyer), producers, writers and more chime in to discuss the man across all DC shows (Not just CW ones, Gotham, Krypton and animated shows get their due as well). This, too, will be on the other sets as well.
Disc 4
Deleted Scene (HD, :42)
Gag Reel (HD, 4:41)
Summary
For all intents and purposes, Arrow’s final “full” season went out on a terrific high and surely will continue through the final 10 episodes coming in the fall. In terms of audio and picture quality, Warner Bros release of the Seventh Season is par for the course in terms of performance. Extras provide nothing unique to the Arrow series, which is a bit of bummer, but hopefully the final season set will make up for it with some final interviews. In terms of menu design and audio design, this thing has gone pretty basic compared to what’s come before, looking somewhat cheap put simple. However, menus, schmenus, this set is solid and worthy of continuing your collection of the Arrow/DC TV series.
