Showing posts with label Arrow. Show all posts
Mid-Season Finale Rundown
To say the last few weeks have been a little crazy around my place would be an understatement. But alas, after a smattering of unpaid bills, Internet outages, and one computer hard drive crash, I can safely say that I'll be able to pick up with the weekly reviews starting on Monday with the return of Gotham. What I can't so easily profess to know is how this review is going to turn out. Instead of doing a full recap individually, I'm going to hit the high points because, let's face it, if you've seen the finales of Gotham, The Flash, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Arrow, then you've already freaked out all over the Internet about at least three out of four.... So without further ado, let me tell you what I loved and didn't love. Oh, and happy New Year! Hopefully 2015 will be filled with nothing but on time reviews and perfectly working computers!
Verdict: 8.0
Verdict: 9.0
Verdict: 9.5
Gotham Season 01 Episode 11 "Lovecraft"
- I could defend Gotham through all the tonal whiplash and boring one off villains, but I can't defend the show if it insists on kicking the can down the road instead of addressing legitimately interesting plot points. The Bruce/Selina excursion was fun, but ultimately felt pointless and while Gordon's new posting might liven things up, this is still not the Gotham we deserve.
Duck It
The Flash Season 01 Episode 09 "The Man in the Yellow Suit"
- WHO IS HARRISON WELLS??!!?!?!?!?!?!!!? The answer to this question remains frustratingly illusive, but we finally get to see the apparent of killer of Barry's mother when Zoom or The Reverse Flash shows up. Barry also displays real fear when he realizes that he can't seem to match up to his nemesis, not just of being outmatched, but of failing his mother, father and ultimately himself. There's going to be a LOT to address when the show returns in a few weeks.
Verdict: 8.0
Watch It Like a Fox
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 02 Episode 10 "What They Become"
- I swear these shows were planning around each other, because every mid-season finale got more engrossing than the prior. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had a... troubling first season, but this is officially the last time I'll remember to mention that because season two has fully redeemed the show. Largely because its made itself somehow more important in the MCU than the titular cinematic experiences themselves! Avengers: Age of Ultron is almost certainly going to address the Terrigen Bomb Skye and Raina set off in this episode, but this world changing event will have most impact in this show when it hits airwaves again in... Wait, what?! MARCH?!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Verdict: 9.0
Watch It Like a Fox
Arrow Season 03 Episode 09 "The Climb"
- It is now January 2, 2015. I watched this episode live on December 10, 2014. I still haven't fully processed the ramifications of it. While I would like to float theories about Oliver really being dead and Connor taking his place, or Barry taking a trip on his cosmic treadmill, realistically, we're probably going to see Oliver revived due to the magic of a "Lazarus Pit." Comic readers will know that they can rejuvenate a living person of revive a person from death itself, but sometimes (usually) at the cost of a person's sanity. Ra's Al Ghul probably started off marginally less crazy than he was, but he's been using them to keep young and virile for decades or even centuries depending on how closely they follow the comics. Point being? Oliver is likely to get a revival, but how? And does this give us hope of Sara and/or Tommy coming back to life? If not, what will allow Oliver to revive but not them? Oh, and Laurel is stepping up come January 21st, so basically this show has hit full comic book awesome, and it's setting itself up for greatness again.
Verdict: 9.5
Watch It Like a Fox
World's Finest The Flash Season 01 Episode 08 "The Flash Vs. Arrow" Review
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| World's Finest Team-Up (On The CW) |
A common trick of a narrative in fiction is the mashup of
one character who seems to be a twisted reflection of another, usually main,
character. They aren’t direct opposites, but just more or less… extreme versions of the main character.
A cop might meet an special forces soldier. A doctor might meet an obsessive
surgeon. Batman might meet Superman. Or, as in the case with the very well
titled “The Flash vs. Arrow,” The Flash might meet Arrow. Though of course,
both of these characters are essentially the TV-friendly version of those other
titans. Though Barry Allen wasn’t sent to Earth from a dying planet, he’s
certainly got the optimism and moral rigidity of Superman from the comics.
