Got through the most recent couple of episodes of Arrow tonight. Thus far this season feels more coherent than season 3 did. I’m glad they finally got around to the most obvious Lazarus Pit use ever, but I can’t see it ending well. I really like the introduction of Curtis Holt, in large part because it’s fun spotting the Mr Terrific clues (T-sphere!), but also I think there’s good synergy with him and Felicity. All the scenes with those two have been entertaining. The return of Palmer is being ridiculously heavily foreshadowed, hope they get it over with soon. Can’t say I was overly impressed with the Tattooed Man, but thus far Damien Darkh is living up to the Big Bad role a whole lot better than R’as did last season.
Arrow/Flash/Legends of Tomorrow Spoiler
[spoiler]Sarah Lance will come around “enough” to become White Canary when she joins up with the crew in Legends of Tomorrow next year. The preview next week suggests that it’ll be John Constantine (on loan from the canceled NBC series from last season) that restores her soul and sends her on the path to redemption. I wonder if he’ll manage the same for Thea, or if everyone will conveniently forget she has to murder once in a blue moon or go nuts.
Similarly, I think Ray, as the Atom, is supposed to be on Legends, so presumably his return has to occur before the mid-season break to get him prepped for Legends. By that same token, the newly reforged Firestorm on Flash came together last ep and jetted off into a far, far away land (AKA, on hold until Legends–noticing a pattern here? lulz).[/spoiler]
Really enjoying the new season of Arrow. They seem to have learned a lot from the Flash writers–way faster plot advancement, less generally pointless lying, a bitchin’ villain, and a little more of the “fun”/“joy” of being a superhero mixed in. The return of the not-so-oblivious tech + terrible-liar CEO dynamic via Felicity and Curtis is a particular delight, and as a big ol’ fan of Felicity, I’m glad to see her returned to awkward but tough form. Afraid it’ll be her in the grave by season’s end to make way for the inevitable Laurel+Oliver pairing that the show’s comic origins demand, which is a real pity, insofar as I like her actor and character far more than Laurel’s.
Also really wanna give special props to Paul Blackthorne for a really spectacular performance alongside Stephen Amell in this week’s episode. It was a real treat to watch.
This is just a theory but there have been a few little things going on that make me think perhaps the grave is that of Oliver and Felicity’s unborn child. Totally, theory without any hard evidence but there have been a few weird scenes that may point to this.
I enjoyed the Constantine cameo this week, though it felt a little rushed. Probably didn’t have a lot of latitude in how much time they got Matt Ryan. Pretty decent wrap-up for the Return of Sara arc. From the island-flashback part, that Orb of Horus would play nicely into Hawkgirl’s story for Legends, if that’s how they want to play it.
I was greatly amused by the energy-drink-fueled Holt bit at the end. That man needs to be on screen more often. Surely it’s only a matter of time before he joins the scooby gang, right?
I loved his introduction. I regret never watching the show, I immediately liked this guy and his character. I really liked how they blended the flash backs with him, too. Strong episode, in my opinion.
Yeah, that guy is awesome. I recently saw him on You’re The Worst for a few episodes, he’s very funny.
I hear Warner Brothers is going to slow down how quick Netflix will get the show. That makes me sad, since I am behind on Arrow, and was hoping to use Netflix to catch up on the 2nd and the current season.
If you’re very quick, you can watch seasons 2 and 3 on Netflix, and the current season on Hulu. But Hulu only has the five most recent episodes of the current season, and this was the fifth, so next week season 4 episode one falls off of Hulu rotation.
Oh wow, he was on last night’s The League, too.
Actually, I think I only need to watch 6 or 7 episodes in season 3 to catch up, but I just can’t find the time. Also, I need to catch up on the last 2 episodes of season 2 of Agents of shield.
Yay Ray Palmer. So happy, SO happy he’s back. I need him in everything.
Totally agreed. Was still a little painful seeing KORD tonight (word on the street is that DC nixed the original idea to have Routh as Blue Beetle rather than The Atom), but overall, great to have him back around, at least until they figure out how the whole Arrow-Flash-Legends interplay will work.
Some great lines, too, like the “chatter” on the mission airwaves and Diggle’s vodka putdown. Looks like they’re continuing to stay on-track this season :-D
Yeah, this season already feels more fun than much of last season, Palmer withstanding.
The Queen-Diggle drinking-therapy session was great. It’s nice to see that relationship back to normal. I also enjoyed the Donna Smoak cameo, though if she starts showing up too often it’s gonna get old. And hooray for more Holt! Didn’t quite bring him all the way into the fold, but I remain hopeful.
