Same mea cupla as last week for this being a day late. Once the Mets win the World Series, this’ll go back to normal.
1. The Converse Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Remember back in Season One of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., when everyone complained that there was so little Marvel DNA in the show? There would be freaks of the week, and not even a feeble attempt made to tie them into a pre-existing comic character.
Well, Arrow is the converse of that. Every character introduced seems to be a ‘classic’ character, revamped in some way for the show. Case in point: this week saw the debut of Liza Warner, aka Lady Cop, on the show. Lady Cop isn’t exactly Doctor Fate in terms of staying power or fan love, but she’s a 40-year old character with a recognizable actress playing her (Rutina Wesley, of True Blood fame), and they gave her precious little to do.
I would much rather this crooked cop just be a red shirt, never to be seen again, and to use Lady Cop in a more meaty role in the future. I get the impulse, but by season 7, they’re going to run out of obscure characters to import in. So, creating a few each season will help stretch that a little further.
2. The Worst Action Sequence in the Show’s History
This show, generally, does really fine action sequences. Sure, it is aided by quick edits and stunt work, but overall the show looks about as good as any other on TV in terms of hand to hand combat.
Until the first ‘Lance and Team Arrow try to break up the drug deal’ scene. This had a ton of weird, wide angle shots, that allowed us to see things like Laurel getting hit, and then calmly climbing down the back of the van she was standing on to be at her next mark. This looked like community theater stunt work replete with poor blocking. I don’t know what happened here, but let’s never do that again, ok?
3. Haha Neil Adams
The idea of Holt trying to guess who the Green Arrow is each week would be a fun running gag, especially if they keep using DC creators who have worked on the character in the past as the candidates. I can’t wait for him to say ‘What about Andy Diggle – wait, is he related to your friend?’ and then he and Felicity look to the camera and wink.
Also, how hilarious is it that Palmer Tech has an archery competition? Do they also do knife throwing? Sword swallowing? Fire breathing? Muffin baking? Cross stitch? Juggling?
4. A Broken Lance
This episode really pushed Quentin Lance to his breaking point, and did so in a way that only felt half ham-fisted. I love the character, I do, but lately, everything they’ve done with him as felt incredibly forced. This week, it didn’t seem like they were pressing for the first time in forever. Having Ollie confront him was a nice touch, and their partnership makes a ton of sense, and is something we haven’t really seen before.
If Ollie does wind up becoming mayor, the Lance/Queen partnership will become even more important, so it is nice to see some work being done in that direction already.
5. A Ray-surrection
I’m sure I’m not the only one who put together that shrunken Ray is sending Felicity all that code on her phone. I love the fact that they are giving us an Atom that can go into computer code (although this does come perilously close to having someone steal his tech and travel through a phone line to kill someone’s wife). I think doubling down on the Atom’s abilities is great – it is a skillset that is unlike anyone else’s on the show, and can be a really fun addition to the Arrowverse.
Overall, despite a lackluster ‘villain,’ this was a very good episode of Arrow. Let’s keep it up!
Also, next week, Constantine! Sound off in the comments, folks!
