Green Arrow (CW)

[stj]

NrobbieC wrote:

---

Mum don't need a sidekick. Susanna Thompson is stealing the show by herself.

Ain't it the truth?

Just marathoned this after I found out Susana Thompson was in it. Thompason rules, but Stephen Amell is quite good with his voice, ranging from a young Garrett Dillahunt to a not-so-blatantly cartoony Christian Bale growl. He's also gracefulo and buff at appropriate times. And he's pretty, even with the silly stubble look. Does anyone really confuse stubble with testosterone?

That said, the role is thankless BS. Ollies recaps Dexter's tired vigilante daydreams with even loonier power of script. Then he adds on a huge dollop of pity party over how his noble mission requires him to act like a sociopath, alienating him from the family/city he is doing it all for. Except unlike early Dexter he doesn't sweat bullets trying, thereby earning some laughs and good opinion. This show is incredibly solemn.

Nobody else is particularly good. The girl trying to channel Maggie Gyllenhaal can't surmount the ludicrous costume choices, and she's the best of the rest. Paul Blackthorne sounds false in every line he utters. The poor fellow playing Walter seems like he wandered onto the set by mistake, and doesn't seem to be aware he isn't playing Benson in the reboot. I think he was directed that way, but it's still disconcerting.

The continuing storyline is already biting itself in the ass. Moira in particular is already supposed to have connived in the murders of her husband and son, yet gone to great lengths to retrieve the evidence of the murder. Blackmail against Criminal Ken? But if Barbie's wayward boyfriend knows about the yacht, why isn't he down on THE Queen?
And why would she suddenly develop both scruples and the balls to fight when she's already sent half her family to Davy Jones' Locker?

Frustratingly, Oliver and Moira don't interact much. I suppose this is so we can keep wondering if "Oliver" is French for "Orestes." And whether THE Queen hasn't already figured Oliver out and is using him to take erase the nomenklatura, and take it all for herself.

[Donald Draper]

I like the show but it has a problem. We don't really know what Oliver is fighting for or against. We know he is trying to stop everyone on the list. But we have no idea why Oliver and his father were targeted. Most importantly we have no idea if Oliver himself knows. Is he just killing off these people for revenge or is he trying to figure out the mystery on what happened. That is not clear.

Obviously the show is slowly revealing what happened on the island. But not only is that a mystery but it makes Oliver and everyone he is fighting against a real mystery. Hopefully the payoff is worth it.

[stj]

^^^An interesting idea. Of course, there is as yet no reason to think Oliver suspects the sinking was sabotage. Other than an offhand line that Oliver has been avoiding hsi mother.

[Guy Gardener]

Considering how much intel he has beyond his fathers notebook to break into specific bank accounts and not to mention being part of the Russian Maffia... Oliver didn't spend 5 years on that island.

He owned it.

Oliver must have been on and off the island building up a sophisticated mechanism for revenger for years, and then engineered his discovery and rescue as it happened, only to have cleverly pretended to have been there the whole time as part of some cunning ruse.

Becoming absolute master of that savage land would have taken a while but after he'd filled up enough massgraves, with the resources they left behind, he only stayed on that island for as long as he wanted to.

Actually just clearing up the evidence of a standing army associated with Checkmate on site, would have at the least required earth-movers if not cargo-ships... But then I'm just imagining that they had tanks on the island for some reason.

But the only reason that they would need tanks, is if there actually were dinosaurs to put down.

[NrobbieC]

Thompson, Amell, Barrowman, Salmon - the show's got an impressive cast. Not too mention the guest work from Ty Olsson (one of my favourite actors) and Brian Markinson who seems to pop up quite a lot in stuff I've watched. The good acting certainly outweighs the...not so good.

[Marc]

Don't know what CTV is playing but it's now being moved to a 7pm timeslot on Wednesday. I guess we should be glad it's not a later slot but I'm wondering if there will have to be any cuts made for content given the timeslot

[Icemizer]

Well nothing earth shattering this week. The Royal Flush gang was weaker than I thought they would be. I like that fact they were a family and the hockey masks were ok but still a weak effort at a classic "b" villian team. On the plus side we did get a nice trick arrow out of Ollie's bag and we heard the name Stagg which is a cool name drop for all us Metamorpho fans out here.

[Guy Gardener]

Did you count them?

1.. 2.. 3.. 4.. Where the fuck was the fifth card?

It's a poker hand for frakks sake.

That's five mugs, not four.

[JD]

I missed a few bits and pieces here and there since I had just gotten off work and had to feed the dog and get dinner, but I liked thought what I saw was pretty good. I do agree that the Royal Flush Gang was probably the weakest part though. But the stuff with the main characters, and the new step they brought about in Ollie's hero's journey was pretty interesting.
One thing's been bugging me though. How old is Thea supposed to be? I had thought she was only supposed to be like 16 or 17, but her age didn't seem to be an issue when she got drunk and when she hit on Tommy, who's at least in his 20s, his only problem was their current relationship, not an age difference.

[sojourner]

I get the impression she's about 18. Freshman college. Tommy clearly had a problem with her hitting on him much more than he was already involved with someone. "your a kid sister to me" "I think you got the wrong idea"


I just had a thought. Anyone else think Tommy's dad and or mom will be on Ollie's list? If so, won't it be stretching credibility that we haven't seen any indication of it?

Oh! maybe John Barrowman's character is Tommy's dad? He could have been smart enough not to end up on "the list" but Ollie will find out about him eventually. Ollie takes Barrowman down, Tommy finds out Arrow was behind the take down and confides to Ollie that he will get even with Arrow. Leaving Ollie with a moral quandary.

[Donald Draper]

That fits some of my speculation. I been wondering if a relative of Tommy's is a villain, meaning the Merlyn of the comics.

Never thought it would be the as yet unnamed "Well Dressed Man". But that would explain a LOT! The mystery of the name, any DC villain would not have much need to keep it secret. It being Merlyn would would explain the secrecy of the name. Its partially because of the comic character but more about the show itself. Where Oliver is a friend of his son.

I liked this episode a lot. Oliver needed Diggle in a the secret. It gives him someone to talk to. Was there as much narration as before? Seemed like less. He fills the classic role of the hero explaining things to a partner. Which gives insight into the hero. Like Dr Watson, Robin, Alfred. Also Stephen Amell has really grown on me. He seems to be bringing more depth to the character. The scene of him on the island with the vision of his father was very effective.

[trekkiebaggio]

I really liked this episode as well.

I liked that Diggle helps ground Oliver a bit and reminds him that his mission isn't the only thing that exists in the world.

I thought the fact that the Royal Flush Gang were a family and not a typical gang was a nice twist, and that they were tied in to Queen Snr's actions. I liked the use of the riot shield too, so far most of Oliver's fights have been pretty straightforward so I liked him being challenged a little bit.

The hallucination on the island was okay, although I wonder how many names were on the pages that he burnt. And how many names are there, there seem to be an awful lot of corrupt people in this thing.

I thought the Thea/Tommy/Laurel storyline was quite sweet, it was nice to see Tommy being developed a bit more. I'm assuming that Carter Bowls guy (I can't quite remember his name) will turn out to have some agenda or have some secret, perhaps even a fellow crimefighter?

I liked the namedrop of Coast City too.

[Shazam!]

Seems weird to name drop Coast City and Blüdhaven but not use Star City..

[Vendikarr]

I wonder if their baseball team is called the Starling City Starlings?

[Enterprise is Great]

Keystone City and Coast City were also mentioned.