TV REVIEW: Arrow S01E01

I have been on the lookout for a while now for a TV Show which is suitable for my wife and I can watch together. We started watching Breaking Bad together and although she enjoyed it, after about halfway through the first season, interest was lost and I continued to learn about Crystal Meth on my own. We do share Shows which we both like, The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother spring to mind but these are not shows you sit down to watch as they premiere, rather comfort blankets that we unwind to as soon as we get in from work. So I had almost resigned myself that Zombies and Aliens are for me and Cowboys and women talking endlessly about relationships are for her. Well, I did have one last card up my sleeve (actually I’m sure there’s lots of stuff we can watch but, come on, give me some poetic licence!). We’ll come back to this.

The basic premise of Arrow is billionaire playboy Oliver Queen is presumed dead after a huge storm destroys his Father’s yacht whilst they are at sea. We see cut scenes throughout the first episode which serve as flashbacks to this event, and learn that Oliver has in fact become marooned on an island, a mysterious island which, at the moment, we know very little about apart from that he has had to endure what seem to be savage hardships. Hardships which have made him a very different person to the paparazzi goading party animal he once was. Hardships which have made him a Bad-Ass.

Stephen Amell, who plays Oliver Queen, seems to be well cast. Athletic and good looking (according to my wife who mentioned this, what, 5 times – enough for me to tell her to shut up anyway) he cuts a dashing figure in a suit and is also believable in the action scenes, the first of which I found to be particularly noteworthy. A combination of decent action movie mixed with parkour, it reminded me of the first scene of Casino Royal spliced with Batman.

We also learn that things are definitely not what they seem in Arrow, and people are not who they seem either. The cliff hanger shows Oliver’s Mother lamenting various ways of extraction information from her son. What is going on here? There are a lot of unanswered questions set up in this episode, but this is what can be better in a TV show than in a Movie. We can ride the slow burn and the writers and producers can reveal to us the story in their own time and way, and in a show like Arrow, this is accentuated by great action scenes and relationships which build slowly in a way you just cannot achieve in a Movie.

Mr Arrow also has a list which looks to have lots of naughty men on it which he needs to spank every week, or something like that. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate; it’s more of a dark and broody list which seems as if it will serve as a backdrop to the action; one crossed off each week. Does this remind anyone else of anything? Yep, you got it – My Name Is Earl!

So going back to my first point. Have I finally found a show that my wife and I can share and enjoy in equal measures? It is definitely off to a good start and I am certainly looking forward to next week. Arrow is exceptionally polished with beautiful people and great action, and the writing in the first episode certainly suggests that it could have the storyline strong enough to hold it together.

My main problem (and I certainly didn’t see this coming), is that I don’t think I’m looking forward to it as much as my wife is!