DC Comics’ presence on screen spans nearly 90 years, beginning in the early 1940s with theatrical serials and evolving through decades of television and film, and fans can now stream one of the best. Beginning May 1st, all eight seasons of an iconic DC TV show are officially back on streaming, and they’re completely free to watch!
If you’re a DC fan, then Arrow needs to be on your watchlist this May, and doing so is thankfully easier than ever. Although the series briefly disappeared from streaming following its removal from Netflix in December, all 170 episodes of Arrow returned to streaming on Pluto TV on May 1st, and fans can watch the show completely free. The series, developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg, originally premiered on The CW in 2012 and ran for eight seasons before wrapping in 2020. Arrow stars Stephen Amell as the iconic DC Comics character, a presumed-dead billionaire playboy who returns to his home city after a five-year shipwreck as a skilled, bow-wielding vigilante who fights corruption and crime.
Arrow Is a Masterclass DC Adaptation
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While there have been quite a few DC Comics adapted for the small screen, Arrow is truly one of the best and most influential. In terms of overall consensus, Arrow averaged an 86% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes across its eight-season run, which is a pretty impressive feat, and it went out with a pretty solid 95% critic score in its final season. More importantly, Arrow is the superhero series that launched an entire franchise, laying the groundwork for a massive, interconnected television universe that now also includes The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, and Batwoman.
The series successfully took what was generally considered a B-list DC character and transformed him into a mainstream hero, with Amell’s performance as Oliver Queen becoming the definitive version of the character. The series also brought prestige to superhero TV, adopting a darker, grittier, and more mature tone inspired by the Dark Knight trilogy, moving away from the villain-of-the-week formula in favor of a more serialized character-driven plot structure, and making Oliver Queen’s journey to becoming a hero more compelling by cementing him as a traumatized survivor. The show also did a pretty great job at evolving from a solo vigilante story into a team-based series with characters like Felicity Smoak and John Diggle who became beloved in their own right and featured high production values that showed in the meticulously choreographed stunt and fight scenes and costume and set designs.
What’s New on Pluto TV?
Arrow isn’t the only thing freshly streaming on Pluto TV this May. The free streamer started the month with a wave of new arrivals that also included other The CW shows like The 100 and Hart of Dixie, as well as The WB’s Everwood. On the movie front, Pluto TV viewers can now also stream films like Galaxy Quest, Gladiator, Beau Is Afraid, Terms of Endearment, and The Godfather films.
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