First of all, i’d been following this TV Show since season 2 started, my view on season 1 it’s not really good, when i started watching it i saw a TV show ashamed, ashamed on what it was based on, even within the first episodes of the show there is an scene where the main character an by the way, very, VERY loosely based on the comicbook character Oliver Queen says how “Green Arrow” it’s a lame name, in fact he doesn’t even get the name “Arrow” in the whole season, and i have the feeling they weren’t planning to.
Even in season 2 where it started to feel like the showrunners changed their mind about staying away from the comicbook ideas, some characters to this day are suffering for being reinvented and made more “grounded” ruining that way ideas that could have been very interesting, it even introduced TWO Count Vertigo, the both being just boring uninspired characters and merely powerless drug lords and next week we are for example, to wait for the reveal that the Brick character in the show is not an meta human after all. It is known that sometimes even very popular characters in TV shows nad movies get translated to the comicbooks, and this actually happened with some of the better things of the show, John Diggle, but aside him the writers don’t seem to get they have the opportunity to bring to life and recreate in creative or create new characters for the Green Arrow gallery, sadly we are not seeing that, and we are probably up to just receive more realistic normal people with boring and cliché archetypes, that or the show would take Batman related characters because, well, Batman sells.
The show it’s still being dragged down by Oliver’s wrong characterization, in these two and a half seasons I feel like Oliver never fully evolves and tries to stay away from crossing that line that divides Oliver Queen from the Bruce Wayne they are trying make out of him, for those who don’t follow Green Arrow’s comics, for something like two or three decades it has been established that Oliver is a fun guy, sure when the situation is required he is always ready to give a lesson on the rights of the people and how the rich is constantly passing over the poor, but that’s only part of the Robin Hood personality the character is based on, but he is always ready to give an smile when is also needed. Arrow0s Oliver on the other hand refuses to evolve into this, and even when as seen in the beginning of season 3, we saw a more happy and joking Oliver, the writers decided to take two steps back and the end of the same episode, Oliver honestly feels more like…I am sorry to bring it up again, but Batman.
Another big problem is the network it is chained to, The CW is known for targeting to teenagers and it low quality writers and special effects, if DC had really wanted this show to be something taken seriously it would have chose any network but this, the fighting sequences in the show are pretty good that is right, but to get to the viewer is forced to get pass a lot, and I mean a lot of terribly written drama (with a very few esceptions) and uninteresting love interests.
This show could have been the perfect way to introduce Green Arrow to more people, and I can’t say it fails, because I doesn’t try, what it tries to be is an Batman show without Batman, and I don’t know you people, but I think DC already gave us plenty of Batman already.