Arrow (Midnight City) Review

Vinny Jones as Brick

Arrow  is probably the best action drama on television.  It continues to improve every week by developing the main character’s story along the supporting character’s stories. The best part about last week’s episode was the main character, Oliver Queen, was not even in the show until the end of it. Stephen Amell plays Queen and again he was given the backseat to a few other main characters.  Ollie’s partners Roy Harper (Colton Haynes), Diggle (David Ramsey), Felicity, (Emily Brett Rickards), and Laurel (Katie Cassidy) all take starring roles in this episode to stop Brick (Vinny Jones).   Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) is also showed cased more in this episode as a catalyst for things to come in the future of Arrow.

Colton Haynes as Arsenal
Katie Cassidy as Black Canary

Oliver Queen is supposedly dead and the maniac known as Danny Brickwell as taken over the city.  Laurel Lance steps into the Black Canary costume in attempt to fight Brick’s men. She gets her ass pretty much kicked but Arsenal shows up and helps her.  Roy remind Laurel that he has had training from Oliver and years on the street.  Ray Palmer and other city officials hold a meeting to discuss the Brickwell problem.  Brickwell doesn’t oblige their meeting because he shoots his way into the office and captures several city officials.  The mayor decides to give against the consent of Captain Lance.  Meanwhile Malcolm Merlyn tries to convince Thea Queen, his daughter, to leave Starling City because they are endanger. Malcolm tells her the truth about Ra’s Al Ghul.  Felicity has a conversation with Laurel and realizes Laurel is continuing Ollie’s fight so she has too. She helps Ray Palmer solve his Atom Suit problem.  Oliver is in a shack healing with the help of old friends.

John Barrowman as Malcolm Merlyn and Willa Holland as Thea Queen

First of all this Arrow episode really didn’t have a lot wrong with it. John Barrowman and Willa Holland did detract from the main storyline a little bit of the heroes trying to stop Brick. However, their storyline is important. Roy shows up at Thea’s apartment and demands Malcolm stop seeing Thea. Merlyn replies “thanks, I needed a laugh.”  Thea also demands to know the truth why they have to leave the city.  She reminds her father that he taught to be a fighter and not a person who runs away from a fight.  These scenes set up the more important part of the main storyline of Malcolm finally confronting Ra’s Al Ghul.

This episode deserves a lot of props on how they handled their main female characters, Laurel and Felicity.  Laurel has been an awesome or stupid character depending on the episode. This episode highlighted the strengths and weakness of Laurel.  Laurel is a strong commanding district attorney. She uses her power and authority to exploit criminals into making deals.  However, she is a weak crime fighter. She nearly was killed three separate times in the show and escaped her almost final fight by kicking Brick in the balls.  Laurel and Felicity have a great chemistry on screen with their interactions to each other. Felicity is super stupid when she is a nagging witch but she is strongest she stands with and helps the people she loves.  Emily and Katie showed a great deal of emotion during this episode.  They really made this episode special.

Ray Palmer played Brandon Routh and Felicity Smoak played Emily Brett Rickards

The last positive that I want to touch on is Brandon Routh and Vinny Jones.  They make their characters fun, likeable, and command the screen when they are in a scene and one of them plays a bad guy. Brandon plays a great romantic hero who wants to the save because he is noble and good.  He might get his own show playing the Atom. Vinny Jones on the other hand is evil. He has fun playing the evil greedy one lining bad guy who will kill anybody for the hell of it. He needs to be reoccurring villain every season because he is so good.

Overall, this arrow episode was great.  The secondary characters are being developed more and more each episode.  Midnight City gets a 4.5/5.

Thea has an Assassin working for her spoiler alert

Arrow (Left Behind) Review

Ra Al Ghul killing Oliver Queen in combat
Ra Al Ghul played by Matt Nable
Oliver Queen played by Stephen Amell

 

Who fights crime now?

