Tag Archives: John Barrowman

Arrow, 1:11 – “Trust But Verify”

January 26, 2013 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

Yao Fei why have you betrayed me?!?!?!

Sorry I just had to get that out-of-the-way.

After last week’s lackluster episode, Arrow came back this week quite strongly and had a little bit for everyone in ‘Trust But Verify’.

So Oliver is back in the swing of things, working out as usual, and keeping his eye on the news. This time a rash of armored car heists catches his eye and shock of all shocks, there is a connection to his list! Diggle and Ollie have always had their little love spats but I really thought this one was going to put them over the edge. What I liked about this episode was the fact this back and forth between Diggle and Oliver[pullquote_right]I won’t let you William Tell an innocent man. -Diggle[/pullquote_right]needed to happen. Seriously Diggle is a saint for putting up with Ollie’s somewhat premenstrual mood swings not to mention the fact that he has gone into this whole superhero-but-not thing with little to no information and does Oliver appreciate that? Up until this week, it didn’t really seem like it. Thankfully they had the Blackhawk Protection Group and Ted Gaynor to bring them together. Oh and if this episode did nothing else, it provided more great one-liners to the show’s repertoire and finally someone (Diggle) named the lair, “Arrow Cave”! It’s about time, only took 11 episodes which means we’ll finally get a real name for the vigilante in about episode 23.

There was a lot going on with the rest of the friends and family, mostly temperamental brooding. Tommy I can understand as Malcolm does seem to be quite an ass using a “family” dinner with the girlfriend to hide his real intention of getting Tommy to sign off on the closing of his dead mom’s clinic. Of course we do find out that it appears as if Malcolm really does miss his wife and isn’t the heartless bastard we once thought but still, that was low. So yes, I think we can go ahead and forgive Tommy for his brooding.

However, Thea? Someone either needs to kick some sense into her ass or just find her a therapist because sweet heavens above, she is messed up and not in that “oh this psychosis is cute” kind of way. She is reaching Dana from Homeland levels of ridiculousness when it comes to her mom. Granted a person’s first thought wouldn’t go to nefarious mystery kidnappings and boat sinking activities but a person can’t even talk to another without it being an affair? Come on Thea. Not only that but she is suffering badly from “I’m 18 and therefore know everything” disease. Sadly it will be at least another three or four years until she realizes she was completely wrong about everything. I don’t know if I can deal with her ridiculousness for that long. So much for the producers promising Thea would be less annoying this half of the season. Not even a car accident can make her less obnoxious. LIES!

As for lies, whoa Malcolm and Moira. I don’t even know what is going on with you two but it seems shady. And dangerous. And scary. What is Malcolm doing to Walter? Does he have him held hostage in some jail cell somewhere without access to a decent razor? Poor man was looking quite ragged. Of course no matter how smarmy Malcolm is, I can’t help but be intrigued by him. Why was his wife killed? Why is he such an ass to his son? Why did he become the Dark Archer? What are his life’s goal and aspirations? Why is he so good-looking? These are important questions that will hopefully be addressed soon.

Easily the most underrated person on the show? Felicity Smoak!

She’s still hunkered down in her dark office (seriously it’s not good for the eyes to stare at a computer that long in the dark) thinking the Queen family is done with her services. But no! Here comes Oliver with a security fob that was obviously part of a search for a box of wine… or armored car heists, close enough. Of course it takes Felicity no time because she’s an intellectual badass. Unfortunately she’s an intellectual badass with no bottle of wine. Poor Felicity.

Which brings me to the most distressing part of this week’s episode. I am hurt and betrayed. As founding member and president of the Yao Fei fan club, I was blind to the inevitable and just went about my days believing that everything with Yao Fei and the island and Edward Fryers and Deathstroke was all hunky-dory when, as we all know now, it was not. As it turns out, Fei is working with Fryers and set up Oliver in a somewhat elaborate and seemingly unnecessary trap. If Fei was working with Fryers from the beginning, why didn’t he just bring Oliver to him when he found him? What was the purpose of “rescuing” him and teaching him cute little lessons all this time? Do we have a Most Dangerous Game situation on our hands? All I know is the fan club is over. Okay, maybe not completely over but at the very last disbanded until we have further information. For now, I’m with Oliver, I’m going to find it difficult to trust anyone. Damn you Yao Fei!

Overall, this was a great episode. Like I said earlier, had something for everyone. Going to have to go ahead and give this one a four out of five.

This episode nicely set up next week where we get to meet Starling City’s version of Count Vertigo- until then Arrow fans!

