Movies / Comics Movie Reviews

Arrow Dodger Review

By Alexander Jones
February 21, 2013 - 17:14

Hot on the heels of last week’s episode, Arrow had a lot of momentum. Unfortunately the show continued it’s formulaic process to provide a very average episode. The biggest flaw with this episode is the same as always, bad use of villains. James Callis is a truly incredible actor as shown by his performance on Battlestar Galactica. Wasting James Callis is a huge mistake by any television show but having him getting arrested and then just moving on completely kills the Arrow momentum. Ollie and Moira have not developed their relationship at all since he found that she was in possession with the list. While in television building to a bigger threat is always necessary, the threat at hand is does not have to be stagnant and uninteresting for so long. Yet consistently on this show the audience has been handed bad villain after poor characterization. With all of that considered the real saving grace of an episode like this is going to be the subplots.

Thea Queen meeting Roy Harper was interesting. Based on this show going forward it would be shocking if Thea ever really became someone like Speedy or if Laurel really became the Black Canary. Roy Harper was actually quite interesting in this episode we barely know anything about the new character. His motivations would be very interesting if they remained a mystery for a little bit longer as well. The parallels between Diggle and Ollie’s dating excursions this episode were painfully obvious. The part that hit the nail over the head was the fact that both of their dates looked incredibly similar. If they had not set up both characters sooner in the show I would think they were the same actor.

The most interesting prospect about the dating subplot this week was how exactly Ollie flashed directly back to the island to some things from the past that we had seen earlier on in the episode. The island flashbacks were very focused on how exactly Ollie has changed with his time on the island so far. Seeing exactly where he was coming from and why he is different is very interesting. A spot on the show that continues to shine is Felicity Smoake. Felicity brings a new interesting angle to all of the different angles that happen on the show. Diggle and Ollie are hardened and used to their relationship at this point and Felicity offers a new way for the writers to explore a new dynamic. An interesting development was Moira directly confronting the Triad along with China White about the a certain Malcom Reynolds. Finally Moira is making a good decision that allows the viewers to sympathize with her character in one sense. With Malcom Reynolds once again a plot thread dangling in the air perhaps next week will hold more interesting prospects for Arrow.

Rating: 7 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12