[TV] Arrow - season 1

As I’ve talked about before, since the start of my undergraduate degree eight years ago the amount of television that I watch has dropped off quite sharply. The only things I really watch on television any more are sporting events, such as the 6 Nations, F1 Grand Prix, and the BTCC. Plus Dr Who and Top Gear. Part of the reason for that was time; as a student I just didn’t have the free time to be regularly watching a TV show, so some of my favourites I had to reluctantly let fall by the wayside. Some I’ve since picked up on DVD or download, and have sitting in my ‘to watch’ queue.

I suppose to be strictly accurate I should have said ‘traditional television’ above, as over the last couple of years I’ve started watching more and more YouTube, BBC iPlayer, and other online streaming services. This has really allowed me to get back into TV shows, as it allows me to watch episodes when and where I want rather than being tied down to the airing time. That flexibility has been a godsend.

The other advantage I’ve found is that online streaming has let me watch American drama, a lot of which doesn’t make it to the UK or, if it does, is only on pay-per-view channels. One such show is Arrow, based on the DC Green Arrow comics.

(Credit: do.wikia.com)

I will freely and happily admit that I knew very little about Green Arrow before I started watching this series. I knew that he was part of the DC Universe, and I’d seen him in cartoon form in a couple of appearances in the Justice League cartoon series. My impression was that he was a DC version of Hawkeye, which is true, but only part of the picture. He’s also a bow-and-arrow wielding Batman in many ways – the technology, the money, and the nature of his dual identities (I did a it of research before I started watching). But I knew it was a superhero TV show, and the trailers that I’d seen looked very interesting, so I tuned in.

It’s a series of two halves really. Not in a good-bad divide, but in terms of both the main story and character progression. Then within the series as a whole there are two main overarching stories that run in parallel, as well as a lot of smaller character arcs. I can’t really elaborate on my thoughts on the series without spoilers, so…..***SPOILER ALERT***

The mysterious notebook that his father gave to Oliver. Just what does the strange symbol mean?

The answer is very clever, and rather surprising. (Credit: greenarrow.wikia.com)

Oliver Queen was a millionaire (billionaire?) college dropout playboy, fond of drinking and women. Then one day the luxury yacht carrying him, his father, and his girlfriend’s sister, sinks in the middle of a storm. Only Oliver survives, but he ends up stranded on an island in the middle of the pacific. Five years later he’s rescued, but is a changed man. With a booklet of names supplied by his father he vows to clean up his home, Starling City, by taking down those who are doing it harm. To fulfil this goal, he takes up a bow and green hood that he’s mysteriously acquired during his sojourn in hell.

The two main story lines in the show interweave with each other. One covers Oliver’s attempts to destroy the criminal underworld of Starling City, whilst the other consists of flashbacks to his time on the island, and his experiences there. The flashbacks are handled very well; they link into events in the present in a very clever fashion, yet still move the island storyline forwards, revealing a little more each time. I won’t say much more, other than that there are some interesting hints and foreshadowing at various points, and that the island storyline finishes at the end of the season, well short of the five years. So there’s lots more to come on that front, which is intriguing.

The mysterious island Lian Yu, on which Oliver Queen spent 5 years. The series gradually reveals what happened

to him there through a series of flashbacks. (Credit: greenarrow.wikia.com)

The present day storyline, as I said, has two halves. In the first half of the season Oliver is tracking down the names in his book, eliminating them one by one. Then he discovers evidence of a larger plot, and the second half of the season covers his attempts (with the help of his associates) to foil whatever it is that’s going on.

Speaking of his associates, they’re great characters. Diggle, his security guard, is ex-army, and brings the experience. He’s the wise, cool head, and his frustration when Oliver repeatedly fails to listen to him only for Diggle to be proved right is palpable (and shared by the audience). Felicity, on the other hand, is the techno-genius. She’s also the source of much of the comedy in the show, and I was pleased when she was promoted to show-regular status. I love that she constantly shows Oliver that he’s underestimating her, and that appearances don’t always match reality. Plus they make a really cute couple, even if they're definitely not!

Diggle and Felicity save Oliver's life. Again. This happens a few times, even if it's not

literally true on every occasion. (Credit: do.wikia.com)

The other main characters are Oliver’s family, who struggle to deal with his return and the way that he’s changed, his best friend Tommy, who goes through a thorough character evolution across the season, his ex-girlfriend Laurel and her police detective father, and his island companions. The love-triangle between Oliver, Laurel, and Tommy is a running theme, and proves a big motivating factor for some of Oliver’s decisions. Many of which turn out poorly, and lead to strain on his other relationships, particularly with Diggle. At times the Oliver-Laurel relationships threatens to become tedious, but there are only a couple of episodes where it really overwhelms things. More interesting to me was the relationship between Tommy and Oliver, which nicely illustrates one of the themes of the show – secrets, and how both keeping them and revealing them can cause hurt to those that you care about.

I realise that I haven't talked about Oliver himself. He's a complex character, with several different warring aspects. Stephen Amell does a fantastic job at showing his inner conflict and his iron self-control, not to mention the different faces that he shows to outsiders, and even his friends and family, depending on what and how much they know, and how he needs to deal with them. It's a masterclass, and he effortlessly switches gears at the turn of a heel or the closing of a door.

Oliver Queen: badass, olympic level archer, sometime hero. (Credit: comicsalliance.com)

Arrow is by no means perfect. The interpersonal drama can sometimes tip over into cliché and soap-opera territory, and I lost count of how often the characters would not listen to each other, only to reconcile their differences at the end of the episode when they realised that they were mistaken/deluded/too stubborn to see what was best. Where it really shines in my opinion is in the Oliver-Diggle-Felicity scenes, with the three of them planning and executing operations, and it comes alive whenever Oliver is out and about as ‘the Hood’. There are pleasing cameos from other DC characters and names, and it’s not afraid to have the heroes actually fail from time to time. This is particularly noticeable at the end of the season, when they think they’ve stopped the villain only to have their success turned into failure.

I really enjoyed this first season of Arrow, and I’m intrigued to see where they take the show given some of the late-season developments.