Arrow: Meet Mrs. Lance – Alex Kingston Comes to Starling City

January 23, 2013 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

Excuse me as I need a moment. Arrow is back from hiatus and with that comes more casting news. Today’s news is of a more than likely small character, but not a small name actress by any stretch of the imagination.

It appears as if we will get to meet Detective Lance’s wife and she will be played by none other than Alex Kingston. If you keep up with geek TV at all you know this name as it is none other than the actress who plays River Song from Doctor Who.

Continue reading Arrow: Meet Mrs. Lance – Alex Kingston Comes to Starling City →

Arrow 1.10 – “Burned”

January 20, 2013 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

Oh boy, what a return. When we left off before the seemingly forever long hiatus, Oliver had sort of hit is groove on the whole vigilante thing. The people of Starling City were starting to notice and even if the police/Detective Lance weren’t thrilled, the townspeople were enjoying a lower crime rate. Then he has a bit of a run in with the Dark Archer, gets his ass handed to him, Walter is kidnapped, and we find out that the Dark Archer is actually Malcolm Merlyn. Such a good cliffhanger.

Last night’s episode, ‘Burned’, was a love/hate kind of thing for me. There were some aspects that I really enjoyed and others, not so much. Like the involvement of Firefly. If you are going to use very recognizable villains from the DC Universe, especially Gotham, then perhaps make a story around them that doesn’t involve very flimsy elements such as “presumed dead”. The moment the fire chief mentioned that Garfield Lynns was “presumed dead” during the Nodell Tower fire, we knew that he was the firefighter who started off the episode by killing another firefighter. Not only that but much like the Royal Flush Gang, it is really disappointing to see these great characters be used in one episode and then not heard from again. It’s sad. Of course it should be noted that this Firefly was vastly different from the one of the comics, so really it’s not like the Garfield Lynns that we know and love was involved in the first place. No harm, no foul right?

The other disappointing part of the night? The island! Usually the island is great in giving a lot of story in little bits of flashbacks. This time? Well we know that Yao Fei was kidnapped by Fryers and Deathstroke and Oliver killed a man to steal his clothes but that was it. Here’s hoping we see more of the island in the coming weeks.

As for the non-Firefly parts of the episode, well I loved all that. It picked up six weeks after Oliver’s run in with the Dark Archer and in one of my favorite aspects of the episode, Oliver is in a self-doubt spiral. That sounds bad, I don’t like that Oliver was doubting himself per se, but I did enjoy that it’s a side of superheroes you don’t see too often, it was refreshing. Of course having Diggle to be the one to force Oliver to get his act together was a nice return to their relationship that’s been missing a bit of late. Even better, they did most of this alternative superhero therapy without shirts on, this is never a bad thing.

Another thing that was (thankfully) missing? Thea’s obnoxious attitude. Of course I did laugh when she was telling Moira that she needed to “start acting like my mother so I can stop being yours.” Homegirl is a few episodes from being the most obnoxious brat in recent memory and she’s telling Moira that she can’t take a few days to sort out her feelings on yet another missing husband? Okay, yes it’s been six weeks and yes she had something to do with it but still, that would be difficult to deal with. Granted I haven’t arranged to have one husband lost at sea and another kidnapped for snooping into the first husband’s watery disappearance, but if I had, I imagine it would be a tough couple of weeks afterwards. So Thea just needs to lay off.

Of course now that Moira is taking over as CEO of Queen Industries, I’m guessing that will make it easier for her to conspire to do whatever it is they are doing with Malcom Merlyn. I for one can’t wait to see what happens. However, if Walter is dead I am going to be quite pissed.

In a bit of a shock, I really liked the interactions between Tommy and Laurel and Oliver and Laurel. Poor Tommy is trying to jockey for a drawer for his jockeys (I apologize) and of course Laurel is a bit of a cold fish on the idea. The writer’s aren’t going to let Laurel and Tommy ride off into the sunset together because Oliver and Laurel are obviously supposed to be together. So poor Tommy is just going to be led along like a sad puppy until he finally gets sick of it and turns to the dark side with his dad. That’s how I’m calling it. As for now, Laurel and Oliver are still going to look longingly at each other right before Laurel calls Arrow and on that phone that “can’t even identify the manufacturer”, and asks his help. They are setting her up to be a Louis Lane type of thing and I don’t know that I’m cool with it, but I will refrain from judging, for now.

As for the phone thing? Seriously Detective Lance? Seriously?!?!? What kind of douchy move is it to bug a phone to spy on your daughter? Especially when you just saw that the vigilante does protect your daughter! It’s hard to root for Lance as this Commissioner Gordon type if he’s going to keep insisting that Oliver/Vigilante/Arrow (seriously they need to pick a name) is a problem for the city as opposed to a help.