The Climb, the previous Arrow episode,  ended with Oliver Queen being killed by Ra Al Ghul in mortal combat.  In this episode, tells the story what is Starling City like without Oliver Queen as the Arrow to fight crime. The episode also is a catalyst for Arsenal’s future independence as a crime fighter (at some point in the show) and starts the countdown to Laurel apocalypse.  Laurel Apocalypse was coined by John Campea but the meaning of the word is when Laurel Lance starts to pose as the Black Canary and fans might quit watching the show.

The episode starts with Diggle and Roy pursuing a truck with two criminals. They capture one criminal and discover he works for a crime boss named Brick, played by Vinny Jones. Felicity has trouble focusing on her work and needs to find out if Oliver Queen is dead. Malcolm Merlyn looks into the matter and discovers that Oliver Queen is dead by the traditional practice of Ra Al Ghul leaving the killing weapon on holy ground to honor the dead. Felicity tests the blood on the weapon and discovers that it is Oliver’s blood. Roy and Diggle need to stop Brick but Felicity prevents them in succeeding by quitting the team. Meanwhile, Oliver has an old friend who helps him even though he is dead.

Diggle played by John Ramesy
Arsenal played by Colton Hayes

The episode was a very good episode because of the conflicts within the Arrow team. Roy still wants to fight crime and stand up for the innocent. Diggle has mixed feelings about fighting crime. Felicity wants out of the crime business because she lost Oliver. Colton Hayes was more a feature in this episode which was nice. It is like having a Robin or Nightwing centric storyline in a series of Batman issues. Roy in the episode was put on display. He was skilled with a bow but still lack that intuition to be near as good as Oliver Queen. Felicity had internal conflicts which made her walk away from Ray Palmer and his goal of building a crime fighter suit.  It was nice to see all three pivotal characters featured in a episode without Oliver Queen being the main focus.

Katie Cassidy as Black Canary

 

The biggest negative was Laurel Lance but not until the end of the episode. She does show up in the Black Canary outfit.  Katie Cassidy looks gorgeous as the Black Canary but her character is no Canary. Her crime fighting skills makes Roy look like Oliver Queen.  However, the writers of the show can prove us wrong.

Overall,  Left Behind was a great mid season premiere. It was better than Gotham’s or the Flash’s premiere. The villain was great and Vinny Jones should reoccur as Brick every couple of episodes per season. Brick will be talked about more in next week’s review. Left Behind gets 4.5/5.

Arrow (the climb) review

Arrow vs. Ra’s Al Ghul; what could go wrong?

Ra’s Al Ghul is one of the most vicious DC comic book villains. Liam Neeson played Ra’s Al Ghul in Batman Begins, and David Warner did the voice for the character in the Batman Animated series.  Ra’s Al Ghul has two daughters, Nyssa and Talia. He is pretty ruthless in exacting vengeance for his daughters if they get hurt. This is why Arrow, Oliver Queen, is in his cross hairs.  Oliver finally comes face to face with the Head of the Demon tonight.

Oliver finds out his DNA matches the DNA on the arrow that killed Sara Lance. Diggle quickly speculates that Malcolm Merlyn, John Barrowman, has something to do with Sara dying. The team investigate and find out that Thea Queen came back to Starling the night before Sara died. The League of Assassins gives Oliver 48 hours to find Sara’s killer or they will kill fifty innocent people. Malcolm shows up and tells Oliver that Thea killed Sara Lance. She was under the influence of a drug that he gave her and that Ra’s Al Ghul would kill Thea if Oliver turns Malcolm over to the League. Oliver realizes that he must face Ra’s in combat but it could cost his life. (Oh positive note, Ray Palmer showed Felicity his Atom suit or the design of it.)

