Arrow - "City of Heroes" - Review

Intro

Just wanted to let you know, due to the overwhelming sense of having nothing to say about the Pilot episode of The Tomorrow People, I will not be reviewing the Pilot episode of The Tomorrow People. Although I do have to say that it's not good that I have nothing to say about the episode. Perhaps I'll have something to say next week.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen the first Season of Arrow, please leave the blog and return after you've seen it. The following review is for Arrow, Season 2, episode 1: "City of Heroes." There will be spoilers. There always are.

Arrow - "City of Heroes" - Review

Characters:

• Oliver Queen - Played by Stephen Amell. Main character. Also known as "The Hood" or "The Vigilante."
• John Diggle - Played by David Ramsey. Oliver's bodyguard/driver.
• Felicity Smoak - Played by Emily Bett Rickards. IT specialist at Queen Consolidated. Oliver's techie behind the scenes.
• Thea Queen - Played by Willa Holland. Oliver's younger sister. Roy's girlfriend. Runs Verdant.
• Moira Queen - Played by Susanna Thompson. Oliver and Thea's mother. Currently in jail.
• Roy Harper - Played by Colton Haynes. Thea's boyfriend. Works at Verdant.
• Dinah "Laurel" Lance - Played by Katie Cassidy. Oliver's ex-girlfriend. Works for the DA.
• Officer Quentin Lance - Played by Paul Blackthorne. Laurel's father.
• Slade Wilson - Played by Manu Bennett. Oliver's mentor on The Island.
• Shado - Played by Celina Jade. Oliver's Island girlfriend.
• Isabel Rochev - Played by Summer Glau. Vice-President of Acquisitions for Stellmoor Industries.
• Walter Steele - Played by Colin Salmon. Moira's ex-husband.

Review:

Be advised, most of this review is going to be me gushing about how awesome the Season 2 return of Arrow was.

I have to say, the beginning of "City of Heroes" had be incredibly confused. I had no idea Olly was back on The Island. It made sense for him to be there after the destruction of The Glades and Tommy's death, but it was really random. That said, I quite enjoyed that entire exchange, especially Felicity freaking out randomly.

It was really cool to see how those who stayed in Starling City were picking themselves up after the destruction of The Glades. I was pleasantly surprised to see Thea running Verdant in Olly's stead. I'm glad she didn't go back to her druggy ways after CNRI was destroyed. Speaking of which, Laurel's now working for the DA's office and hating on "The Hood." I think it's gonna be interesting to watch that play out.

I quite enjoyed the Felicity and Diggle double act. They were amusing to watch as they got Olly back in the saddle, so to speak. My favorite scene with them was Felicity showing off the revamped "Arrow Lair" or whatever you wanna call it. The set looks just as awesome as the scene was.

I liked the further development of Roy's character. I'm glad he's giving Thea a grounding influence and I'm glad he finally decided to work at Verdant. I thought his crime fighting hijinks were par for the course, though it's kind of sad to see the crap getting kicked out of him. The scene where he attempts to save everyone from "The Hoods" was cool, even if it did lead to Thea getting kidnapped.

I actually enjoyed Thea during this entire episode. It was awesome to see she got her act together. Even though her kidnapping was kind of meh, I liked that her fears in that moment made her realize she couldn't keep herself distant from her mother. Thea and Moira's scenes together are usually heartwarming and this one did fail to disappoint. Thea's explanation to her mother made me cry.

I thought the sparse business scenes were fun. Stephen Amell looks very good in a suit and Summer Glau was stunning. Of course, that's not to say I didn't enjoy their performances. It was fun to see the business side of Olly go up against Ms. Isabel Rochev.  I thought it was clever of Olly to bring in Walter at the last moment. I'd actually forgotten Walter existed, since we've been so focused on other things, so seeing him kind of shocked me.

I would talk about "The Hoods" and The Island but... both kind of annoyed me. "The Hoods" reminded me of the rag-tag group of "Batmen" in The Dark Knight, while The Island is more of a constant annoyance.

I thought Arrow came back swinging, which is extremely good. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed watching it. I can't wait for next week's episode.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Dudes with machine guns are never good.
• I'm glad Olly's growing a conscience about the killing. Him not killing is an awesome way to honor Tommy.
• Moira looks really good in that prison outfit, as weird as that is apparently.
• "She's seen out face." Yup, nice job, moron. You took off your masks and hoods. It's your own fault Thea saw your faces.
• So... that chick who save Roy's butt is either The Black Canary, Black Cat, or China White. My money's on Black Canary.

Favorite Line:

"What I lack in height, I make up for with wicked good hearing." - Roy

Housekeeping

Tonight is the series premiere of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. I will definitely be watching it and then reviewing it tomorrow.

Love ya, Jessie