Arrow

That turned out a lot better than I was expecting.

It definitely aimed for a more serious, less angsty tone than Smallville. We'll see whether that keeps up or if it devolves into typical CW melodrama.

I am really intrigued by the Deathstroke mask seen briefly on the island. Can't wait to find out what the story is there.

If I have any major issue with the show it's Ollie's cavalier attitude towards killing. I know that it doesn't make a lot of sense for someone to choose a bow and arrow as their weapon of choice and then never shoot to kill, but the trick arrows are part of the character's charm. Ollie in the comics is so far left of center I can't see him as being anything but anti-death penalty. But I admit I only know Green Arrow via Justice League and his occasional guest appearance in the Batman books. So maybe I'm wrong and comic book Ollie likes to kill, too, but it still seems like a bad idea to me for him to be wracking up a double digit body count in the pilot episode.

And Speedy has a drug problem. That was kind of funny. Well played, Berlanti.

I know nothing about the Green Arrow but tuned in because it got fairly decent reviews and Katie Cassidy was the one of the things I liked about Harpers Island. Pleasantly surprised, some decent stunts and an interesting premise. And a damn fine set of abs on the lead.

I tuned in because of that damn Berlanti. I was surprised by the body count too--my only exposure to Green Arrow is Smallville and I don't think he ever killed anyone on that show.

Moira Queen being part of the secret cabal surprised me.

oooh, I'm in. In it for the angst. And the abs. Delicious, delicious abs.

I enjoyed that a lot more than I thought I would. I never was a big fan of Smallville, but that might have to do with the fact that I dislike Kristen Kreuk. This was fun and actiony with a heaping side of angst. And abs.

Good. Lord. The abs.

Also pleasantly surprised by the show. Think that I'll give it another shot. And I really, really want to see if my guesses regarding the Deathstroke mask are accurate.

Good. Lord. The abs.

Yeah, there wasn't anything wrong with those.

But I like it. Then again, I was sold when they announced Willa Holland and Katie Cassidy as cast members.

The voice overs need to go. And flashback wig makes my eyes burn. Other than that? Thoroughly enjoying. Especially now that they've explained the sudden appearance of the bow and arrow on the island of forgetting.

I hope the bow and arrow guy is a revenge coach. I'm beginning to think that's an actual job now.

I just hope they don't drag out the island backstory over the whole series. I don't even want them to last a whole season with it. Better to give us a solid "island episode" and be done with it. Otherwise that little jab at Lost in the pilot is going to seem less silly and more "we have no idea what we're doing, just like them!"

Well, we'll have a chance to find out how that goes.

Arrow given full season pickup.

I hope the bow and arrow guy is a revenge coach.

I laughed way harder at this than was necessary.

I'm glad this got picked up. The writing is a bit clunky and too on the nose, but you could say the same thing of early episodes of other genre shows. The first few episodes of The Vampire Diaries had my eyeballs practically rolling out of my head, but it quickly settled into being one of my favorite shows ever.

I'd cut out the superfluous voiceovers. No need to lead the audience by the nose.

I guess only Asian men are revenge coaches.

I was struggling a bit with this show, the wig, the revenge coach the constant piecemeal flashbacks, and wow dude I think the lead is really really...not good. That was until tonight when I realized YES the chemistry between Amell/Holland is every bit as incesty wonderful as I thought it was in the first two episodes. In like Flynn.

We had no dialogue in Seattle. Music track played fine, and very occasionally a sound effect, but no dialogue at all. Which I didn't realize at first because I, comic nerd that I am, thought that maybe the revenge coach was speaking to Ollie in the speechless language used by top-tier assassin David Cain to raise Cassandra Cain (the post-Barbara Gordon Batgirl) and I thought, "Oh, that's interesting." But then I realized, no... the soundtrack is royally fucked.

I thought this was the first really good episode of the show. Especially the very last scene. Hopefully they won't pull back on Diggle knowing Ollie's secret because everyone needs some backup. He should be fighting villains instead of tracking down a rich guy of the week.

But the voiceover needs to go! Just deadly, it stops the show cold and adds nothing stylistically.

“Dig finding out is going to rock everyone’s world,” he says. “We always knew early on that we wanted to give Oliver someone to talk to. We didn’t want to constantly have voiceover where he was expressing his thoughts to the audience.”

Yay!

I'm really enjoying this show so far, and I'm glad Dig is going to be in on Ollie's secret. I was hoping they'd go that route and I like Dig as a character. I also like listening for all the last names of creators who have worked on the GA title at some point (Diggle, Nocenti, etc.) and can't wait to see the various supporting comics characters rise up (I especially need Laurel/Canary to kick Merlyn's tail because dude, you are an ass).

Huh. So apparently in the New 52 version of DC, Tommy Merlyn is supposed to be a version of the old archer enemy Merlyn. Which seems obvious, I guess, but still almost a little disappointing. It'd be nice if someone from Ollie's old life was just exactly what they appeared to be.

So I'm trying to figure out why Arrow fans are salivating over the appearance of this Huntress person. I gather that she is the spawn of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, but is an anti-hero? But devoutly Catholic. So, like, what is Starling City's relationship to Gotham?

I fervently hope the Huntress that is going to appear is Helena Bertinelli, rather than Helena Wayne--I think that's what I read in a cast listing. For me, I'm excited because the Huntress/Black Canary relationship is one I very much miss from comics and I will be interested to see if/how the show wields it. I don't expect Arrow to have anything to do with Gotham, but I can imagine the show bringing Huntress in without much bother, especially with a Mob backstory.

Yeah, it's going to be Helena Bertinelli. Which is really funny, given that DC has been all about keeping the "iconic" iterations of characters at the forefront (hence the return of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl) and, given the reshuffling of the New 52, they decided that the HWayne version of Huntress was the iconic one. Which isn't wrong, but then they go ahead and let Arrow use a version of the character that no longer exists.

It boils down to this: DC Heroes fans have been woefully underserved in the Live Action department. So anything we can get, we kind of go crazy for. Huntress has a small-but-loyal fanbase, and those people have only ever gotten to very poor version from WB's Birds of Prey.

Thanks for clearing it up. I was confused when I was reading about 237238947 Huntresses.