Arrow Season 1 Review

• 26th Sep 2013

It’s easy to see why ARROW is one of the CW network’s most watched shows.  It’s got nothing to do with plot;  it’s got nothing to do with characterisation and it’s got nothing to do with the action sequences (as well choreographed as they may be).  The reason for ARROW’S success and almost inevitable pick-up for a second season run becomes obvious when one does the following Google Image search: “Stephen Amell shirtless”.  The show seems to be more than willing to exploit Amell’s aesthetic appeal as every episode features at least one scene where the camera lingers over his gloriously naked torso while he does press-ups…or sit-ups…or handstands…or climbs ropes….or spars with his equally buff sidekick.   It’s like very, very soft-core pore for people who read Mills and Boon. A slightly sweaty, lightly tatooed man with soulful eyes, a secret dark past and shoulders like rocks performs a number of athletic movements while you sit on the sofa with a glass of wine in your hand and a big grin on your face wondering if it’s pervy to rewind and watch that bit again.

Having said that, it would be wrong to dismiss ARROW as having nothing else to offer an audience but eye-candy, I mean sure, Amell isn’t the only hotty in the cast, but this is the CW, a network that’s famed for only employing the most beautiful people.  What elevates the show above being another 90210 clone is that it’s actually surprisingly dark, and what makes is dark is Amell’s complex portrayal of a character who is so deeply scared emotional and physically by his past that he’s lost sight of his humanity. Our hero is willing to kill people for no other reason than to defend his secrets (as he does in the pilot) and chooses to follow his own agenda at the expense of the people he loves and the city he’s sworn to “clean up”.

Based on the DC hero Green Arrow, the show follows the story of Amell’s billionaire playboy Oliver Queen, who though a series of very unfortunate events ends up being inadvertedly responsible for the death of his girlfriends sister (after he took her away for a weekend of philandering) as well as his father, after a shipwreck leaves him aparently alone on a desert island.  Presumed dead for five years, he’s eventually resuced and returns home to Starling City to find his mother has re-married his father’s business partner (Colin Salmon!!), his sister is something of a troubled and angry teen, his girlfriend can’t stand this sight of him and has started started shagging his best friend.

To the audience it’s clear (thanks to a shirtless scene) that Olly is utterly traumatised by his experiences on the island and that he’s been irrevocably changed from the carefree playboy philanderer we see in flashback, to a man willing to do anything to honour his father’s dying wish.  His status as a celebrity means he adopts the “Hood” vigilante persona, while continuing to pretend to be the shallow, funloving playboy he once was. If you’re thinking this all sounds very Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy, you can absolutely see that the showrunners have taken their inspiration from the sucessful series and by doing so have actually achieved something cinematic and dark on the small screen.

What also sets the show apart is that they’ve introduced a lot of the major players from the comic book series into the TV show from the get-go.  They’ve got an incarnation of Count Vertigo, there’s  a character called Merlyn,  there’s a Roy Harper, someone is called “Speedy” as a nickname, there’s a dark archer…and on and on. In some ways it’s very brave to be throwing these characters in so early into season 1 rather than saving them up for later outings, but you get the impression that the showrunners aren’t afraid to show the full mythology early on and to build on it.

Overall the cast are excellent.  There’s a dark turn from John Barrowman, playing against type and almost making me forget what a charismatic good-guy he can be.  There’s the wonderfully charming performance from Emily Bett Richards as Olly’s geeky tech-nerd side-kick Felicity, who has chemistry with everyone and now, the internet informs me, is a more popular “ship” for our lead than the obvious Olly-Laurel pairing.

But for all I said about Amell’s physique it’s his acting performance that’s strongest, although you don’t fully appreciate his skill at crafting this character until you see him in flashback.  He’s essentially playing four characters , the carefree shallow Olly we see in early flashback and that he pretends to be after his return; the Olly on the island, confused, scared and learning to survive; the Olly his sidekicks and we, the audience see, scarred, damaged and angry with those incredibly sad eyes and the vigilante terror stalking the powerful and corrupt men and women of Starling City. The fact that he manages to convince in each role makes him an enigmatic presence, you’re never really sure where you stand and who is the real Olly.  And it’s that central point that really makes the show dark and interesting.  Unlike the Green Arrow portrayed elsewhere, already an established hero, Arrow takes us on the journey of Oliver Queen as he struggles to get there.

A special mention needs to be made about the many fight scenes and stunt work, and one of the DVD extras is in fact a behind-the-scenes look at this aspect of the show. It’s the one special feature that’s really worth checking out on the disc, if only to hear that they chose to make everything that Olly does actually physically possible for a human to achieve.  Although harnesses are used for some of the Parkour inspired stunts, they’re for saftey only and the stuntmen involved have to perform the hits themselves.  It’s also refreshing to hear and to then see Amell doing some of the big stunts and the majority of the fight scenes.  I mean, sure he’s not going to be allowed to do the really dangerous stuff, but knowing that you’re actually seeing the actor in the scene allows the camera to more intimate and realistic.

All in all, this series is definitely worth a look because even if Amell’s body doesn’t turn you on, the action, plotting and potential character arcs for Season 2 just might.

Suzie King