Arrow S02E23 – Review

By: Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg (story)

The Story: Mercenaries versus assassins versus special ops versus superheroes. Go!

The Review: So I just took my last law school final ever yesterday! Aren’t you all proud of me? No? Get on with the review, already? Okay. The last season has seen Arrow fully embracing its comic book origins with pride, drawing in established characters from the DC canon from all levels, the great and the obscure alike, all in an impressively organic way. The finale is thus a culmination of the work and spirit of the season as a whole, which is what a season finale should be.

Not only does every cast member get a big part in the proceedings (except, perhaps, for Dinah), nearly every major character introduced in the last two seasons shows up, with appearances from Malcolm Merlyn, Deadshot, Amanda Waller, Nyssa Al Ghul, and even Lyla, flying in on a helicopter and firing a rocket launcher to ward off some of Slade’s army. The conflicts range from the epic (a city-wide war between an army of superhuman convicts against Team Arrow and a battalion of assassins, all with the threat of an A.R.G.U.S. drone strike looming overhead) to the personal (Ollie’s fight to the death with Slade, twice over). That’s what I call a season finale worthy of superheroes.

Arrow S02E22 – Review

By: Jake Coburn & Ben Sokolowski (story)

The Story: It’s Opposite Day in Starling City as assassins go out of their way to save lives.

The Review: Late again! No big movie premiere got in the way this time, just studying for a big final. I always feel bad doing this to Arrow, especially since it’s been in its prime this season, but such is the way of this harsh, unforgiving world. I think the characters of Arrow would understand. Right now, they’re struggling to survive in a Starling City on the brink of oblivion, facing threats within and without, from above and below, despite the best of intentions.

It’s kind of amazing how many of the most twisted characters in the show are the ones most convinced that they’re doing the right thing. Slade, of course, has the excuse of being legitimately off his rocker, but Blood seems blind to his own crimes even as he acknowledges the mistake he made in partnering with Slade. With his entire office slain,* the city in near ruins, and even after Isabel gives him the run-through on the end of his mayorship, his last words are a clenched, defiant, “I loved this city.” It’s an interesting moment in that he expresses no regret for what he’s actually done, yet there’s still a note of triumph, even manic heroism in his voice.

Arrow S02E21 – Review

By: Holly Harold (story)

The Story: Beware the men in masks.

The Review: I actually watched this episode of Arrow the night it came out, and had an outline of a review ready to go yesterday, but due to circumstances beyond my control (i.e., desperately trying to finish a multitude of assignments at the last minute after putting them off for a week or two), I didn’t get around to writing the thing until evening. By then, it was time for my showing of Amazing Spider-Man 2 and of course, movies have priority over TV episodes. You know how it is.

Watching and reviewing ASM2 did have an interesting effect on my evaluation of “City of Blood,” though. Specifically, I suddenly became a lot more sensitive about the sketchier bits of plotting in this episode. Dinah’s illicit investigation into Blood’s records seems more questionable now than it did the first time around. I’m just saying it’s a good thing that tech specialist she and her dad persuade into assisting didn’t have too rigid a moral compass (at first hesitant about hacking the newly elected mayor, he gives in: “Hell, this is a dead end job, anyway.”). And thank goodness Blood for some reason keeps a timestamp at the bottom of his press release drafts, just so you know that he was forewarned of Moira’s death. Dinah and Quentin might have had to do some actual research, otherwise.

Arrow S02E20 – Review

By: Wendy Mericle & Beth Schwartz (story)

The Story: Long live the Queen.

The Review: I used to think of Arrow as having a very compact cast, but with all the new additions of this second season, the population is starting to get a little unwieldy. Despite efforts to give everyone his or her due in due measure, the show consistently struggles to find compelling things for certain characters to do. Two of them are featured in this episode, and by the end of it, the show chooses to continue investment in one and pull the plug on the other.

