Tony Carter Reviews: CW’s Arrow… Not your father’s Green Arrow

The Green Arrow for a new generation

by Vagabond ‘Tony’ Carter

Image courtesy/copyright The CW

Well, CW’s new show Arrow has hit the tv screens and it’s promising, but it’s not your father’s Green Arrow,  or even mine.

Let us begin with the similarities, it’s a short list.

1. Rich kid playboy wants to make good – check
2. Phenomenal skills with a bow – check
3. Penchant for green attire when in ‘persona’ – check

That’s about where it ends. This Arrow is a troubled, troubled lad with more in common with Batman and Tony Stark than the familiar Oliver Queen of D.C. Comics.

For those who have not seen it, Here there be spoilers:

Father, son (Oliver), son’s girlfriend’s best friend with whom he is cheating, and entourage are all on a yacht which mysteriously capsizes killing all but Father , son and bodyguard. (Still with me so far? Because this is where it gets …. drama. )

Flash forward 5 years and only Oliver survives. Self trained in archery and several forms of mixed martial arts, yet with all those skills and he still needs to be rescued by Chinese fishermen of course. His miraculous return from the dead goes largely unquestioned and simply celebrated while he begins his double life of vigilante-ism. Oh, was I meant to say hero? No… sorry, he kills , admittedly ‘bad’  people, but at least twice in the pilot he kills when a capture was possible and once simply because “No one can know my secret” This is Not my Green Arrow.

Did I mention him being troubled? Seems Father was a no-good himself and has a list  of co-conspirators. After he commits the murder of the bodyguard and suicide in front of Oliver on the inflatable raft, Oliver finds a book.. and a box, thus begins the saga of Arrow.

Arrow is not a hero, he is a vigilante with a hit list, specifically his fathers co-conspirators, at least… so far.

I like the show, I think Arrow can certainly develop into a hero… given time, but he will never be my Green Arrow.

On a side note to those hoping to see a glimmer of Green Arrow’s ‘Dandy’ side… nope, apparently that was just not in CW’s playbook, say hello to billionaire frat-boy who is a best only slightly metro-sexual. Will this be good? I just cannot say, it carries for me just too many pop culture cookie cutter cliche’s common in this generations ‘hero’ shows.. Time and the writer’s skills in deepening this currently cardboard character will tell.

Watch the complete pilot episode online, only at The CW’s website