I caught you then in your moment of glory
I meant to post yesterday - I had things to say even! - but work was busy and then I was just totally brainfried when I got home. So let's try this while I'm awake.
Arrow
As much as I hate that they killed Sara - and in this episode her body is LITERALLY PUT IN A FRIDGE which means they knew they'd be getting that criticism - I thought that this follow-up did a pretty good job of showing how her death affected everyone around her (except her parents, of course, because why tell them their daughter is dead? but we'll get back to that), though I don't think it worked completely, for a couple of reasons:
1. What the hell was the point of those flashbacks? Why Tommy in this episode? Shouldn't these have been Sara-related? I still don't quite understand the point - so this was the first time Oliver had to deceive his friends to keep them safe? Which led to his present-day NO DATES ONLY JUSTICE stance?
2. So instead of taking her to a hospital, or calling for help, Laurel dragged her sister's dead body back to Verdant? I am not normally one to focus on logistics in these situations, but what? Also, I get not telling Detective Captain Lance in that immediate instant, sweet jebus, Laurel, you have to tell him!
(on a related note, I'm sad we didn't see Roy call Sin about this. Sin! So much wasted potential in that character! Maybe she'll come back once Thea's back too?)
3. The show has mostly avoided these sorts of episode-ending indie song montage of loneliness and feelings and I appreciate that - I don't think it worked particularly well here, though again, I get what they were going for. It's just such a cliche that I rolled my eyes.
Otoh, I thought Stephen Amell did a great job of showing how Oliver had to hold it together - had to be the Arrow, not Oliver - the whole time so everyone else could go to pieces, and how tenuous his control over his feelings was. His "I don't want to die alone down here" was heartbreaking. I'm so sad Diggle didn't give him a hug then! That was definitely a hug-requiring moment! (I have to say that the most amazing thing this show has done is progress Oliver Queen from "ugh rich white boy douchebag 'hero'" through "I want to hugpunch him so much!" (this is where, for example, Bruce Wayne and movie!Tony Stark live for me) all the way to "Aw, give him a hug, poor boy.")
Laurel being angry the whole time mostly worked - I have not been as down on Laurel as some, but man, the writing has never been particularly good for her or played much to Katie Cassidy's strengths as an actress - but I liked that she'd already been through the whole grieving thing once and now she was just pissed off about losing her sister again after she'd finally accepted her back and mostly stopped blaming her for everything, and also because Laurel's anger has never really been allowed a healthy outlet on the show, so channeling it to beat up bad guys is fine by me - it's what Roy does, it's what countless other superheroes have done, so I guess if that is her origin story as Black Canary II, I can accept that. But I do need for them to step up the writing for her, because I almost automatically tune out when she's onscreen these days, as she's so rarely been integral to the story.
I did like the secret interment and Laurel's "It's not fair!" Because it so is not. Sigh.
Felicity! I draw a million sparkly hearts around you! ♥♥♥ Go to Central City and have hot makeouts with Barry! It will do you both a world of good! And you don't have to hide your secret vigilante support persona from him!
I loved that she called Palmer out on his stalkery bullshit, though I'm less enthused that she went back later and took the job, though I am choosing to believe that, the world being what it is, Palmer had been in the process of taking over Buy More Tech Village for months, and didn't just do it to troll Felicity, though he really does want to hire her. At least when he realized she was actually upset about stuff he backed off. *hands* I know a romance is coming and I think they have sweet chemistry, and he's easy on the eyes, but I wish we could knock it off with the "perseverance will win you the day! don't take no for an answer, boys!" bullshit, because it's not charming, romantic, or cute. Now I hope Felicity is taking the job because 1. she doesn't want to die alone in the dark but also 2. so she can spy on this new owner of Queen Consolidated and find out what his deal really is!
I don't expect that they're going to make him a bad guy, and I wonder if there'll be some crossover with The Flash/STAR Labs in order to eventually give him shrinking powers (I still don't get why DC wouldn't let them use Ted Kord here), and hopefully the show will figure out how to use him as a good guy who is also not necessarily on board with Team Arrow's plans.
I found the motorcycle archery jousting kind of hilarious - I think it's probably the kind of thing that would work better in a comic than on tv - but the fight scenes (DICKPUNCH!) and the grapple arrow out the window were pretty cool.
I still don't know who killed Sara though. I'm guessing we're supposed to think Malcolm and Thea were too far away, so was it Argus? Ra's? A rogue faction of the League? If either Ra's or the League somehow, does that make Nyssa turn against them? (Could it be Talia?) (And on that note, since Ra's is showing up, I really need him to say at one point that as much as he acknowledges that Oliver has grown in skill etc. etc., he is still no detective. Or something like that! Because you know I am not a person who is always asking "Where is Batman?" when Batman isn't on screen, but come on! You have to throw that in somehow and that would be the PERFECT understated way! Because it means Batman is out there somewhere in the shadows, even if we never ever see or hear of him again. Though given the "WayneTech" reference in The Flash, I wouldn't be averse to the occasional reference, if it's kept seriously low key.) I'm also amused that Argus has TWENTY GUYS on a list who could kill someone with arrows. Like, I get that the Olympic archery teams of various nations exist, but regardless of what Green Arrow and Hawkeye have tried to sell me, I still think it's a highly weird calling card for an assassin. *hands* Comics!
Lastly, Thea! SPEEDY! I really hope she's playing Malcolm, even with that "Dad" at the end, but either way, I'm so interested in what she's going to become.
I went to bed early last night, so I'll be watching HTGAWM over the weekend. New Korra tonight, though!