Oliver meets his fate

First, this mid-season finale was not as good as the Flash’s but it still a good episode.  The revelation that Malcolm has been playing innocent the whole time about Sara dying, but he is really a sadistic SOB that formed a plan to get out of facing Ra’s Al Ghul. Hell, he uses his daughter as leverage to make Oliver fight Ra’s because he knows Oliver has no chance in hell. Oliver is no where near as skilled in combat as Ra’s. Oliver’s martial arts skills don’t even touch the surface where Batman is compared when Batman takes on Ra’s. I want to warn fans not to compare the two heroes. Batman has been fighting for crime and learning master his stealthy technique and his knowledge of unarmed combat for he was a teenage. Oliver has been doing this for 5 to 8 years and still couldn’t beat Deathstroke without some help from Felicity. The comparison is unfair so Arrow fans don’t bring up on how Batman can kick Ra’s ass and Oliver Queen can’t. Deathstroke couldn’t even take down Ra’s Al Ghul. Ra’s is the world’s most formidable killer.

Matt Nable as Ra’s Al Ghul

Matt Nable was a good Ra’s Al Ghul. Yes, Liam Neeson might have been a better Ra’s Al Ghul but he had more screentime. Neeson was more a cold unattached assassin while Nable’s Ra’s has some love for his daughter. Nable nailed the character in his limited screentime. He was more deceptive as Ra’s because honestly, had a feeling that Oliver would win during the fight tonight and kill him.  Nable does look like he is 50 to 60, and he kicked Oliver’s ass.  Kudos, to  Matt Nable for being a menacing Ra’s Al Ghul.

Overall, this episode of Arrow was good. It wasn’t like the Flash’s mid-season finale but it was entertaining. Honestly, this episode was design humble and evolve Oliver Queen as a crime fighter. He has pretty much been the top dog for a year or two. He pretty much defeated the Flash but he showed weakness in his skill level to defeat one or more assassins. “The Climb” gets a 4/5.

The Arrow vs. Flash crossover review

Arrow played Stephen Amell & Flash played Grant Gustin

Every Justice League begins with two heroes coming to a kick ass team!

There are events in television history that put the spotlight on a show or two television shows. Star Trek: The Next Generation had a series of episodes where Spock, Leonard Nimoy, was a guest star. The viewership for these episodes skyrocketed. Arrow and The Flash had their first crossover episodes, and it was the first of many.  Essentially what made this crossover so great was the fact every important character from the Flash or Arrow was essential to the storylines.  Felicity and Diggle appeared on the Flash and went to Star Labs while Cisco and Caitlin were hanging out in the Arrow cave in the Arrow episode.  Arrow and The Flash are created and run by the same people. Marc Guggenheim and Greg Berlanti created Arrow and Berlanti went on to be executive producer of the Flash while Guggenheim is the head man at Arrow as of right now.  Berlanti also looking at producing a Supergirl show for CBS. The two producers along with the team of writers for both show were spectacular at making high quality entertaining television for two nights.

Oliver Queen and Barry Allen decide to work together

The first episode of the crossover was Flash vs. Arrow.  The Flash, Barry Allen, has to face an enemy that can cause rage in people. The villain causes people to overstep their emotional boundary and it them to into a Hulk rage. Oliver Queen, Green Arrow, and his team are in Central City looking for a killer that kills people with boomerangs.  Arrow saves Barry and Detective Joe West from trouble. Barry and Oliver decide to find the new metahuman together and defeat him. Detective West and Dr. Wells tell Barry that the Arrow is dangerous and can’t be trusted. Barry has to decide to between working his trusted friend, Oliver Queen, or following the advice of his two mentors. His choice will either strengthen or destroy Barry’s alliance with his team who helps him at Star Labs?

Nick E. Tarabay plays Digger Harkness or Captain Boomerang

The second part of the Arrow vs. Flash crossover had Oliver going after Captain Boomerang. Caitlin and Cisco drop by Palmer Industries to help Felicity with the death of Sara Lance. They want to see the Arrow cave and which Oliver is not to happy about. However, Captain Boomerang shows up at Star Labs and starts to take out ARGUS soldiers left and right. Oliver, Roy, Diggle, and Lyia are on the brink of death when Flash shows up and saves Oliver from two boomerangs.  The Flash and Arrow again team to stop the former suicide squad member. Barry has a huge problem with Oliver’s methods of getting information and this causes friction between them. The question is, will Oliver change his ways or same the stay?