Unfortunately there was no Malcolm, no Felicity, obviously no Walter, and limited Yao Fei. The Firefly aspect was really irritating and overall, this episode was a bit of a downer. I did like the character progression and plot setups but going to have to give this episode a 3.

The promos and pictures for upcoming episodes are looking quite promising, there is so much to look forward to! For now, let’s pour one out for Firefly, a great villain who decided to hang up his murdering hat after Arrow spoke six words to him, apparently in a very convincing tone of voice.

Until next time!

Arrow Returns With New Cast Members, Returning Heroes & Even More Villians!

January 17, 2013 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

After what seems to be the longest hiatus ever (I think I say this every year) Arrow returns tonight and with it they are bringing on some new faces, and some returning ones as well.

Who’s returning? Well, unfortunately it’s not Deadshot (seriously, dude can not be gone forever, that would be a crime) but it is Helena/Huntress! Let’s all gather in prayer and hope that they don’t try to revive the love interest angle because that was just slightly more annoying than the Thea swooning over Tommy bit. However, I do like the character of Huntress and think she has a lot of potential, so I’m glad to see her back.

As if Huntress wasn’t enough, there are quite a few new faces showing up in this second part of the season. Right off the bat with last night’s episode titled ‘Burned’, we meet Firefly, or as Marc Guggenheim (for some reason) calls him, Firebug.

Not gonna lie, that looks awesome (check the coming review to see more on that!) but even more exciting (for me at least) is it looks like we return to the island which means there’s a chance for a Yao Fei sighting! Yay! I’m still taking applications for the Yao Fei fan club if you are interested.

All the fun wasn’t limited to last night’s return episode however, because as we reported a few months back, Count Vertigo (Seth Gabel) is coming to Arrow. Well, a Starling City version of Count Vertigo at least. The CW people have released pictures and we’ve gotten our first glimpse of what this pill-making villain looks like.

In that episode, coming January 30th, it appears as if we get to meet Roy Harper/Speedy/Red Arrow as well. Marc Guggenheim has said that Roy will end up being a love interest for Thea. And in case you were wondering, they’ve also said that Thea is going to be less annoying going forward. Music to my ears.

There haven’t been any official pictures released of Roy Harper, but there is always someone around with a camera, so here is Colton Haynes as Roy Harper.

All that really tells us is he is going to wear a red hood. I hope they fully explain why Thea is called Speedy rather quickly because that has bothered me since the beginning of the show.

Even with all these new people, I think there are a lot of people, myself included, who just really want to know what is going on with Moira and Malcolm Merlyn. Not to mention Walter. Oh, and Felicity!

Thankfully we’ve got seven straight weeks of Arrow episodes to learn more! Tune in tonight to the CW at 8/7 central and come back here tomorrow and we’ll discuss. Until then!

Arrow: 1.09, “Year’s End”

December 15, 2012 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

Sorry for the lateness of this review Arrow fans, had a bit of technical difficulties but all is resolved now so let’s discuss the mid-season finale!

Last week was a good episode- had good progression of b plots, Huntress was further established and given an open door to return, and Diggle provided the voice of reason yet again. Oliver needs to listen to him more often. This week’s episode, ‘Year’s End’, felt like a see-saw between ridiculous and “holy shit!”

Arrow Year's End — Laurel as a “plus one”

Might as well start with the ridiculous. Oliver finds out his family hasn’t celebrated Christmas since he and his father disappeared and he takes it upon himself to bring back their annual Christmas party. What a guy. However, later on there was this whole thing with Tommy and Laurel and Tommy asking Laurel to be his plus one… why wasn’t Laurel invited in the first place? I get that there was some awkwardness after the horrible double date but to not invite her at all? Seems rather douchey Oliver.

Or perhaps he was just too busy trying to fend off the creepy advances of his sister. WTF is going on with Thea? I don’t know if it’s the actresses playing it that way or if it’s the way it’s written but it seems as if Thea is really wanting to get into Oliver’s pants. It makes me feel dirty just watching that last scene with Oliver in the hospital and them talking (again) about how they just need to accept where each other is at and blah blah blah. It seems as if they’ve just had the same discussion over and over and over again. Find something new to talk about Queen siblings and for the love of all that’s holy, stop undressing each other with your eyes! Blech.

