Arrow season 3

Did You Know?

• The season was nominated for eleven awards in various categories, winning two.
• The DVD and Blu-ray box sets contain additional features including making-of featurettes, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and highlights from Paley Fest.
• The season began filming in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in July 2014.

Production

The CW picked up Arrow for a third season in February 2014. Executive producer Marc Guggenheim said the season’s central idea would be identity. He and fellow executive producer Andrew Kreisberg noted the story would pick up six months after the previous season ended. Flashbacks would continue, this time covering Oliver’s time in Hong Kong and the start of his connection with Amanda Waller. Guggenheim said Thea Queen and Laurel Lance would get stronger storylines than before, calling them the characters the show had focused on least. Thea’s bond with her father Malcolm Merlyn would be explored more, including a flashback to their meeting in the season two finale. Kreisberg added that Laurel would move closer to her comic book counterpart. After it was revealed the first episode would include a date between Oliver and Felicity Smoak, Kreisberg said the characters’ shared history made it the right moment to explore that relationship. He also confirmed Brandon Routh’s Ray Palmer would interfere in Oliver’s life on every level and bring more humor to the show. At San Diego Comic-Con, the team announced an episode about Felicity’s origins, first called “Oracle” and later renamed “The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak.” That episode would introduce her mother, Donna Smoak. Kreisberg also confirmed that Colin Donnell would return as Tommy Merlyn in the second episode, appearing in a flashback.

Reception

Arrow's third season started off strong with critics, but overall it got more negative feedback than the first two seasons. Chancellor Agard from Entertainment Weekly called the season uneven, saying the best episodes were excellent while the worst were nearly unbearable. He pointed to Ra's al Ghul's weak characterization and unclear motivations as the main issue, though he liked how Laurel Lance grew as a character and how Oliver's friendship with John Diggle deepened. Katie Kulzick of The A.V. Club observed that the show often made major changes but then backed away from their consequences instead of exploring them fully. Still, she thought the season set up promising future stories, including Thea Queen joining the team as Speedy, Felicity Smoak working with Palmer Technologies, and Oliver gaining a new outlook. IGN's Jesse Schedeen found the season finale dull, lacking scope, and underwhelming compared to the show's usual high standards for finales. He summed up the mixed response by saying the season was haphazardly paced and struggled to find a clear direction. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season scored 89% from 365 reviews, with an average rating of 8.37 out of 10. The site's consensus stated that Arrow stayed on target with fresh characters and steady exciting action. Across its 23 episodes, the third season averaged 3.52 million viewers, ranking 135th in overall television viewership.