But I digress: “The Flash vs. Arrow” elevates The Flash to a whole new level by
bringing in an excellent mentor/foil in the Arrow himself. Oliver Queen is a
wholly different kind of hero when compared to the somewhat goofy and jovial
Flash. Barry Allen, from the beginning, wants to fight crime and save people’s
lives because he genuinely wants to.
When he first starts out, Oliver feels obligated
to do the things he does. And, as pointed out in the episode, he isn’t really
all that good at first, morally speaking. He kills people in cold blood and is
only working his way down the list of wealthy douchebags his father left him.
Even though he’s an established quantity in Starling City now, outside of it,
he’s seen as the indirect cause of terrorist attacks on the city and a
murderer. Joe West does not like the idea of Barry hanging out with him for
good reason.
Of course, Joe himself is mirrored in this episode when
Eddie reveals his desire to have The Flash locked away. To Eddie, the Flash’s
flagrant disregard for law enforcement is cause for alarm, and probably arrest,
but his attempts at putting together a task force to investigate him meet with
ridicule. Just as Barry brushes off Joe’s distrust of Oliver. The episode
starts with Joe and Eddie raising their objections so they can land in
drastically different positions by the end. But it’s also important because
selling the relationship between Oliver and Barry is easier when Barry can
actually understand how his allies see the Arrow.
Barry’s always been well received by the populace, or at
least Iris, and so feeling like he was being attacked by Eddie naturally drew
out his dark side when he’s whammied by the villain of the week. Another
generally forgettable and uninspired villain who can manipulate light to make
people go crazy. The best thing about this week’s enemy was him being the cause
of Felicity and Caitlin’s geek girl bonding. Being a super genius is generally
such a “bro” thing (in real life and fiction) that it’s especially touching
when women get together to use their intellect. I hope we eventually get
a(nother) Birds of Prey or something out of The CW’s DCTVU. Diggle and Cisco
also got some great lines as they did a “who would win” between Barry and
Oliver.
And really, the best part about this episode was just how
easily the characters flowed with each other. With the exception of the always
creepy (or “off” as Oliver puts it) Harrison Wells, every character from The Flash got a little time to shine,
and Diggle, Oliver and Felicity made nice impressions on most of the cast. Last
week’s Arrow thankfully didn’t have
severe repercussions on Oliver and Felicity’s friendship, or at least they
didn’t focus on them in this episode. So instead we get Felicity adorably
hawking Oliver to go help Barry. Barry and Oliver’s friendship is the lynchpin
to the whole thing, though, and their banter is marvelous. By the time Barry
gets whammied and tells Oliver off because he’ll “Never be as fast as [he] is,”
his rage fueled assertions are more adorable than hurtful. Oliver’s stone faced
stare off with Barry, ending with a “Felicity said you didn’t want my help,”
actually makes him seem kind of hurt. Which is all the more reason for him to
pull out all the stops by the episodes end.
The fight of the century may be Batman v. Superman (Dawn of
Justice. This parenthetical brought to you by DC Cinematic Studios), but “The
Flash vs. Arrow” is a fantastic warm up bout. Both characters display their
drive an ingenuity in move after counter move after move against each other,
and through it all Barry’s inexperience is as evident as Oliver’s ingenuity and
skill. Oliver didn’t have much time to set up tricks and traps, but between
quick thinking and a clear head he manages to incapacitate Barry long enough to
reverse his transformation. The coda, where the two work together to put the
horribly named Roy G. Bivolo (AKA, Rainbow Raider) behind bars at S.T.A.R. Labs
is just icing on the cake.
Through all this, Harrison Wells discovers Oliver’s identity,
allowing Joe to reevaluate his opinion of the Arrow. On the flip side, Eddie’s
crusade against the Flash is official sanctioned by Captain Singh after Barry,
still in a Rainbow Raider haze, rips him from the car he and Iris were
commuting in and threatens to make his day end very badly. This is a
development I’m really kind of glad for, because while normally creating the
rift between vigilante hero and law enforcement relies on either an especially
dark hero or an especially dark officer, The
Flash had neither of these characteristics. Creating a genuine
misunderstanding works so much better than poisoning Thawne’s character
prematurely. Though it still leaves Iris back to where she started, making
decisions for her life based on her connection to her current love interest.
