Arrow- Awesome Show

[Penumbra]

Anybody else watching Arrow? I'm loving it.

It's a modern telling of the comic book hero Green Arrow, who is a vigilante that primarily uses stealth, a bow, and some technology to stop crime. He's kind of like Batman, but on a smaller scale (no tanks and stuff) and he's willing to kill. The show is good because it tells a story in the present, while also using flashbacks to show what happened to him five years ago that made him into who he is today. So each episode kind of has a main plot and then a subplot from that earlier period.

I like it because I think the character is down to earth enough for a tv show, there's a good mix of drama, romance, and action, and the actor that plays him is likable and in extremely good shape and does some crazy strength stunts that kind of brings a level of intensity to the show that normally wouldn't be there. The overall choreography for action scenes is better than I've seen on television typically.

And in season 2 they finally added the Black Canary to the show, another vigilante, which makes it even better. The person that does her action scenes is very acrobatic, which maintains or elevates the level of choreography that the show has had.

Anybody else watching it? If you're into superheroes, action/adventure stuff, decent writing for plot, drama, and romance, I recommend it.

 

[Quagmire]

I started watching the pilot but there were too many things about the story that turned me off on it:

---There are people who devote their whole lives to mastering archery who can't do anything with a bow&arrow that's even close to what this guy is supposed to be able to do after practicing on his own for 5 years.

---what's with DC and and the whole spoiled-rich-kid-somehow-grows-up-to-become-a-fearless-semi-psychotic-super-athletic/acrobatic-martial-arts-expert-and-mega-bad-***-street-fighter bit? I mean, they pulled it off successfully with Batman (I think we're all so used to his story that the plot hole is invisible), but once is enough.

 

[Poeticus]

I started watching the pilot but there were too many things about the story that turned me off on it:

---There are people who devote their whole lives to mastering archery who can't do anything with a bow&arrow that's even close to what this guy is supposed to be able to do after practicing on his own for 5 years.

I am an archer (mainly traditional and a little bit of compound), and I concur. EDIT: His stance isn't that good, especially for a recurve user. And, I'm not too fond of Takedowns but I noticed the bow type varies.

However, I do like the show. I have put off on watching it because Eastbound & Down Season 4 just started along with Boardwalk Empire, but I'll hopefully get back to watching Arrow soon in the future.

If you have some time, please check out Howard Hill. Fantastic archer. Probably the best of all time.

I like it because......................the actor that plays him is likable and in extremely good shape.........

Might it have something to do with this...?

Spoiler: handsome actor

 

[Sunstone]

I'm going to start watching it on your recommendation, Penumbra. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Penumbra]

I started watching the pilot but there were too many things about the story that turned me off on it:

---There are people who devote their whole lives to mastering archery who can't do anything with a bow&arrow that's even close to what this guy is supposed to be able to do after practicing on his own for 5 years.

You're under the impression that he was alone on the island for five years because he was found alone, but the show quickly reveals that actually there were many people on the island, and he had five years of adventures there including an archery teacher and other teachers. They show part of what happened on the island every single episode, and all the way through season 1 and into season 2, they have still only shown a fraction of what he did there. They're even showing how he obtained each of those scars on him. So far, the island story is nearly as compelling as the current story, and the way they sort of had a climactic part on the island at the end of the season that matched up with and was related to the climatic part of the present-day plot of season 1, was very good pacing.

---what's with DC and and the whole spoiled-rich-kid-somehow-grows-up-to-become-a-fearless-semi-psychotic-super-athletic/acrobatic-martial-arts-expert-and-mega-bad-***-street-fighter bit? I mean, they pulled it off successfully with Batman (I think we're all so used to his story that the plot hole is invisible), but once is enough.

Granted, I have a love for DC superheroes so I may be biased, but Batman and Green Arrow have been around for a long time so it's not like they recently invented this character. The medium of television compared to movies, plus the differences in characters (relatively low tech bow and trick arrows vs. $300k personal armor, gliding capabilities, and a jumping tank) makes the show sufficiently different enough to be enjoyable.

With Batman in his Nolan trilogy, they only showed perhaps a half hour sequence of how he got so tough, but with this guy, they've shown in detail every episode how he individually learned everything and how he got tougher over time, how he made his first kill and what effect it had on him, etc. In the season 2 flashbacks he's still kind of a weakling on the island, so it has been a very gradual process that they are showing very thoroughly.

The pilot was only moderately interesting to me, especially because I'm generally not a fan of television (I don't have a tv hooked up to any cable or anything), but I watched it with some friends who made me stick with it because we had a social night each week and watched it, and the show seemed to get better and better into a good climax of season 1, and season 2 has started off even better.

Might it have something to do with this...?

Spoiler

Not gonna lie, the eye candy is enjoyable. ^_^

More interestingly, the strength training sequences he does are pretty cool because the actor's muscles aren't just for show:

[youtube]43FMVVTx8-I[/youtube]
Arrow - All workout scenes (Season 1) - YouTube

One of the guy friends I watch the show with each week is really into fitness and so he follows the actor on facebook because he posts his workouts. At the gym I tried to do a muscle-up after seeing him do them in an episode but I couldn't do it. =/

 

[Penumbra]

I'm going to start watching it on your recommendation, Penumbra. Thanks for the heads up!

