Tag Archives: Oliver Queen

Arrow: 1.05- “Damaged”

November 9, 2012 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

Even though ratings for last week were a little lower than they had been, there’s no need for alarm because this week ratings were back up, way up. As a matter of fact they matched the ratings from the premiere! Not only that but over on TVGuide.com, Arrow is #1 in their “popularity contest” of fall shows. I’ve said it before, it’s not going to be long before the CW announces a second season. If they continue to put forth episodes as good as last nights, then I think we are in for at least a couple of years of Arrow. Sounds good to me!

Because there wasn’t a lot of time spent on the bad guy du’jour, it left a lot of time for them to work on advancing character storylines and just the story in general.

Instead of immediately picking back up with Oliver getting arrested, the episode started off back on the island. Yao Fei strengthened his status as my “favorite person ever” when after he let Ollie shoot the bow for the first time he feels the need to tell him “You will die badly.” Seriously, where is the Yao Fei fanclub and how can I become it’s president? Because that shit right there is funny. Edward Fryers makes an appearance as the guy chasing after Yao Fei, who then tortures Ollie to get info. How on earth is this going to lead to Fryers and Oliver becoming friends and the introduction of Shado? How? I do not see it and that makes me sad. I mean, I figured they weren’t going to even touch the “I raped you while you were drugged, oh, and this is your kid” thing, but to not even have her in the show at all? Bummer.

Okay, bone to pick. I can agree to ignore Laurel’s ridiculous multifaceted law career. I suppose in an alternate universe, a legal aid lawyer would have all the time in the world to take on clients that are arrested (with zero evidence I might add) and then brought to court in a matter of hours in between the her time spent on cases involving millionaires and death row residents. However, are we seriously supposed to believe that she did not even go to law school until after her sister died and her mom left? Seriously? That would mean that at best she’s been practicing law for about two years. At best! Well, let’s see; yacht goes down, let’s say that mom stuck around for only a couple of months afterwards before getting fed up with Detective Lance and hitting the road. It was then that Laurel decides to go to law school which I do believe is three years. So we’re looking at three and a half years of the time Oliver is gone. So Laurel has been a lawyer for less than two years and she is already taking on this huge workload. I’m calling bullshit. The least they could have done was said she had already been in law school when Oliver and Sara took off on their fateful three hour tour.

Moving on before I rupture a blood vessel over a TV show.

IT’S DEATHSTROKE!!!!!!!!!

Yes, that was necessary. Deathstroke appeared for the first time ever in live action and that dude is frightening. Were I tied to a pole and that guy came at me with a knife? I’d be telling whoever was asking, every single thing I’d ever known, ever. Without the slightest hesitation.
What you should take away from this is, don’t rely on me to keep a secret under duress. Not going to happen.

Thankfully Oliver (we are led to believe) is not so weak willed and dealt with the torture. For a show that is more entertainment than it is “high quality” there was a great set up in this episode between the interrogation on the island, complete with Deathstroke and his knife, and the interrogation back in Starling City with Detective Lance and his polygraph machine. Just goes to show that even though it isn’t Breaking Bad or Boardwalk Empire or shows of that caliber, they can still have nice moments like that. I hate when people start talking shit about a show like Arrow because it isn’t something that is Emmy worthy. Sometimes entertainment for entertainment’s sake is a welcome escape. Sakes alive this episode is getting my dander up.

Going out on a limb but I have this feeling that Deathstroke isn’t going to lose his eye to a gunshot from his wife, but rather there on the island. Why else would they have shown the mask with the arrow through it? So perhaps Yao Fei attempting to shoot him was a bit of foreshadowing. I’m a little bummed because it would have been cool to get into Deathstroke’s back-story with his wife and sons and everything. Oh well.

I’m choosing to ignore the fact that Oliver once again referred to Thea as Speedy. Why would they do that to me? Why not just have Diggle be Speedy? Come on. At least Thea is getting more tolerable in recent episodes, girlfriend was obnoxious as hell when they first started. However I did enjoy the conversation between Oliver and Thea when she thought that because he brought her an arrowhead that meant he was Arrow. He ruses that it’s a good thing he didn’t get the panda shotglass because then he’d be “Pandaman”. I immediately thought of how awesome it would be if someone made a show based on World of Warcraft. I’d watch that all day long. If anyone was wanting to send me a gift you can go ahead and get me that Chen Stormstout action figure. I’m sure if you put “Amanda Denton, Georgia” the post office will get it to me without a problem. Thank you.

