Arrow- Pilot

Gage Skidmore [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

What happened: Oliver Queen, rich playboy, was shipwrecked on an island for five years. He came back determined to clean up his city, apologize to his lawyer girlfriend that he cheated on, and make sure his little sister stays off drugs. He reunites with his cute best friend, Tommy, to maintain the shallow billionaire facade. Tommy pretty much has everything figured out. Oliver's mother has him kidnapped and questioned, trying to find out how much he knows about how evil the family empire is. Answer: So evil his father shot himself in the head over it and made Oliver promise to right his wrongs. Oliver robs from a thieving jerk to give to the poor in this episode. It's implausible.

What we thought: Okay, this needs tightening up, but we liked it. Oliver using a high-tech green arrow shot into Hunt's wall to transfer money was laughable. IT'S UNTRACEABLE! Whatever. No one watching the CW knows anything about banks or technology, right? And Laurel the lawyer is all, "Hey, if money just shows up in your bank account and you think it's illegal, I just wouldn't question it." Nice.

We went into this show with absolutely no knowledge of the character Arrow or the comics and story. We think it's better for evaluating the show if we know whether it can stand on its own and tell a compelling story. Green Lantern needs to be a TV series, by the way. We hear there are seasons and seasons worth of rich storytelling in those comics that the movie just chose to ignore. If Arrow can get on TV, Green Lantern should absolutely get his own show. Just sayin'.

The beginning with the island stuff had us rolling our eyes. We bet Oliver would have sold his soul for a pair of shoes on that island. What kind of island was this? It teaches Russian? We need more flashbacks. That way we can design our own version of this island. It can be a camp where all spoiled playboys are sent by their concerned parents. We'd let everyone we went to grad school/law school with go free of charge.

Oliver and Speedy don't act like siblings, even siblings who have been away for a while. The relationship isn't believable yet. He acts more like a doting uncle or love interest. Who winks at their sibling? Seriously, picture yourself winking at your sibling as you left the dinner table at your house. Your sister would probably be like, "Okay, creeper, is there gum in my hair?"

We like Laurel (Ruby). She's a little vindictive at first though, eh? We like that she was sleeping with Tommy in the last five years. It makes her a little less perfect. Also, we like Tommy because he's the only non-idiot on the show. We like that Arrow can kill. That's one thing that can get annoying about Batman. Wait, that's crazy. There's nothing annoying about Batman. We take it back! We love you, Batman. You're way more realistic than this pilot.

How does island training teach you how to get out of zip ties? Those are, like, impossible to get out of. Maybe he had a knife at his back. That's the only way, right? The worst thing about the first fight scene was the fact that the gunfire would have hit him. There were about four times it should have. A really athletic guy still can't outrun bullets from a machine gun. They should have used regular handguns if they wanted it to be believable. Also, that hood doesn't hide Arrow's face, and he's famous. So that sucks too.

Another weird thing is Oliver's father shooting himself in the head...why? Why not stay alive and help your son right your wrongs? Why have a meltdown now? Because of the near-death experience? Does that wake up a conscience. All nitpicks aside, this episode was a lot more fun to watch than we expected. The reveal that the cop is Laurel and Sarah's father was great. We like Paul Blackthorne from the time we saw him in 24 (season three), and it's good to see him get a real part in this series. Evil moms are always a win too.

The show's pacing is good. Stephen Amell is decent in the title role. He's believable as a smart, driven guy, but also as the playboy. We love Katie Cassidy from Supernatural. She was the only version of Ruby with a personality. We think she looks prettier blonde, but other girls will like her better for being a brunette. We'll come back next week, but we hope this show gets its feet on the ground so we can believe what we're seeing enough to enjoy it more. But for the implausibilities, this would have been an "A."

Episode grade: B