1.) So about that upswing from before the break…
I mentioned a while back that Arrow was growing into a pretty exciting series and… well combined with last week’s mediocre run I believe that ship has sailed. Maybe it’s the contradictory writing or the subplots that bring Ollie’s relatively exciting segments to a screeching halt but this show can never seem to grab me for very long. Whenever I see something interesting in the series it never sparks me as an “Oh my God” but more of an “Oh that’s pretty neat”. This is a show that, as I constantly say, has tons of potential but the execution as always is still really off.
2.) Bad Boy Charm.
The newest addition to the cast (Well, second newest. We’ll talk about the other new addition later), Roy Harper definitely brings some level of intrigue to the show. Mostly because, for a tough bad boy from the mean side of town who looks unusually manicured, he is pretty. If you asked me for three of his defining character traits I would reply with “Bad boy”, “pretty” and then lose track of what you were asking because Roy Harper is so pretty.
3.) Oh good… it’s that one bad guy… Bad Guy.
Departing from the show’s usual trend of stealing Batman’s supporting characters, this episode featured the original character of Guy Who Goes After Those Who Are Corrupting Starling City But With An Abandoned Subway Train Instead Of A Bow. He’s not really interesting except for the implied revelation that Starling City looked at the rest of the world’s cities, saw how well subways helped them out, and decided “Nah bro. Buses!” As a result, This One Guy hijacked the one remaining subway in Starling City and you will never convince me that he isn’t a retooling of the subway pirates from Seven Soldiers.
4.) The Only Water in Starling City is River.
Alex Kingston joined Arrow last week out of nowhere as Laurel’s mother. Here, she moves forward with the rest of the family in investigating Sarah’s possible reappearance. There’s a neat scene where Laurel tells Quentin to stop keeping her mom from putting Sarah in the past like the both of them had done. Initially, I thought that this would be like most TV plots where they found the daughter after all through the sheer power of believing! And they DO find the daughter! And it turns out to be just a complete stranger and everyone in the Lance family has to accept that Sarah is dead, especially River Song who in a terribly acted monologue tells how she let Sarah go with Ollie on the yacht.
Yeesh. Who needs some more pretty?
There we go.
5.) The Island
This week in the island segments, Ollie and Slade attempt to make a deal with Evil Military Man: the secret weapon they stole for a way off the island. Evil Military Man double crosses them because he is evil. He shows off his hostage of someone Classic Arrow cares about and Slade and Ollie beat up some soldiers with the female, who kicks a substantial amount of ass, and run off to discover that the secret weapon is stolen. Action Lady suddenly speaks English and says that she is about to explain EMM’s plan. Cut to credits. See you next week folks!
Review Score: 6/10 – The show’s doing fine in terms of not being overly offensive, but it has lot of untapped potential.
