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 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 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 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 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 S01E20 – Review

By: Ben Sokolowski & Beth Schwartz (story)

The Story: I suppose we can’t flip a coin to decide which assassin to take down first.

The Review: A few years ago, I took a course on opinion writing for my journalism major.  As a beginner’s exercise, we all had to write a short piece expressing our point of view on pretty much anything that came to mind.  One of my classmates delivered an impassioned tirade about Twilight, mostly about how Edward Cullen “sparkled,” which drove her insane because “Vampires don’t SPARKLE.”  She had strong opinions about supernatural figures, you see.

I can’t say I have too many pet peeves when it comes to fiction—and none that gets me riled up like sparkling vampires did for my classmate.  But there are little things that pop up in stories that sometimes bother me.  The one that gets to me the most is when writers subjugate characters to their story, turning them into means to an end, rather than figures who have personalities and lives of their own, separate from whatever story the writer has in mind.  This episode reminds me how Arrow often reduces the characters to mere objects, all orbiting around the show’s star.

Arrow S01E15 – Review

By: Beth Schwartz (story)

The Story: The pressure of working with a vigilante is enough to make Felicity’s head explode.

The Review: I’m a pretty big West Wing fan, and one of my favorite things about the West Wing was the rise of Donna Moss on the show.  Here you had this college dropout with little more to recommend her except a willingness to work overtime, good Midwestern/Canadian values, and a sense of humor, and soon she’s privy to the inner workings of the White House and helping to change the nation in her own, special way.

I mention Donna because she has a lot in common with Felicity, or rather, Janel Moloney has a lot in common with Emily Bett Richards.  I’m focusing mostly on their ability to make the most out of their parts on their respective shows, delivering their dozen lines with such good-natured personality that they stick with you far longer than they have any right to.  Even if the producers didn’t make Richards a regular for next season, you’d consider her one anyway, just like people did Moloney in season one of the West Wing.

Arrow S01E13 – Review

By: Lana Cho & Beth Schwartz (story)

The Story: The awkward moment when a father and daughter realize they’re after the same man.

The Review: In all my television-viewing years, I don’t remember a time when the WB (now CW) had a real, big hit on its hands.  It never had a beloved sitcom like Friends or an anchor drama like Law and Order.  If the network ever won an Emmy, it was rare and far in-between.  Seeing as how I’m in the business of guessing at things I have no direct experience in, my theory is that WB/CW shows never really manage to take risks that break them free of old formulas.

Arrow provides an interesting case in point.  A mix of different genres, it doesn’t really excel in any one, nor does it manage to balance its various stories well.  The characters generally feel like second-grade, cookie-cutter carbons of other, more famous figures.  The show often seems to take plotlines from a recycle pile of stories, gives them a good buffing, then integrates them into an episode.  It all comes across as vaguely knockoff, like clothes from Gorgio Armooni.

Arrow S01E08 – Review

By: Beth Schwartz & Andrew Kreisberg (story)

The Story: Every couple should find a hobby to do together—like ruthlessly taking down mafia.

The Review: Just like anything else, the introduction of a new character into a story must generally serve the story, either by advancing the plot or revealing some character.  If, by the end of a story, the character hasn’t made much of an impact, then probably the series would’ve been better off never running into that character.  The worst shows, as you might expect, are the ones where you have a whole episode of events and absolutely nothing changes.

Now that I’ve gotten us started on a low note, let’s get back to a high one, because Helena actually does serve a purpose for Arrow.  Her wild card personality gives the plot of Ollie’s latest target some greater stakes and a little more complication than his usual missions, although it doesn’t result in the big gangster war that the episode promised.  I suppose I was expecting something that would really infect the city, rather than a shootout on the Bertinelli estate.