3 out of 5

Developed By: Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg

Covers season 1

With one full season down, ‘Arrow’ has proven itself capable of potential longevity with a good combination of Bad-Guy-of-the-Week stories and a flashback structure that lends it some mythology.  The creator / developers – Berlanti, Guggenheim and Kreisburg – seem to have a smart grasp on how to blend comic references with legitimately effective TV writing, keeping the silly in check by trying to somewhat slowly develop ‘Arrow’s rogues gallery and the character’s history.  While things sometimes slip a bit too far into comic camp or CW soap-opera (though to be fair, many comic books are very soapy…), its within tolerable levels.  Perhaps what’s more notably bothersome is the blurring line between Arrow and Batman.  It’s an understandable move to darken the character for modern audiences, and certainly all of the comic universes super heroes’ have tons of personality traits / background stories in common, but there are several occasions where you could trade the hood for a bat cowl and find yourself in one of Nolan’s Dark Knight movies, dialogue, mood, and all.  But Oliver Queen’s story in Arrow is oddly more grounded – the spoiled son with an inheritance takes a cruise with pop and gets stranded on an island for 5 years post a shipwreck… during which Dad drops hints that he was up to some bad business back home and Oliver, can’t you fix all that?  We start with Ollie’s return home and get flashbacks showing the time in-between, filling in gaps on how he went from skill-less scab to calculating vigilante with a bow.  And to his credit, Stephen Amell proves much more than a pretty face, showing an impressive range for balancing flashback Ollie and present day Ollie.  He’s assisted by a wonderfully fleshed out and well acted cast.  The show never quite settles into a run of full-on successes, hence the 3-star rating, but it’s eminently watchable, and in any given episode there are always moments that just hit perfectly to keep you engaged in the story and world.