With week one of, officially, being the Emerald Archer in the books, Oliver Queen and co. can begin to dig into the new world of Star City, and begin to see just how messed up it still is.
1. A Terrific Introduction
Michael Curtis Holt – Mister Terrific – is one of my favorite characters, and one of the casualties of the New 52 trying to fix heroes that weren’t broken. The Arrow Holt is exactly what you’d expect – younger, just as brilliant, and with a better fashion sense (and a different first name – though I bet his birth name is Michael Curtis Holt – call this the ‘Dinah Laurel Lance Corollary’). They also chose to make the character gay, which I have no issue with whatsoever, because his devotion to his husband seems as genuine and important to the character as the loss of Holt’s wife was in the comics.
Making Holt gay makes the show a little more diverse, and still stays true to the heart of the character. Anyone that has a problem with this probably has a problem with more than just their favorite comics characters appearing in slightly different forms. Especially because the character is brimming with intelligence and energy, and looks to join Felicity as the only non-dour member of the cast. These are good things.
Also, Echo Kellum might be the first actor in TV history to join a superhero show and have a real name that sounds far more like a fictional hero than the fictional hero’s name.
Also – can’t wait for T-Spheres.
2. Team Arrow Needs a Company Retreat
The most CW element of the show – beyond even the love triangles and cheesy love scenes – is the constant drama going on in Team Arrow. Now, all of it is more or less understandable, but it really doesn’t make for as compelling of a television program as the producers must think. Laurel and Diggle become the exposition club when they’re in the van together, just laying out information the viewer needs, but the show can’t be bothered to give in a less clunky way. Diggle is always brooding, so for people to notice his extra brooding is saying just how shitty to everyone he’s been over the past few episodes.
And then, there’s Thea, or Speedy/Red Arrow, whatever they’re calling her. I’m gad the results of the Lazarus Pit are finally having an impact of some kind on the show, and when Thea gets rabid, her character becomes much, much more interesting. Willa Holland does the whole ‘losing her mind and ferocious’ thing pretty well. She is considerably less effective when doing the vigilante tough voice – when she does that, it sounds almost laughable.
Also, I finally figured out the real reason behind the new Diggle mask – it allows a stunt double to do all the heavy lifting without consequence.
3. Anarky
The continuing trend of finding DC villains that most likely won’t show up on Gotham, Supergirl, or The Flash, and importing them to Star City. Anarky, originally a Bat villain, looks almost nothing like his (original) comics counterpart, and isn’t really much more interesting than many of the other villains on the show. His alignment with Damien Darhk doesn’t offer too much in terms of development for either character, except that it shows that Darhk cares, a bit at least, about public appearance, as he chastises Anarky for kidnapping the daughter of a public figure.
So far – and granted, it is two episodes – Darhk seems like a real lackluster big bad, without too much reason for me to care about him or what he does. He is the most supernatural of the villains thus far, but without rooting him in something other than ‘I was mentioned by Ra’s al Ghul last season,’ the character is falling flat.
4. The Flashback Was Extra Thin
I know I am a broken record when it comes to the flashbacks, but this week’s flashback was especially unnecessary. I can recap it in two seconds – Ollie takes out the guy who held him up last week, gets captured, gets a haircut. They really need to either get rid of the flashbacks entirely, or do something interesting with them, because this was a pretty insufferable part of the episode.
Continued below5. Mayor Goldie Wilson…Oliver Queen – I Like the Sound of That!
Every now and then, the show borrows something from the Green Lantern mythos that makes perfect sense – Ollie attempting to be mayor isn’t exactly the most logical thing (seriously – what are his qualifications? He fucked up his own company to the point of it being acquired by Palmer, he’s notoriously unshaven, and he’s been arrested more than once), but it is a fun connection to the comics.
For those that don’t know, in the comics, Oliver Queen does run for the mayor of Star City a few times, and wins it once. However, by this point the character was well known for his political involvement and social justice concerns. This feels like the show eliminating the (actually, rather easy) development of the character into a more politically minded person, and is jumping right for the mayor’s office. Let’s hope its not a mistake.