Are you into action as a genre?

If you're into, say, the recent Batman movies or something along those lines (action-focused but well-written), then you'd probably enjoy Arrow. If you're not into superhero movies at all, or not much into action, it wouldn't be the right show. So it's definitely all relative!

 

[Poeticus]

Penumbra,

He's a very handsome actor and yes, the workout/strength training scenes are also motivational. I do like the show and shall follow it again soon in the near future. Thank you for not posting a lot of story-spoilers. I haven't made it past the first few episodes.

 

[Penumbra]

At the gym I tried to do a muscle-up after seeing him do them in an episode but I couldn't do it. =/

^And that was annoying because I can do a lot of pull-ups so I was like, "how hard could a muscle-up on a pull-up bar be? It doesn't look too bad."

Then I couldn't do it.

I did look up some videos on the technique of how to get it to happen, so when I heal up from a current health issue I'm gonna try again.

 

[Poeticus]

^And that was annoying because I can do a lot of pull-ups so I was like, "how hard could a muscle-up on a pull-up bar be? It doesn't look too bad."

Then I couldn't do it.

I did look up some videos on the technique of how to get it to happen, so when I heal up from a current health issue I'm gonna try again.

Muscle-ups look extremely, extremely difficult to do. I don't know how one of my cousin-sisters is able to do one. I shall seek her expertise in learning this difficult workout exercise!!

 

[Quagmire]

You're under the impression that he was alone on the island for five years because he was found alone, but the show quickly reveals that actually there were many people on the island, and he had five years of adventures there including an archery teacher and other teachers.

Ah, OK (so that nasty email I sent the writers after I saw the pilot did some good. ). Maybe I'll give the show another chance then.

They show part of what happened on the island every single episode, and all the way through season 1 and into season 2, they have still only shown a fraction of what he did there. They're even showing how he obtained each of those scars on him. So far, the island story is nearly as compelling as the current story, and the way they sort of had a climactic part on the island at the end of the season that matched up with and was related to the climatic part of the present-day plot of season 1, was very good pacing.

Granted, I have a love for DC superheroes so I may be biased, but Batman and Green Arrow have been around for a long time so it's not like they recently invented this character.

Ah (again). See, I've been a Marvel fan all my life so, while I was aware of the Green Arrow character's existence, it's in the same way that I've always been aware of Des Moines Iowa's existence: sort of like, "that's nice but I wouldn't hop a fright train to get there" (although I have to admit that Hawkeye, The Green arrow's Marvel-alter-ego isn't all that interesting to me either).

The medium of television compared to movies, plus the differences in characters (relatively low tech bow and trick arrows vs. $300k personal armor, gliding capabilities, and a jumping tank) makes the show sufficiently different enough to be enjoyable.

Still kind of irks me that they used another Skull&Bones drop out. sort of like they're saying all knights come from the nobility.

With Batman in his Nolan trilogy, they only showed perhaps a half hour sequence of how he got so tough, but with this guy, they've shown in detail every episode how he individually learned everything and how he got tougher over time, how he made his first kill and what effect it had on him, etc. In the season 2 flashbacks he's still kind of a weakling on the island, so it has been a very gradual process that they are showing very thoroughly.

Cool. If they're using his spoiled rich-boy persona to make the contrast between who he started out as and who he becomes later more striking, then I can see some value in it.

The pilot was only moderately interesting to me, especially because I'm generally not a fan of television (I don't have a tv hooked up to any cable or anything), but I watched it with some friends who made me stick with it because we had a social night each week and watched it, and the show seemed to get better and better into a good climax of season 1, and season 2 has started off even better.

Okie doke, I'll give it another shot then. Like I said, I only saw the pilot (actually, only about the first 30 or 40 minutes of the pilot) and it could be that they just didn't do that good a job with it.

 

[Aquitaine]

Generally speaking, I have sort of lost a fair amount of interest in these "Superhero" shows/movies, primarily because I'm growing weary of the usual Black & White Morality setup that a lot of them seem to have.

However, if I decide to watch a new TV series then I shall give Arrow a try, under your recommendation. :yes:

 

[Penumbra]

Muscle-ups look extremely, extremely difficult to do. I don't know how one of my cousin-sisters is able to do one. I shall seek her expertise in learning this difficult workout exercise!!

It looked easy to me because pull-ups are easy to me, and pushing myself up once I'm over the bar is easy to me, but that few inches in between where you have to transition from doing the pull-up to pushing one's self up is the hard part. I got really close, though. =/

And Ollie on the show does it so slowly which is particularly hard to do.

But I watched some youtube videos that explained it a bit and I think I can pull one off if I'm at 100%. Not the super slow kind like he does, though.

Ah, OK (so that nasty email I sent the writers after I saw the pilot did some good. ). Maybe I'll give the show another chance then.

Actually, that's not too far off.