Had Arrow been an original series, I would’ve said the show had made a mistake in its choices. In any other circumstance, Roy would’ve been more suited for the chopping block, being the one-dimensional set of abs he is. Most episodes, he’s a foil for someone else rather than a distinctly motivated character, and here, he’s reduced to a plot device, a means to distract Team Arrow and the audience from the threat of Slade until the mercenary wrenches attention back on himself in the most shocking way.

Arrow S02E19 – Review

By: Greg Berlanti, Geoff Johns, Andrew Kreisberg, Keto Shimizu (story)

The Story: Isabel may have had a point when she said Ollie would drag his company into ruin.

The Review: Not unlike the most recent episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Arrow had some fairly momentous developments last time around, but left almost no time for anyone to really process them. That task is left up to this episode, the entirety of which is less about taking action and more about responding to actions already taken. It’s a quieter episode than we’re used to, but perhaps a necessary one to allow the characters to inspect the damage that’s been dealt to each of them.

For Thea, this means a thorough examination of herself, to see how much of her identity has been eroded by the dual whammies of Roy leaving and discovering her true parentage. When you consider that around this time last year, Thea had nothing going for her character other than a cliché of a teen romance with Roy, it’s quite remarkable to see her running one of the strongest character arcs of the season. Her entire outburst to Ollie as to how devastating Slade’s revelation has been to her is genuine and effective throughout, starting from her correction that he isn’t her brother, but her half-brother.

Arrow S02E18 – Review

By: Marc Guggenheim & Drew Z. Greenberg (story)

The Story: Have you seen this girl? If so, call the Arrow on his encrypted phone line.

The Review: When Slade swore revenge against Ollie, you assumed he was seeking retribution equal to the suffering he believed Ollie caused him—an eye for an eye, appropriately enough. By that calculation, and factoring in Shado’s death, you expected this meant the death of all of Ollie’s loved ones. But we’ve seen since that Slade’s vengeance is nothing so simple. He’s had ample opportunity to kill everyone in Ollie’s orbit since he came to Starling City, yet he’s held back every time.

Of course, Slade has changed objectives since the island. In “Three Ghosts”, he promised anew, “I am going to tear everything [Ollie] cares about away from him. Destroy those who choose to follow him. Corrupt those he loves.” Ollie dies only after “he has lost everyone and everything he values[.]” It’s a psychological breakdown Slade wants for Ollie, not unlike the one he’s experienced since the dual trauma of being injected with the Mirakuru and losing Shado.*

Arrow S02E17 – Review

By: Mark Bemesderfer & A.C. Bradley (story)

The Story: Ollie encounters the wrath of girlfriends past.

The Review: While any intimate relationship between human beings leaves its mark even after it’s over, romances tend to have the most profound effects on people—not surprising, as you’re often baring more of yourself to your partner than anyone else, even your friends and family. Looking at a person’s ex, how they met, how they got along, and how they broke up, you get a fairly complete portrait of who that person is for however long the relationship lasts.

After last week’s episode put Diggle front and center, you’d think the focus would shift right back to Ollie this time around. Instead, the spotlight trains elsewhere, only partially illuminating Ollie on the fringes. Since all three of the main players—Helena, Sara, and Dinah—have been romantically entangled with Ollie at one point (some twice!), the episode isn’t entirely divorced from its star, but his role is felt rather than seen. He’s an influence, but not the focus.

Arrow S02E16 – Review

By: Keto Shimizu & Bryan Q. Miller (story)

The Story: Diggle doesn’t dig his ex-wife’s new pals too much.

The Review: I’ve been getting kind of worried about Diggle for a while, now.  Though in my mind, the core Arrow team will always be him, Felicity, and Ollie, the recent membership of Roy and Sara threatens to significantly erode his presence.  What need does Ollie have for an ex-soldier when he’s got a powerhouse and a trained assassin?  Felicity will always provide the techie know-how; Diggle’s value needs to be similarly set in stone.

Hence a Diggle-centric episode .  In a rather clever use of the show’s usual structure, the flashbacks switch from the tropical trials on the island to the desert cliffs of Afghanistan, where we see Diggle in full army gear protecting a fleeing caravan of villagers with future ex-wife (then fellow soldier) Lyla.  Over the course of the episode, as we see Diggle save a wanted criminal and mourn over the death of a boy who shot at him, his value to Team Arrow becomes a little clearer: his moral rigidity.