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/698826.html.
people have commented there.
Arrow
As much as I hate that they killed Sara - and in this episode her body is LITERALLY PUT IN A FRIDGE which means they knew they'd be getting that criticism - I thought that this follow-up did a pretty good job of showing how her death affected everyone around her (except her parents, of course, because why tell them their daughter is dead? but we'll get back to that), though I don't think it worked completely, for a couple of reasons:
1. What the hell was the point of those flashbacks? Why Tommy in this episode? Shouldn't these have been Sara-related? I still don't quite understand the point - so this was the first time Oliver had to deceive his friends to keep them safe? Which led to his present-day NO DATES ONLY JUSTICE stance?
2. So instead of taking her to a hospital, or calling for help, Laurel dragged her sister's dead body back to Verdant? I am not normally one to focus on logistics in these situations, but what? Also, I get not telling Detective Captain Lance in that immediate instant, sweet jebus, Laurel, you have to tell him!
(on a related note, I'm sad we didn't see Roy call Sin about this. Sin! So much wasted potential in that character! Maybe she'll come back once Thea's back too?)
3. The show has mostly avoided these sorts of episode-ending indie song montage of loneliness and feelings and I appreciate that - I don't think it worked particularly well here, though again, I get what they were going for. It's just such a cliche that I rolled my eyes.
Otoh, I thought Stephen Amell did a great job of showing how Oliver had to hold it together - had to be the Arrow, not Oliver - the whole time so everyone else could go to pieces, and how tenuous his control over his feelings was. His "I don't want to die alone down here" was heartbreaking. I'm so sad Diggle didn't give him a hug then! That was definitely a hug-requiring moment! (I have to say that the most amazing thing this show has done is progress Oliver Queen from "ugh rich white boy douchebag 'hero'" through "I want to hugpunch him so much!" (this is where, for example, Bruce Wayne and movie!Tony Stark live for me) all the way to "Aw, give him a hug, poor boy.")
Laurel being angry the whole time mostly worked - I have not been as down on Laurel as some, but man, the writing has never been particularly good for her or played much to Katie Cassidy's strengths as an actress - but I liked that she'd already been through the whole grieving thing once and now she was just pissed off about losing her sister again after she'd finally accepted her back and mostly stopped blaming her for everything, and also because Laurel's anger has never really been allowed a healthy outlet on the show, so channeling it to beat up bad guys is fine by me - it's what Roy does, it's what countless other superheroes have done, so I guess if that is her origin story as Black Canary II, I can accept that. But I do need for them to step up the writing for her, because I almost automatically tune out when she's onscreen these days, as she's so rarely been integral to the story.
I did like the secret interment and Laurel's "It's not fair!" Because it so is not. Sigh.
Felicity! I draw a million sparkly hearts around you! ♥♥♥ Go to Central City and have hot makeouts with Barry! It will do you both a world of good! And you don't have to hide your secret vigilante support persona from him!
I loved that she called Palmer out on his stalkery bullshit, though I'm less enthused that she went back later and took the job, though I am choosing to believe that, the world being what it is, Palmer had been in the process of taking over Buy More Tech Village for months, and didn't just do it to troll Felicity, though he really does want to hire her. At least when he realized she was actually upset about stuff he backed off. *hands* I know a romance is coming and I think they have sweet chemistry, and he's easy on the eyes, but I wish we could knock it off with the "perseverance will win you the day! don't take no for an answer, boys!" bullshit, because it's not charming, romantic, or cute. Now I hope Felicity is taking the job because 1. she doesn't want to die alone in the dark but also 2. so she can spy on this new owner of Queen Consolidated and find out what his deal really is!
I don't expect that they're going to make him a bad guy, and I wonder if there'll be some crossover with The Flash/STAR Labs in order to eventually give him shrinking powers (I still don't get why DC wouldn't let them use Ted Kord here), and hopefully the show will figure out how to use him as a good guy who is also not necessarily on board with Team Arrow's plans.
I found the motorcycle archery jousting kind of hilarious - I think it's probably the kind of thing that would work better in a comic than on tv - but the fight scenes (DICKPUNCH!) and the grapple arrow out the window were pretty cool.
I still don't know who killed Sara though. I'm guessing we're supposed to think Malcolm and Thea were too far away, so was it Argus? Ra's? A rogue faction of the League? If either Ra's or the League somehow, does that make Nyssa turn against them? (Could it be Talia?) (And on that note, since Ra's is showing up, I really need him to say at one point that as much as he acknowledges that Oliver has grown in skill etc. etc., he is still no detective. Or something like that! Because you know I am not a person who is always asking "Where is Batman?" when Batman isn't on screen, but come on! You have to throw that in somehow and that would be the PERFECT understated way! Because it means Batman is out there somewhere in the shadows, even if we never ever see or hear of him again. Though given the "WayneTech" reference in The Flash, I wouldn't be averse to the occasional reference, if it's kept seriously low key.) I'm also amused that Argus has TWENTY GUYS on a list who could kill someone with arrows. Like, I get that the Olympic archery teams of various nations exist, but regardless of what Green Arrow and Hawkeye have tried to sell me, I still think it's a highly weird calling card for an assassin. *hands* Comics!
Lastly, Thea! SPEEDY! I really hope she's playing Malcolm, even with that "Dad" at the end, but either way, I'm so interested in what she's going to become.
I went to bed early last night, so I'll be watching HTGAWM over the weekend. New Korra tonight, though!
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/698826.html.
people have commented there.