By mirroring the hero and giving everyone in the cast a
moment to reevaluate their preconceptions regarding the heroic figures
appearing in their lives, The Flash
reaches new heights while maintaining its sense of fun and adventure. Here’s
hoping tomorrow’s episode of Arrow
similarly elevates that show, because lord knows it’ll need something to get
out of its rut.
Score: 9.5
Watch It Like a Fox:
Duck It:
- Diggle. All the Diggle."I had a cousin get struck by lightning once. All he did was develop a stutter."
- Bonus: Felicity and Caitlin womance!
- Eddie is a pretty cool guy. He fights Flashes and doesn't afraid of anything.
- Fantastic showdown combining Arrow's fight choreography with The Flash's excellent special effects.
- Captain Singh is officially out of the closet!
- FireStorm!
- The Flash being wanted by Police seems forced.
- Iris takes a step back.
The Sidekick Episode is the Sidekick of Episodes Arrow Season 03 Episode 06 "Guilty" Review
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| The CW |
Over the long term, complacency can become a TV series’
biggest drawback. When a series starts, it’s got plenty of room to grow and change
with the actors and writers, reaching as high it possibly can before usually
settling into a groove. Some series (Breaking
Bad, Game of Thrones) continue to escalate things
further and further reaching dizzying heights of insanity as they progress
while still having engrossing and interesting characters. Arrow is not one of those shows, but it seems want to be a lot of the time. It’s never quite on full “turn your
brain off” escapism because Oliver and the rest of team arrow are too real for
their interpersonal turmoil to be superseded by the case of the week. Indeed, Arrow generally avoids having a
persistent “case of the week” structure, which is why it can be pretty
aggravating when the series randomly decides to drop in what feels like a
filler episode after a pretty strong streak. Don’t get me wrong, “Guilty” wasn’t
the worst thing the show has ever done, but it felt very… safe. Like the show
was afraid to carry through with a plot twist before the December finale.
While Roy discovering he killed a cop last year was something
we knew had to happen eventually, it was a woefully predictable. I admit, I was
a little worried they were going with
the far worse “twist” in which he actually
murdered Sara when Felicity concluded someone threw arrows into her.
Thankfully this was a misdirect (though now I’m looking extra hard in Solomon Grundy’s
direction…) and Roy was instead merging memories of his assault on the police
officer back in season 2. The epiphany comes courtesy of Oliver, who helps Roy
meditate to memory land. Roy is very upset with this twist himself, as it means
Oliver lied to him.
This would have all been so compelling last season, but
right now? With Sara’s murderer on the loose and Malcolm Merlyn on the fringes
of Starling City planning God-knows-what AND Oliver struggling with the loss of
his company?! There’s just way too much going on to revisit this storyline. It
also feels like a stretch for Roy to want to turn himself in when he was under
the effects of Mirakuru. It’d be one thing if the police had beyond a
rudimentary knowledge of the drug, or if he wasn’t actively going out alongside
a reformed killer (of mobsters and other killers, sure, but Ollie stilled
killed a lot back in season 1).
Everything’s couched in this incredibly obvious parallel
with Ted Grant and his former sidekick Isaac Stanzler (Nathan Mitchell). Isaac used to work with Grant back in the day,
before the Arrow came to town, but after a bad turn with a group of gangsters Grant
hangs up his pretty lackluster costume. Isaac’s back in town and killing
mobsters, framing Grant for their murders. There’s some tension between Oliver
and Laurel—Oliver wants Laurel to stay away from Grant after he finds out about
his connections to the murder. When Oliver pushes the issue even after Laurel
clears Grant’s name, it starts to feel a little controlling and possessive
rather than protective. The series has been trying to milk tension from Oliver
refusing to support Laurel as Black Canary, but considering we know the endgame
we’re basically getting Oliver looking more and more like an asshole with little
cause for such characterization.
