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Loved It? Hated It? What did you think of "An Innocent Man?"

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  • #46
    I believe Detective Lance let his dislike of Oliver cloud his judgement and he jumped the gun. His case is weak and if he would have been smart, he would have kept an eye on Oliver and caught him in the act of being the Arrow and exposing him. As it is now, the case will probably be thrown out if it goes to court and the Detective shown to let his emotions getting in the way of good judgement. I can see an apology coming to Oliver...It would be a good idea if someone would pretend to be the Arrow with Oliver standing next to the Detective. Maybe Clark Kent could be a guest on Arrow to help him out as I remember it worked in Smallville

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    • #47
      Originally posted by SnowBird
      The proof might disappear which would keep Oliver out of jail. His face was seen but he wasn't doing anything, just put him in in the same building and nothing else unless I missed something, or was he in costume I don't remember. A good lawyer might even beat the charges. Wouldn't Oliver have to be caught in the actual act to prove he was the Arrow? I would like to see Oliver have a friend in the Police department and it would be good if it was the one that arrested him eventually. He needs some help when he is under suspicion.
      I don't doubt Oliver will get out of this in the next episode, I just don't find it believable he could continue to be the Green Hornet I mean Lantern I mean Goblin I mean Giant I mean Kick-Ass I mean Dragonfly I mean Arrow, not after he's been put in the spotlight as a probable suspect (proven or not) in such a major way (the entire police force, his friends and family, etc, will all know about this suspicion being raised I would assume). He's the same height, body type, he shows up on the scene conveniently right after Oliver returns from a five-year hiatus, and Oliver is rich and has the resources to copy Batman just like this show is. Hell I even recall scenes between GA and Detective Lance where GA sounded pretty much exactly like he does as Oliver and yet Lance didn't recognize his voice. And he's supposed to be a detective...here's a tip, trying using your eyes and ears. Anyway, I know most secret identity superheroes suffer this same type of thing (especially glasses on/glasses off Superman), but it would be nice if Arrow was an exception (not happening). The cancelled series The Cape also suffered this ongoing plothole of clueless people unable to recognize even their closest loved ones because of some disguise.

      That said, my guess is that while Oliver will be cleared, there will probably be a few people who will still have their doubts and continue to suspect him -- I'm guessing Lance will be one of them. As for everyone else in the city, they'll all have to shut their brains off in the future whenever Oliver is conveniently nowhere to be found when Arrow is around and completely forget he used to be a prime suspect.

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      • #48
        Like you said, other heroes in disguise miraculously don't get recognized so why should the Arrow be any different? It is what it is with fiction. Believe and don't look too deep. We will just have to wait and see what happens with this latest development with Oliver/Arrow but I have a sneaky suspicion that something will happen to get people away from thinking Oliver is the Arrow. It's just a matter of what the writers come up with.

        Adding, it will take me longer to find out what happens in the next episode since I don't watch the CW channel but rather buy Arrow on Amazon. I don't read about the episode on K-Site till I watch it.
        Last edited by SnowBird; 11-06-2012, 03:38 PM.

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        • #49
          Just aired in the UK, fantastic episode. Very very Batman though but it doesn't bother me, some really good character stuff too. It looks like Ollie's starting to chill abit, which is good makes him more like his comic counterpart. Loved the train track bit mostly, and arrow through the hand he he, abit less action that the first 3 episodes but that wasn't a bad thing. All in all great episode, 10 out of 10

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          • #50
            Can't say I was overly fond of the frequent Arrow/Laurel interaction, but the scene where he plopped the document on her desk was particularly awful. Laurel's little spiel about how she could never have gotten the document through the law and Starling City needs someone like the Hood, who she thinks is trying to help...blah, blah, blah. Terrible dialogue. I couldn't believe that scene happened.

            I thought the episode overall was okay. I appreciate the examination of killing and excessive brutality. I hope Oliver will learn from this and eventually lighten up. A lot. Oh, and I think Diggle is the best character on this show. Detective Lance is cool as well, and the Queen's Gambit bit looks interesting. Oliver needs to step up his game and be more interesting. He also needs to step down from narration.

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            • #51
              Originally posted by SnowBird
              Like you said, other heroes in disguise miraculously don't get recognized so why should the Arrow be any different? It is what it is with fiction. Believe and don't look too deep.
              Except in this case a wide spotlight of suspicion was cast on this particular hero, not something he should be able to come back from, not in my opinion anyway. It's one thing for people close to him not to recognize him, it's another thing to keep the charade going after everybody is specifically looking in his direction trying to see if the connection is there. And if people don't or can't, well then that's a whole other level of clueless.

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              • #52
                IMO, 4/10 at best...

                Haha, sooo... I previously had a ginormous rant posted here and then I rewatched the episodes with my family and I have to admit they ain't that bad. I still feel like they're going through the plot way too fast, but that's also nice in its own way 'cuz most shows are really boring when they start and this one isn't. I also still dislike Laurel and Thea immensely, but it looks like that might change in the future from what I'm hearing (Thea at least) so I'm looking forward to it!

                So... 6/10 I think.
                Last edited by Chandu.Lahari; 10-01-2013, 07:42 AM.

