What's Next On My DC List? Arrow

UPDATE: In this post I praise the beginning of one of the first CW comic based TV shows. I didn't even finish watching it, after two seasons I constantly fell asleep, and some still liked it, but I don't even care about how it ended. I will not take down my review because it started out like no other show I had ever seen and I would still love to start watching it again, but no past the first two seasons. But since it ended, I do not wish to go back in time and rewrite my feelings, but I do not recommend you start watching it.

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Now here is a TV show you need to see! Think of Smallville done right:

ARROW

This is the story of Oliver Queen, a Robin Hood like archer by DC comics. He is a bit like Bruce Wayne/Batman: his true identity is that of a billionaire playboy. However, in the night he protects his city, masked as the archer known as Green Arrow. In this adaptation, Oliver was a victim of a ship wreck and ended up on a deserted island - or did he? After five years he returns home with a little notebook filled with the names of the people who wronged his city and deserve justice. He becomes the green hooded vigilante of Star City.

Now, when I said that this is Smallville done right, I only meant that they didn't start shooting without having all the permissions from DC comics. Think of Clark: even though he was Superman, he never actually wore his tights and cape. Not to mention the fact that Lois gets to know him WITHOUT his glasses, something they didn't pay any attention to, and at least in the comics he wore his hair a bit differently when he was saving the world, in comparison to when he was working. This essential element was something nobody cared about when writing the series. However, what Smallville did do very well was in fact their portrayal of Green Arrow. Here played by Justin Hartley. Now, I do not know what happened behind the casting procedure. You see, Justin Hartley had a pilot to play Aquaman, and it never got picked up, yet a year after Smallville had ended the mysterious green hooded hero has returned to our screens. I am pretty sure that Hawkeye had nothing to do with it... (sarcasm, get it?)

Either way, a new actor has been cast to play our hero. Personally I am a big fan of the iconic goatee that was given to Oliver in 1969. Also I think that Stephen Amell has a more grown up look, which is more suitable for this cast. Not to mention that he plays both roles perfectly! When he is Oliver, the billionaire asshole, you'd never guess what he does in his free time. Even though it is a bit silly that this hooded vigilante arrived the same freaking time when Oliver returns after having disappeared for five years! Either way, the show has about three flashbacks/episode and we slowly discover how Oliver came from a spoilt rich kid to become this self concious and righteous person who risks his life for his city. The show has only aired three episodes so far and it already got a full season on CW due to the amazing number of viewers each night.

Biggest problem I have is that Smallville (click here to read my review!) was a great series, but after season five the problems and logic gaps overpowered my interest in the show! All the story arcs became predictable. The characters were also annoying. The biggest kick the show had was adding Green Arrow, who also became this background character to Clark's oh-so-terribly-boring problems. Any attempt in briging in more DC characters failed miserably - not to mention their version of Black Canary, which was the ugliest thing I have ever seen! He is supposed to love her? Please! Green Arrow and Black Canary's relationship is one of my favorite storylines. It is so touching that their marriage was even featured in special DC numbers named The Black Canary Wedding Planner, JLA Wedding Special, and The Green Arrow/Black Canary Wedding Special. Although I know that they won't blew their story line too soon, I hope that that Black Canary will indeed be an addition, supposing that the show will get that far.
My biggest problem is the title and DC's obsession with creating stupid TV series instead of movies. I am going to discuss these series very soon, however problem being that even though these should resemble more the comics... they don't really because just the same way that they make live-action movies for a wider audience (not just comic geeks!), they have to do it with this as well: except they have to do it every week! They need to keep happy both sides of the viewers and that will end up in losing more of the comic side.

However, coming back: seeing that Green Lantern was (sort of) a flop (click here to read my review!), they decided to cancel the 'Green' part from his name, so people won't make any connections among the two...First of all, f*ck you DC and Warner! Second, are you really that dumb? Hal Jordan is one of Oliver's best friends so I really hoped to see him featured in the series - I am guessing that is not an option, even though they could take it as a possibility to redeem their mistakes in the movie by incorporating him in the series as a guest and make him popular again. Oh but wait, that involves thinking and some sort of  mental process that DC is famously known for NOT HAVING!!!!!

Personally I haven't read many Green Arrow comics, so far they haven't given me anything that could disappoint me. Also, perhaps they have finally learned from their mistakes in the Aquaman and the Wonder Woman pilots and instead of making people out of them who have absolutely nothing to do with the comic, they will try to stay true the most they can.
Either way, believe me if I tell you that this series is worth checking out. I especially recommend it if you liked series like Alias, Lost, John Doe and of course Smallville.

Let me know what you think of the show! Coming up soon, I'm going to go into more detail about DC live series!