Arrow S02E15 – Review

By: Jake Coburn & Ben Sokolowski (story)

The Story: One should think twice before inviting a man with an eye-patch into one’s home.

The Review: I didn’t mention the cliffhanger appearance of Slade in the Queen family home last week because there really wasn’t much to talk about besides its dramatic power.  Now that we’re actually dealing with the fallout from his revealing himself to Ollie, we ought to talk about Arrow’s portrayal of Slade Wilson, who in many respects cuts a more impressive yet sympathetic figure on TV than he does in comics.

Compared to the amoral mercenary we almost always see (check out his guest part in Forever Evil for a typical example), television’s Slade has an emotional component driving his ruthless behavior, one that makes him difficult to hate even when he’s planning to destroy Ollie and everyone he loves.  A large part of this comes from the passion Manu Bennett brings to the role, selling Slade’s rage and despair with equal finesse, making you believe that there’s a core of pain in his deadened heart.

Arrow S02E14 – Review

By: Wendy Mericle & Beth Schwartz (story)

The Story: Nothing like a tirade against your long-lost sister to ruin a family dinner.

The Review: Apologies for the lateness, but midterm duties called and I had to answer.  You know how it is.  But let’s not waste any more time than we have already.  This week’s episode finally puts a pin in the most troubled part of the show this season: Dinah, burgeoning alcoholic, pill-popper, drama queen, and all-around mess.  It’s not hard to see her trajectory towards rock bottom, but the ETA has been repeatedly delayed by new personal crises.

But then, Arrow has always struggled to find a place for Dinah, established early on as one of its major figures, but quickly overshadowed by the rest of the cast, even, lately, Roy.  At this point, Dinah is in a very risky position for a character in a fictional series: she doesn’t have a clear or secure position in relation to Ollie except as a romantic interest, nor does she have a purpose of her own to pursue.  The closest she came to either of these things was her untimely investigation into Sebastian Blood, which only led her further along her downward spiral.  Frankly, this was all starting to seem dangerously Mandy-esque.*

Arrow S02E13 – Review

By: Jake Coburn (story)

The Story: It should be common sense that you should never cross an assassin in love.

The Review: Arrow constantly surprises me with its obviously deep, committed knowledge of DC continuity.  There have been a lot of times on this show when I thought it was introducing a completely original character or concept, only to discover, a quick Wiki later, that it had instead found some obscure part of the DCU to repurpose for its own uses.  More power to them, I say.  Why not make use of that colorful universe and simultaneously update it for a modern audience?

Interestingly enough, while most of the New 52 comics have been recycling familiar, bankable material, it’s Arrow that’s exposed me to the more obscure corners of DC continuity.  Case in point: I had no idea that Ra’s al Ghul ever had any other children than Talia. I was sure that Nyssa Raatko was just a stand-in for her more famous sister, probably because of highly complicated legal and proprietary reasons.  That she is a character in her own right, one in many ways more nuanced and intriguing than Talia, is the pleasantest of surprises.

Arrow S02E12 – Review

By: Marc Guggenheim & Drew Z. Greenberg (story)

The Story: Starling City takes the integrity of the political process to a whole new low.

The Review: Have you ever noticed that even though ninety-five percent* of all hiring decisions are based on how closely the candidates followed rules and conventions, the people who rise to the top are usually the ones who break them?  Fiction tends to follow suit.  Characters who stick to the program more often than not become the dutiful, straight-man sidekicks to the rebellious heroes, with the possible exception of Star Trek’s Spock.

So the chances of Roy actually following through with Ollie’s training regimen were pretty much nil.  Part of the issue is that instead of explaining how each exercise is supposed to help Roy, Ollie just repeats the same stale line about “control” a dozen times.  On the other hand, just taking Roy out in the field proves to be counterproductive as well.  What Ollie fails to recognize is that as serious as his new protégé’s physical symptoms are, Roy’s problem is essentially an emotional one.

