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It's evident that Time Warner/DC Entertainment/DC Comics are following one rule regarding their heroes--The Trinity (Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman) are big-screen projects; the lesser-known heroes and/or storylines are for television. That does not mean that the lesser-known heroes will get short shrift on the smaller screen--in fact, it has allowed DC Entertainment a certain amount of artistic freedom with the TV projects.
This has been the case with "Arrow". When the CW announced in late 2011/early 2012 that this project was going forward, many--the fans of "Smallville"--wanted Justin Hartley, who had played Oliver Queen well in that reimaging of the Clark Kent legend--to be brought back for this series.
But what showrunner Greg Berlanti was putting together with this project was far different in terms of image and complications within the story. Hartley fit as Oliver within the "Smallville" universe, but Berlanti's vision and story...required someone different. The complaints about Stephen Amell flew fast and loose before the series.
Of course, Amell killed all complaints about twenty minutes into the pilot episode. Women swooned over Stephen's blue eyes and the most ridiculous set of abs on network television, and the men had to give Stephen his props after his first action sequence, the stunning fight/parkour sequence.
For those who have followed the Oliver Queen story...the core of the story--Ollie being lost on an island and becoming proficient with bow and arrow--is kept intact, for the most part. But the core origin is the ignition of the larger story--the circumstances of the sinking of The Queen's Gambit, and with Oliver's return to Starling City, his mission to save the city from the corruption that led to his father's death (Along with Ollie being stranded). This story is complicated by a group of characters--many of whom we're familiar with from the DC Universe--being slightly "shifted". We know, because of the comic storyline, who they're "supposed" to be; but Berlanti moved them slightly off-kilter throughout the first season. Sometimes the moves seemed haphazard, but for the most part the moves worked. In this storyline, we're left with a situation of not knowing who to trust--clearly and early on, we're not certain at all of the motivation's of Oliver's mother, Moira. Nor are we certain of the motivations of Oliver's best friend, Tommy Merlyn; especially when it comes to Queen's former girlfriend, Dinah Laurel Lance. For that matter, we can never be certain where Ollie and Laurel stand with each other through much of the first season, since Ollie took Laurel's little sister onto the Queen's Gambit, and she was lost when the boat went down.
The whole of the Season One storyline plays almost as a Shakespearean tale--there's the action, and the introduction of the names and antagonists known to DC readers, though not in familiar situations; but they're all being applied in a tale of secrets and double-crosses, with larger scale plans being played out through the season.
The one interesting addition I found in the first season--which will obviously be a part of this series through it's run--is Berlanti's co-opting of the great ABC series "LOST" by using Oliver's time on "The Island" as a touchstone to his modern-day story; how the skills, talents and lessons he learned marooned for five years are applied to his present-day activities while that part of the series has it's own tale to be told.
The performances are overall good. Amell co-ops Christian Bale's time in The Dark Knight Trilogy somewhat in his portrayal of Oliver Queen. I've always said that Bale's Bruce Wayne was more a case of a person with multiple personalities known to each other. In the case of Amell, he takes the much more classical take on the person with the secret identity; the person with surface charm hiding deeper issues. David Ramsey's John Diggle--Oliver's bodyguard who his brought into the mission to save/protect Starling--takes on the persona of a rough-hewn tactical specialist, adviser and (eventual) partner to Queen. Susanna Thompson's Moira Queen--Oliver's mother--seems to want to play her role within The Initiative, but as an ultimately unwilling participant. I've liked Thompson since her "NCIS" days, but there's a discomfort with Moira, which may be intentional--after all, we aren't supposed to be comfortable with Hamlet's mother in the play. Willa Holland seems mostly underutilized in the season, not really gaining a storyline for Thea Queen until the introduction of Colton Haynes' Roy Harper late in the year. Paul Blackthorne's turn as Quentin Lance--the Starling City Police Detective determined to take down "The Hood"--is very good, if a little frustrating at times. For "The Island" storyline, enough couldn't be said about Byron Mann's Yao Fei...but Manu Bennett's Slade Wilson was fantastic. Obviously, Slade is the one character whose DC storyline cannot be avoided in this series--we KNOW he's going to be Deathstroke, the question being after this season becoming how the relationship between Slade and Oliver evolves and then devolves--most likely having something to do with Celina Jade's Shado...
I wanted to save the last two paragraphs...first of all, I wanted to discuss the Merlyns. Colin Donnel was fantastic as Tommy, the trust-fund playboy and best-friend to Oliver who ends up going through some serious changes throughout the first season. Donnell swung through the changes very smoothly. Again, this was a character that--because of his name--was expected to end up one way (At least, to those who know the DC storyline), but ended up another. John Barrowman was brilliant as Tommy's father, Malcolm--the season's main antagonist, The Dark Archer. Having not seen Barrowman outside of The Whoniverse the past few years, he gave equal parts of menace and ethos to Malcolm, and did so magnificently. This was a vicious Big Bad, but over the season--again, a credit to the storyline--we understood what was motivating Malcolm Merlyn; and that was a credit to Barrowman's performance (As a side note--Alex Kingston showing up as Dinah Lance for two episodes??!? Nice, but Berlanti obviously has some Doctor Who fanboy in him in his casting decisions...).
Last, but not least...Katie Cassidy was cast as the female lead for this series, Dinah Laurel Lance. I've always tried to be neutral about the way her season played out. Part of my rationale was figuring Greg Berlanti was going to eventually have Laurel don the leather and fishnets of Black Canary...but the character played unevenly, which I wasn't sure was the fault of the writing or Cassidy's performance and looks--clearly, she wasn't a favorite in a lot of the blog sites about the series. But Episode 2 in this series introduced Emily Bett Rickards and her wonderfully gifted take on the computer genius/hacker Felicity Smoak. Let's be blunt--EBR was adorable throughout the season, with Felicity's mouth sometimes going places it shouldn't...moreover, EBR is just GORGEOUS. When Felicity lost the ponytail and glasses in "Dodger", that was the "WOW!!!" moment of the season.
Overall, the first season of this series drew the comic-book fans with a story that hewed to its origins, but that comic-book origin was used to lead to a deeper, and occasionally more disturbing tale; and in turn to an expanded fan base. This was a good start to this iteration of the Oliver Queen story.
Highly recommended.
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Reviews with images
Bargain bin arrival
I'm giving this product 3 stars for the state the product arrived in and has no bearing on the show itself. I wouldn't be buying the series if I didn't love the show. My issue is with the bargain bin shape it arrived in.
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Maj Devanand
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Audio - inglés Castellano portugués y francés
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Kory Scott
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Un robin des bois moderne genre "golden boy"
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