Mini Intro to Arrow Season 1 Review: Here, I am going to do my review for the first season of Arrow. For the first season arrow, I was immediately engaged from the moment he launched an arrow into the beacon as he was on the island to the very final moment he said goodbye to his best friend Tommy in the season finale. Between all that we had a roller coaster of emotions, betrayal, and a lot of going back and forth. For me, one of the biggest highlights of the show was Oliver facing off against Malcolm Merlyn. He was developed from day one and turns out to be one of the best villains on a TV series. (I also like villains). To know what happened in season one of the arrow, please scroll down and check it out.
Cast and Role: Arrow Season 1 Review
Stephen Amell | As Oliver Queen/ Green Arrow |
Katie Cassidy | As Laurel Lance/Black Canary |
Colin Donnell | As Tommy Merlyn, Oliver’s best friend |
David Ramsey | As John Diggle, Oliver’s bodyguard, partner and confidant. |
Willa Holland | As Thea Queen/Speedy, Oliver’s Younger Sister |
Paul Blackthorne | As Detective Lance, Laurel’s father |
Susanna Thompson | As Moira Queen, Oliver and Thea’s mother |
John Barrowman | As Malcolm Merlyn, Tommy’s father |
Emily Bett Rickards | As felicity Smoak, the IT technician at Queen Consolidated. |
Colton Haynes | As Roy Harper/Arsenal |
Manu Bennett | As Slade Wilson/ Deathstroke |
What do I conclude after watching Arrow- Season 1 (2012-13)?
Arrow Season 1 Review – I am not gonna lie guys and I tell you that the show was really surprised at how good it was. Now before release, everyone, especially hardcore green arrow fans, are basically saying-“Oh No! I am not gonna watch this show because it’s not called Green Arrow and it is not called green arrow religiously check Nolan’s Batman and it’s on the CW it’s good to have all this romance crap and Blah! Blah! Blah! But I am gonna tell you to all fanboys that you are mostly wrong in this case. I would agree that some of the things you were saying about the show before release did happen in the season and I will address those but I have to say that arrow season 1 is basically one of the best shows based around a superhero.
Now the story begins with Oliver Queen who was stuck on an island for five years and he is basically rescued from the island by a bunch of fishermen. He is brought back to his home of Starling City being gone on the island for five years and we find out that he is basically evolved from that spoiled rich kid into this hardened warrior who had to do some pretty questionable things to survive during his five years and that he comes back with the mission you know before his dad died he gave in this book with the list of names on it and basically told him that every person on this list needs to die.
They are going to do something terrible for the city and you need to stop them if you come back in time and of course, he does come back in time just to stop them so he takes upon a vigilante identity known as The Hood. He basically becomes a vigilante and goes around killing people off the list.
Now at the first show is a bit formulaic you knew every week is going after somebody on the list but as the season progresses and his team sort of starts influencing him, he starts going after murders and serial killers, drug dealers, and stuff because they basically tell him to look you’re doing good by taking the guys out of the list but you can also go well by taking out guys were killing fireman or guys that are selling this really messed up drug called vertigo and or seeding this family that’s forced to basically become bank robbers in order to survive and that’s how the show kind involves you. You know, the show never really fully escaped the list. The list is always present and it’s a big plot point later on.
Read Also: Arrow Season 2 Review (2013-14)
Overall I thought the first season was pretty good but it did have some problems that really distracted me. Now the first few episodes before the winter break are good but none of them are great with the exception of the fit episode where he reveals that all those happy coincidences where anyone figures out that Oliver Queen is Green Arrow.
He basically planned all of that out so that when he is in prison and the hood is gonna do some vigilante activity and that’s going to permanently destroy any and all suspicion that Green Arrow and Oliver Queen are the same people and I thought that was a legitimate be the only great episode before the winter break. After the show came back from the winter break, it hit the ground running and it never slowed down. The flashbacks to the island got substantially better even though there were some superfluous ones as well.
The main plot Malcolm Merlyn was really really good and the climax of the season was just fantastic. I’m going to say that Malcolm Merlyn is probably my favorite character in this show. I think his performances throughout the whole season have been absolutely tremendous. Another character I really liked was John Diggle. Now Diggle was as far as to my knowledge is the original character who never appeared in the green arrow comic books. Now don’t take my word for this because I am not an expert on a green arrow. So John Diggle is a former United States Army Special forces soldier and Oliver’s friend and partner.
During season 1 of the arrow, Diggle is hired as the bodyguard of Oliver Queen. At the beginning of the show, they have this really fun relationship where Oliver sneaks away from them and Diggles like figuring out that something’s not right and then during a meeting with the dead shot Oliver basically tells him look I am this vigilante and trying to fight to save my city and while John is a bit apprehensive at first. He joins all over his crusade and he becomes the first member of this team.