Arrow S02E11 – Review

By: Wendy Mericle & Beth Schwartz (story)

The Story: Dinah’s lousy, no-good, very bad day.

The Review: The moment Dinah took on this mission to discredit and expose a man with as much goodwill as Sebastian Blood, she should have known there was always a possibility that it would backfire on her.  Perhaps she can be excused for hoping that her father and closest friend might put more weight on her word than their own besotted view of Blood, but to do so without even a scrap of proof?  That’s expecting a bit much, especially for an assistant D.A.

Therein lies the structural weakness of Dinah’s storyline, or at least the show’s treatment of it.  It’s clear that the end goal was always to drive her into a corner then pull the rug out from under her.  Each episode has been systematically doing that from the season premiere, eroding away what little competence and confidence she had left after losing Tommy.  But even though the writers have accomplished their goal and finally left her reeling at rock-bottom, they had to take some major leaps to get there.

Arrow S02E10 – Review

By: Jake Coburn & Keto Shimizu (story)

The Story: Sebastian Blood’s rally is going to blow through the roof.

The Review: After pointing out Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s reliance on the monster-of-the-week episode format, it’s only fair to discuss how the format works in Arrow.  In season one, Arrow acted much like any other CW drama, each week introducing a new villain for Ollie to tackle and learn something from.  Since then, however, the show has mostly outgrown that formula, sustaining itself almost entirely on material from ongoing storylines.

Transitions like this usually happen across a long period of time, so I can’t point out exactly which episode marked the start of Arrow’s evolution.  Somewhere along the way, however, the showrunners must have realized the short-term benefits of developing corporate scumbags and various other criminals, only to put them away after a single episode.  From that point, Arrow invested fully in building continuity to last, drawing in new characters only in service to the long-term plot.  The show has done this very well for quite a while now, so when this episode falls back on old tricks, it’s noticeable and disappointing.

Arrow S02E09 – Review

By: Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Geoff Johns, Ben Sokolowski (story)

The Story: This will teach Oliver to distrust the life-saving powers of rat poison.

The Review: I still get a little mental jolt every time I encounter a decidedly non-comic-booky person who says he or she loves Arrow.  As delighted as I am, it’s all I can do to stop myself from asking suspiciously, “Why?”  The popularity of superhero movies, each one a massive dose of generally undemanding escapism, I can understand.  A TV show requires a certain amount of commitment, so how does Arrow earn it without playing on pure fanship?

For this episode, I tried looking at it through the lens of someone who had little to no connection with the DCU or its mythology at all, which was perhaps bad timing on my part.  Arrow has long outgrown throwing in the obligatory Easter Eggs; DC mainstays now make up a significant demographic of the show’s population, and it’s not just second or third-tier figures, either.  Here, the show is clearly confident enough to take on the big leagues, from the return of Deathstroke (with eye-patch, most importantly), the birth of Solomon Grundy, and Barry Allen’s transformation into the Flash—and you don’t get any bigger than that.

Arrow S02E08 – Review

By: Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Geoff Johns (story)

The Story: No time for nerd love when there be superhumans romping about.

The Review: Not that Arrow has ever been ashamed of its superhero roots, but for a long time, the show shied away from anything that would classify as “super.”  Obviously, this was part of an attempt to present Arrow as a semi-realistic and grounded superhero adaptation in the mold of the recent Batman movies, but there’s also always the risk that bringing in characters flashier and more powerful than our hero himself would marginalize him in his own show.

That doesn’t quite happen in this episode, but you can see the potential threat the moment we’re introduced to a bona fide superhuman as well as the mere promise of one.  The former, gifted with most basic gifts of prodigious strength and durability, gives Ollie so good a thrashing that his allies are forced to resort to the most drastic measures to save his life.  The latter, even with no special powers to speak of at present, receives such prominence—which is due just from his iconography—that he at times overshadows even Ollie’s presence in the episode.

Arrow S02E07 – Review

By: Marc Guggenheim & Drew Z. Greenberg (story)

The Story: Vertigo’s out of order, Moira’s out of order, this whole city’s out of order!