The reviews of the show were pretty mixed at first, but the cool thing was that they did the first half-season, and then it was popular enough to renew for a second half-season to finish up the first full season, and so the people behind the show had time to respond to feedback and fixed some of the criticisms even as the season went on. So the season got better as it went (with a few hits or misses here and there, naturally), with the final episode being the best one, finishing particularly strong. Reviews of it started going up as it went on, and my personal opinion increased as well (glad my friends stuck me with it). Their budget also increased as the network gained confidence in the show, so special effects improved modestly and the music improved substantially. Because the first season ended so well, the second season was renewed in full, still with the high budget, and so far it's keeping it good.

Here's a preview of the latest episode, which was great.
[youtube]UM6ew9eO5Ag[/youtube]
Arrow - Broken Dolls Preview - YouTube

See, I've been a Marvel fan all my life

Ack! I grew up with DC.

Well I like some of the Marvel movies, like Thor, Iron Man 1, and the Avengers. But Marvel has been spamming us with so many movies, and reviews of the Shield tv show aren't very good.

Cool. If they're using his spoiled rich-boy persona to make the contrast between who he started out as and who he becomes later more striking, then I can see some value in it.

Yeah unlike Batman who was never really spoiled because his parents were cool and then were unfortunately murdered in front of him as a child, the Green Arrow really was a complete and utter tool before his island mishap.

 

[Penumbra]

Generally speaking, I have sort of lost a fair amount of interest in these "Superhero" shows/movies, primarily because I'm growing weary of the usual Black & White Morality setup that a lot of them seem to have.

However, if I decide to watch a new TV series then I shall give Arrow a try, under your recommendation. :yes:

Green Arrow and Black Canary have always been labeled as anti-heroes. They kill.

Although some single-episode villains are just plain evil, others are complex and some are even close to him, and the Green Arrow keeps sort of questioning his methods and justifying his actions to himself with varying degrees of success. The flashbacks also mostly revolve around grey moral questions.

 

[Me Myself]

Havent read any comment here yet, just sang I just bought the whole first season and will soon watch.

 

[Aquitaine]

Green Arrow and Black Canary have always been labeled as anti-heroes. They kill.

Although some single-episode villains are just plain evil, others are complex and some are even close to him, and the Green Arrow keeps sort of questioning his methods and justifying his actions to himself with varying degrees of success. The flashbacks also mostly revolve around grey moral questions.

I see.

I guess I just get tired of these villains who're "evil" simply for the sake of being "evil". Granted, I don't always care that much for the "hero" since they're normally just played as the "good people" who just do "good things" all the time, like a robot.
Instead, I tend to be a lot more fascinated with the "villain", and what exactly got them into their situation in the first place, and how they cope with it all etc. My favourite types of villains are the one's who're essentially "anti-villains" and pretty similar to the "hero", really blurring the moral lines.

As I said, I trust your judgement - so if I'm in the mood for watching a TV series from scratch, I'll give Green Arrow a go.

 

[Penumbra]

I see.

I guess I just get tired of these villains who're "evil" simply for the sake of being "evil". Granted, I don't always care that much for the "hero" since they're normally just played as the "good people" who just do "good things" all the time, like a robot.
Instead, I tend to be a lot more fascinated with the "villain", and what exactly got them into their situation in the first place, and how they cope with it all etc. My favourite types of villains are the one's who're essentially "anti-villains" and pretty similar to the "hero", really blurring the moral lines.

As I said, I trust your judgement - so if I'm in the mood for watching a TV series from scratch, I'll give Green Arrow a go.

Cool.

I'm fascinated by villain characters as well. Even when I write my own stories, I usually start with the villain. A lame villain can ruin a story for me.

I'd say the villains from Arrow season one were pretty good, especially the villains involved in the main plot. There are some well-intentioned but violent characters (Arrow), some good characters that disagree with the Arrow and go after him, some neutral violent characters, some misguided and bad characters, some characters doing bad things for reasons they think are good, some characters doing bad things that are close to the Arrow, some downright psychotic characters, some emotionally troubled characters that need help, and of course the occasional single-episode lame flat villain (especially towards the beginning of the series). The characters like Arrow and Canary are my favorite in this show rather than the villains, but I'll see what happens in season 2. I can already see them building up at least one awesome and complex villain for later in this season, I think, because I know that character's comic book form.

 

[The Neo Nerd]

I've watched the first season and it to be poorly acted. Except for the stepfather, he's the only convincing actor.

I won't bother with the second season to tell you the truth.

 

[Sunstone]

Are you into action as a genre?

Action is my second-favorite genre.

 

[Penumbra]

I've watched the first season and it to be poorly acted. Except for the stepfather, he's the only convincing actor.

I won't bother with the second season to tell you the truth.

You'll miss out on Black Canary then!

That's okay, though. It's not for everyone. I am familiar with the characters from other mediums and like them enough to forgive some of the early acting issues, and I feel that the actors improved over time, especially most of the main ones. The only characters that I thought were poorly acted enough to bother me were the Huntress, Count Vertigo, and China White, who were each in a few episodes.

 

[Penumbra]

Action is my second-favorite genre.

What's your first?