Tuesday, January 2, 2018

DC-TV Midseason report, part 4: Arrow (2017-18)

Sorry it's taken so long to finish this, but to tell you the truth, I needed some time to get my thoughts together on the biggest creative train wreck in DC's TV roster. That, of course, would be Arrow.
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Subject: Arrow
Season: 6th.
When it airs: Thursdays, 9 pm (ET), returning January 18.
Original rating: None.

Where we are: When one of your show-runners and head writers is writing for DC's biggest rival while working on this show, problems are bound to turn up. Marc Guggenheim is writing for one of Marvel's biggest franchises, the X-Men, while being part of Arrow's (& Legends of Tomorrow's) creative staff. Is it any wonder this series has been in trouble the last few years?

The season long story arc this season involves a master computer hacker named Cayden James (Michael Emerson, ex-Person of Interest), who's about as menacing as stale bread, to tell you the truth. As was the case with Prometheus last season, the writers on this show don't really have James' complete agenda realized yet, as if gradually drawing things out keeps the viewers' interest after all this time. News flash! It doesn't.

Black Siren (Katie Cassidy) is not only James' chief enforcer, but now she gets to lead her own team, based on the mid-season finale. Just about everyone that Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) has run up against this season has aligned with James. Worse, Queen must also deal with an FBI agent obsessed with capturing his alter-ego, Green Arrow. Turning over the quiver and hood to John Diggle (David Ramsey) didn't help, as Diggle was having issues of his own. So is Dinah Drake, the current Black Canary, since the Vigilante in this universe is her ex-lover and partner. As of now, Team Arrow has been splintered into two groups. On one, you have Ollie, his wife, Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards), and Diggle. On the other side are Dinah, Curtis Holt (Echo Kellum), aka Mr. Terrific, and Rene Ramirez (Rick Gonzalez), this world's Wild Dog. Rene is in a pickle because the Feds blackmailed him to snitch on Ollie. Now, that suggests to me that FBI Agent Watson may be secretly in league with James as well, but they're not playing that card just yet. I wouldn't put it past Guggenheim and his staff of scribbling idiots. Anyway, both teams have the same goal, to take down James once and for all, but, of course, everyone will be on the same page by the end of the season.

The show returns in a little more than 2 weeks. Here's a preview:



Yes, Oliver & Felicity got married during Crisis on Earth-X, which is just to screw with the internet fans who've hated the whole idea of "Ollicity" from day 1.

With the series now in its 6th season, the fear is that it may have already jumped the shark and is running on fumes, but the creative crew may be the only ones who don't see it that way. Greg Berlanti needs new writers, and with Andrew Kreigsberg, who helped develop the series, gone, maybe some fresh blood is on the way. Provided of course that the other shoe drops and they send Guggenheim off to a museum somewhere and leave him there.

Rating: C-.

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