CW Network's new hit superhero show, Arrow, has a lot of flaws: so-so acting, huge plot holes, and lack of chemistry between some of the leads.
And yet I'm totally hooked.
This is primarily because the show features the best version of Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow since 2004, when bestselling novelist Brad Meltzer finished a story arc on the comic book.
Oliver Queen in Arrow isn't quite like the comics, though they share the same basic origin: rich, feckless scion is shipwrecked and marooned on a desert island for five years and has to learn to survive on his own. When he returns, comic Oliver decides to put his wealth and new skills with a bow and arrow to good use.
The television show takes the deserted on an island part of the origin and twists it so this Oliver (Stephen Amell) isn't alone on the island at all. Instead, he seems to have landed in the company of some very bad people. What drives Oliver to survive is his father's sacrifice to save his life and the obsession to right his father's wrongs, plus whatever horrible things happened on the island.
It all works in the show, to a large extent because Oliver's obsession about righting his father's wrong is seen as just that: a possible unhealthy obsession which has caused Oliver to kill when needed. Oliver says he's not a hero and he means it. He sees himself as basically an arrow pointed by his father. But as his obsession cracks here and there, we begin to see Oliver realize his single-mindedness may be too much.
The most original and best addition to the show is Green Arrow's partner/conscience, his former bodyguard John Diggle, played by David Ramsey. He's the one person close to Oliver who doesn't remember his past self; maybe that's why he's able to connect to the person who came back from the island. Diggle also seems to serve as the voice of the audience.
So while Arrow's Oliver is different from comics Oliver in some ways, right now he's far superior to the Oliver Queen in the comics.
That Oliver has seen many incarnations, from a Robin Hood-style knock-off version of Batman, to one that traveled the U.S. in the 1970s in Hard Traveling Heroes, to Mike Grell's acclaimed Longbow Hunters version. The show draws heavily on Grell's version of Ollie as a sometimes deadly urban crimefighter.
Comic Oliver was killed off in 1995, replaced by his younger son, Connor Hawke for a while, brought back from the dead by Kevin Smith (yes, that Kevin Smith) in 2001, was written by Meltzer and then his series started to slip in quality and sales and even an abrupt marriage to his long-time love, Black Canary, didn't help sales.
When the DC Universe was rebooted last year, Oliver was reborn as a youthful crimefighter. In his origin issue in September, it's revealed it's his recklessness and stupidity that caused the deaths of dozens of people on an exploding oil rig, including his girlfriend.
No, not the same kind of responsibility that television Oliver has for the death of his lover/friend/sister of his fiancee. No, comic Oliver decided to attack a trained assault team who had taken the people on the oil rig hostage. This despite Oliver having no skills or possibility of success, and despite the fact that the assault team had a proven record of letting hostages go unharmed once their blackmail was paid.
As a heroic origin, it's not.
Television Oliver still has a chance to become a hero.
So I forgive the silly plots, the fact that there seem to only be two cops in Starling City, and that one with a serious conflict of interest always seems to be investigating Oliver. I forgive the show for the fact that some of the acting by the supporting cast seems shaky, and that the romantic triangle of Oliver/Laurel/Tommy has very few sparks as yet.
And, yes, I admit hearing "Dinah Laurel Lance" on television gave me a little fangirl squee. Laurel isn't quite Black Canary yet, but she shares her characteristic optimism and ability to forgive. And I love all the comic Easter eggs too.
All of that is enough to keep me watching, especially with appearances by Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) and Kate Spencer (Manhunter) scheduled.
And John Barrowman as the mysterious bad guy doesn't hurt either.