It took me a minute (okay, a week) to get this review up
because I was much more psyched about “The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak”
(which I WILL do a phantom review for one day), but I knew I should do this one
first. Because while the show has managed to keep pace with the action
sequences, the weekly sideshow is formulaic and drags on about twenty minutes
too long. Arrow doesn’t have to wow
me every week, but it does have to be more than just competent when it’s
setting up such interesting plotlines. Here’s hoping the next episode reaches a
little higher of a target.
Score: 7.0
Watch It Like a Fox:
Duck It:
- Boxing Glove Arrow!
- Okay, Felicity and Roy's friendship is super adorabs. I hate that I just said "adorbs" but it's really the only word in the English language which can capture the sentiment.
- Super transparent parralels.
- Roy's making less and less sense. Maybe he's on Mirakuru again after all.
- Oliver seems more like a controlling jackass than a worried, caring friend to Laurel.
- Important stuff was supposed to be happening. Maybe next episode...
Tag :
Arrow,
Not so Magical Arrow Season 03 Episode 05 "The Magician" Review
“The Magician” is an interesting episode of television. Arrow very often tries to elevate material that could be considered “campy” or “comic booky,” and it usually does so by grounding the motivations and methods of various characters. But this has never really worked for characters like Malcolm Merlyn. Even Slade had a very human character arc wherein he was driven mad by the pain of loss and rage against his situation (which turned into rage against Oliver). But Malcolm Merlyn, while ostensibly human enough to care for his child(ren), had such grand ambitions that he literally wanted to remake Starling city. And devote years to building a device which would cause an earthquake to destroy the “unworthy” Glades. There’s little that can be done to make that sound even slightly plausible, but by dropping John Barrowman into the role, the series has managed to get away with a lot. And in truth, even “The Magician” doesn’t push us over the edge of suspended disbelief, it just drives us right up to it with a few moments.
Picking up directly after the cliffhanger, Oliver has to
tell Nyssa that Sara is dead, and the pain on Katrina Law’s face is palpable,
as is every other scene involving Nyssa tonight. There’s something to be said
about how powerful an actress Law is for making us so heavily invested in Sara
and Nyssa’s relationship after only seeing three or four episodes worth of it.
Nyssa progresses through the five stages quite admirably, as she lashes out at
Laurel for daring to wear the jacket she gave Sara, pleads with Oliver to kill
Merlyn and finally seems to come full circle on her opinion of Laurel taking up
Sara’s mantle as the Black Canary. I know Nyssa is unlikely to get much more
screen time, so it was out of necessity that she seems to have so quickly
accepted Sara’s demise, but it’s a little weird when juxtaposed against the
rest of team Arrow who are all still clearly struggling. I don’t even know if
Oliver’s smiling muscles work anymore.
If there was a fatal flaw in this episode, it would almost
certainly be Oliver’s pledge not to kill coming back to bite everyone in the
arse. Okay, let me preface this by saying I completely understand the decision
to keep Oliver on the path of no killing from a creator’s standpoint. Having
him willy-nilly violate an oath basically made on Tommy’s name would be
tasteless. Yet, there’s not really any explanation for why Oliver doesn’t call
Merlyn’s bluff on his island prison. Or take out his knees with a couple of well-placed
arrows. Or let the League of Assassins take him as per Nyssa’s request.
Promising to protect Merlyn from the wrath of the League is just the opposite
of what he should be doing, and makes a somewhat believable character feel too
over the top. It is nice to see Barrowman chew the scenery while telling Oliver
how damning either option—freeing or killing him—would be.
The episode is essentially a cat and mouse game between Merlyn,
no doubt the titular magician, and team Arrow + Nyssa. But the tension of the
hour is flaccid because we know Oliver isn’t going to kill Merlyn from the
start. It only gets worse when Nyssa kidnaps Thea to get to Merlyn, and not
just because Roy attempts to dazzle her with parkour only to receive a knockout
dart. Thea isn’t going to be in any real danger even if she hadn’t received
Merlyn’s training. Nonetheless, the show plays up the kidnapping subplot for
the rest of the hour, and though we get a few nice action sequences, I couldn’t
help but feel like there was too little substance.
