Tasked with the responsibilities of establishing an entirely new DC landscape, Arrow fell into many typical “origin story” traps during its first season, and it often tried to get on its feet by relying on tried and sometimes true concepts established in films like Batman Begins.
Things clearly worked, but Season 1 of Arrow lacks a certain sense of originality that it would eventually adopt.
In retrospect, Arrow’s biggest weakness during its earliest run of episodes is something that every Arrow-verse series has struggled to deal with during a Season 1 arc.