Another thing I’d love to open my mailbox and find one day is John Barrowman. I’m not sure how much it would cost to ship him but I’m pretty sure I’d be willing to pay it. That man is incredible. I’m really enjoying how they aren’t coming right out and telling us who he is. We get that he is obviously a bad guy, what with trying to have Oliver killed and then successfully offing the poor security guy Josiah, but outside of that, not much is known. Now we also know that Moria is working for him and not with him like the first couple of episodes led us to believe. Of course that whole killing people thing makes me want to know what is on that boat even more. Intrigue!

Speaking of the boat, poor Walter. When the show first started I really thought he was going to be a bad guy. Don’t know why, just a feeling I had. Seeing his face when he was walking out was just heartbreaking. Granted I’ve never been in the “my wife is lying to me about why she took millions of dollars to get a warehouse to store the wreckage of the yacht her late husband died on and she won’t tell me why” type of situation so I can’t imagine how difficult it is but I really want him and Moira to just kiss and make up. Now that Moira has gone into Momma Bear overdrive, paper cuts be damned, I’m really enjoying her character. I especially liked her and Walter together. It’ll be interesting to see how she reacts to his leaving. Ooooh, what is she going to tell the kids? Can’t very well come out and tell the truth now can she?

When it comes to telling the truth, I guess I’ll have to admit I thought Oliver was an idiot for coming clean to Diggle so soon. He could surely keep up the ruse for at least another month or so, if for no other reason than to watch Diggle get aggravated each time Ollie ditched him. Thanks to this episode, I can now say that I should not have doubted ol’ Oliver because the man has a plan.

A good plan at that! Having Diggle as a co-Arrow really could help keep the spotlight off of both of them. That spotlight being the previously mentioned Detective Lance. Of course, one has to wonder how long Diggle is going to keep it from his sister-in-law. She is going to blow a gasket, and I would really enjoy watching that.

I didn’t enjoy watching Laurel and Oliver kiss mainly because Laurel irks me but that scene was awesome for one reason and one reason only; Laurel mentions fishnets. If you had listened closely on Wednesday night you could have heard everyone who knows about Black Canary squeal in delight. I was one of those squealing while my husband sat next to me thinking I’d sat on a pinecone or something. Highlight of the episode right there.

Another cool part of that scene was the number of Ollie’s “prison uniform” costume. It’s actually the hex code for green. I love it when they put little things like that into shows. I looked up Ollie’s mugshot number as well but all I can decipher is that perhaps the writers are big fans of Gloria Allred as she was born on July 3rd, 1941. I think that would qualify as one of the most random references ever so it probably wasn’t that.

My last thought on this episode is that isn’t all we’ll see of Kate Spencer. I mean surely they have more in store for her so maybe this was just a “I wonder if anyone will notice if we introduce Kate Spencer on the down low and then we’ll come back to her at a later date as Manhunter and everyone will be like “hey isn’t that the ADA that was prosecuting Oliver back in the fifth episode” and we’ll just sit back and laugh because, yea, it is.” type of situation. That’s what I tell myself so I can sleep well at night at least.

Overall, fantastic episode. Loved it. I personally don’t want to see Laurel and Oliver together but I realize it’s going to happen so I just have to get over it. The scene with Barrowman was awesome and prompted so many more questions than it provided answers and of course DEATHSTROKE!!! was amazing. From start to finish, a strong episode.

The only shirtlessness involved Laurel but we have this to look forward to next week, November 17th, in an episode titled, “Legacies”.

Not only that but we’ll get to see Arrow’s take on the Royal Flush Gang, exciting!

Until next time!

Arrow: 1.04- “An Innocent Man”

November 2, 2012 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

If last week showed us nothing else, it established that the people behind Arrow have zero issue with cliff hangers. Boy, what a cliffhanger it was. Granted it wasn’t anything like “who shot JR?” but for a third episode of a first season? It was pretty solid.