While not a truly bad episode, Arrow only manages to do Nyssa justice in the first lackluster
episode of the season. Here’s hoping the introduction of Ra’s Al-Ghul can wipe
this episode from our collective memories.
Score: 7.0
Watch It Like a Fox:
Duck It:
- You were craving closure on the Sara/Nyssa arc.
- You enjoy Roy's useless parkour.
- You've been waiting to see an extended, unique super speed setpiece.
- *15
- You don't just let Malcolm Merlyn go free with no consequences to him.
- You want more Nyssa time. You can only speed up grieving so much.
- Really guys? Still not telling Detective Lance?
On Target Arrow Season 03 Episode 03 "Corto Maltese" Review
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| What do you mean The CW owns me? |
Three episodes in and Arrow is already setting itself up for its best season yet. While "Corto Maltese" didn't have a lot about the death of Sara, this turns out to have been a good thing because we get to further explore one of the more problematic characters of the show: Thea Queen.
Thea started the show as the boozy younger sister to Oliver, an aimless young lady with nothing to look forward to after her brother and father apparently died in a shipwreck. When Oliver returned, she had a little bit of hope for her thoroughly messed up family, but mostly she was content to be the rebellious wild child. It wasn't a bad setup, but the show had been spinning its wheels with Thea up until tonight's episode. While she's never really hateable, she's been pretty unlikable for a while, because we see everyone else's side of the story when she's criticizing them. Moira may have done some messed up stuff and lied to her about it, but she was trying to protect Thea. A fact that enrages Thea before Moira's death, and, after, which serves to motivate her to find Malcolm Merlyn, her father.
Leading in from last week's closing moments, the Arrow crew are now officially on track to find out where Thea is. With a little help from Felicity's hacktravagenza, they find out she's in Corto Maltese, the fabulous paradise hotspot for rich kids since 199X! The flashbacks this week handle Thea's training under Malcolm, who seems to genuinely want his daughter to have a good life. He quickly escalates his training from "kind father looking to provide basic self defense" to "you will become an unstoppable assassin in three months" mode. At least it paid off, judging by Thea's casual disregard after getting hot coffee spilled on her hand. Like, boiling/blistering hot.
But of course, no good episode of Arrow would be complete without at least one badass showdown scene. To this end, Lyla asks Diggle to do a little freelance for ARGUS (she should really stop working there...) by going with Oliver to Corto Maltese and tracking down an agent who has gone dark. Turns out the agent, Mark Shaw (David Cubitt) is a traitor and was looking to collect a fat paycheck by selling ARGUS files to the highest bidder. Thankfully, Oliver, Diggle and Roy are in town to stop it! While the case itself is pretty forgettable, the character of Mark Shaw is recognizable as Manhunter in comics, so we've probably got more of him to look forward to. It's also a little odd that Diggle and Lyla are so casual about putting each others' lives at risk. While it's true Lyla didn't expect Shaw to be involved in anything dangerous, sending her husband to investigate when he's not even on ARGUS payroll feels like they were really stretching for a way to get him there.
While the episode doesn't directly connect dots between Sara's murder, there's still quite a bit of resonance between the themes of "Corto Maltese" and the way the group is dealing with their loss. Oliver is so insistent on getting Thea back presumably because he wants to ensure she doesn't meet a terrible fate like Sara, as well as because he misses her. Laurel is now fully committing to the idea of becoming the Black Canary in Sara's stead, pulling in a puzzled Felicity to help her track down the abusive boyfriend of an Alcoholic's Anonymous member. Though she has a bat and a plan, she's hardly Sara in her confrontation, and ends up in the hospital.
