The CW's Arrow

Late to the game...

just started watching Arrow on Netflix..

I think I'm on episode 20? (maybe 21)..


I didnt think I'd 'get into it'.. but the initial episode/pilot got me hooked I think.

So far I have enjoyed it..

I like/dislike the actor whos playing Oliver Queen.. (sometimes I feel like the acting forced, or snarky/attitude thats misplaced at times)

I've also enjoy the cameos so far.. (although I'm more of a canon comic book guy.... but get this is a live action/series.

Waiting to find out how things play out from the final decent off the island (with the chic, oliver and slade)..

Not sold on the 'black arrow' guys yet (I just cant see how MM is the black arrow?.. but I guess they'll make me a believer as time goes on?)

So we are now 2 episodes in after the mid-season/holiday break, and I'm still asking the same question as Mad Professor: What?!

I really liked the mid-season cliffhanger; it left me thinking, trying to figure out how it happened. And then the reveal in "Who Are You?" was not only underwhelming, but negligible. My best guess at the time ended up being the truth: that it was actually Black Siren, and she was playing Oliver. But I was hoping we might see a slow-burn reformation of her over the latter half of this season, culminating in her showing up as a good guy in the final act. They get Black Canary back, as an actual meta-human, and Oliver has a second chance at a relationship with Laurel without past history getting in the way (for comic book accuracy). Instead, she just went back to prison. Not much of a payoff on that great serve they gave before the break.

*spoiler alert for 2/1/17 episode details*

And now, there's this other woman, who coincidentally also has a sonic cry, and is already out and about delivering her own justice. In the span of one episode, she's convinced that she should join the team. OH YEAH, ONE MORE THING, her real name is Dinah Drake. It's like the writers jumped out of the TV and started frantically pointing and screaming, "Do you see?! See what we did there?!" all while I'm giving them the most unimpressed expression that I can muster.

I realize how negative I am being, and I don't enjoy it. I wish they had not taken the convenient road for the sake of simplicity. If there absolutely must be a Black Canary, then (a) let's have the search/vetting process last longer than one episode and (b) let's not beat around the bush by baiting the fans with Katie Cassidy showing up for, ultimately, no significant reason.

Getting more interesting finally. Strong episode all the way around. Adrian Chase actor looks like he could be a younger brother to Christian Bale

I have to say, I had lost interest in show for a little while there, then they killed Laurel and I thought I was out, but this season has been a refreshing change, and last episode was really great. Prometheus is really up there with Deathstroke ! The actor is killing it in the role, and brings out Amell's acting as well. I thought The Flash was a better show, and it was at the time of season 1 at least, but now it's reverse, and Arrow is the better show between the two IMO...

I've been thinking this for a while I feel he is trying to emulate pactrick Bateman from American psycho. Really like it though

JBLAKE said:

Getting more interesting finally. Strong episode all the way around. Adrian Chase actor looks like he could be a younger brother to Christian Bale

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Vox said:

And now, there's this other woman, who coincidentally also has a sonic cry, and is already out and about delivering her own justice. In the span of one episode, she's convinced that she should join the team. OH YEAH, ONE MORE THING, her real name is Dinah Drake. It's like the writers jumped out of the TV and started frantically pointing and screaming, "Do you see?! See what we did there?!" all while I'm giving them the most unimpressed expression that I can muster.

I realize how negative I am being, and I don't enjoy it. I wish they had not taken the convenient road for the sake of simplicity. If there absolutely must be a Black Canary, then (a) let's have the search/vetting process last longer than one episode and (b) let's not beat around the bush by baiting the fans with Katie Cassidy showing up for, ultimately, no significant reason.

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As I posted elsewhere, my personal fan theory which may or may not come to pass:

In the CW Arrowverse, we've been recently introduced to a new character to take on the mantle of the Black Canary, a former Central City cop named Dinah Drake. Unlike Laurel, who used a mechanical device to generate her Canary Cry, Dinah was caught in the Star Labs explosion and has a metahuman Canary Cry not unlike Earth 2 Laurel.

The reason why Oliver chose to recruit Dinah Drake was because of her abilities, but the final seal was when she told him her name (she had been living under an alias). As we know, Laurel Lance's full name is Dinah Laurel Lance, and she was named after her mother.

Now, with The Flash and the Legends of Tomorrow, we have temporal shenanigans aplenty, and with Damien Darkh, Malcolm Merlyn, and Eobard Thawne traveling through time, I posit the following:

At some point, Ollie and crew will be helping out with the Legion of Doom, and Dinah Drake will get stranded in the past, where she will meet, fall in love with, and marry Quentin Lance, eventually giving birth to two girls named Sara and Laurel.

Dinah takes the unusual approach of naming her first child after herself to close the time loop, ensuring that things take place just as they are supposed to happen.

It also explains why Sara's mother was so insistent that Sara did not die on the Queen's Gambit and why she was the least angry with Oliver upon his rescue. She already knows how things play out.

The Mad Professor said:

As I posted elsewhere, my personal fan theory which may or may not come to pass:

In the CW Arrowverse, we've been recently introduced to a new character to take on the mantle of the Black Canary, a former Central City cop named Dinah Drake. Unlike Laurel, who used a mechanical device to generate her Canary Cry, Dinah was caught in the Star Labs explosion and has a metahuman Canary Cry not unlike Earth 2 Laurel.

The reason why Oliver chose to recruit Dinah Drake was because of her abilities, but the final seal was when she told him her name (she had been living under an alias). As we know, Laurel Lance's full name is Dinah Laurel Lance, and she was named after her mother.