The Review: Moira Queen is an interesting figure within the Arrow universe.  Central as she is to some of the show’s most important storylines, she’s never been much of an active player in any of them.  This is partially the fault of her character makeup; as an upper-class socialite with few discernible skills, she has little choice but to fall back on classic feminine wiles to exert her power.  She deceives, schemes, bargains, but rarely do you see her actually do anything.

Yet even in this limited capacity, Moira does far more than other characters in her position, which is mother to our hero.  Usually, these women are relegated to little more than sounding boards for their children’s exploits and had Moira been trapped in this role, she’d have a much smaller presence in the show.  As she is now, her sole purpose seems to be generating drama for the other principals to grapple with, a function which she serves very well.

Arrow S02E06 – Review

By: Ben Sokolowski & Beth Schwartz (story)

The Story: To Russia with love.

The Review: Almost every TV series, even the best ones, goes through the same pattern of growth, particularly during the early seasons.  The first season is all about setting tone: the characters’ core personalities, the general dynamics among them, the style, pace, and purpose of the show.  It’s usually the second season where things get exciting; with the basics out of the way, the writers can focus on having fun and expanding the bounds of the world they’ve created.

Arrow’s second season easily falls into this model as it steadily incorporates more and more elements from the comic book mythos which inspired the show.  In addition to passing references to particle accelerators and WWII-era genetic experiments, the show has officially opened the revolving door of DC character appearances, this time allowing Amanda Waller to step through and be her usual coercive self.*

Arrow S02E05 – Review

By: Jake Coburn & Drew Z. Greenberg (story)

The Story: When assassins come calling, calm yourself with Chinese food.

The Review: As much as I happen to love WCBR’s letter-grading system, it does lead me into some tricky quandaries, not the least of which is the separation between an X-, X, or X+.  It’s easy enough to get a sense of what letter-grade something deserves, but justifying those tweaks, slight as they are, is a more difficult task.  I didn’t start out this review with the intention of making insights into my grading rubric, but I think this episode is a good sample for just that.

Last week, I gave “Crucible” a B.  Today, I’m giving “League of Assassins” a B+.  But why?  What did last night’s episode do just ever so much better than its predecessor that gives it that edge?  What did it not do to creep over into A territory?  Does Minhquan really have any objective criteria for this kind of distinction or is he just an arbitrary critic who also apparently likes to refer to himself in the third person?

Arrow S02E04 – Review

By: Andrew Kreisberg & Wendy Mericle (story)

Spoilers ahead.  From the moment it was announced a Canary would be appearing on the show, speculation ran rampant as to her identity.  Quite a lot of people immediately insisted that it had to be Sarah, the younger Lance sister who ran away with Ollie, only to meet her watery death.  I, always hoping that a story won’t be tempted to take such an obvious route, thought there was at least a possibility not-Canary would turn out to someone no one expected.

Once again, however, I find my hopes ruthlessly dashed.  From the moment that Felicity and Ollie hypothesize that not-Canary has been following Dinah, not Ollie, all along, it pretty much clinches the Sarah theory.  I’ll say this for Arrow, though: it doesn’t tend to dance around the obvious.  Rather than spend an entire episode delaying the inevitable reveal, the show gets it all over with in the cold open, leaving us free to enjoy the fallout.

Arrow S02E03 – Review

By: Marc Guggenheim & Keto Shimizu (story)

The Story: Yet another reason to be suspicious of men who collect dolls.

The Review: I never thought I’d see the day when a TV series from DC featuring Green Arrow—and on the CW, for crying out loud—would inspire greater enthusiasm than a Marvel series.  But when I found myself suddenly very much looking forward to the next showing of Arrow as a palette cleanser from the disappointment that was Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s fifth episode, it made me realize how much confidence Arrow has earned since its debut.*

Obviously, it’s unfair to compare a show that has already won a second season to one that hasn’t even reached the halfway point of its first just yet.  Arrow comes now with the benefit of nearly a year’s worth of character work and interrelationships, so your emotional investment will naturally be greater.  This episode in particularly puts all that development on full display, and you may be surprised by how potent some of the character combinations turn out to be.