I could practically hear Malcolm Merlyn's voice reverberate through the room when Laurel reflects on her father's comments, and shows up at Ted Grant's (J.R. Ramirez. Also.... OMG, Wildcat!!) gym to start really preparing herself. Those words, spoken to Thea carry weight with the whole cast, most likely:
"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional." Though Sara's loss pains them all, particularly Laurel, they don't have to wallow in it and become sufferers. Both Oliver and Laurel seem to arrive at this conclusion along with Thea, with Oliver deciding to really open up to his sister, though he can't tell her everything quite yet, and Laurel taking a level in badass. But the show isn't going to be reflective for too long, as the episode ends with Nyssa confronting Oliver and Roy, aiming an arrow straight at Ollie and asking for information on Sara. With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Score: 7.5
Watch It Like a Fox:
Duck It:
- Laurel. No seriously, she was fantastic. "Just Google his cell phone or something."
- Felicity is pretty cool too: "Are we favor friends now?"
- You've been waiting for Thea to become a compelling character!
- You always wanted to see Oliver "MacGuyver" a couple of bows and arrows!
- "I never said I didn't know how to use a gun."
- The plot felt a little forced.
- You were hoping for more Roy/Thea interaction.
- You really can't believe that both Detective Lance AND Nyssa are being kept in the dark. Come on team Arrow, these guys deserves to be in the know!
R.I.P. Arrow Season 03 Episode 02 "Sara" Review
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| Sad Oliver is sad. CW owns his |
Grieving is a process. A process so regularly experienced it
becomes almost mundane. And if there’s anything we learn from television, it’s
that the medium doesn’t do “mundane” very well. Even in laid back family fare
like Parenthood, grieving often
includes several scenes of characters absolutely breaking down and making
permanently life altering decisions as opposed to forcing themselves to move
past the loss of a loved one. Arrow
is much more over the top, and so naturally crafts an over the top episode as a
send off to Sara Lance. As usual, it does a great job.
I have to say, part of the reason this review is going up on
the day the third episode of this new season is upon us is because I have been
incredibly busy with real life. But a large part of me was struggling to write
it as well. I know Sara Lance is a fictional character, but her death still
feels more real than any other death in Arrow,
which is particularly ironic considering she has the highest probability of
returning at some later date. But alas, the difficulty in writing this review
didn’t just spring from how tragic her death was, but how raw and emotional her
send off was for the other characters in Universe. Katie Cassidy was particularly
affecting as Laurel, who is in full “rage mode” of the five stages of grief.
When the man who she believes killed her sister is standing before her, she
only hesitates for a moment before attempting to kill him. If Oliver had not
removed the bullets from her gun, then the next few episodes would perhaps be
dealing with her conflicting feelings of relief and guilt over killing Lacroix
rather than her building up to taking Sara’s place as Canary.
Oh, did I mention? Simon Lacroix, AKA Komodo, is totally a
thing in Arrow verse now. The badass
mercenary from DC’s New 52 Green Arrow
appears for the first time on television. Matt
Ward brings a smooth roughness that’s expected of such a cold hearted
assassin, and the stunt work in his fights with the Arrow is amazing. While the
motorbike arrow jousting setpiece went on a little too long, it was well
choreographed, and showed that Oliver can’t compartmentalize as well as he
thinks he can. It’s not surprising, of course, considering all that he’s lost in
such a short time, but Oliver’s seemingly subdued reaction had me worried the
show wasn’t going to fully address the fact that he has lost so many people since his return.
Speaking of his return, we should probably talk about before Oliver arrives at Starling City
and starts losing friends and family. Actually, we should talk about the friend
that thought Oliver might still be
alive, the always welcome Colin Donnell
jumping back into his role as Tommy Merlyn. In the flashback, Oliver has
apparently logged into his old email account while being held by Waller. Tommy here’s
about this and traces the IP to Hong Kong, so he heads out there to see what’s
what, obviously hoping his best friend is still alive. Maseo essentially gives
Ollie an ultimatum, telling him either Oliver Queen has to die, or Tommy Merlyn
does, and since Waller will hurt Maseo’s family if Oliver doesn’t start
cooperating, he’d much prefer to kill Tommy. It’s a tense situation, and one
that I feared would lead to all sorts of plotholes, but thankfully the show
manages to resolve the situation plausibly, and by tying it back to the theme
of the night: saying goodbye to a loved one.
