Categories: Books

CW’s Arrow TV Show Review

The Story of Green Arrow

The CW network launched Arrow, their new superhero drama on October 10 2012. The show is a slight spinoff of DC comics Green Arrow superhero, focusing on the adventures of billionaire Oliver Queen as he fights to save Starling city from the corrupt mega corporations that have taken over. The show opens with Oliver Queen being shipwrecked and stranded on a strange Island. He has to learn how to survive in the wilderness by hunting, trekking the dangerous woods, and staying hidden from the dangers of the island. After he leaves the island he uses his survival skills and new found hunting instincts to fight crime to save his dying city from the evil corporations that have taken over.

My overview of the story is pretty simple, but I found that the actual show does an excellent job in telling the story. I was really surprised that the show’s storyline was so consistent. For every plot hole I found, the creators later fixed it within the next episode by explaining the left out details. The only way this would be possible is if they wrote the entire season out from start to finish before filming so that the story was consistent all the way through. This allowed them to properly build suspense and a gripping storyline that you could actually follow. That was actually the problem I had with Falling Skies because it was like the creators got stuck and didn’t know where to go with the story, but Arrow doesn’t seem to have that problem. I watched Smallville from time to time and I actually think that Arrow has the potential to be a much better show in the long run.

Acting and special effects

The show has a couple of actors you may recognize, just to name a few: Paul Blackthorn who played Harry Dresden (Yay Dresden Files!); Katie Cassidy who played in several rolls, but I liked her most as Ruby from Supernatural; and David Ramsey who has also played in a large variety of roles, but you may have seen him recently in the TV show Blue Bloods.

The Acting on the show isn’t bad. For the most part all of the actors are believable with the characters they are trying to portray and they do an excellent job with making the story come alive. I first thought that Oliver’s best friend and girlfriend were going to get annoying as the show progressed, but they actually weren’t that bad and started to grow on me. The only two complaints I have is that the actor that plays Oliver Queen- Stephen Amell, Sometimes acts as if he is a box. There is something about the way he stands, the lack of emotion as he stares into the camera, and his action scenes (Not all of them) look a bit stiff as if his body is too heavy and he can’t move. Out of all of the actors I think he bothers me the most when it comes to expressing emotion.

The second actor that bothers me is the actress that plays his Sister- Willa Holland. Not to be rude, but she talks as if she injected too much Botox into her upper lip and it was very distracting whenever she started talking. If you watch a couple of episodes just pay attention when the two Queen siblings come on the screen and you’ll see what I mean. Other than that all of the actors do a great job on the show.

The special effects and fight scene choreography is actually really good. Instead of just throwing each other around the set they actually throw punches and kicks and it looks good enough to be believable. The camera zooms out so that you can see the actor’s movements clearly, and the action doesn’t disappoint you by leaving you feeling empty by skipping out on fight scenes. I was really surprised when I went to the Arrow website on the CW and saw that Stephen Amell did a lot of his own stunts, so kudos to him!

Should you watch it?

Overall I have enjoyed the first season of Arrow and I look forward to seeing more of it in the future. If you haven’t already watched an episode I recommend that you give it a try. Arrow took a small break for the holidays, but based on the information on IMDB it looks like Arrow will continue on for a little while longer until December 12^th, and will finish the rest of the season on January 9^th.
The network could make some changes so make sure to check your local listings.

If you want to watch more of Arrow tune in to the CW on Wednesdays at 8:00-7:00C.