Green Arrow TV

Anybody else watching this?

It's obvious he is the Batman substitute some executives at WB are willing to settle for. Rich guy with a themed costume, fights crime after a devastating personal loss in his childhood.

It feels like a spin-off from Smallville. Even though it isn't the same Green Arrow. All the sets seem very similar. The Queen Mansion looks almost like the Luthor mansion redressed, the offices where "Laurel" Lance works look a lot like the Daily Planet offices, but shot from different angles and using spaces differently.

It's still very soapy. Much of the scenes are just, okay lets put two characters together and let one take a turn at being mad/disappointed/suspicious of/at the other. Despite any logical or contradictory reason. Seemingly as if different writers get different scenes, without much of an idea of what has gone before. Like they divided up the script after hearing a brief verbal plot outline. Then shot the scenes out of order, and hoped editing would fix it all. So just like Smallville the scripts put drama before logic. And just like Smallville, their is a lot of forced and inconsistent drama. And another Smallville similarity, many characters seem to be starting out with names of characters from the comics that will obviously be taking very different paths.

And there is a weird thing with Oliver Queen, having determination one minute and then angst the next over pretending to be the whole Bruce Wayne/Tony Stark style, playboy he was in the past as a cover, they don't handle that any better than the other drama. Again, from scene to scene there are odd inconsistencies. But it's only been two episodes, could these inconsistencies be just the expository diareaha of a new show, wanting new viewers to be able to easily jump on at any point in the broadcast?

But it has some fun fight scenes and some nice flashback elements going on, flashbacks to his trauma and training. From the horror revolving around the deaths of his fellow passengers on the "Queen's Gambit" to his survival and training on the island. It's darker than Smallville, and could have easily been a Batman or a Daredevil show. It's fun enough so far, it might get better, it could get repetitive like Smallville did. Luckily it doesn't have Kryptonite monsters. But it does have Dad's list of Bad guys, and so far each episode has conveniently had one that showed up as threats to "Laurel" Lance. Not a Krypyonite villain of the week, yet. But probably too soon to tell.

Arrow gets picked up for a full season...

http://www.tv.com/m/news/report-the-cw-orders-a-full-season-of-arrow-29883/

I'm loving the show.

SPOILER...sort of:



Seeing Diggle under the hood last night was cool. And Deathstroke...Yay. Some moments, when they get all CW I could do without. But I understand why they are there, just like the ads with half nekkid Ollie just staring out like he is in an Abercrombie and Fitch poster. I think they do a good job for the most part appealing to several different demographics.

I love the fight choreography for the most part. The Deathstroke vs. Badass asian dude fight was great, if not too short. My one complaint is that some fights look too rushed. Not in a knockout out of nowhere UFC fight way either. They start off great, very intense, and then it ends awkwardly. See the above mentioned Ollie mentor-Deathstroke fight. That last blow and escape looked...off. Detective Lance is also really close to just being a cypher/caricature than a real character. He is too over the top sometimes and is starting to drift into Punisher War Zone villain territory for me. I am rage, rah rah. But overall the show does more right than bad for me and I am enjoying the heck out of it.

I haven't seen this, but my younger son has been watching and likes it a lot. I hear the Royal Flush Gang was on this week? Great idea for a villain team, a concept that should work on TV as well as in the comics.

Ha yeah. Many people must agree with you, or there must be a Royal Flush Gang fan club at Time Warner. They show up in a lot of shows. They were on the Superfriends, Batman Beyond, Justice League Unlimited and Brave and the Bold too.

Haha, I didn't know that! But yeah, makes sense!

Hmm, I wonder if Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky have any heirs who could be getting royalties now? Probably not.