Diggle is the guy who keeps Oliver in line. He is the one who is telling him are you have to rest, you have to basically socialize with people. He is the straight man who always keeps Oliver on the good side so that he doesn’t want to go to the dark side. I just thought this actor was really good. His relationship with Oliver’s really just a lot of fun to watch. It was just enjoyable to me.
Some other characters who didn’t really float my boat were his mom (Oliver’s Mother) like his mommy is participating in this project to basically level the entire glades and throughout the whole show they constantly try to make us care about this woman. But she is trying to murder thousands of people in the glades for her family because If she doesn’t go along with Malcolm Marlyn’s plan, he’s is the dark archer and bad ass assassin who kicks all over ass so you know this guy means business and she basically goes along with his plan because he threatens to kill her family.
Moving further, Laurel Lance, her performance in the season is fine like she doesn’t do anything extraordinary throughout the whole season. She looks like She’s on the brink of tears like she constantly looks like she’s gonna have a breakdown or whatever and start crying her eyes out Her facial expression is really distracting when you are supposed to be having this serious scene in a just doesn’t work when you see her with those teary eyes all the time.
However, I will say that her dad really is really awesome. I love Detective Lance. Every episode is sort of building a relationship with Oliver Queen and him. At first, he’s like your this murderer, you are no better than the guys who are supposedly killing, you deserve to be taken out and even until the end of the first season he is like I don’t agree with their methods but we have to work together or else the whole city is going to be destroyed.
Some are willing to put my differences aside for you and do this throughout the whole season so he can stop the greater evil. I really liked the problems he has. You know he his daughter (Sara Lance) was murdered on the same night where Oliver and his father also apparently died and he’s just not coping with it well like he is drinking and barely holding himself together. When his ex-wife comes and tells him that she might have found Sara, he kind of gets hopeful and he is the first one to get over it. He basically tells his ex-wife “let it go, our little girl is gone.” There’s nothing we can do. All we can do now is just go on with our lives and I just thought that it was like finely him accepting his daughter is gone and it’s time for me to basically get on with my life.
Another actor who really grew up on me was Tommy Merlyn. He was just a generic best friend at first but as the season went on and after he found out that Oliver is the vigilante. His relationship with his best friend served to tear your rates. His relationship with Laurel Lance was really really good because he tries to change. You know he and Oliver Queen were known as playboys back in the good old days and then he met this girl Laurel (Oliver ex-girlfriend), he tries to change for her. You know he’s got a legitimate job and he’s serious about the relationship and he’s actually growing as a person. He even proves to Laurel that he deserves her time and attention and they sort of fall in love. But then it’s a love triangle and stuff, and Tommy’s death in the season finale was so shocking.
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You know during the earthquake, he saves Laurel from being buried alive and ends up getting mortally wounded and Oliver finds in there. Tommy was sort of happy as he saved the woman he loved and he was able to reconcile with his best friend even though he wished she could have more time with them both and yeah I was just really sad like when Tommy died, it was emotional for me and I really started to like him at the end of the season and then he died and I really wasn’t expecting that. But I hope the director don’t do it just for the sake of shock value, hope to do it for legitimate story reasons or to help character development or something like that. Moving further, I will say that the action in this show is absolutely amazing and remarkable like it’s crystal clear.
The action can be really brutal like this show is kinda brutal for CW shows like you see bloody people, openly be killed, commit suicide by burning himself, burned alive and stuff like that. This is a legitimately smartly written show that has dark themes but it also has some likable characters and unlikable protagonists. I like Oliver’s acting. He is a good actor and I can believe that he is doing all this action stuff. When you see him shirt-less training in the cave, you see this guy looks like he’s been on a cave for five years and that he’s been fighting mercenaries and Deathstroke on the island. He does do something heroic at the end of the season by stopping this evil league of shadows. People give Arrow season 1 review with good responses
My Opinion on Arrow Season 1 review:
I will say that the characters are the strongest part of the show. Most of them are really really good. I think it’s really really good TV series and the character stuff is amazing. I think a lot of the performances were great. The action was spectacular, especially for a TV show. There are lots of movie style shots which you wouldn’t expect on a TV show and the earthquake in the season finale looks really really good. They saved a lot of money for that earthquake because when you see those glades, it looks like what a real earthquake would look and it’s just really core. Arrow season 1 review is very positive.
Movienasha gave 4.0 out of 10. I highly recommend you to check the show out. I cannot wait for the other season. I cannot wait to see what’s gonna happen with all these characters. Now that things have sort of been resolved. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen with the list, with the league of shadows, with Oliver Queen and all that stuff is really exciting for me and I’m really hoping that they pay it off well in the second season. So check out season 1 as fast as you can. I highly recommend the show especially if you are a green arrow fan. It’s well worth your time and money at least in my opinion. That was the arrow season 1 review. I hope you guys enjoy the post and I will see you next time with arrow season 2 review.
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