Thankfully they started off this week right where they left off and we see Diggle wake up with an awesome “wtf just happened here?” look on his face. WTF indeed John. I really did like how instead of hearing Oliver’s speech and immediately jumping up asking “golly gee willikers Oliver, what hijinks will we find ourselves in next?!?” he just rolls his eyes and asks when Oliver took archer classes. Way to go John, I approve of your reaction.

I also approve of this:

It’s a mosaic of Oliver’s face made up of pictures of scenes from the episode. Pretty cool. Click here for their site, they have quite a few of them.

Arrow An Innocent Man — You tell him Oliver!

Back to it! If Yao Fei continues to do things like the classic “you don’t understand me but maybe if I say it louder and with more force that might help”, I will be forced to love him forever. The look on his face the last time he said whatever word it was, made me laugh like a madwoman. Then to find out he speaks English! Ah, that was just perfect.

This episode didn’t have a bad guy from the DC Universe but rather someone from “the book”. This week’s selection is named Jason Brodeur and he is a CEO who is the least prepared for anything bad to happen that I’ve ever seen. Seriously, if you own a big company, especially one that deals in chemicals, wouldn’t you have an “I’m dumping toxic waste and now that waste is hitting the fan” contingency plan? One that doesn’t involve killing the whistle-blower and blaming it on the husband? He also seemed as if he was completely caught off guard when Arrow came after him. Hmmm…. for three weeks now (in our world at least, I don’t know that they’ve given us a timeline on the Arrow world) there’s been a vigilante hunting down corrupt and evil business men and you are surprised he showed up for you? Come on now.

Speaking of people who aren’t prepared for the consequences to their own actions, Oliver, you need to work on your secret superhero-ness. Mainly the secret part. Have you not watched Batman ever? The Batcave is hidden for a reason. That reason is hello! you don’t want anyone to know you are Arrow! Keep hiding your shit in the stairwell where there are cameras and you aren’t going to remain a secret for long. Or worse yet, you could get your ass arrested. I’m so disappointed in you. You may have learned to speak Russian and “Chinese” and how to use a bow and arrow but apparently Yao Fei failed in passing along “Superhero 101”.

I do however, have to commend the use of the voice changer. Very heads-up play. We all know that the voice would have given it away big time. It’s not like she COULDN’T SEE YOUR FACE FROM TEN FEET AWAY! I was unaware of the fact that apparently Laurel suffers from night blindness. Either that or that smeared on mask is doing an incredible job. There are a lot of things I’m willing to go fourth wall on but come on, this was a bit ridiculous.

Last week my ire was all for Thea, this week it’s Laurel. In addition to the aforementioned inability to recognize her former fiance when he’s standing right next to her, she had quite a few moments where I just couldn’t do anything but shake my head. On one hand, it’s cute that she went to the house to check on Oliver after the shooting but come on, you guys aren’t together anymore so why don’t we go ahead and skip the sanctimonious speeches. I understand it was needed to show the difference in her reaction to Oliver vs. Arrow but still, blech. Then you would think a cop’s kid would be a little bit more wary of an apartment that has no power. You would also think that maybe she wouldn’t keep her gun in an unlocked drawer! Gun safety, gun safety!!

Last I checked, Laurel is a lawyer in the legal aid office. I’m not up to date on my “what lawyers do what” but I daresay there aren’t many that go from suing a big time business owner to a class action suit against the manufacturer of smoke alarms to death penalty cases. Laurel better become the Black Canary soon because she’s getting on my nerves. At least we didn’t have to deal with “good” Merlyn this week.

Best parts of the episode? Three names; Walter, Felicity, and Digg.

Oh, Walter you smart, smart man. I knew the minute you mentioned that 2.6 million that something was fishy with Moira and so did you. Now you just need to figure out what the deal with that shipwreck is. Why would Moira keep that a secret? Same reason she had Oliver beat up, obviously, but now there are more layers that need to be investigated. Oooohhh, the intrigue! Not to mention, why did she call it Tempest? Is this incredibly handsome “Well Dressed Man” perhaps the Tempest/aka Garth? But if that’s the case then Garth would have gone bad, and what if Moira and the beautiful man aren’t necessarily bad guys? What if they are just misunderstood? All I know is, I can’t wait to find out.

If I were running the show I’d dump Thea and Laurel and just have the show be all Felicity, all the time. She is just so freaking adorable! I mean seriously, she has one scene in the entire episode and she just steals it outright. However, when she first showed up all I could think was “how on earth did this chick from IT just waltz into the CEO’s office without the slightest of problems?”, but thankfully she mentioned Walter calling her up to his office. Whew, that would have bothered me for awhile. I tend to worry about really important things like that.

