Holy tear-jerker !
Caution: This will be filled with spoilers for those of you who have not seen the first season. Please, read ahead at your own risk.
After finishing the first season of Arrow, I have a mixed range of emotions. The characters in a superhero story are what really make it or break it for me. Arrow has an interesting mix of those characters. I really don’t like Thea’s character. I find her to be rather irritating and over-acted in a lot of scenes. I also have the same problem with Laurel. In the emotional scenes, Laurel is WAYYYY too emotional for me to even believe how she feels. Tommy is a great character and I am really sad to see him go, so much so that I cried. Like ugly cried. I think he was a great moral compass for Oliver and helped to keep him grounded to who he should be, even considering what he has been through and become.
Malcolm Merlyn will always be a favorite character of mine just for the simple fact that I LOVE John Barrowman and he does such a good job being a menacing villain. I unfortunately know that he returns from the “dead” because of just everyday exposure to people’s comments and media press releases, so that makes me really happy. Moira, besides hating her name, I find her character to be intriguing. She is caught between a rock and a hard place and I think we will see more development of her character, which is great. I think she is one of the best characters, along with Oliver because they are both constantly having their story revealed, or another layer of it. They are extremely complex despite their simple appearance and the “rich” people.
Diggle and Felicity are a great combination of side kicks for Oliver because they offer different perspectives to what he is doing. Diggle, being ex-military understands the sacrifices involved in what Oliver is doing and Felicity helps keep him grounded and realistic in his goals. Detective Lance is an interesting character but not nearly quite as complex. I enjoy the banter that he has with criminals and with Oliver, so I won’t completely write him off yet.
The companions and villains on the island are interesting and I’m not sure yet what to think because I feel as though the story constantly evolves with the series. You don’t know who is good and who is bad and what their motives really are, who they work for or many other details that would help to form an opinion. They have very little impact on me right now, but I have a feeling that the story is going to get much more involved with the island and what events happened there.
The story of Arrow itself is very intriguing for the reasons I previously mentioned. It is constantly evolving by tearing away layers of characters one episode at a time. I think the weaknesses in the story lies with the characters who don’t evolve or become deeper. Thea and Laurel I feel suffer most from this problem. In contrast to Thea, I think her new beau Roy is a great character with a lot of depth and growth potential. With a lot of superhero and comic book adapted stories, I find myself often questioning the practicality of what happens. I understand that there needs to be some level of suspension of disbelief, but I also think that it has to be realistic enough for the story to seem real, which is in a way, how it becomes relatable to its audience. I wish they would get rid of the love triangle/ tortured love between Laurel and Oliver. I find that whole storyline to be irritating and over embellished. I have been told that it will change in the upcoming seasons.
The fight scenes in Arrow are really well done and engaging to watch. Stephen Amell must be in incredible shape to be able to do such intense action scenes. I know he probably uses stunt doubles for some of it, but still. Incredible shape. Diggle is an interesting companion for the fight scenes and I imagine is takes a lot of research when thinking of Diggle’s scenes, because they have to mimic what a military trained person would do in certain situations.
Overall, I am excited to see where this story takes us and how these characters evolve and change. I am always interested with characters like Oliver and Moira, particularly, because your opinion can change completely about a character in a season. Bring on Season 2!
