Review for Arrow: Season 1

I feel a bit of a curmudgeon suggesting that ‘Arrow’ is formulaic because, despite the fact that it is, it also tries really hard to please. The formula for the programme is as follows. Mix equal parts The O.C. / Heroes / and Smallville with just a soupcon of ‘The Dark Knight’ and you’ll be most the way there. That’s about as much as you need to know to decide whether this is for you or not.


From my own point of view, though I hardly fit the late teen demographic, I really enjoyed the pilot episode which had lots of intriguing ingredients and a complex web of possibilities, somewhat like Series 1 of ‘Heroes’. However, once the series settled into its mode it started to feel faintly repetitive and before long the dark hints and romantic possibilities became slightly tiresome rather than intellectually engaging.


But maybe I’m expecting too much. This is pure escapism after all, the kind of show that demands that you believe a man can dodge the bullets of five machine guns all at the same time. 



According to some industry insider reports, the series came about as a result of Smallville’s 10-season run grinding to an inevitable close. Wonder Woman and Aquaman shows were pushed into pilots but somehow didn’t ignite the level of interest needed. So who else in the DC Comics canon was left to exploit? Well, Oliver Queen aka ‘The Green Arrow’, was a good possibility.


Loosely based on Robin Hood, with all the good moral fibre associated with that historic figure, the series creators successfully updated the character (he wears a hoodie rather than a jaunty feathered cap for example) to make it work for a contemporary audience. 


The pilot teases the back-story of how and why Oliver Queen became ‘The Arrow’ though they cleverly save much of this to sprinkle throughout the series. So we start to get some vague notions about what happened to him during his five years stranded on an island after his father’s boat sank on a pleasure cruise killing everyone (including his girlfriend’s sister who he was having an affair with) except himself.


One of the many flashbacks in the series shows his father admitting to his son (seconds before blowing his own brains out) as they float in the ocean on a life-boat, that he has been a bad man and his son needs to take a list he has written of other bad men and destroy them to clean up his home-town, and purge his father’s guilt. Complex? Well, kind of, but spread out across several hours it sort of works. 


So that sets up a series of inter-twining narratives. The first is that the Arrow is cleaning up the city. As a billionaire’s son setting up cover and a kind of ‘Bat-cave’ is not that difficult. The second is that he is falling in love with his old girlfriend, now a do-good lawyer trying to clean up the city in her own way. Thirdly, not all is right with his family.


His mother seems to be implicated in some of the ‘bad things’ in some indefinable way and his sister, having seemingly lost her Father and brother, has been running off the rails due to lack of moral support. Add to this a whole layer of conspiracy and intrigue where no one is quite who they seem to be and, as long as you can suspend disbelief, you should, in theory, have all the ingredients for a damn good serial.


So why, after just three or four episodes, did this start to pall for me? Maybe the stony-faced seriousness of it all got a bit tiresome. Yes- we get a goony friend to lighten the Arrow’s mood but it doesn't quite work.


Maybe it’s the endless version of the same story that tires – bad guy gets beaten by the Arrow. Or maybe it’s just the sheer formulaic predictability of it all (despite some genuinely unexpected twists and surprises) that in the end leave the series feeling like it’s all stretched just a bit too thin for so many episodes.


Stephen Amell , replete with ice cold eyes and a great six pack is an obvious choice for the role of Oliver Queen and the supporting class are all predictably slick. It’s tightly directed and nicely shot and edited, all looking good on the DVD check-discs I was sent. I guess it will all look even better in full HD on Blu-ray.


There are also loads of deleted scenes (why? They must have been deleted for a reason) as well as a gag reel and a couple of featurettes. If you saw and liked the show then the set is a no-brainer. If you’re merely curious you might want to catch an episode or two before committing.