Most of the episode was right in the middle of the see-saw however. We finally returned to the island in which we learned that Edward Fryers set up an ambush to capture Yao Fei (noooo!!!!) and I assume let Deathstroke torture him like he did Oliver. I’m really hoping that they don’t wait so long to return next time because I’m really curious as to what is going on there. Is Yao Fei really a Chinese criminal? What on earth is Fryers doing there in the first place and when are they going to return to that shot in the eye mask we saw in the pilot?

Do we know what role Moira has in this evil empire? At first it sounded like she was working under Malcolm Merlyn but then when she was talking to him and later Walter, I get the impression that they are more equals than nefarious boss and lackey. Especially when Moira tells Walter, “I am the bad people” a la Walter White. What do you mean Moira? Then after we find out who the Dark Archer is and see Walter get drugged in the elevator? She didn’t know that was going to happen? Much like the island, I hope they don’t drag this out because there are questions that need answers. Not to mention, six months without Walter? Come on, that’s just mean. Who knows when we’ll see the happy Steele/Queen family all together again?

I’m really glad that the Dark Archer has been introduced. I think the show needs a constant adversary that isn’t just “The List”. Yea there’s the Triad and China White, but they are just a cog in different storylines whereas the Dark Archer stands on his own and plays into the subplots as well.

When Adam Hunt showed up, I feared that lawyer Laurel was going to appear but thank the gods for a Christmas miracle because she did not. Instead Adam Hunt ended up being the first guy we’ve seen shot by the Dark Archer. He then goes on to take out more of Ollie’s list which prompts the unusual teaming up of Detective Lance and Oliver.

Ollie gets the black arrows, looks at them for a few seconds and figures out what it was made of. Please remember that this is the guy who can’t google anything so he returns to Felicity Smoak. Thank you baby Jesus! That entire exchange between Oliver and Felicity was like a Christmas gift wrapped up just for me. The look on Oliver’s face when she tell him she’s Jewish? Perfect. This show needs more Felicity. Of course I said the show needs more Walter and look what happened there so perhaps I should just be okay with the amount of Felicity we’ve already got.

Of course the biggest part of the episode was the showdown between the Dark Archer and Oliver aka “The Hood Guy”. Nothing like two guys running around in the dark shooting each other with bows and arrows. Best fight scene of the season so far, without a doubt. It’s easier to buy the dude shooting a crossbow missing Oliver rather than the guys shooting machine guns. Of course the dude with the crossbow ends up shooting Oliver so I’m wondering if the guys using machine guns so far have actually been blind. Would explain a lot.

Even though I had a strong feeling as to who the Dark Archer was, Malcolm threw me off when he referred to him as “OUR associate” when talking to Moira. Thanks to that little seed of doubt, I was surprised when the Dark Archer removed his mask. Malcolm you evil but still beautiful man going around threatening people and then doing your own dirty work. I approve. It seems as if John Barrowman also approves because even though he couldn’t give away his identity, he did tell the LA Times that he would love to be a regular on the show. Here’s hoping the writers listen because I have a feeling there are a lot of people who would like to see the same.

Best part of the episode? The exchange between Oliver and Malcolm while at dinner. Who would have guessed that it would be Merlyn to suggest the “Green Arrow” moniker? Even if they don’t use Green Arrow, I’m hoping that conversation means they are actually going to give “The Hood/The Hood Guy/The Vigilante” a proper name. Especially for people like myself who write about the show as it’s sometimes a bit difficult to distinguish who I’m talking about. If nothing else, I want to find a way to make Stephen Amell saying “The Hood Guy” as my ringtone. That cracked me up.

I loved this episode and even though there was ridiculous (Thea) moments I think they balanced out the big moments quite well. Diggle further cemented his role as the love child between Jiminy Cricket and Alfred. Hopefully he’ll get a bigger chunk of airtime in the new year. Ratings were down unfortunately, but hopefully people will catch up over the hiatus and come back in big numbers for episode ten on January 16th. As for episode nine, another 4 out of five.

I hope all you Arrow fans have a happy holiday season and I’ll see you back here in January. Until then!

Arrow: 1.08, “Vengeance”

December 7, 2012 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

I think Arrow has finally decided to just go ahead and embrace the “so bad it’s good” mentality. This is not a bad thing though. Sometimes “so bad, it’s good” actually ends up being the most enjoyable types of entertainment. However, minus the reveal of the “Well Dressed Man” as Tommy’s father and the return of Walter, last week was a bit lacking. Helena Bertinelli wasn’t all that riveting, Oliver was delusional in his “justice vs. vengeance” non-argument, and there wasn’t nearly enough John Diggle.

