When people were watching this, I didn't watch, now imagine how many years later that I decided I was going to see this Arrow, and so far I'm still at season 1 and all I can say is wooow, I like the whole concept surrounding the movie, I was telling my partner the other day that I really did like the show and I wonder why I didn't get to see it since.
Like genuinely, where was I when this show was airing? what was I doing that was so important that I missed this? Because sitting down and watching it now, I feel like I owe myself an apology. A sincere one.
For those who do not know, Arrow is about Oliver Queen billionaire, a bit of a mess personally, went missing for five years on a dangerous island and came back as a completely different person,On the outside he is still the rich guy, still the charming face, still the son of a powerful family, but underneath all of that he is now a trained vigilante with a bow and arrow, cleaning up his city one corrupt person at a time, that is the basic idea but trust me when I say the execution is anything but basic.
What got me first was the storytelling structure, Every episode moves between present day Oliver and flashbacks of what happened to him on that island, so you are watching two timelines at the same time and both of them are interesting, that is not easy to pull off but Arrow does it so well that you are never bored, the moment the present day gets intense, you cut to the island, the moment the island gets heavy, you are back in the city, It keeps you locked in without even realizing it.
Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen is doing something special here, He is not just playing a superhero, he is playing a man who is deeply broken, carrying things nobody around him fully understands, trying to be the person his city needs while barely holding himself together privately, you see it in the way he moves, the way he speaks, even the way he goes silent sometimes, there is so much happening underneath the surface and Amell carries it convincingly.
The action sequences are another thing entirely, for a TV show because let us remember this is not a movie with a massive budget the fight scenes are genuinely impressive, Raw, physical, fast. Oliver does not fight like a superhero who cannot be touched, he gets hit, he bleeds, he struggles, and somehow that makes every fight more exciting to watch because you are never fully sure how it ends.
The supporting characters are holding their own too, there's Diggle, Felicity, Laurel each of them brings something different to the story and none of them feel like they are just there to fill space around the main character. Even the villains in season 1 have weight to them, you understand why they are doing what they are doing even when you are rooting against them.
I am still in season 1 and I am already fully invested, already asking questions about what happens next, already annoyed when an episode ends and I have to wait the few seconds before the next one loads.
The crazy part is this show has eight seasons, Eight, which means I have so much ahead of me and honestly I am not even mad about the hours that is going to take, so better late than never I suppose, but mostly I am just glad I finally showed up.
Rating: 70/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.