summercomfort (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
summercomfort) wrote2013-10-19 09:57 pm
summercomfort) wrote2013-10-19 09:57 pm
Arrow (the show)
This week, I watched Arrow on Netflix (all of season 1 is on Netflix, and Season 2 has just started on Hulu.) It's a retelling of Green Arrow stuff. The basic premise is that 5 years marooned on Murder Death Island* has turned billionaire playboy Oliver Queen into a brooding Green Arrow. Each episode switches between current Oliver Queen as he tries to do his vigilante stuff but also navigate awkward family relationships, and flashbacks to his stay on the island that slowly show how he goes from playboy to warrior. It's pretty good!
First, the not-so-good aspects:
- Sometimes the show has this "harem" feel -- Oliver is constantly having these sexual tension moments with a parade of various women with long faces and dangly hair -- the lawyer ex-girlfriend, the new cop chick, the Chinese girl on the island, the mafia girl, etc. They all kick ass and generally don't need saving, but still, sometimes it feels a bit harem-y.
- As typical of something based off of comic books, there is a certain level of staid dialogue. Lots of "I am doing this to honor my father's memory" and "I'm lying to you to protect you" and "I did what I had to do" stuff. Similarly, the whole "I don't trust anyone" thing gets a bit overplayed.
- Murder Death Island is kinda like a Lost island in that random shit happens there *all the time*. For an abandoned island, it sure has a lot of random mercenary groups and stuff! It's like the most well-trafficked abandoned island ever.
Now, the story aspects that I liked:
- I liked that it's about Green Arrow and not Batman or Superman -- I feel like it's lower stakes, and so there's more freedom to tweak. Everyone has opinions about Batman and Superman, far fewer people have opinions about Green Arrow.
- I like that the main characters aren't in high school. This was a major turn-off for me for Smallville and Merlin -- the sort of teenage awkwardness of it.
- There's some nice mysteries that get slowly revealed over the course of the show. For example, Oliver returns from the island magically fluent in Chinese and Russian, and sporting some crazy scars and tattoos. 2 episodes later, it's revealed that one of the tattoos actually proves that he's a high ranking member of a Russian mafia. 10 episodes later, he reveals that it's because he saved the leader's life. We haven't seen any Russians on Murder Death Island yet, but I trust that we will in the upcoming season.
- The characterizations are quite consistent. One of the things that often annoy me about mediocre TV shows is that certain character attributes changes to serve the plot. For example, in one episode Bones might know nothing about basketball, and in the next she might know everything because she read it in a book. This is why I appreciate shows that work to keep their characters consistent. John Diggle served 3 tours in Afghanistan, so he knows Arabic, but not Spanish. The only book Oliver Queen read in college was apparently the Odyssey -- he's remarkably clueless about most other literary allusions. Felicity the hacker chick doesn't magically gain fighting ability, but she can count cards and tends to talk too much when she's nervous.... etc, etc.
- The show worked hard to make it watchable for people who know nothing about Green Arrow. I'm sure watching this is a completely different experience for people who actually know the lore -- they would be expecting XXXXX to be the Black Canary once they saw her name, or see a certain mask and think Deathstroke, but these are mostly illusions. For me, it's usually not until the 3rd or 4th episode with a character before I start thinking, "Hey, this person's name is strangely alliterative -- I wonder if he's based off of the comic."
- I also liked how this isn't fully matured Green Arrow -- he's known as The Hood, he has a very clear vendetta, and he's totally not afraid to kill people. As we're seeing through the flashbacks, Oliver was put in a pretty extreme war-like situation on Murder Death Island, and so a lot of the show is him trying to trust people again, and not feel like he has to do everything himself. One thing this show has made clear: lying to your family sucks. Being a vigilante means having to abandon your family when they need you the most.
- Oliver's mom and younger sister have a pretty complex relationship that I love love love.
Other show flavoring that I liked
- The action is pretty good! (Especially for TV!) The guy who plays Green Arrow has some pretty impressive upper body strength, so he actually does a bunch of his own stunts. It's also not just the generic "punch them until they drop" kind of fighting -- Green Arrow goes for agility: lots of fancy rolls, spins, and fun leg stuff. Meanwhile, lawyer ex-girlfriend is much more straight-forward self-defense stuff: kick them and whack them where it hurts, and bodyguard associate is more handgun and punching. It generally does a good job of walking the line between realistic and too-cool-for-life.
- POC are quite decently represented: The Chinese actually speak Chinese, the Russians actually speak Russian, and the actor for Oliver Queen has clearly taken his language practice seriously. (Tones are hard, so I cut him a lot of slack for his Chinese, but at least he's doing much better than the Firefly folks). They also don't do that weird Pacific Rim thing where all the POC are indistinguishable background characters with no lines. John Diggle has some nice moments where (a) he refuses to be Oliver's sidekick, (b) he calls Oliver out on a lot of his issues. Shado and Yao Fei kick a lot more butt than Oliver (although I'm worried that Shado is getting into too many "gun pointed to her head" situations, or "please share your mystical Asian wisdom" moments.) Overall, though, not bad for a show that's set around the rich white elite.
- Oliver's pretty hawt. Especially when he shoots arrows and does crazy jumps. Or when he's wearing a suit.