No surprise, best parts of the episode belong to John Diggle. First he basically told Oliver to shove his head up his ass because there was no way he was going to be a criminal. Then he quit! Of course that was inevitable but it did allow some comic relief with his replacement. Dude was a bit of an idiot, but at least he had a “firm grip”. When he returned to Big Belly Burgers the “did Deadshot kill John’s brother?” question was answered. Apparently he did, which is good to know. This of course was the push John needed to go ahead and join Oliver. I do wonder though, is he Alfred? He did say he wasn’t a sidekick so is he someone they just added to the Green Arrow world or is he loosely based on someone else? There is no way he can be Speedy. I mean he can, but I won’t be happy about it. Lord knows the writers want to keep me happy!

If John’s sister-in-law had an issue with him doing personal security I can only imagine how less than thrilled she’s going to be with “superhero’s sidekick but not a sidekick sidekick” job he’s got now. I wonder if it comes with dental.

Minus the Laurel annoyances, I really loved this episode. I think it’s a little ballsy how fast they are moving the plot along but I like it. They could have drug out the “Ollie ditches his bodyguard everyday” schtick for at least a couple more episodes but at least this way we’ll get to see more of Diggle than just his reaction to being given the slip.

There wasn’t a whole lot of references to the DC Universe in this episode. Well there might have been but I only caught a few. If you follow the Flash then you know about Iron Heights Penitentiary. Apparently the criminals housed there are so dumb they can’t figure out that if you walk in a single file or even in pairs everyone will fit through the door. They looked like a bunch of doofuses piled up in the doorway. Then of course there was the “10:15 to Bludhaven”. Everyone knows about Bludhaven. It does beg the question, if Bludhaven is just a train ride away then maybe Nightwing will be coming to Starling City? Oh yes please!

I’m fairly certain it has nothing to do with DC Universe but I did catch one of the names on the list. None other than Charles Davenport. Hmmm, yes that is a man that perhaps the Arrow should pay a visit. Yikes.

Episode 5/”Damaged” airs on November 7th.

*I’m aware that I promised a shirtless Oliver Queen picture each week but sadly there just wasn’t any shirtless scenes this week. The closest we got was pensive Oliver.

If he were to ever change his mind there would be an obscene number of people screaming

Until next time Arrow fans!

Arrow: 1.03 – ‘Lone Gunman’

October 25, 2012 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

While the first two episodes of Arrow had villains, they were mainly focused on introducing us to the main cast of characters and a little bit of everyone’s back-stories. With “Lone Gunman” however, there was more of a balance between the two, and it was a nice balance. The episode started off with the somewhat irritating voiceover. This portion of voiceover was telling us about James Holder and his lack of quality control when it came to his smoke detectors.

Cut to a beautiful overlook of nighttime Starling City thanks to James Holder’s rooftop pool. I’d be okay with having a pool like that. Lucky James Holder. Sorry, no, Bad James Holder! If Arrow is on your rooftop after dark, chances are pretty good that you are not a good person, no matter what the courts say. So, Arrow is up there doing his “you have failed this city” bit when lo and behold, someone new appears. Well, they don’t really appear but their handiwork does.

Who is it?

If you are at all familiar with Batman, then you know this man. It is none other than Deadshot! He lived up to his name because that pool I really loved? Well, it’s got a dead dude floating in it now. Suddenly, not as appealing.

In the exchange though, Oliver got nicked by one of Deadshot’s bullets. Oh bummer. Oliver has to stitch himself up.

I do have to wonder though, Oliver has the supplies in his lair to stitch up a bullet wound but he doesn’t have a damn band-aid anywhere? Just seeing him sitting at his desk with blood soaking through his shirt made me think of what a pain in the ass that would be to get clean. Come on Ollie, get it together. Then again, maybe it was the poison that made him forget about the band-aid. Poison? Oh yeah, Deadshot uses poison on his bullets. Which leads into a nice flashback and we got to see more of the mysterious hooded man on the island.

