Arrow Season 5 Episode 2 Review
Since the awkward timing of this review going up, I will keep this brief as possible. Arrow gave another solid episode thought it wasn't as well put together as the previous one and some of the story elements really didn't work out properly.
Story and Action:
Continuing with the down-to-earth storytelling, this episode saw Oliver rebuilding his team and they aren't that very impressive. Besides WildDog who has some personality, the rest seem pretty boring. We have yet to see Curtis's role in the grander scheme of things and Artemis is completely pointless. Also with the inclusion of all of these new characters, you have to question where they are going with this team. We already know Diggle and Thea will eventually come back. So where will this leave the new team? It seems kind of wasted to put all of this time and energy into creating a new team and shoving them off to the side. I sort of wish they would use Prometheus in the back half of the season to come in and brutally kill them all, sending a message to Oliver. But that is besides the point.
This episode did highlight the duality in Oliver's life in being the mayor and Green Arrow. But this also highlighted the pointlessness of the flashbacks. As cool as the Russia Storyline is, it seems really useless, the connections to present day are forced, and it eats away at time we could tell extra stories. Along with the flashbacks, we got the Diggle side plot which was barely interesting and really screwed up the flow of the episode. Regarding flow, the episode felt like it was never stopping. It was just jumping back and forth, through all of its plots before coming back for the last 10 minutes.
A new introduction into the Arrowverse is Ragman who for most of the episode was a villain. The reveal at the end really brought up some of the legacy issues which have been thrown out over the years. Calling back to the main drive of Oliver's mission and using it as a parallel to Ragman and his vengeance provided for a great moment in between these two. Now that he is a part of the team, I can't wait to see more. (But the VFX for him need work)
Action for this episode was also really good as the fight scenes between Green Arrow vs his new team and Green arrow vs Tobias's men were pretty good. But the first episode set the bar high and it wasn't reached this episode.
Characters and Performances:
Arrow provided most of its actors with the writing to support their strengths. The keyword is "most" as one actress was clearly showing her flaws and was involved in some unenjoyable scenes. This is of course Emily Bett Rickards. Felicity as a charcter is best relegated to the supporting role as she only has one function: to hack. To bring her into the larger character building scenes requires her to portray a compelling character and to be at least 2-dimensional. But Emily does not portray Felicity to that degree. I don't know if it is her cadence or her tone, but any serious scenes with Felicity come off as cringeworthy and unsettling. Also, this is a personal quirk, but I do not enjoy Felicity's style/sense of humour. To have Felicity come out and call Oliver out on his flaws with this new team minimizes the overall effect of the message as well. If someone like Roy or Diggle tell Oliver that he needs to trust them more, it would be completely justfied as they went through the same things. Maybe Felicity could have said those things but something about Emily's portrayal just doesn't work for me.
Other actors like Paul Blackthorne, Stephen Amell, and Willa Holland gave great performances. Their respective characters all have their moments but an outlier to the cast and this episode was Echo Kellum. With far more charisma than Emily, this character has been reserved to Felicity 2.0 with the want to be a superhero. He has yet to step out and prove his worth and uniqueness. Hopefully they take Curtis into challenging and character-building situations.
**Overall Episode Grade: 8.3/10**
Story and Action:
Continuing with the down-to-earth storytelling, this episode saw Oliver rebuilding his team and they aren't that very impressive. Besides WildDog who has some personality, the rest seem pretty boring. We have yet to see Curtis's role in the grander scheme of things and Artemis is completely pointless. Also with the inclusion of all of these new characters, you have to question where they are going with this team. We already know Diggle and Thea will eventually come back. So where will this leave the new team? It seems kind of wasted to put all of this time and energy into creating a new team and shoving them off to the side. I sort of wish they would use Prometheus in the back half of the season to come in and brutally kill them all, sending a message to Oliver. But that is besides the point.
This episode did highlight the duality in Oliver's life in being the mayor and Green Arrow. But this also highlighted the pointlessness of the flashbacks. As cool as the Russia Storyline is, it seems really useless, the connections to present day are forced, and it eats away at time we could tell extra stories. Along with the flashbacks, we got the Diggle side plot which was barely interesting and really screwed up the flow of the episode. Regarding flow, the episode felt like it was never stopping. It was just jumping back and forth, through all of its plots before coming back for the last 10 minutes.
A new introduction into the Arrowverse is Ragman who for most of the episode was a villain. The reveal at the end really brought up some of the legacy issues which have been thrown out over the years. Calling back to the main drive of Oliver's mission and using it as a parallel to Ragman and his vengeance provided for a great moment in between these two. Now that he is a part of the team, I can't wait to see more. (But the VFX for him need work)
Action for this episode was also really good as the fight scenes between Green Arrow vs his new team and Green arrow vs Tobias's men were pretty good. But the first episode set the bar high and it wasn't reached this episode.
Characters and Performances:
Arrow provided most of its actors with the writing to support their strengths. The keyword is "most" as one actress was clearly showing her flaws and was involved in some unenjoyable scenes. This is of course Emily Bett Rickards. Felicity as a charcter is best relegated to the supporting role as she only has one function: to hack. To bring her into the larger character building scenes requires her to portray a compelling character and to be at least 2-dimensional. But Emily does not portray Felicity to that degree. I don't know if it is her cadence or her tone, but any serious scenes with Felicity come off as cringeworthy and unsettling. Also, this is a personal quirk, but I do not enjoy Felicity's style/sense of humour. To have Felicity come out and call Oliver out on his flaws with this new team minimizes the overall effect of the message as well. If someone like Roy or Diggle tell Oliver that he needs to trust them more, it would be completely justfied as they went through the same things. Maybe Felicity could have said those things but something about Emily's portrayal just doesn't work for me.
Other actors like Paul Blackthorne, Stephen Amell, and Willa Holland gave great performances. Their respective characters all have their moments but an outlier to the cast and this episode was Echo Kellum. With far more charisma than Emily, this character has been reserved to Felicity 2.0 with the want to be a superhero. He has yet to step out and prove his worth and uniqueness. Hopefully they take Curtis into challenging and character-building situations.
**Overall Episode Grade: 8.3/10**
A Look Inside