The most positive aspect of Arrow and The Flash crossover was the interaction between the characters.  The banter and conflict between Barry and Oliver was spectacular but the supporting like Felicity, Diggle, Cisco, and Caitlin stood out. Roy was a spectator between the members of the team debating who would win in a fight Arrow or Flash. The stories themselves were good. The first time Diggle saw Barry Allen use his super speed in person caused Diggle to be speechless. Caitlin and Ramon were psyched to see the Arrow cave. Every character was used properly besides a few of them.   The Flash and Arrow showed case their primary attributes that makes them unique.  The two episodes were funny and it is one of the reasons why this crossover got the ratings it did.

The negatives for me were Eddie Thawne deciding suddenly The Flash was a villain and wanting to take him down. It causes Barry Allen gives in to his rage and he nearly kills Eddie. Iris turns her back on The Flash just like that.  For me, that plotline should have happen at the mid-season finale, and it felt like the writers of The Flash tried to have every character be essential to the storyline.  My biggest pet peeve for the Arrow crossover episode was Lyia.

Lyia was almost dead and gone. Captain Boomerang puts a boomerang in her chest and she is at death’s door. I have applauded the creators of these two television shows in the past for killing their characters off. However, the writers of Arrow copped by having the Flash to run Lyia to the hospital so she could survive. Lyia for me is a weak character and really bitchy. She is not likeable. I would love to see her die and Diggle go on vegence streak or turn his back on Oliver. Hell, Diggle could go after Amanda Waller and is also a deceitful troll. Those would have been better options in my opinion instead of having the Flash there to run Lyia to the hospital, and she survives.

Overall these two episode were spectacular and funny. The Flash crossover gets a 4.7 out of 5.

(have links to the two crossover episodes below on the CW site. I suggest watching them because it is like watching a Batman episode with Superman involved.)

http://www.cwtv.com/shows/the-flash/flash-vs-arrow/?play=bd69b271-88c1-404f-880f-0e23fe34eaf8

 

http://www.cwtv.com/shows/arrow/the-brave-and-the-bold/?play=4254f82b-bf7d-4d18-819b-8e275ab45bec

Arrow (Draw Back Your Bow) review

Amy Gumenick as Carrie Cutter/Cupid

Finally the Introduction of Sadistic Female Villain!

Arrow has lacked strong female characters in the show’s history. Summer Glau, Susan Thompson, and Caity Lotz portrayed strong female characters but their characters are dead and gone. However, Amy Gumenick was introduced as Cupid tonight, and her character really made this new episode really entertaining.

Cupid is killing criminal to get the Arrow’s attention.  She is infatuated with Arrow because she is pretty psycho. He also saved her life one time and has built a shrine of his accomplishments. Oliver Queen has to hunt her down while dealing with another problem, Felicity and Ray Palmer.  Oliver is torn because he secretly wants Felicity to be his lady. Oliver is forced to deal with psychopathic stalker and his internal feelings toward Felicity.

Cupid was a great addition to the Arrow melting pot of characters.  Amy Gumenick brought great charisma to the screen as Cupid. The writers of Arrow can’t pick any DC villain and use them for a storyline or season long arch. They are limited but Cupid can be Arrow’s Harley Quinn. The character enjoys killing for fun. She is willing to kill Arrow and herself because she is a lunatic. She is very seductive too but no one should go to bed with her because an arrow might be put in your back.

Felicity and Ray Palmer had a good chemistry tonight and it made their story interesting.  Oliver wants Felicity and Barry Allen would date her too but the two superheroes are striking out on her affections. Palmer has made his interest in Felicity known from episode 1. He gave her mother a prototype communication device.  He has brought her dresses and made her vice president. They kissed tonight because both of them are very silimar. However, the question reminds if Ray Palmer will show Felicity is alter ego that he is creating. Brandon Routh and Emily Bett Rickards have great chemistry on screen together.