In the end, Tommy musters up the courage to accept that
Oliver is dead when Oliver pretends to be a hacker that wanted to draw Tommy
out to Hong Kong and rob him. He calls the police on himself and Hong Kong PD
free Tommy so he can be alone with his misery. Oliver crushes Tommy’s hopes as
sure as if he was Sara’s killer. In a lot of ways, Oliver’s process to deal
with grief—by burying it beneath his job as the city’s savior—is possible
because of what he did to force Tommy to let go.
Meanwhile, Roy is thinking about the other woman in his life
who has disappeared—Thea, and specifically how he was about to run away with
her. This seeming loose thread is carried through the episode until it acts as
a coda for the next episode when Roy reveals the letter he wrote to Oliver. This
is the impetus for Oliver to stop trying to bury his emotions beneath his stone
face and steel abs and to actually go out and bring one of the people he’s
supposed to protect back: his sister.
All in all, the episode was a great send off to an incredibly
memorable character. Though her death was a little abrupt, the way the
characters remember her is anything but. Death has cast a long shadow on the
cast, and watching them move past the darkness is sure to be a treat as the
season continues.
Score:9.5
Watch It Like a Fox:
Duck It:
- Felicity breaks down completely in one of Emily Bett Rickards' most compelling scenes.
- You know Arrow's action sequences are good, but you're particulary interested in seeing a well done "catch-and-return-the-arrow-fired-at-you" move. Seriouisly, I need a gif of that.
- Even Diggle and Roy have touching remembrances about Sara!
- You're really into Komodo.
- Hey, it's Tommy!
- You really wish someone would tell Detective Lance about Sara's death.
Long Live the Queen Arrow Season 03 Episode 01 "The Calm" Review
 |
| Image Credit: The CW |
If you were to travel back in time to the year 2011 and ask
a random Joe Blow off the street if he thought The CW’s Green Arrow TV series
would be a huge success, you’d probably get one response: “Green Who?” The most remarkable thing about
the fast paced, neo-noir, dark, thriller superhero epic tv series Arrow may just be the fact that it’s
turned a relatively unknown character into a breakout star who embodies justice,
with a willingness to embrace the dark if it leads to the light. And who has a
killer crossfit routine. The first two seasons of Arrow are a mishmash of genre shows. We’ve got the standard teen
soap styling one should expect from the CW, the high concept action set pieces
that wouldn’t be out of place on a Batman TV series, the procedural
investigations of a cops and robbers procedural and even some good ol’ campy
superhero fun every now and again. The show even embraced the legal procedural
in last year’s first half! Each aspect of the series was heightened throughout
the first season, and refined in the second as Oliver Queen, the playboy son of
a billionaire, was molded from a douchey rich snob into a scarred (emotionally
and physically), battle hardened badass willing to do whatever it took to
protect his city.
The show throws plot twist after plot twist at you, all
while coordinating a fantastic cast of characters. Though Stephen Amell is the breakout star (and not just because of his
fantastic body. I am a straight guy but… Well, I’m not sure if I’m a straight
guy after seeing him on that salmon ladder) the rest of the cast are equally
talented. There’s Oliver’s younger sister Thea (Willa Holland), the super efficient bodyguard turned confidante and
best friend John Diggle (David Ramsey),
the obligatory love interest that is also a very successful lawyer, Laurel
Lance (Katie Cassidy), the hilariously
awkward geek girl with surprising chemistry with Oliver, Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) and Colton Haynes as Roy Harper, the
street kid trained by Oliver in the ways of Arrowing.
