Reviews: Arrow – “Pilot” and “Honor Thy Father” – Podcast #73

Well the first two weeks of Arrow have aired, and I put off a little bit doing my initial review, allowing a second episode to air so as to have a more complete idea of what was going on. I believe they got off to a pretty good start with the pilot episode, and I think the second episode was a little bit weaker, but also a lot of character building was done that was skipped during the first episode in order to make sure that it was moving fast enough to make it worth watching. Overall I think the mission was accomplished and ended up with a pretty decent product so fa r.

Now that I have two weeks worth of episodes I’m not sure exactly where to start. First up, little bit disturbed how he could be so emotionally strong once he returned, and so emotionally damaged at the same time. Although I can imagine after such a major ordeal of getting stuck on an island for 5 years after your yacht sunk with your father, his friend, and your girlfriend’s sister on board and all dying would leave you in a little bit of a messed up state, especially considering when you left town, you’re a rich playboy that did whatever the heck you want whenever you want, without consequence.

I love the twist they threw in with his sister having a bit of a drug problem. You can tell that it’s deeply disturbing to him, especially knowing there’s nothing he can do about it. His sister, on the other hand, at first seemed a little bit standoffish; she seems to be coming around during the second episode. This part of the story has the most growth coming in the long run; you almost have to wonder if she is someone I should know or just his sister.

Now his friend has got to be one of my favorite characters in the show, because after all this time with him being gone, his friend is probably the one thing that hasn’t changed and doesn’t treat him differently now that he is back. I think the role casting on this particular one was perfect, and the acting for this character is amazingly good. I like the fact that he’s still the crazy “let’s go get drunk and have a party” kind of friend, and even though it’s obvious that while away he’s changed, the friend doesn’t seem to care, and this keeps dragging him along and bringing him back to that life style.

I particularly like the bodyguard storyline. His mother while worried about him, assigned him a bodyguard after he was captured and of course freed himself. His mother although doesn’t know that he’s Arrow and doesn’t know that he had freed himself. This attack makes her worry about him and has assigned him a bodyguard in order to protect him so that nothing happens to him. The best part of it is that every time he wants to do something, this ex-soldier super-duper bodyguard seems to make one misstep, and he vanishes over and out. But being the bright guy that he is, he has figured out who he is, and I kind of look at him as kind of the ArrowÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s version of Batman’s Alfred: not only professionally hired to guard him, but you can see that a real connection is beginning created with these two.

Now the ex-girlfriend, who obviously is very irritated with him disappearing with her sister for the weekend, and for sure about getting her killed. Of course, her father is the police captain who has a real dislike for him after getting one of his daughters killed. I think that it’s pretty obvious at this point that she is Black Canary, and I love the fact that they have not made it very obvious who each one of these are through relatively small hints that let you figure it out as it goes on.

Overall it’s been a great beginning to a new series, with the first week being a lot stronger than the second week, but I think this is due to the fact that we need a little bit more character building, and the second episode provided that. I don’t find myself 100% all on board with the show yet as it could lose its luster very quickly. Very optimistic on what will come with the next episode and would rate the first two episodes a 7.5 out of a possible 10.