Overall, Draw Back Your Bow was a really good Arrow episode. It was entertaining and fun. The Arrow fan base will want to see more Cupid because the actress killed as a psycho.  Draw Back Your Bow gets a 4.5/5.

Arrow Guilty Review

Colton Hayes as Roy Harper tells Felicity, Emily Bett Rickards, about his dreams of killing Sara Lance

Who could kill Sara Lance?

Last week, I didn’t post an Arrow review because the episode pretty much sucked and was predictable. Tonight’s episode “Guilty” was very predictable but it was entertaining. The question remains who killed Sara Lance? I believe it is was the wife of the Asian guy who we see in flashbacks with Oliver Queen in China. However, I do believe we will find out soon who Sara’s killer is.  Tonight’s episode dealt with the mystery of Ted Grant and Roy believing if he killed Sara.

Roy Harper believes that he killed Sara Lance because of his dreams. He asks for Felicity for help and finds inconclusive results if he killed Sara.  However, Oliver, Stephen Amell, has a bigger problem. Oliver discovers an assailant is killing a family of drug dealers. All signs point to Ted Grant. J.R. Ramirez , Wildcat, who is training Laurel Lance, Kate Cassidy.  Arrow, Ted, and Laurel form a team to determine the identity killer of the drug dealers and why killer is determine to frame Grant for the murders.

J.R. Ramirez as Ted Grant training Laurel Lance, Kate Cassidy.

The one of the reasons why Arrow is one of the better television shows is the use of the characters. For the past few seasons, the minor characters get their spotlight in their own episode. Tonight the team of the writers focused on Ted Grant played by J.R. Ramirez. Comic book fans know the character as the hero named Wildcat and who works with the Justice League and helps Batman hone his martial arts skills. “Guilty” focused on two characters Roy Harper and Ted Grant.  Ted Grant is teaching Laurel to box.  The audience discovers that Ted was a vigilante six years ago. However, his partner killed a criminal and the murder causes Ted retires from being a vigilante.   Oliver and Ted have a dislike of each other probably because they both want the same woman. Kate Cassidy has gained some muscle and will become Black Canary this season apparently.  Ted also warned Oliver to cut Roy from the team because Ted’s partner let him down.

Roy and Oliver relationship was put on full displayed tonight. Oliver showed that he trusts Roy and believes in him. Roy tells Oliver “Don’t abandon me.”  Oliver replies “I won’t” and Oliver helps Roy to discovered he has committed a murder but not the one of Sara Lance. Roy is one of the better characters on Arrow. Oliver give Roy the nickname of Arsenal tonight. Arsenal is Roy Harper’s superhero identity in the comics. Sidekicks are important because they remind our main hero of their humanity. The Oliver and Roy relationship is right now a mentor/student but it is becoming brother/brother relationship.  Roy can kick major ass also.

Overall, tonight’s Arrow episode was good. It was very enjoyable and Ted Grant was the main. Roy and Oliver became more brothers than just being partners. Personally, I would have to loved to see Brandon Routh or John Barrowman in his episode. “Guilty” gets a 4.0/5.  (preview of next’s episode is below).

Tonight’s episode of Arrow what did you think of it? comment below and let me know

 

Arrow (The Magician) review

Katrina Law returns as Nyssa Al Ghul

The League of Assassins were introduced last year on season 2 of Arrow. They’re a ruthless bunch and will kill anybody that gets in their way.  However, this league seems to be for hire in the show.  Malcolm Merilyn was a member of the league but was able to get released by Ra Al Ghul, the head of the demon and leader of the league of Assassins.  Ra has put a bounty on his head ever since he destroyed half of Starling City.  Ra’s daughter, Nyssa, was lover to Sara Lance who was killed by an unknown assailant.  Nyssa returns to demand answers from Oliver Queen.

