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 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 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 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 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 S01E21 – Review

By: Jake Coburn & Lana Cho (story)

The Story: Felicity and Ollie take a bet on their teamwork as a duo act.

The Review: With the season winding down, it’s just about the time for the show’s writers to start tying all their various plot threads together into something suitable for the finale, a big task for a series as active as Arrow.  Over the last twenty episodes, we’ve seen a number of characters introduced, killed off or shooed away, then returned; a handful of romances sparked, some of which have already petered out; and the addition of several major cast members.

Through it all there was always the looming threat of Malcolm Merlyn’s Undertaking, ostensibly a final attempt to clean up the Glades for good, but really just an extreme strike back against the place which took his wife.  With all the other craziness happening in the show (e.g. Tommy discovering Ollie’s secret, Diggle going after Deadshot), the Undertaking has taken a bit of a backseat, and we really don’t know too many details as to what it’ll entail just yet.

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 S01E18 – Review

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

The Story: Proof that neglect of public transit will just come back to haunt a city someday.

The Review: Not that this show has shied away from violence, but it’s always been the kind of unalarming,* almost campy kind of violence where people tend to die suddenly or bloodlessly (unless, of course, one is being stabbed, in which case the actual piercing takes place off screen and only afterward do you see the bloody blade next to the crazed grin of the stabber).  In Arrow, as in comics, death has been taken for granted; it usually doesn’t have the force it should.

Greenburg-Mericle try to change that in this episode’s villain-of-the-day, another would-be vigilante who picks up various folk he believes deserve punishment, strings them up, then asks them for last words before shooting them point-blank.  What makes this otherwise melodramatic scene convincing is the fact that he actually broadcasts these executions to Starling City at large.

Arrow S01E17 – Review

By: Jake Coburn & Lana Cho (story)

The Story: Everyone duck and cover—Ollie’s crazy ex is back in town!

The Review: Because I’m nothing if not an optimist, I like to think that every time a piece of fiction reintroduces a character, it has the opportunity to strip away the problematic parts in favor of someone more nuanced, complex, and accessible to the audience.  What Arrow has frequently done instead is reduce major DC figures to the simplest incarnation possible.  In the show’s attempt to make these characters more grounded or edgy, it’s also made them rather monotonous.

It doesn’t help if other characters tend to view each other in taglines and bywords.  When both Diggle and Felicity refer repeatedly to Helena Bertinelli as Ollie’s “psycho ex-girlfriend,” they’re reinforcing the one-dimensional nature of Helena’s personality.  Vengefulness is already a somewhat inert character trait, and vengefulness towards one’s own father—to the point where one doesn’t even want to risk letting him have a “second chance”—is even less impressive.

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 S01E12 – Review

By: Wendy Mericle & Ben Sokolowski (story)

The Story: No one tries to put Green Arrow’s little sister in the slammer—nobody!

The Review: Although it’s taken some creative fudging and narrative necessity, the show has finally established a somewhat enduring familial relationship between Ollie, Thea, and Moira.  Time will tell if the Queen family dynamics can carry the show over the long term.  For now, it’s enough that you get a sense of sincere affection among the trio, though tested by frequent, sudden switches in their personality or temperament.

Ollie’s vacillations between caring and coldness have become second-nature by now, but Thea’s unpredictable attitudes seem patented for the sake of injecting conflict and drama as needed.  She begins the episode pale and nervous about her court hearing, is visibly shaken when the judge rejects her plea agreement,* but all of sudden displays a rather condescending, jerky side to Dinah when the older gal offers her an alternative to prison time.  All this to get back at her mom, which only makes Thea seem a bit petty and lame.

Arrow S01E11 – Review

By: Gabrielle Stanton (story)

The Story: Diggle attempts to get someone off of Ollie’s naughty list.

The Review: For the last couple episodes, the show has started drifting away from its usual pattern of crossing off names in Ollie’s list in favor of some more spontaneous heroics, drawing us a little closer to the Green Arrow we know and love each time.  I heartily approve of this transition, because the list has long become an extremely gimmicky plot device, fitfully generating a passable conflict for Ollie to tackle when all else fails.

Basically, stories drawn from the list have resulted in safe but bland episodes for the show.  Even last episode starring Firefly, which I largely panned, at least had some risk you could enjoy.  Here, ex-military and present military nut Ted Gaynor breaks somewhat out of the corporate mold of previous list names, but even he proves to be fairly pedestrian as an opponent.  He’s just mercenary, which makes no villain stand out unless he’s Deathstroke.

Arrow S01E09 – Review

By: Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg

The Story: The Arrow that saved Christmas.

The Review: You should know that I’m a total sap for Christmas, which makes me and people like me something of an oddity in a world where people mostly see the cynical, materialistic, socially conditioned side of the holiday—but I don’t care.  Even if you don’t celebrate it, you have to appreciate that Christmas, in its purest form, is about finding ways to give and care for the ones you love, and that’s always a good thing in my book.

In the gritty confines of Arrow, it seems unusual, then, for the spirit of Christmas to rear its head, particularly from no other than the driven and hardened Oliver Queen.  Who’d expect him to get so sappy about his dad’s old Christmas parties when he’s so focused on crushing corporate moguls?  At any rate, Ollie’s eagerness to revive his family’s holiday tradition brings out a sweet, lovable side to him that’s in short supply these days, although when things don’t go the way he plans, his eagerness quickly turns into resentment.

Arrow S01E07 – Review

By: Andrew Kreisberg, Geoff Johns, Marc Guggenheim (story)

The Story: Shouldn’t the fact that you and your date end up sparring after dinner be a red flag?

The Review: I have a friend who has an obsession for instant noodles—you know, the bags, cups, and bowls of slippery Asian-styled soup.  Actually, that statement is somewhat misleading because in reality, my friend doesn’t care for the actual noodles so much.  I’ve seen her cook up a whole pot of the stuff, only to dump everything but the broth and drink the whole thing down, every last, savory, MSG-enriched bit of it.  It’s the culinary version of missing the point.

I can somewhat relate because as the show goes on, I find myself in the awkward predicament of liking nearly everything about it except for its lead character.  In fact, the closer characters get to Ollie, the less I like them.  I’ve noticed that lately, Ollie only interacts with the rest of the cast so as to get nagged by them.  He looks pretty tired of it, but he should keep things in perspective.  It can’t be half as tiresome as for us to needlessly watch him get nagged.