The DC comics character Green Arrow is an outspoken liberal billionaire who also moonlights as a superhero, using a wide variety of “Trick Arrows” to fight villains ranging from assassins to men made of stone. Sound like something that could make for a fun pulpy TV show, right?
Well if you answered yes then you are silly nerd, and you should know that comics are SERIOUS BUSINESS and the only way to make a Green Arrow show work is to make it as grim and gritty as possible. That is exactly what the makers of CW’s Arrow have done, continuing DC Comics frustrating recent trend of taking cool comic characters and sucking all the joy out of them when translating them to film or television.
Arrow stars Stephen Arnell (Degrassi: The Next Generation, Da Kink in My Hair) as Oliver Queen, a billionaire playboy who has recently returned to his home of Starling City after being stranded on an Island in somewhere in the Pacific. Sick of his past persona as a spoiled rich brat, Oliver decides to make amends for his past by taking his shirt off and using the parkour and archery skills he learned on Magic Island to kill those he feels are destroying the once great Starling City. No seriously. He kills a lot of people. I’m not well-versed in Green Arrow history, but he’s essentially The Punisher in this show. At one point he kills a guy just because he’s found out his secret identity. It might have been on overreaction on Olly’s part.
The object of Arrow’s ire in this episode is Adam Hunt, a millionaire who has been scamming the people of Starling City for years. Oliver dons his hood and quiver and proceeds to break into Hunt’s office, taking down Hunt’s henchman, and planting an arrow that is able to clear out Hunt’s bank account and transfer the money to a bunch of plantiffs that are currently involved in a class action lawsuit against Hunt. Plantiffs who Oliver is sure have never scammed anyone in their lives, and are completely innocent, and SHUT UP I’M GREEN ARROW OKAY DON’T QUESTION MY ACTIONS OR I’LL KILL YOU WITH MY ARROWS LIKE I DO EVERYONE ELSE I DON’T LIKE!!! There’s also some family drama, and an old girlfriend that Oliver cheated on with her sister (play on playa), but I was screwing around on my phone during those parts so I don’t really remember much.
I know what you’re thinking: “Blah blah blah, sounds great Tim but this is a CW show. Does Arrow bring the sexy?” And my answer would be yes, Arrow brings a quiver full of sexy. Time will tell where it fits in the pantheon of sexy CW shows (Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, WWE SMACKDOWN) but Arrow gets off to a smoldering start with shirtless workouts, attractive women in tight power suits, and nightclubs. And also much like the great CW shows, if you released a soundtrack of the music used in the first episode alone it would be a 3 disc set.
So, I didn’t like this show very much. There is a pretty solid action scene near the end, and the aforementioned sexiness helped, but it’s so dour and humorless that it feels like Batman Begins Lite for most of the episode. I completely understand the desire to branch out beyond the typical audience for this type of show, and I know that CW’s budget doesn’t allow for the a lot of the things that work in the comic to show up on-screen, but I think you reach a point where trying to make everything as “real” as possible gets away from what makes these characters popular in the first place. That’s my biggest problem with Arrow; the show takes itself so seriously that it ends up being a bore. So lighten up Arrow and crank up the dance music, take your shirt off, and let’s party bro.
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