From Year Five back to Year One – In anticipation of Arrow Season 5

There’s a lot to unpack in a show that has gone on for nearly a hundred episodes, especially when that show is Arrow. If you follow the show off the air with even half intensity, there are particular themes and motifs that the audience will constantly harp on. In some ways, Arrow is a show that pioneered and succeed in its particular subgenre but now seems to have become a shadow of its former self. In other respects, Arrow, and other shows that it shares a universe with (chiefly among those, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl, along with Gotham in a different but similar orbit) are still part of a similar TV tradition that still continues today in the network TV space.

Person of Interest - “6,741” OR, One tough firecracker

There are a couple of impressive feats on display in "6,741". I did not take to the episode initially, but I think the strength of it lies in it being watched again, when you are aware of the twist that comes at the end. For myself, there was something odd about it. The episode felt off, and when you come to the conclusion the episode sets out to make, it becomes all the more clear. It was supposed to be off. This episode of Person of Interest we were watching all along was always going to be a substandard facsimile of the real thing. Call it what you want, but the 'twist' that revealed itself in the end - that this was a computer-induced simulation, and the title refers to the simulation number we saw unfold - helped cement the fact that it took a lot of care and craft to make something seem substandard.

But of course, upon further examination, "6,741" is anything but substandard.