This answers the question of how Oliver learned to speak Mandarin; it’s none other than Yao Fei. It’s yet to be seen if they’ll go into Yao Fei’s long and somewhat detailed backstory, but obviously the physician and archer parts are playing a key role. We also see where Oliver learned about the “chew something that looks like rosemary to stop the poison” thing.

Ollie heads home after waking up from his drug induced nap, and well I’ll be, Thea’s been arrested. Is it too early to dislike a character? Because I can not stand Thea. I just want her to either pull her head out of her obnoxious ass and become a contributing member of society or them to make her into Speedy. I don’t really want her to become Speedy but I just want Thea to disappear. Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone. While we’re on the subject, what is the deal with Mommy Queen being so “I’m a good person and parent” in this episode? I mean, I know Oliver gave her crap for the Thea thing but not one hint to her darkside that we know exists. No mention of what Oliver knows or what his dad told him. I want the Evil Queen to return. Thea leaves, Evil Queen comes back. I’ll be pleased as punch if those two things were to occur.

It was only a matter of time before Oliver had to find a way to get to his base without always having to ditch Diggle. Apparently he’s decided to open a nightclub. How stereotypical privileged party boy of a move is that? Come on. I loved Diggle calling him out on the “white knight” thing Oliver has going on.

Perhaps the second best part of the episode is when Oliver decided that he needed to go find a bullet that Deadshot used. To do so he had to go all Assassin’s Creed and climb the side of a building. But unlike in Assassin’s Creed when you can hear people question what on earth (insert name of preferred ancestor of Desmond Miles here) is doing, not a single soul comments on Oliver’s wall climbing stunt. Perhaps this is the best place to open a nightclub/have a secret lair.

The bullet led Oliver to the Russian mob that he apparently became a ranking member of during his time as a shipwrecked castaway. Come again? I daresay that took me by surprise.

I do wonder what kind of timeline this episode had because one minute Oliver is showing Tommy and Diggle the location of his new nightclub, and the next Laurel is reading about said nightclub online. She’s telling her coworker that she’s totally over Oliver but I think we all know the truth. But who cares about the truth because hello! This happened!

You go girl! Now all she needs is some fishnet stockings and a tight fitting bustier and the Black Canary will take her rightful place in the show. So exciting as I’d actually feared they’d keep Laurel as that helpless chick she was in episode two. Thankfully my worry was all for naught.

So while Oliver was climbing buildings and planning night clubs openings and then getting his ass kicked by bouncers at another club, Deadshot was tattooing names onto his body. There was quite a few names already there but one stood out in particular- Andrew Diggle- especially considering that we learn that Diggle had a brother who was killed doing the same type of work. Did Deadshot kill Diggle’s brother? Is the tattooed name just a shoutout to Andy Diggle, who wrote Green Arrow: Year One? I’m guessing we’ll find out soon.

Speaking of Diggle, his sister in law works at none other than DC Universe’s own, Big Belly Burger! This was the second time I had a DC Universe “moment”, the first being when the annoying voiceover let us know that Deadshot had killed people in Markovia. It’s those kinds of little things that get fans really excited about your show so kudos to Arrow.

Non-kudos to whoever was doing DirecTV’s captioning because they seem to think this woman:

is named Felicity Smoke. Come on people, get with the program- that is Felicity SMOAK and isn’t she just the cutest little IT girl ever? That scene did provide some fun back and forth as Oliver tried to claim the laptop he brought her needed help due to a spilled latte. Nothing gets past that Felicity though and she deftly points out that those are bullet holes, not spilled coffee. Oliver’s only recourse is to admit that “my coffee shop is in a bad neighborhood”. Chuckle, chuckle.

That coffeehouse was actually the hotel room of Deadshot and the latte was his wrist mounted machine guns but hey, let’s not get bogged down in facts here. The rest of the episode was the predictable auction, with the predictable saving from Deadshot’s bullet by Detective Lance, and Oliver’s predictable stashing of his Arrow get-up in the stairway trashcan and then the fight with Deadshot.

Two things that were not predictable-

One: HE KILLED DEADSHOT?!?!?!