Oliver and Roy were in the Arrow Cave talking about Thea being different, and Nyssa shows up with an Arrow pointed at Oliver.  Nyssa demands to know where Sara is, and Oliver informs her that she was killed by an archer.  Nyssa tells Oliver that Sara was investigating the rumors of Malcolm Merilyn’s return.  Oliver, Nyssa, and the team investigate where Malcolm is hiding and track him down.  Oliver and Nyssa find him but Oliver doesn’t kill him then Malcolm escapes.  Oliver must decide to kill Malcolm or keep him alive to find out the truth about Sara’s murder.

Nyssa confronts Merilyn

The writers of Arrow did a wonderful job of writing the story and script for this episode. Their writing made the audience try to guess if Malcolm Merilyn killed Sara. Nyssa refuses to follow Oliver’s lead and relentlessly pursues Malcolm.  Katrina Law, Nyssa, did a fine job of playing a cold witch in this episode.  John Barrowman, Malcom Merilyn, also did a wonderful job in this episode.  He was clever and even told Nyssa and Oliver their dirty laundry and still looked like cool kid on the block.  Barrowman was charming but sneaky.  He is a great audition to the regular cast.  At the end of the episode, we see the man himself, Ra Al Ghul.

Nyssa talks to her father, Ra Al Ghul played by Matthew Nable.

Matthew Nable plays one of the evilest men in all of comic book history. Nable is not very known by the public. He was only in the episode for a few seconds.  He calls Sara a punk who deserved to die.  He tells Nyssa to cool it on Malcolm so he can kill Malcolm himself. He also declares war on Oliver Queen for protecting Malcolm.  Ra Al Ghul and the league will be the big bad in this season.  My question is did Ra Al Ghul kill Sara himself or who did he hire to kill her? Maybe he broke Slade Wilson out of Prison to kill Sara?  Honestly, this season will very entertaining in its main storyline.

Overall, there were a few negatives.  Detective Lance doesn’t know his daughter is dead and couldn’t figure it out when Nyssa showed up at the police station. Roy and Thea might rebrewed their romance…lets hope not.  However, the episode was still solid and entertaining.  Arrow “the Magician” gets a 4.2 out of 5 from me.

What did you think of this week’s episode comment below and let me know?

(side my thoughts on the DC lineup and Marvel lineup are coming?

Arrow (corto maltese) review

Willa Holland as Thea

Thea and Malcolm come back

Thea has been a character on Arrow that had a tendency to be a drag in episodes. However, last season she and the audience found that her father is Malcolm Merilyn.  She agrees leave Starling City with Malcolm at the end of last season. Sara’s death has affected Oliver, and he needs his sister more than ever.  Thea’s storyline brings back one of the best actors of the Arrow, John Barrowman as Malcolm Merilyn.

Oliver, Roy, and Dingle decide to go search for Thea, and Felicity traces her whereabouts to Corto Maltese.  They travel to speak to her and bring her home. Oliver tells Thea that their father died in order to save Oliver but still doesn’t tell her that he is the Arrow. Felicity starts to work with Ray Palmer. She continuously gives excuses to Ray for her life is so secretive because she gets three calls asking her favors in a two minute period while Ray Palmer is looking curious. Dingle finds out an Argus agent has stolen the names of Argus’s agents and plans to sell them on the black market. Amanda Waller orders Dingle to kill the rogue agent. Laural attends an AA meeting and sees one of fellow members is constantly getting beaten by her boyfriend. Her boyfriend is wanted in several different jurisdictions, and Laural decides to something about the problem. She tires to kick his ass with a baseball bat but gets her ass handed  to her instead. She decides to be trained by Ted Grant (known as Wildcat) and began her training to become Black Canary when Oliver refuses to train her himself.  Oliver delivers a powerful line “Sara would never forgive me” meaning if Laural gets hurt as a crime fighter.

