ARROW SEASON
***
Establishing the character.
FILM: Season one is the intro- duction to Oliver Queen (Steve Amell) – a billionaire playboy who returns to Starling City (which in comic book terms is a train ride away from Bludhaven, which is south of Gotham) to exact revenge on the rich people throttling the lifeblood of his city.
He is not only a billionaire playboy, but also a costumed crime fighter, but unlike Batman’s Bruce Wayne, this guy kills, a fact established in the first episode.
We get to know him through the re-establishment of his relationships with friends and family, but there are actually two storylines running concurrently. We see not only the contemporary action, but also flashbacks to his life on the island, which means unlike the people he interacts with, we see what creates the vigilante character.
While Queen initially starts out hard-core on the killing side, his burgeoning relationships with ex-military man, driver and bodyguard John Diggle (David Ramsey), and IT boffin Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Richards), makes it more complicated to justify his harsh stance.
Still, there is a central story- line running through the series culminating in the uncovering of a plot by the haves of Starling City to destroy downtown, get rid of those pesky poor people and start again. All the emotional angst and character develop- ment actually makes more sense when you watch several episodes back-to-back, which makes this DVD series much more interesting than just catching the episodes on TV.
Series two has started on M-Net and promises the introduction of even more DC comic book characters.
Special Features: Deleted scenes, a gag reel, featurettes on the (very carefully choreographed parkour) stunts, actors talking about their characters plus a feature on the cast and creative team talking at a convention with comic artist Geoff Johns moderating the panel. – Theresa Smith