Thankfully Diggle returns this week in ‘Vengeance’, because Oliver needed his ass handed to him. What part of “secret lair” is hard to understand? Why not just have an open house at this point? Bake some cookies, put out a cheese ball, and invite the whole neighborhood why don’t you?

Arrow Vengeance — Oliver likes Ritz with his cheeseball

Best line of the entire episode though came from that chick that shouldn’t know his secret in the first place. I damn near aspirated my coffee when after Oliver tries to get Helena to learn how to be a proper vigilante from him she says “Thanks for the coffee… and the sex, but I’m not interested.” Someone call Hallmark, I think we’ve got a winner here! Actually this entire episode was one fabulously ridiculous line after another.

“You should be in the Olympics” John Diggle to Oliver who is working out… again
“Street cred” both Helena and Oliver utter this without a trace of irony
“I don’t speak Chinese so I’m going to assume you said goodbye.” Helena before she shoots a member of the Triad

Okay, the last one was fantastic. It was one of those things that you certainly didn’t expect in the middle of a fight scene which made it a thousand times funnier. I am a little peeved that like Boardwalk Empire (how many times this week have you seen a correlation made between Boardwalk Empire and Arrow?) they talk about this huge war and how it’s going to tear the city apart and it’s all over in one nice and neat scene. The Triad (with the kick-ass China White making another appearance) storms Bertinelli’s house and that’s it? That’s a war? Perhaps I’ve been watching too much Gangland but that seemed a little weak.

Speaking of Chinese in the show, there is a tumblr user who watches the show and posts the translations of the Chinese spoken there. You can find her blog here. Shameless plug time: while you are on tumblr anyway, might as well go ahead and follow Grizzly Bomb as well.

Helena became Huntress even though they never called her that, unless I missed it. We got to see her girl out on the color of her outfit (purple of course) but we saw a bad girl quality when it came to the unintentional double date with her and Oliver and Tommy and Laurel. She was the one who suggested they have dinner with them and then she got all pissy when she found out who they were. Come on Helena, don’t be like that, you are giving us girls a bad name. It was fun to see her and Oliver go hunt down Anthony Venza together though.

I’ll admit that I thought Oliver was going to win out over Helena and she was going to see the err of her ways and turn to the Force. I was wrong. So wrong that when we saw Helena standing over father, crossbow aimed at him, I was taken aback. Come on now, taking down his business is one thing but now you want to flat out kill him? I’m with Oliver on this one, put him in jail, no need to go off and revenge kill your dad.

Random, but I really hope I’m not the only person that thought immediately of Bryan Adam’s 1991 power ballad, “I Do It For You” from Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves when Mr. Bertinelli was begging his daughter not to shoot him. I fully expected Kevin Costner to come walking from the woods. Actually now that I think about it, that would have been awesome.

Subplots? No real big surprise, Walter doesn’t trust Moira. Well if he did, the trust was fleeting because Felicity comes and shows him an image that he knows he’s seen before and he ends up finding a book that looks exactly like Oliver’s book of names and it is filled with names as well! Ahhhhh! What does this mean? Will Walter confront Moira? Will she tell him about Merlyn/Well Dressed Man? Will he leave again? Will he and Felicity join up and become super sleuths together? Yes please. Felicity is easily the most entertaining person on this show. She needs more air time and I’m hoping this detective bit with Walter will do just that.

The whole Tommy and Laurel thing is just a means to an end (that end somehow being Tommy an antagonist and Laurel and Oliver together) so I refuse to get emotionally invested in that. That being said, Laurel needs to shut her mouth. It was absolutely none of her business if Tommy went to Oliver for a job or not. Then to bring it up at dinner? That’s dirty and results in one of the most awkward double dates I’ve watched in recent memory. Yikes.

As for Diggle? I think he’s going to end up with his sister-in-law. Not only did he give a telling look her way when he was talking to Oliver about the “right one” but she made a point of saying she was his “ex-sister in-law”. I’m interested in seeing how that plays out. If for no other reason than to hear them talk more about what a bad neighborhood this immaculate and relatively beautiful fast food restaurant is in. I don’t think he’s going to leave Ollie, no matter how much he says he is. At least he better not.

Overall, great episode. Like I said, I think they have decided to just own the cheesy dialogue and ridiculous story lines and I think it makes for a better show in the long run. There’s only one episode left until the hiatus and I’m sure it will be a good one. This week was lacking John Barrowman and Yao Fei, but made up for it with Felicity and Diggle so let’s stick with a four out of five rating.

Until next time Arrow fans!

Conveyors of Common Sense…