Arrow was a bit of an eye-opener when it debuted in October 2012. Darker and more dynamic than anyone expected a Green Arrow adaptation would be, season one of the show still had its ups and downs, but the quality was apparent even as the show found its feet.

Star Stephen Amell was formidably physical in the title role, giving billionaire playboy Oliver Queen a grim, relentless presence, while John Barrowman was wickedly sinister as Merlyn, the villain of the piece. There was a clear debt owed to the Dark Knight Trilogy in the show’s driven, brooding superheroics, the narrative just as grounded in reality.

Season two built on that rewarding early promise to deliver one of the best sophomore seasons ever delivered by a genre show. The storytelling was paced beautifully, the flashback scenes to Oliver’s dark past meshing seamlessly with the action going on in the present day, and Manu Bennett’s antagonist, Slade ‘Deathstroke’ Wilson, was pitch perfect: charismatic, dangerous and utterly terrifying.

So where did it all go wrong? Arrow's third and fourth seasons have seen a marked plunge in quality, with generic fight scenes taking the place of the usual breakneck action, plot sacrificed for melodrama, superfluous flashbacks, and childish, inconsistent characterisation.

And the fanbase has noticed: online engagement has taken on a bitter, angry slant in the last year. With the show’s renewal for a fifth season, can Arrow be dragged out of the doldrums? Naturally it can. Here’s how (and here also be spoilers).