------------
* It's called Lianyu 炼狱 on the show, which is Chinese for Purgatory, but Purgatory is really a Western concept, so... ::shrug:: Wish they named it for some I Ching term, but whatever. I'm calling it Murder Death Island because that's what it's full of.
First, the not-so-good aspects:
- Sometimes the show has this "harem" feel -- Oliver is constantly having these sexual tension moments with a parade of various women with long faces and dangly hair -- the lawyer ex-girlfriend, the new cop chick, the Chinese girl on the island, the mafia girl, etc. They all kick ass and generally don't need saving, but still, sometimes it feels a bit harem-y.
- As typical of something based off of comic books, there is a certain level of staid dialogue. Lots of "I am doing this to honor my father's memory" and "I'm lying to you to protect you" and "I did what I had to do" stuff. Similarly, the whole "I don't trust anyone" thing gets a bit overplayed.
- Murder Death Island is kinda like a Lost island in that random shit happens there *all the time*. For an abandoned island, it sure has a lot of random mercenary groups and stuff! It's like the most well-trafficked abandoned island ever.
Now, the story aspects that I liked:
- I liked that it's about Green Arrow and not Batman or Superman -- I feel like it's lower stakes, and so there's more freedom to tweak. Everyone has opinions about Batman and Superman, far fewer people have opinions about Green Arrow.
- I like that the main characters aren't in high school. This was a major turn-off for me for Smallville and Merlin -- the sort of teenage awkwardness of it.
- There's some nice mysteries that get slowly revealed over the course of the show. For example, Oliver returns from the island magically fluent in Chinese and Russian, and sporting some crazy scars and tattoos. 2 episodes later, it's revealed that one of the tattoos actually proves that he's a high ranking member of a Russian mafia. 10 episodes later, he reveals that it's because he saved the leader's life. We haven't seen any Russians on Murder Death Island yet, but I trust that we will in the upcoming season.
- The characterizations are quite consistent. One of the things that often annoy me about mediocre TV shows is that certain character attributes changes to serve the plot. For example, in one episode Bones might know nothing about basketball, and in the next she might know everything because she read it in a book. This is why I appreciate shows that work to keep their characters consistent. John Diggle served 3 tours in Afghanistan, so he knows Arabic, but not Spanish. The only book Oliver Queen read in college was apparently the Odyssey -- he's remarkably clueless about most other literary allusions. Felicity the hacker chick doesn't magically gain fighting ability, but she can count cards and tends to talk too much when she's nervous.... etc, etc.
- The show worked hard to make it watchable for people who know nothing about Green Arrow. I'm sure watching this is a completely different experience for people who actually know the lore -- they would be expecting XXXXX to be the Black Canary once they saw her name, or see a certain mask and think Deathstroke, but these are mostly illusions. For me, it's usually not until the 3rd or 4th episode with a character before I start thinking, "Hey, this person's name is strangely alliterative -- I wonder if he's based off of the comic."
- I also liked how this isn't fully matured Green Arrow -- he's known as The Hood, he has a very clear vendetta, and he's totally not afraid to kill people. As we're seeing through the flashbacks, Oliver was put in a pretty extreme war-like situation on Murder Death Island, and so a lot of the show is him trying to trust people again, and not feel like he has to do everything himself. One thing this show has made clear: lying to your family sucks. Being a vigilante means having to abandon your family when they need you the most.
- Oliver's mom and younger sister have a pretty complex relationship that I love love love.
Other show flavoring that I liked
- The action is pretty good! (Especially for TV!) The guy who plays Green Arrow has some pretty impressive upper body strength, so he actually does a bunch of his own stunts. It's also not just the generic "punch them until they drop" kind of fighting -- Green Arrow goes for agility: lots of fancy rolls, spins, and fun leg stuff. Meanwhile, lawyer ex-girlfriend is much more straight-forward self-defense stuff: kick them and whack them where it hurts, and bodyguard associate is more handgun and punching. It generally does a good job of walking the line between realistic and too-cool-for-life.
- POC are quite decently represented: The Chinese actually speak Chinese, the Russians actually speak Russian, and the actor for Oliver Queen has clearly taken his language practice seriously. (Tones are hard, so I cut him a lot of slack for his Chinese, but at least he's doing much better than the Firefly folks). They also don't do that weird Pacific Rim thing where all the POC are indistinguishable background characters with no lines. John Diggle has some nice moments where (a) he refuses to be Oliver's sidekick, (b) he calls Oliver out on a lot of his issues. Shado and Yao Fei kick a lot more butt than Oliver (although I'm worried that Shado is getting into too many "gun pointed to her head" situations, or "please share your mystical Asian wisdom" moments.) Overall, though, not bad for a show that's set around the rich white elite.
- Oliver's pretty hawt. Especially when he shoots arrows and does crazy jumps. Or when he's wearing a suit.
------------
* It's called Lianyu 炼狱 on the show, which is Chinese for Purgatory, but Purgatory is really a Western concept, so... ::shrug:: Wish they named it for some I Ching term, but whatever. I'm calling it Murder Death Island because that's what it's full of.
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There's only 1 season out right now -- perfect time to catch up! I've caught up, so now it's only going to take me 40 minutes a week to stay up-to-date. (The trick is to find something to do while you watch. For me, it's drawing. For a lot of people, apparently it's something called "exercise".)