Coming into Wednesday night's premiere of Arrow, the big question was: can the CW's new hero series carry the same success as its previous entry Smallville, or will a show about a nonpowered vigilante fare as well as their last attempt, Birds of Prey. Do you remember Birds of Prey? No? Lucky you.
Let's be honest here. Despite not being a perfect replica of DC Comic's iconic Superman, Smallville did offer the core of the character and (eventually) a hearty helping of his supporting cast that we know and love.
And realistically, the character Green Arrow has never had the same appeal to the average fan as Superman. Who does, really? Yeah, yeah... Batman. But you know you aren't getting a TV series based on him anytime soon, so deal with it. Ironically enough, though, Green Arrow's best showing may have been during Smallville's run, where Justin Hartley played the character as a "Batman-lite".
So too does Stephen Amell (Oliver Queen), showing us the hard-edged, driven side of the "Arrow" in this first episode. We arguably don't get to see much of Oliver Queen's softer side during this episode, but that's mostly because a great deal of it focuses on Oliver setting up his new base of operations. We do get to see a little of Oliver building his "reckless playboy" alter ego, though, with varying levels of success and what are sure to be pretty intersting repercussions.
As for the story? Well, purists will find it odd to find that Oliver has a few extra family members floating around among other changes, but fans of ye old Smallville know that shows like this normally take certain liberties with respect to their character history. And at least in Arrow's case, Oliver's history isn't so popular as to agitate too many people. Without giving too much away, I would say that the show seems to have created a cast that will leave comics fans anticipating what is to come while still leaving a bit of mystery.
And speaking of mystery... there are quite a few mysteries put into play in this pilot. But unlike some shows which seem outright confusing by juggling a ton of plot points, there's a certain streamlining that seemed to take place here. The story rolls like a well oiled machine, and even a popup reveal still feels like it was all part of the larger scheme.
The main thing I took away from the show was that it knew what it was doing. Yes, it might be a little darker than some might prefer (Oliver Queen most certainly doesn't carry Clark Kent's moral compass, and it shows heavily here). But it created that darker, grittier world and then went with it. It's the world that Oliver belongs in, at least for now, and it works.
As pilots go, this was pretty solid. It did what it was supposed to do, creating the origin and backdrop of the character while also managing to tell a story, and a pretty good one at that. I went into this show with very low expectations, but after just 20 minutes, I was floored by how drawn into it I got. And I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where its going.
Rating: 9/10 (An excellent start to a series that shows surprising potential. Now if only it doesn't find a way to muck it all up...)