The guys who bring the awesome fights in Arrow to the small guy

Arrow always has one positive which are the stunts and action sequences.  The stunt team does a hell of a job to train the actors to be so light footed and make the fights look a dance. Roy even does a double kick move and gets praise from Oliver in this episode. His double kick move was pretty cool. The fights are wonderful to watch.  Thea and Malcolm are together as student and mentor. The flashbacks give their relationship a hostile feel at first but as the episode progresses Malcolm feels a sense of pride for his daughter’s skills and her choices. She has been trained to be an Assassin the same way the League of Assassins trained Merilyn.  Brandon Routh is so likeable. He would have been a great Superman if given the chance to make more films. The discovery he makes about OMAC that Queen Consolidated was building was intense.  His expression give the feeling that he was looking for that specifically. He might know Oliver is the Arrow.  OMAC is a like Ultron from Marvel, a machine who creates robot  copies of itself to destroy humanity.

J.R. Ramirez as Ted Grant/Wildcat

The last thing that needs to be mention is Laural. The character is becoming rather important in show’s story lines. The fact that she got her ass handed to her in her first vigilante attempt was so grounded. A woman on her first try would not be able to kick the crap out of a abuser because she is ill prepared to fight. The writers are going to give her and Ted Grant one to two seasons where she trains to become Black Canary. Thea has been training with her father for 5 months and is skilled. Her father could easily kill her if he wanted too. Laural has no training what so ever and it will take her awhile before she is ready to use a staff to kick criminal asses.  Wildcat is her mentor from the comics and even Batman has a lot of respect for his fighting styles.

Overall, this episode was fun and entertaining. The fight choreography was spectacular. Thea and Laural are assuming the roles of the dominant women on the show. The league of Assassins return next week. They want answers about what happened Sara. Good luck with that Ollie.  Corto Maltese gets a 4/5.

Next week’s Arrow preview…what did you think of the episode comment below and let me know.

Arrow (The Calm) review

Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer

At least they ended the episode on a shocker!

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, Arrow’s season three premiered tonight.  Overall, the episode was very weak and felt like they were pulling teeth to get the end of it. This episode follows the consistency of weaker and more boring episodes follow the high action pact meaningful episodes.  Don’t worry, Arrow will rebound because the show is pretty freaking great.

Season three starts off with Oliver, Roy, and Dingle stopping a shipment full of illegal arms. Roy is Oliver’s partner but still a sidekick. He has as much freedom as Robin does. The Arrow is now widely accepted and loved by Starling City. He has the lower crime rate and  is an ally to the police force.  Oliver is also trying to reclaim his company but so is a guy named Ray Palmer. Dingle and Lyla are going to be parents soon. Oliver finally has time to date. He asks Felicity out and then suddenly a new crime boss comes to town. A crime boss takes up the mantle of Count Vertigo and starts to terrorize Starling City.  It forces Team Arrow to make personal choices.

The New Count Vertigo, Peter Stormare, was the best part of this episode. He somehow finds a way to use The Scarecrow fear toxin combined with Vertigo. Maybe, the Scarecrow will show up on Arrow. Stormare is very menacing in his role. He’s ruthless like the Joker in someways. He doesn’t mind killing people or blowing up buildings with people to make his point.  David Ramsey was also a strong positive aspect of the episode.  I hope he doesn’t leave the show because he is Oliver’s consciousness and reasoning like Alfred is Batman’s.  Honestly, the fight choreography is still spectacular. The team did a good job training Colton Haynes, Roy Harper, to perform the action sequences that Stephen Amell does.

Despite these positives, this episode was lackluster.  The reason why this needs mentioning because these season premieres don’t need to feel lackluster and boring. A lot of Arrow fans like: John Campea, Ann Campea, Kaori Takee, (John, Ann, and Kaori do the Arrow After Show on Stream TV’s youtube channel) and Dennis Tzeng and his Think Hero YouTube channel spend their time and energy reviewing Arrow episodes all season and trying to convince people to watch Arrow. This wasn’t a good episode to have after that mind boggling season finale in May. The writers maybe took the week off in the creativity department. Honestly, the Felicia and Oliver off and on again love story has already gotten old. I hope Ray Palmer steals Felicia from Ollie, because Oliver is such a pansy when it comes to his emotions.

