I just finished
watching the latest episode of Arrow when a thought occurred to me. A thought that
was on my mind pretty much every episode since Season 3. A thought that initially
disappeared at the beginning of Season 4, but just kept getting progressively stronger
with each episode.
This show makes no sense.
It’s messy, unfocused,
and a pale reflection of the glorious juggernaut of thrills and spills in
Season 2. And the sad part is, we all try to give it a chance out of the vain
hope that someday, it will return and perhaps even surpass those great heights
to stand out as quality television.
After tonight, any
hope I had that my dreams would come to pass just went up in smoke. Because
tonight was an unforgivable example of how the showrunners continually pander
to the demands of the fandoms. Black Canary is an essential part of the Green
Arrow mythos. Pick up any GA comic, chances are you’ll find her in it. She is
portrayed as a strong, confident and independent woman who can more than take
care of herself in any situation. The showrunners’ excuse for her death was
that they feel the show needs to evolve, that they don’t want to hold
themselves down to the mythos. But the irony is that, by repeating the “Lance
loses a daughter” storyline again, they are already devolving. How many times
do we need to see Lance lose a daughter? It’s just absolutely bonkers for a
character to lose his two daughters three times. Is this something we really
need to rehash? As for the second argument, my answer is that just because you
can change something doesn’t mean you should. When you change something too
much, you risk losing the essence of the mythos itself. For example, this
season seems to be more about a man in a green hoodie with inconsistent fighting
skills that makes almost every decision based on the opinion of a woman who
seems to get way too emotional about things she really has no right to be
emotional over. It is not in my opinion, a show that I can see and say, “Oh,
this is the Green Arrow.” Because there’s no more Roy, no more Deathstroke, and
now no more Black Canary. This is the equivalent of a Batman show without
Alfred, a Superman show without Lois Lane, a Spider-Man show without Aunt May.
There have been far too many liberties taken with the source material that seem
only to aim to shock and to generate controversy.
Alright, so let’s say
you disagree with me and side with the showrunners and their writing. Everyone’s
entitled to their opinion after all, so fair enough. But the way they handled Laurel’s death was just
in bad taste. She died of a single arrow. Think of the times that so many
characters have been impaled with arrows in this series and lived. Oliver Queen survived a fall from a cliff,
impaled with a sword, in the freezing cold with barely a scratch. Okay, so let’s
just say that she was hit in a really vital spot and there was no magic tea
nearby. She is rushed to the hospital. And right before she dies, her very last
words are to subtly encourage Oliver to pursue Felicity, as she relegates herself
to a hopeless romantic that knows the man she loves will never love her back. Then
after whispering some really cryptic message, there is some awkward editing and
all of a sudden she’s convulsing and Oliver is looking stunned, and then she
dies abruptly. Her father didn’t even get to say goodbye. Good acting from all
involved especially Cassidy, but my God what a horrible script. The fact that
her last words are a ship for Olicity shows that, as many fans have pointed
out, how much the showrunners want to force Olicity to the point where even the
characters have to state their approval for the relationship.
Poor Cassidy, you have
to really feel for her. Initally, she signed on to be the female lead but
failed to hit her stride and was met with negative reception. However, fan-favourite
Caity Lotz found her place (rightfully so given her suitability for the role)
as the Canary and Laurel was relegated to the sidelines. Then Lotz was killed
off and fans were enraged at Laurel. Laurel only began to hit her stride
towards the end of season 3 as she slowly adjusted to the role she was promised
as the Black Canary. There was so much that they could have done to take the
character in new paths. But she took a supporting role to all the increasingly contrived
relationship drama that has just dragged Arrow down and down week after week.
She put in her all and yet her character was never truly done justice. Hell,
even Felicity, an IT girl, has two arch-villains – the crazy bee lady and her
father. Who’s Laurel’s arch-villain? Random thug #125?
You might then say –
Oh, if you hate the show so much then just stop watching it. The thing is – I started
this show in Season 2. I was amazed at how the writers could make Green Arrow
grounded and realistic, and how the show hit the perfect balance in action,
plot, and delightful chemistry between Oliver and Felicity in small doses that made this show a must-watch
every week. My expectations were met almost weekly, and whatever minor hiccups
the show had could be ignored. I became invested in the cast who all seemed
like generally decent people who enjoy what they do on the show and want what’s
best for it. So that’s why I really want this show to get back to those glory
days, because I have seen what this show can be when the writing is tight and
the story flows naturally. So here are three general changes that I propose in
order to try and get Arrow to hit the mark again.
1)
Fight
scenes. The choreography for the fights have been dipping in quality after
season 2. There is a tendency to use shaky cam to make it seem like there’s a
lot of movement and energy going on in a fight when really there isn’t at times.
Fights also have way too many characters to allow individuals to stand out, and
should last slightly longer. Oliver himself has been nerfed really hard but yet
strangely inconsistently, getting his ass whooped by random thugs but still totally
owning Malcolm, which makes no sense. Oliver should be in his prime now – and considering
how much of a badass he was in Season 1 and 2 where he could solo entire groups,
he definitely shouldn’t be having trouble with average joes like Cupid and Lady
Cop. Also, a show named Arrow needs to remember to show us actual archery more
often. Try to incorporate it into the fight scenes more, because there are times
where the bow seems more of an accessory than an actual tool. The scenes are
overall by no means poor – but after the likes of Daredevil and other superhero
shows, the bar has been raised, and Arrow has to provide the action it rightfully
should in a superhero show.
2)
Olicity. I
personally think that it’s funny how if you go back to comments on episodes in Season
1 and 2, everyone was rooting for this to happen. The two actors share
chemistry, no doubt – but the problem is that Felicity is now written to
overreact simply to create drama for the sake of it, such in the case of Oliver’s
son. She was told why Oliver had to keep it a secret when he didn’t want to,
claims to understand his situation, was apologized to multiple times by Oliver
and still doesn’t accept it, defying all logic. There is a difference between
being a strong woman and an unreasonable one. A strong woman would have tried
to understand the situation fully and realize that Oliver only had (or at least
thought) that he had her best interests at heart, and tried to move on from
there because after all, everyone makes mistakes and there was certainly no
malicious intent from Oliver to leave her out on purpose. But because they want
to create drama in this relationship, Felicity cannot accept it. I’m personally
okay with Olicity being a thing, but it definitely should not be shoved down
our throats week after week. Have them get together if you want, let them
bounce their chemistry off one another – but for the love of God remember that
a superhero show should not turn into a soap. If you want a soap, go watch a
soap – or petition the showrunners to rename the show into Olicity.
3)
Plot. The
showrunners actually have some pretty good ideas, but in recent seasons things
tend not to be as focused as they could be. Think of the all time favourite
season 2. Slade Wilson plans his revenge against Oliver Queen, and it grows
into a deeply compelling and engaging battle between the two. Simple. These
days, Arrow has somewhat changed. It seems to be building up to these huge
twists, these huge moments – but that’s all they seem content to achieve. There
seems to be a lack of consideration as to whether said twists are necessary or
would even be enjoyable for the audience. For example, the showrunners claimed
that they anticipated the overwhelmingly negative response that the viewers
would have to Laurel’s death. Shouldn’t that in itself have set off some alarms
in their heads, making them question if it was really such a good idea?
Yeah, so these are my
thoughts on Arrow as a whole. Hopefully, the showrunners can get back on track
delivering a superhero show first and a relationship drama a distant second. Then,
and only then can Arrow hit its mark among quality television again.
