Reviews: Vegas, Arrow & Chicago Fire
Vegas was definitely more interesting this week. Some might say the scenes with the Mafia Don were cliche, but my maternal grandmother was full-blooded Italian and her family was connected, let's say. The black suits, the attitudes, the absolute rule of the Don is not just Hollywood. Michael Chiklis is giving a nuanced performance of a man who has a vision but has to step carefully. The scenes between him and Dennis Quaid really make the show. Better use of the 1960 setting, too.
Arrow? Like its predecessor, Smallville, it's an Elseworld. Treat it as such and your blood pressure will thank you. :) So Roy's out. Ollie's little sister is called 'Speedy'. Okay. And Dinah is 'Laurel Lance' but she and Ollie were an item before he slept with her sister. Her sister dies on the voyage that took Ollie's father, too, and now his mother is married to another man. At least the mother is going to get more to say than poor Nolanverse Martha Wayne! And the twist was pure CW at the end.
I'm annoyed that Ollie isn't blond! Would you change the dark hair of Clark, Bruce, or Diana? Okay, they did in 1974 with Cathy Lee Crosby playing Wonder Woman but they came to their senses and cast Lynda Carter in the classic series. The beefcake is yummy but a driven Ollie...the thing is, comics Ollie did change from a wastrel to a hero after spending five years alone on that island, but they've made him too driven: more like Bruce than Ollie. Poor Ollie. Always a Bruce stand-in!
What, Star City isn't good enough? It's 'Starling City'? WTF?
Okay, will I watch it again? Probably. It'll be a game to see how many changes they make to comics canon. And Dinah's father is alive, a detective who despises Ollie. Will Dinah and Ollie ever get together? She hates him for sleeping with her sister and her sister's death. Both Lances are driven by grief and Ollie doesn't tell them what he's feeling, but he is haunted by the events of that yacht accident and his years alone on the island.
Ollie is keeping up the jerk facade for now. I do find his relationship with 'Dig' kind of amusing. The bodyguard will get wise soon! :)
So, yeah, I'll keep watching, though it didn't grab me like the first episode of Smallville did. Considering the drek on TV, what the heck? I could do worse.
Finally, Chicago Fire. Great firefighting scenes, cliched plot but unless I'm out or too tired, I'll probably watch. Grittier than Emergency!, of course, but in the 1970s you weren't allowed to show marital strain (only hinted at), or firefighters taking drugs for pain, or serious conflict between any of the men. The most conflict you got was squabbling between Johnny and Chet and sometimes between Johnny and Roy. Yet even though they couldn't show blood and other gore like this series can, they did manage to give you a realistic view of firefighters, paramedics and ERs. You just didn't get all the blood spatters. This show is kind of in between Emergency! and Rescue Me in what they can show.
Too soon to tell if this will last.
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