Surely not, right? I mean come on. If they are going to kill a DC villain each episode, the show isn’t going to last too terribly long. I know there are a lot of them but there aren’t an infinite number. So I’m choosing to believe that Deadshot is not dead but perhaps just unconscious and yea, that eye is not going to make it, so I’m guessing he’ll be a one eyed Deadshot. [Ed. Note – Not for 1 second do I believe Deadshot is dead. The character has a long history of faking his own death…]

Two: OH MY GOD HE TOLD DIGGLE!!!!
Diggle gets shot, Arrow rushes him back to his base so he can give him the grass stuff that looks like rosemary. Diggle wakes up to see Oliver standing there still in his Arrow clothes but the “mask” is now gone and he just says “hey” and the episode ends!

So much for “no one can know”, but seriously, how long was he going to be able to keep it from him? The man has already told him that he’s going to have to watch him pee so it was only a matter of time before he found out any way. I was just not expecting them to do it so early.

Overall, not a bad episode. I’m still a little miffed about Deadshot possibly being dead and I could not care less about the whole “Laurel used to date/sleep with Tommy” bit and as far as I’m concerned, Thea can take a long walk off a short pier but for the most part I liked it. I’m going to go with three and a half bears on this one. Get rid of Thea, make Laurel the Black Canary and we’d be at a solid four.

Next Episode – “An Innocent Man”. I can’t wait!

Arrow: John Barrowman and the Huntress?

October 24, 2012 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

Click here for a brief/not so brief recap of the first two episodes of the CW’s new show, Arrow.

So, what’s in Arrow’s future? Well first off, thankfully there is a longer future as the CW, wisely, just gave Arrow a full season order. As is common, they’d initially gotten a 13 episode order, but now it’s for a full 22. The pilot had 4.14 million watching making it the most watched since The Vampire Diaries. Not only that but the second episode brought in 3.5 million- not too shabby. If numbers continue even close to these, I don’t think anyone will be surprised if they announce they are renewing it for a second season here in a couple of months.

Continue reading Arrow: John Barrowman and the Huntress? →

CW’s ‘Arrow’ – 2 Episode Review: “Pilot & Honor Thy Father”

October 24, 2012 Amanda Broyles 1 Comment

Ever since Smallville went off the air, I haven’t turned on the CW at all. I’ve watched Supernatural, but that’s all been off of Netflix and up until this summer I was pretty certain I wouldn’t watch CW again. For the most part I’m just not a fan of their shows. Well, with the new show Arrow, that has all changed.

It was actually because of Smallville that I tuned into Arrow in the first place. Way back in season 8 they introduced Justin Hartley as the Green Arrow with this (you’ll have to click on it because there was no embedding, sorry). Now, I’m a DC girl and have been a Green Arrow fan for quite some time and I remember thinking when I saw that episode, “hmmmm, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone play the Green Arrow before.” For good reason, you see, Justin Hartley was actually the first ever live action Green Arrow and Stephen Amell is now the second. Not a bad little brotherhood to be in.

Actually brotherhood might be stretching it a little, they are more like cousins. Very close cousins, sure, but cousins all the same.

The pilot (I’m going to say pilot here but it’s more likely that because I’m going to quickly discuss both episodes, they are just going to go back and forth) starts off with a hooded man, who could either be homeless or a castaway. We learn quickly that he is of the castaway variety and he’s been lost on this island for five years. That lines up all right with Green Arrow canon but then Oliver Queen heads home to Star City, I’m sorry, to Starling City and meets up with his mom (what?), Moira Queen (played by the incredible Susanna Thompson, (Queen Rose it is so nice to have you back on my TV) and his sister (double what??), Thea (Willa Holland). Oh, and his best friend is Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell). Yes, I said his best friend. Surely they will have Tommy become Merlyn before too long, right?

As if all that wasn’t enough, Oliver has an ex-fiance named Laurel (CW go-to-girl Katie Cassidy) who Oliver was cheating on with her sister (Dinah, I mean Laurel, has a sister?) who accompanied Oliver and his father Robert (Jamey Sheridan) on the yacht trip that ended up being the last trip she and Robert ever took and the one that landed Oliver on the island.

Oh and biggest “did you just see that?” moment for me was right here:

Was Deathstroke on the island? What happened to him? Surely Arrow didn’t kill him? Right? Especially since pictures have been released of him from a future episode, but were they flashbacks? So many questions that I would like answers to!