Last season saw our titular hero, now officially called “The
Arrow” instead of just “the vigilante” or “the Hood”, face off against Slade “Deathstroke”
Wilson (Manu Benett), who was once
marooned on the island Oliver was found on after his father’s cruise ship seemingly
sunk to the bottom of the ocean five years before the series begins. Slade naturally
started as a mentor for Oliver, but was exposed to a drug called “Miracle” (Mirakuru,
if you want to keep the Japanese slant to make it sound more fancy…) which gave
him super strength, but also shattered his sanity. In a fateful flashback
showdown, Oliver thought he had killed him, but the beginning half the season
sees Oliver confront the fact that he didn’t,
and then confront the man himself after Slade spends time targeting his friends
and family and building a very Bane-from-The-Dark-Knight-Rises army of ne’er do
wells.
Takeaway? Last year was intense. This year is poised to be much more so if the premiere is any indication.
“The Calm” starts off just as it suggests, with Diggle apprehensive about the
impending birth of his child, but otherwise the most action the show sees is
the cut and dry takedown of average crooks. Things begin to pick up when a new
Count Vertigo arrives, but he’s unfortunately rather lackluster, though this is
mostly due to the lack of time to fully expand upon his character.
Honestly,
this show is probably great at everything but
actually getting too in depth with the one-off/two-off villains. It’s a setback
that’s surprising since many people think DC’s villains are perhaps the most
interesting characters in their multiverse. Nonetheless, the episode’s
strengths hinge on its ability to refocus Oliver’s character yet again. While
he starts on top of the world, despite the loss of his company and his mother,
he’s got a lot to look forward to in the future. Like a date with Felicity.
The awkwardness of Oliver’s asking Felicity out is a nice
reversal, noted by the Arrow writers
themselves through Felicity, and a lot of shippers who have been hoping for “Olicity”
to happen were likely dancing during this bit. Personally, while I’ve never
hated this “ship”, I’ve never thought it was particularly intriguing. Though if
this episode is any indication, a future relationship between these characters
could be promising if only for relieving some of Oliver’s doom and gloom. Amell
and Rickards do have a fantastic chemistry, and it’s hard to not want a little
happiness for Oliver after losing his best friend, mother, and now—Oh, wait, we
didn’t cover this already? Well, I guess I might as well drop the bombshell now:
Sara Lance, AKA Black Canary, has died. The one thing I hated about the
premiere was how rushed it felt, and the death of Sara Lance is the cherry on
top of this complaint, as she returned only a few scenes before she was killed,
giving Laurel a final pep talk and showing off in a kickass tandem fight scene
with Oliver and Roy. After this, it’s straight to the rooftop where she takes a
trio of arrows and falls to the ground. Ouch.
The episode is clearly set up for a more painful season of Arrow than we’ve seen before—while Tommy
and Moira were killed in past seasons, Oliver was able to immediately confront
their killers and bring them down, and they also died as “innocents”, not
allies fighting Oliver’s war on darkness. Not to mention the rest of the cast
weren’t as close. Everyone in the main cast has a strong connection to Sara,
and it’s this connection which is going to make her death more meaningful. Here’s
hoping they build from Sara’s death in a more meaningful way aside from the
obvious motivation for Laurel to take up the mantle of Black Canary.
Arrow opens its 3rd season by lulling its viewers
into a false sense of security, giving the main cast a break from death defying
action for only forty minutes before yanking the rug out from under viewers and
characters alike by killing one of its most beloved cast members. In other
words, the show is about as awesome as it’s ever been. Between Oliver
confronting his fears over being too complacent as a person preventing him from
being the vigilante he could be, Diggle’s heartwarming reaction to fatherhood
and Brandon Routh joining the cast as
Ray Palmer, the smarmy billionaire looking to run Queen Consolidated, it’s
shaping up to be a fantastic year!
Score: 9.0
Watch It Like a Fox:
Duck It:
- You love all the awesome action and heartwarming moments.
- Roy's officially Speedy! I mean, he was last year, but now he's got the rad costume and everything. Did I just say "rad ?" I'm sorry; pretend I mistyped "red".
- Brandon Routh has come to Arrowland!
- You've been waiting for Olicity to happen since the show started.
- Terribly rushed death scene for one of the most interesting and well developed characters.
- You want to see villains fleshed out a little bit more.
- NOOOO! SARA!!!!! We need a Lazarus Pit over here!