Arrow S02E02 – Review

By: Ben Sokolowski & Beth Schwartz (story)

The Story: For once, you can’t blame incompetence for FEMA’s problems.

The Review: Turning over a new leaf is never an easy process.  Aside from the difficulty of changing old habits, you’ve now got to learn how to apply your new ones to your life.  When Ollie indicated last week that he’s ready to take a different tack to his vigilantism, that murder is no longer his first option, you have to wonder if he took into account the changes in Starling City since his Return from the Island, Part II.

With the Glades in total disarray, the city now seems legitimately in desperate need of a hero.  The villains have only stepped up their game since season one, carrying out more dastardly crimes than ever.  As she preys upon the medication lifeline from FEMA that the Glades’ hospitals depend on to survive, China White proves that she’s only grown fiercer and less scrupulous since she was hired to take down Malcolm Merlyn—and now she’s bringing friends.  Taking on a no-kill rule under those circumstances seems to signal a lot of future uphill battles.

Arrow S02E01 – Review

By: Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Marc Guggenheim (story)

The Story: Nothing like a good island getaway to relieve the stress of a devastated hometown.

The Review: Even though the first season of Arrow came with all the growing pains every new show experiences as it settles on its voice, it built a lot of confidence with viewers like me because it not only knew exactly what kind of story and tone it wanted, but it also had the humility to make changes as needed.  That makes Arrow’s second season job much easier, when the goal is to capitalize on early strengths while rejiggering the things that didn’t quite work.

The cold open does both tasks at once and thus sets a good for the rest of the episode.  No matter how poignant Ollie’s interactions with his family or intriguing his romance with Dinah, the relationship that truly drives the show is the dynamic between Ollie, Diggle, and Felicity.  Kicking off the season with Diggle and Felicity (now promoted to series regular), skydiving towards Lian Yu and barely escaping death by land mine thanks to a grappling-line rescue by Ollie, makes for a very good start indeed.

Arrow S01E23 – Review

By: Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg (story)

The Story: Sometimes it feels like your whole world is tumbling down around you.

The Review: Phew.  Let me tell you: covering a TV series from start to finish requires quite a bit of commitment, and the task is made even more difficult by a show like Arrow, which is still, even here in its first season finale, trying to find itself.  It’s a show that’s got so many genres and elements mixed together that finding the right balance among them all could take another season or so yet.  But here, it proves itself worthy of investing in its evolution, however long it takes.

This episode works because while it has the same over-the-top energy that defeated the show’s credibility in other instances, it channels that energy in all the right places.  Malcolm’s speech to a trussed up Ollie starts as a drag of a villain’s monologue, crowing and condescending at the same time: “You can’t beat me, Oliver.  Yes, you’re younger, and you’re faster, and yet you always seem to come up short against me.”  But after all that’s out of the way, he reveals his choicest lines: “You want to know why?  Because you don’t know in your heart what you’re fighting for—what you’re willing to sacrifice.  And I do.”

Arrow S01E22 – Review

By: Drew Z. Greenberg & Wendy Mericle (story)

The Story: Every good mother-son relationship is built on honesty—even if you have to threaten it out of them.

The Review: Last night I was talking to a friend online and when I mentioned that I watched Arrow, he asked, “Oh, yeah—how is that?”  I told him what I felt was the truth.  “It’s a truly mixed bag.”  And it really, truly is.  There have been some standout episodes this season, and ones that I could very easily forget, but overall, the average showing of Arrow is usually an uneven combination of high points and low points.

For example, can we be spared the pointless and awkward exposition already?  Dinah meets with Ollie at his club, then proceeds to give him a recap of what happened between them last week, starting, unbelievably enough, by saying, “Last week, I told you that I wanted to get back with Tommy—that I needed you to go to him and explain to him that you didn’t still have feelings for me.  But instead, you told me that you did.”  She might as well have preceded the line with, “Previously, on Arrow…”