So yes, there is a lot involved right off the bat that doesn’t stick to the traditional Green Arrow story but luckily Arrow still works. After we’ve met everyone, including Oliver’s new bodyguard John Diggle (David Ramsey) and the lawman, Detective Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne, a man I would watch do anything) the pilot goes into setting up Oliver as Arrow. While catching up with his old friend Tommy, they are both attacked and drugged by masked men. They then interrogate Oliver over what his father told him. Thing is, Daddy dearest sort of offed himself in the life raft before he could tell his boy anything beyond “I failed our city and I was not the only one.”

And there, friends and neighbors, is Arrow’s motivation. He is going to return to Starling City with a book his father had in his pants (that Oliver fished out after his father had been dead for an amount of time that seems to be between rigor mortis ending and decomp fully setting in, which is nasty) and now has a list of those people who Oliver’s father feels was part of the ruining of his hometown.

He sets himself up a pretty nice “Arrow Cave” in an abandoned factory his father used to own. I’m not going to lie, there are some definite upsides to this show and they don’t have a lot to do with the plot.

Laurel is a lawyer who works at the nicest legal aid office in the entire universe. With the prettiest people. In the pilot she is suing Adam Hunt, coincidentally, a man listed on Oliver’s list. Arrow goes into what I like to call “Christopher Nolan’s image of Batman” mode and voila, all of Laurel’s clients have a shit ton of money thanks to one of Arrow’s “trick” arrows, this one apparently can do something with computers. In the second episode we got to see China White, the first of what appears to be many planned DC villains scheduled (last I saw so far they have Deathstroke, Deadshot, The Huntress [more of a hero], and the Royal Flush Gang) to appear on the show.

We did find out why they chose to have Oliver’s mom be alive, as she apparently is either a baddie herself or is closely related to the mystery baddie. Oooohhhhh, intrigue!

The first two episodes were great, but left a lot of questions unanswered. Biggest one; where’s Roy Harper? In the pilot, Oliver calls his sister Speedy very quickly in passing. Surely they aren’t ditching Roy Harper and having Thea be Speedy, right? On one hand I’m sort of okay with it, I like watching sibling relationships but at the same time, I like Roy Harper and would like to see him on the show.

And how does John Diggle factor into all of this? He already suspects that Oliver isn’t the asshole party boy that he’s pretending to be. So how long until Oliver lets him in on the act? Speaking of, why is Laurel pretending to be this damsel in distress? Hello woman, you are supposed to be the Black Canary, so get your shit together and find some black spandex pronto.

Another question. How on earth did Oliver become this martial arts master who can shoot a bow and arrow with the best of them all whilst being stranded alone on a supposedly deserted island? Oh, and where did he learn to speak Russian and Mandarin? Was there a copy of the Rosetta Stone left there by a previous castaway?

That question might have been answered at the end of the second episode with the appearance of a man in a green hood, who has incredible aim with a bow and arrow. Is this who taught Oliver the skills he would later use to clean up Starling City? Time (and perhaps the next few episodes) will only tell.

One last one, then I’ll move on. Ummm… what exactly is this substance Oliver is smearing on his face in lieu of a mask? It obviously isn’t something that permanent as he was able to remove it rather quickly to get back to the party. Inquiring minds want to know.

If I was forced to pick one thing that annoyed me about the show so far, it would be it’s at times blatant rip off of Batman Begins. I get that they are trying to go for that darker feel to the show but swinging the bad guy from the rafters? Having Laurel be an almost carbon copy of Rachel Dawes? I really hope they put an end to that and find their own voice. Otherwise all you’ll hear about is people comparing it to the movie, which would be disappointing.

So there’s the first two episodes in a nutshell. Join me in tuning into the CW on Wednesday nights at 8 eastern and then we’ll meet up back here and discuss.

Let’s just say, we better be discussing this guy turning bad here pretty soon or I’m going to be miffed.

New Clip & Trailer for The CW’s ‘Arrow’

May 25, 2012 Scoot Allan 1 Comment

We took a look at the upcoming Smallville replacement Arrow, which focuses on Oliver Queen AKA Green Arrow. You can check out all the details and our first look at Stephen Amell as Ollie here. It wasn’t long after that Arrow moved from the pilot stage with a season order of episodes. And it wasn’t too long after that we got the first clip and the trailer. And by not long after I mean not long ago. As in it just happened. So…

Continue reading New Clip & Trailer for The CW’s ‘Arrow’ →

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