Arrow S01E02 – Review

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

The Story: In which you get one more reason why Legal Aid is the most thankless job ever.

The Review: The most important lesson I took from the massively disappointing Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is nothing is less funny than someone that tries to be funny—and actually succeeds in convincing himself he’s funny.  The second most important lesson I learned from the show is a strong pilot can easily give way to a mediocre or downright terrible show.  From then on, I’ve always kept my expectations in control until after the mid-season.

This strategy seems especially appropriate when dealing with a CW adaptation of a comic book character.  Despite a pretty solid debut last week, it wouldn’t be difficult for me to imagine a scenario where the quality of Arrow episodes just plummets afterward.  That doesn’t quite happen here, but you do feel that whatever momentum the pilot generated, it gets a little lost in the follow-up.