Arrow 1.01 - "Pilot"

When Arrow was first announced, I was skeptical.  I got on the Smallville train at the first stop, and I enjoyed it for awhile, but by the first few episodes of the 3rd season I just drifted away.  Tom Welling was a pretty terrible anchor for a television show, and the cheese factor was just too high.  It would be easy to assume that Arrow would just be more of the same.

It's not.  There's a little Batman Begins in there.  There's definitely some modern Robin Hood.  There's also a leading man that can hold your attention for more than a few seconds without making you think of soap operas.

Oliver Queen was in his early 20s, the son of a major industrialist, and a bit of a celebutante (is there a male version of that word?).  Then he, his father, and his girlfriend's sister are lost at sea and presumed dead.  The sister really did die, but father and son made it to a raft.  Then dad killed himself and Nameless Bodyguard Type so that Oliver would have the supplies to himself and have a better chance at survival.

The pilot opens with Oliver being rescued from the (deserted?) island where he's lived for the last 5 years.  He's an ace with a bow.  He knows all of the martial arts (and Russian?).  He makes his way home to find his mom married to his dad's former partner, his sister is now a small, female version of his former self, and his ex-girlfriend is really, really angry at him for sleeping with her sister, and then getting her killed.

The pilot of Arrow is great.  The flashbacks to the island are interesting, and will (I assume) continue for the entire season, if not the length of the series.  His Batcave is suitably believable in its setting, and not extravagant enough to take you out of the world.  Comic fans will be excited about the idea of (Dinah) Laurel Lance and Tommy Merlyn possibly suiting up down the line.  My only small gripe is the voice-over   I'm not opposed to voice-over in it's entirety, but it was a bit self-important.  If they tone it down in future episodes, I think it could be  a acceptable piece of the formula.

Arrow is violent, and I'm pretty sure our titular hero has already killed people, so be prepared for that coming in.  If you're into comics, or intrigued by super heroes because of the recent explosion of comics movies at the cinema, give the show a shot.  It's off to a pretty good start, and I could see it running almost as long as Smallville did, with much better results. :)

Click Here to watch the pilot free online