Now, with The Flash and the Legends of Tomorrow, we have temporal shenanigans aplenty, and with Damien Darkh, Malcolm Merlyn, and Eobard Thawne traveling through time, I posit the following:

At some point, Ollie and crew will be helping out with the Legion of Doom, and Dinah Drake will get stranded in the past, where she will meet, fall in love with, and marry Quentin Lance, eventually giving birth to two girls named Sara and Laurel.

Dinah takes the unusual approach of naming her first child after herself to close the time loop, ensuring that things take place just as they are supposed to happen.

It also explains why Sara's mother was so insistent that Sara did not die on the Queen's Gambit and why she was the least angry with Oliver upon his rescue. She already knows how things play out.

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If that is how everything goes down, my faith in the writers may just be restored.

Amell has been quoted saying the latest episode (Kapiushon) was the most "emotionally exhausting, forebodingly dark, joyously unorthodox" episode of Arrow yet. I caught up with it last night, and I was a little underwhelmed. The payoff ("Because I wanted to, and I liked it") left me figuratively blue-balled. Why should we care?

-Oliver discovered a "better way" in season 1, partially made possible by his teammates.
-Oliver spared Wilson in season 2, when it was made obvious that he wanted to kill him.
-The latter half of Season 4 was Darhk repetitively telling Oliver that the only way to stop him was to kill him, Oliver refusing to believe him, and Oliver doing everything he could before resorting to mortally stabbing Darhk with an arrow.
-Just earlier this season, we see Oliver consumed with grief over being so quick to kill "Prometheus" compounded by the fact that it was actually Malone being set up.

So, really, Prometheus/Chase is not "proving" anything except that Oliver used to be a killer which, after "5 years in hell," does not surprise anyone. In other news, water is wet. And now Oliver is done being Green Arrow because Prometheus made him admit something (under torture, no less) that does not exactly completely change the way we see him.

One of my favorite Batman quotes comes from the animated film Under the Red Hood. Jason Todd suggests that Batman thinks it is too hard to kill The Joker. Batman responds by saying, "No, it'd be too damn easy. All I've ever wanted to do was kill him. A day doesn't go by where I don't think about subjecting him to every horrendous torture he's dealt out to others, and then end him... but if I do that, if I allow myself to go down into that place, I'll never come back." That internal struggle is part of what makes Batman such an interesting character, and it is the same struggle we have watched Oliver have for nearly 5 seasons (hence why so many called this show a Batman ripoff in its early life). Yes, the killer is in Oliver, and Oliver has even let it out a bunch, but he has also grown to want to keep it subdued.

If this desire for and enjoyment of killing was something we had seen Oliver deal with from the beginning, like a more subtle and therefore prolonged version of the bloodlust that Thea was dealing with post-Lazarus-Pit, something that we saw maybe 3-4 times a season giving us just enough time between instances to sort of forget that it happened, I would say this arc (and thus, this reveal) has merit. There would be the "Aha!" moment, making sense out of something previously enigmatic. As it is though, all we have learned is that Oliver wanted to kill and liked killing as early as 4 years ago (through most of Season 1), but there is no inherent weight in that thanks to the growth we have seen in him since then.


Am I an outlier here? Does anyone still watching this show agree or disagree? I'd love to hear thoughts.

I finally got caught up and finished season 6. This season was ok but next season has potential to be great after watching the finale and here is why...Super Max. Around 2007 Justin Marks and David S Groyer (Dark Knight trilogy) developed a script for a solo Green Arrow movie. Green Arrow: Escape From Super Max. Basically Ollie was framed for murder, identity revealed and placed in a Super Max prison. It was a prison break movie filled with C and D list villains that Ollie would have to battle as he tried to escape. Well it got shelved and the project fell apart buuuuuut maybe we will see a CW Arrow version in Season 7!

That would be very interesting

Not as the whole premise of s6. Maybe a few weeks, but no more.

But if they do a prison break theme...i think you gotta have cold and heat wave make an appearance. It would be wrong not to.

Ruby Rose is Kathy Kane/Batwoman! Shes not who I would have imagined but I think she will do well with the character. I think she is stunning by the way

Is this in her own show?

Solo4114 said:

Is this in her own show?

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I believe they will throw in a pilot mid season on Arrow as a tester. They stated that they may make a spin off.

She is scheduled to be a player in the midseason crossover event with Supergirl / Flash / Arrow / Legends. It has recently been confirmed that Batwoman the series will be added to the CW lineup in Fall 2019.

BTW - I don’t have a history with the character or actress (other than knowing that Batwoman is gay in the comics and I enjoyed Ruby’s part in John Wick 2).

I do enjoy the CW shows, an I am super interested to see how they work Gotham City into the equation.

We know
1. Batman exists on Supergirl’s earth (comments about Clark working with a vigilante)
2. Bruce Wayne exists on Arrow and Flash’s earth (comment about BW on most recent season).

I'm OK with all of this. I dig getting the lesser known characters on screen (away from the big 4-6 JLA types).

I'm really interested in how they will portray her. I'm sure her suit will evolve over time just like the characters in Arrow and Flash

OK, when I first heard the news this was what crossed my mind.

Ruby Rose as Batwoman

Nice. I'm hoping this season doesn't suck.

Honestly, the CW's "Berlantiverse" shows have been...uneven lately. Arrow was better last season, but the villain just wasn't that compelling. The Flash was pretty terrible, although I appreciated that the villain wasn't just another speedster. Supergirl was ok-ish, but seemed kind of unfocused. Only Legends of Tomorrow was genuinely fun. they need to bring that feeling back to the other shows.