Not sure what they’re getting at with the ominous kitchen tile spread from Darkh there at the end. I may have missed a clue somewhere, or maybe it’s yet to be revealed.
Yeah, as I’m all about Felicity and Diggle, I was actually really happy to see Team Original Arrow or whatever they called it getting back into a groove. The drinking session with Oliver and Diggle is probably my favorite scene in the season so far.
From Thea’s, “Bunch of superheroes in a farmhouse? - feel like I’ve seen that in a movie before” quip at the beginning, to the adorable Flash/Arrow hug at the end, quite a ride.
Stonking mid-season finales, cheers all round, good job.
…as I was saying over in the Flash thread, I enjoyed the ride through the cross-over. Nice to see the Oliver’s-lost-kid hanging thread finally get picked up; been a good long time since we first saw it.
Time travel always feels cheaty. The world blew up, go back and fix it! But they did a good job of hammering home the “there will be consequences, and you won’t see it coming” point. Look forward to seeing how they make that happen, and I’m guessing it probably won’t spell anything good for mom-and-kid.
I thought the whole Hawk plot-line was handled fairly well, although I would not have guessed that they were going to cast Vandal Savage as the villain. They sort of rolled up the comic versions of Savage (immortal), Teth-Adam (dark intentions), and Nabu (mystic adviser) into one guy. Worked pretty well, and good ol’ Malcolm made sure there’s a convenient hook for more Vandal in the future. The Nth metal plot device fit in pretty well, too, with the gauntlets thing. I think making the wings-and-powers mystical rather than relying on the metal itself worked nicely.
Still always disappointed to see “secrets for the sake of secrets” plot threads in these shows.
Kid-Mom: “If you want to occasionally hang out w/ your son on the floor playing action figures with him as though that was in any way like being a normal father figure, then don’t tell anyone he’s your son, especially people I will literally never see or interact with again.”
Oliver: “Okay!”
Oliver, later: “Hey, Felicity, I have a kid. His mom doesn’t want people to know about it, but I want to be a good dad to him in the limited capacity my crazy life lets me be. Sometimes I’m gonna go to Central City and hang out with him. Try to keep this on the DL, okay?”
Entire future plotthread averted by people not acting like actual-factual crazy people -.-
That said, I loved literally every other part of the two-parter. That was a really great couple of hours of TV, from surprisingly decent FX, a really neat intro to some cool new heroes and a great new villain, a surprise appearance by BARROWMANNNNNNNN, and lots of cute, witty character moments throughout. Despite really loathing the stupid-secrets-make-future-problems CW BS (perhaps because I really enjoy the Felicity-Oliver relationship and hate seeing such an obvious bomb put up under it for future detonation), these were a couple of my favorite episodes of either series thus far. Really well done on everyone involved’s parts.
Remember that grave that Oliver was standing over earlier in the season? Please welcome your two new candidates to the death lottery. They may be newcomers, but the smart money will be on the boy.
Oh and this nails it:
Kid-Mom: “If you want to occasionally hang out w/ your son on the floor playing action figures with him as though that was in any way like being a normal father figure, then don’t tell anyone he’s your son, especially people I will literally never see or interact with again.”
Oliver: “Okay!”
Oliver, later: “Hey, Felicity, I have a kid. His mom doesn’t want people to know about it, but I want to be a good dad to him in the limited capacity my crazy life lets me be. Sometimes I’m gonna go to Central City and hang out with him. Try to keep this on the DL, okay?”
Entire future plotthread averted by people not acting like actual-factual crazy people -.-
I was hoping that was one of the changes Oliver made in the new timeline. Its seriously ridiculous for him to jeopardize his relationship over that insanely forced secret.
OK, I know this is a silly thing to complain about in a superhero show, but…
You could really see this coming, but just in case people haven’t watched yet
[spoiler]…did they really just pour a good 15 seconds of machine-gun fire into a car and have Oliver come out without a scratch? There are a ton of ways they could have shot Felicity without him getting injured, and not made it look like he’s walking through stormtrooper fire.
And there’s no way she’s dead. Way too much mileage in “Felicity clinging to life while Oliver goes nuts after Darhk” for them to off her this early.[/spoiler]
Ahem. Besides that, the fall finale was pretty good. Nice change to have Laurel’s Canary be the cavalry to the rescue, seems like she’s been mostly just a background ass-kicker to this point. I think they made good use of the Malcolm appearance, and using Curtis and his husband in the marriage thread was a nice touch. Darhk’s ominous cornfield made for a pretty good hook into his future nefarious plans, much better than whatever the kitchen-tile spread thing was earlier this season.
Did anyone else hope for a moment that island-Oliver was being chased by King Shark? :)
Great episode, even the end. Can we just get Neal McDonough in everything please?