Another problem with this episode that the writers decided to throw in Ray Palmer to steal Oliver’s company and continue to make Oliver a poor average man that somehow can afford Italian. How does Oliver pay for those trick arrows? Oliver is not supposed to be poor. To quote my mother, “The reason why we love superheroes like Tony Stark, Oliver Queen, and Bruce Wayne because they are the rich bastards who use their wealth to fight crime and save the city/world.” The writers of Arrow please correct this mistake because most of the Arrow fanbase doesn’t want to see A Dark Knight Rises retell on Arrow. It was cool when Slade Wilson stole Oliver’s company but isn’t cool when Ray Palmer, who will the hero the Atom, steal his company.

Overall, the season premiere was very boring and felt like a bad romantic comedy between Oliver and Felicity. The last five minutes were awesome and a shocker. It does help jump start the main central plot line in this season of Arrow. Stormare and Ramsey gave stellar performances and the fight scenes were fun and spectacular as usual. Arrow’s the Calm gets a 3/5.  (was checking my cellphone for the hour to be over during the episode people).

What did you think of this episode of Arrow? Comment below and let me know.

Arrow Unthinkable review (no spoilers)

Why you need to watch Arrow?

Arrow is about the Oliver Queen and his nightly activities as a crime fighting vigilante. The episode titled “Unthinkable” concludes an action packed season.  This season is the best season of Arrow. The episode picks up where the last episode left off. Oliver has a cure that can turn Slade Wilson’s superhuman army into regular flesh and bone humans. Slade is out for revenge against Oliver. Oliver’s former partner, Amanda Waller,  has sent a drone to nuke Starling City and wipe out Slade’s Army. Oliver has to stop Slade’s army in the nick of time to prevent Waller from leveling the city.  The episode has several high points for me that made it enjoyable for me..

My first point is the story telling. The writers and executive producers of Arrow seem to create story lines each week that keep your attention for an hour.  “Unthinkable” wraps up the second season main story arcs but open up for new stories to be told down the road. The writers sever some characters’ relationships or add to on existing characters’ relationships. These relationships will play out in future seasons.   Secondly, this show has fine actors. Stephen Amell has really grown into the role of Oliver Queen. He owns the role of the Green Arrow.  Manu Bennett’s acting has taken a multi dimensional comic book character, Deathstroke (Slade Wilson) and translated every dimension of that character on to the small screen.  Emily Bett Rickards is a strong actress, and she plays Felicity.  Her acting made her character’s story in this episode so heartfelt and compelling. My final big positive is this episode is dominated by strong female characters. I love the strong female characters who drive the story. Sarah, Nyssa Al Ghul, Felicity, and Thea drive the narrative in this episode. These characters will be pivotal for next season and future seasons to come.   I have a few negatives that bugged me..

A big negative was the pace of the episode.  I actually think last season’s finale was more suspenseful. This episode had so many subplots and felt a little cramped that it gave you little breathing time.  I never felt any of the characters were endangered,  either.  My final issue was one character was one and done. The character’s ending was kind of fun to watch at first. I felt like they wasted the whole season developing the character and their finale comes within seconds without a big fight.

Overall, I think this a great show.  Here are some reasons why you need to watch Arrow.  It has great story telling, every actor on the show has talent, the fight sequences make it worth watching, and the tone of the show has remained consistent.  Stephen Amell has great acting range. He could tell me that he loves me. I would believe him because of the emotion in his eyes.  Arrow is a television show makes an hour fly by fast.  Another reason that you need to consider watching Arrow is the potential superhero appearances. Flash will be appearing on the show and the show runners have said a few Batman characters could appear on Arrow.

Overall this episode of Arrow was great but not as great as last season’s finale. I will do a spoiler review soon after I have time to digest this episode and people will have seen it. The acting, story telling, and female characters in this episode are superb.  It is one of my favorite shows on television. This episode was a little overwhelming with the plot points that they kept throwing at you. I will give this episode a 4.5 out of 5.