Tonight marks the return of The Flash to the CW network for the continuation of the first season. And tomorrow is the return of Arrow for the continuation of the third season. If you are not watching either of these shows you are missing some of the best scripted TV out there today.

This year we got to see the continued adventures of Oliver “Ollie” Queen in Starling City as the third season picked up with the action that was relevant at the end of last season. On top of that we also got the start of The Flash picking up with Barry Allen waking from the eight month coma he was in after getting hit by lightning and various chemicals inside his lab.

Join me for the highlights of both shows and let’s look back at the first half.

Arrow – Season 3:

• Ray Palmer has purchased Queen Industries and renamed it Palmer Technologies. New name and new image to help remove the stain of “Queen” with all that has happened over the past two years in that city. Speaking of, Starling City is also getting a name change care of Ray Palmer as he introduced Star City to bring the name and the city into a modern era and clean the air of the issues from the past two years. Lastly, Ray was able to get the OMAC plans and turn them into ATOM to help him build an exo-suit that will be used to protect the city.
• Oliver’s past in China shows us that he was working for Amanda Waller and ARGUS and also how he named the villain China White (who hasn’t been seen since the first season). Oh, we did get a recent fight sequence with Katana in her early civilian guise.
• Ra’s Al Gul and the League of Assassins tasking Oliver and his group into finding who killed Canary (Sarah Lance). OH and they want Malcolm Merlyn captured or killed as well.
• Speaking of Malcolm, he has been busy training Thea Queen into becoming a junior member of his killing crew.
• Laurel Lance training with Ted Grant who also happened to be the vigilante Wildcat. Laurel’s path is leading us to believe that she will be the Black Canary in the second half of the season.
• The way the first half ended with finding out who killed Sarah and the fight between Ra’s and Oliver leaves us wanting more. The second half of the season can’t come soon enough.

The Flash – Season 1:

• “My name is Barry Allen. I am the fastest man alive.” Hearing those words at the start of each show shows that they are taking the source material very serious.
• Cisco Ramone giving the villain of the week a name and let’s be real, it’s been awesome seeing the likes of: The Weather Wizard, Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Rainbow Raider (actually Caitlin Frost named this one), Captain Boomerang, and The Reverse Flash.
• Firestorm!!! Can’t wait to see how they play out Ronny Raymond’s role in this universe. And will Caitlin become “Killer” Frost this year or next?
• Harrison Wells and the mystery of who he is. We found out that he has the yellow Reverse Flash costume and many secrets but is he on the only “Reverse Flash” around or is there another??
• We’ve seen the Gorilla Grod cage twice now so it’s only a matter of time before we GG on screen.
• The casting of the 90’s Flash, John Wesley Ship as Barry’s father was just a great idea that needed to happen. Glad it did! Can’t wait to see Mark Hamill as The Trickster in later episodes this year.

Crossover characters:

• Felicity showing up on The Flash.
• Caitlin showing up on Arrow.
• The Flash and Arrow two-part crossover event was as much fun as you can have with these two shows taking place at the same time.
• How do you now like seeing the faces of team Arrow when they see The Flash take off at super speed? Classic!

Comment below and let us know what you think of both shows.

-Alex