Arrow(TV Series 2012) - Episode 1 & 2 Review

Name : Arrow
Status : Currently airing
Number of seasons/episodes : One season consisting of 10 episodes
Year : 2012
Genre : Action, Adventure, Drama, Crime, Mystery
Director: David Barrett
Main Cast : Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy, Paul Blackthorne
Based on : Comic book, Green Arrow
Warnings : evil criminals, ass-kicking action, hot abs


Review : 
The series starres Stephen Amell as spoiled rich boy Oliver Queen, who ends up on a deserted island after a violent ship wreck and, after spending 5 years there, manages to return to his hometown. His mother and sister are happy to see he's alive but soon discover the stay on the island has changed him even more than it seems.

Once a spoiled teenager always looking for trouble and never meeting his parents' expectations, now Oliver is serious, physically and emotionally scarred and carrying the burden of a secret revealed to him by his dying father: the city is in the hands of powerful and dangerous people who have ruined the lives of many and will continue to do so unless someone stops them...Trained to fight and shoot with a bow (by a still unknown guy on the island), Oliver decides to personally right the wrongs in his hometown, but to do this he has to become someone else...Rich and spoiled playboy by day, he turns into a masked crusader for justice by night. Dressed in what looks likes a bad-ass, modern version of Robin Hood's costume and armed with high-tech arrows, Oliver fights the bad guys whose names his father diligently listed in a secret diary. Criminal after criminal, he makes a name for himself in town and has to hide his secret identity not just from his family but also from the police. In the middle of all this is Oliver's old flame for attorney Dinah Lance (Katie Cassidy)  -  a seemingly impossible love interest since Dinah's sister died in the ship wreck while spending some "quality time" together with Oliver, and since her father is the police detective (Paul Blackthorne) ardently trying to arrest the green-hooded vigilanty.

Before saying anything about the series, I have to mention that I haven't read the comic books about Green Arrow so my review is based solely on this TV version....and things don't look as good as I was hoping. The first episode started promising, the second one ended ever more excitingly, but the plot seems quite flat and simple. So, Oliver has this big burden to carry: save the city to honour his father's last wish, act like a spoiled child in front of everyone in order to keep his secret identity safe, try to stay away from Dinah to keep her from getting hurt...And? How many episodes can possibly be based on this "drama"? Fighting a different criminal each episode does not seem that exciting either, although it is suggested that there is a sinister organization lurking in the background that Oliver will eventually have to face. Adding to the somewhat boring plot is the lack of chemistry between the actors. They all play relatively well on their own: Amell, Cassidy, Detective Lance, Mrs Queen...But put together on screen, you can't feel any emotional interaction between their characters. Don't get me wrong, I can live with seeing no affection between Oliver and his mom or Dinah and her father, but the lack of chemistry between Oliver and Dinah is kind of a turn-off. When the main story isn't anything special, at least the characters could be developed more and their personality given greater debth. Of course, with two episodes out so far, it is early to say whether this is happening or not. Hopefully, the screen writers will give us, viewers, something more exciting than cheesy criminals, flat dialogue and made-up personal drama in the episodes to come.

On the positive side, this is an action series and good action is what we get. The fight scenes are nicely done, with Amell doing a very good job in his tight leather outfit. Given how the second episode ended, we're probably going to get a better insight into how his character became such a taugh fighter on an island in the middle of nowhere, so more action is bound to follow! And, let's face it, with a TV series based on a comic book, this should keep us entertained enough!

I recommend it to : comic book fans, girls who like watching half-naked men kick butt, action lovers not keen on a sophisticated plot
I do NOT recommend it to : fans of serious drama who like thinking

Favorite Scenes : Oliver training naked to the waist in the pilot
Favorite Characters : Oliver, Detective Lance
What I liked the most : the action scenes
What I liked the least : the interaction between the characters

review by DeeDee

 photos from www.stuffwelike.com  

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