TV Friendships: Will ‘Arrow’ season 5 bring Oliver, Diggle closer together?

It was not that long ago that we saw #InternationalFriendshipDay become a trending topic on Twitter, and that got us thinking somewhat about friendships on TV. Why don’t they get more attention? We all take about ‘ships and romantic relationships, and no doubt they are important. Yet, there are so many other shows on TV where friendship is a defining characteristic, and almost everything that happens is born out of some sort of natural bond that is formed.

It seems like a perfect place to start this TV Friendships article series with “Arrow” and Oliver and Diggle, given that this was a friendship central to the series at the very beginning. It was all the way back in the pilot when their friendship developed; the photo above is from season 1, and then Team Arrow was certainly small and consistently mostly of these two plus Felicity Smoak. They’ve been through a lot, and you certainly have to wonder if they can ever get to the place that they were before the end of season 3, where Oliver put Diggle’s wife Lyla in grave danger.

Where they left off – Diggle made the decision to re-enlist in the Army after struggling to cope with the betrayal of his brother Andy, coupled with his own choice to put him down. (Sidebar: The second half of season 4 was some of David Ramsey’s best work on the show.) Meanwhile, Oliver stayed back in Star City to protect it in any way that he could, whether it be as the Mayor or as the Green Arrow. The team really have not had the best opportunity to focus on their friendship.

Where they could go from here – We presume that Diggle will eventually return, and with that hopefully he and Oliver are in a better, more relaxed place in their relationship where they can get back to fighting crime without all of the emotional weight and stakes. They really just need a breather … and then maybe a few vodkas mixed in there. They understand each other as people in a way few others did, which is why they really are each other’s family in the wake of losing so many.

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