ARROW: Here's Our Review Of Season 6 Episode 19 'The Dragon'
While this episode highlights some of the best from Kirk Acevedo this season, it also proves that this episode should've been part of this season a lot earlier.
'The Dragon' focuses on the main season villain and gives the character some long awaited character development. However, the episode does also fail in capturing the threat that is Ricardo Diaz.
In terms of acting, Kirk Acevedo was really good this episode, matter of fact anything I've said previously about him has pretty much been proven wrong here. I'm glad that Kirk had the freedom to act in the way that Ricardo Diaz is meant to be displayed. However, my issue with his character in this episode and just this season overall is that he simply isn't intimidating. Yes, I understand that he went crazy killing some Quadrant members, along with the son of a former member of the Quadrant but having him simply kill a few dudes in an episode just isn't good enough. While I did enjoy Acevedo's acting in this episode, he often sounds like he has a frog in his mouth and honestly that's not the fault of the actor considering he's doing what he's told. Maybe it's the fact that he allows Black Siren to speak to him with disrespect or even just from other people in general, it just reduces the level of intimidation for the character.
Another point I need to make is that Ricardo Diaz is a master-martial artist in the comics, however, on Arrow he seems to specialise mainly with a firearm. We've had very few scenes when Diaz fought hand-to-hand and even then he wasn't anything special compared to all the previous villains on this show. This honestly makes me question how he's going to defeat Oliver in the hand-to-hand fight they're going to have or if he should really stand a chance.