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                • #53
                  Chandu, I think you'll find around episode 14 "The Odyssey" the series REALLY starts getting good. There's some decent stuff before it, but it seems like by that time they work out better.... even Thea. Laurel on the other hand, well...

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                  • #54
                    Wow! That was a mighty rant! I guess I'm a pretty complacent viewer, because none of the things you mentioned bothers me that much, although I agree that the writing is pretty heavy-handed and melodramatic at times. I think that it's the melodrama, especially when it comes to the Laurel/Oliver relationship that some fans find a bit annoying. My take on the issue is that the writers wanted to give Laurel and Oliver a season one storyline/trajectory where Laurel goes from being bitter and resentful (and believing that Oliver is the same irresponsible playboy that he was five years earlier) to seeing that he is a changed man who is worthy of her love. Since I'm a woman, I probably view Laurel differently, but I actually like her and I feel that I can identify with her conflicted feelings towards Oliver. As for Laurel's ability to take down much stronger men, I think there is a comic book explanation for this ability that you might not be aware of. The comic book character that Laurel portrays, the Black Canary, is a badass fighter and master of martial arts, who in the original comic books regularly goes up against hordes of big burly men! So, these fight scenes are meant to be a foreshadowing of Laurel's Black Canary alter ego, not some attempt to portray a generic "strong woman". In general I have found that knowledge of the original source material enhances the pleasure of watching "Arrow", because the writers are comic book buffs/writers who know this stuff very well and incorporate a lot of comic book references in the actual show.

                    As for Laurel's attitude towards Oliver, you'll see that she is not the only one who "misbehaves" in their relationship. If you watch a few more episodes it is also quite apparent that Oliver is playing this "push and pull" game with her, on the one hand letting her know that he still loves her and on the other hand hurting her and pushing her away. This is of course the classic superhero dilemma of having to keep a distance from the ones you love in order not to disclose your secret identity. Anyway, if you take the time to peruse the Laurel and Oliver relationship thread you will find that there are members who have no problem with Laurel or with the Laurel/Oliver relationship. So, as always in a fandom there are people with diverging views. If you take into account that the online fandom only comprises a miniscule fraction of the overall viewership I would say that opinions and feelings about the show and its characters are probably even more diverse.

                    As for Thea, I like her as well. In the early episodes Thea was actually mostly used as a foil for Oliver's character portrayal, and I think that is what made her behaviour seem erratic sometimes. Oliver has obvious problems with opening up and sharing his experiences on the Island with his family, and Thea tries to deal with this by talking about her own hardships during the time he was gone. This may come off as whining, but if you look at it from a dramaturgical viewpoint, it does serve the purpose of drawing Oliver out of his PTSD mode while at the same time providing useful exposition for the viewers. The same point could be made about Thea's reckless behaviour and experimentation with drugs-I think the writers intention was to use Thea's transgressions to remind Oliver of his own "bad boy" behaviour and its disastrous consequences. That's why you'll see Oliver take on the role of stern big brother, who actively intervenes in order to put Thea on the straight path. In conclusion, I would say that many of the inconsistencies in Thea's behaviour are due to her being used as a plot device to make us understand OLIVER better.

                    I'm not saying that you should change your views, just trying to give my own more positive spin on these two characters.

                    I understand that you are quite enthusiastic about "Smallville". As I wrote in another post, I didn't watch Smallville regularly, but I have read quite a lot of old threads about Smallville, both on the KSite and "Television Without Pity" forums...and the people on these forums where often far from enthusiastic, especially about the two main female protagonists Lois and Lana. The TWoP forum was of course a shrine of Chloe worship, so it could be expected that they would trash Lois/ED, but things got pretty bad on Ksite as well, to the point where the moderators had to ban posters from using monikers such as "NoIs" ("Not Lois" for the character portrayed by Erica Durance). On other sites, the attitude towards Lois/Erica was much more positive, while Chloe was judged in a somewhat harsher way. In fact, reading posts on various forums you get the impression that the so-called "shipper wars" seeped into all Smallville discussions, regardless of the actual story content, something which gives many posts a decidedly negative tone...Sorry about the off-topic, but I just wanted to show that there was quite a lot of negativity and widely diverging opinions concerning key characters in the Smallville fandom as in many other TV fandoms...and sometimes these perceptions/opinions had little to do with the action as it was actually portrayed on screen.

                    Anyway, I would say that the reception of "Arrow" has so far been very positive, but that may be because it is only in its first season. I guess we will have to see how it evolves in the upcoming seasons...
                    Last edited by evaba; 09-30-2013, 11:11 AM.

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                    • #55
                      It always helps to hear about different people's viewpoints just 'cuz it makes me think differently about the show and characters. Thanks, evaba! I'll stand by my viewpoints thus far, but I think I'm LESS to the polar end of "dislike" now than I was before. Also, I know Laurel has her reasons to feel like Ollie's playing a "push and pull" game with her, but I still think she should cut him some slack. Thus far (episode 4), I haven't seen him do anything horribly mean or hurtful, but she has been acting like he has and it's very immature of her. That's what bugs me, I guess, is that the characters think so highly of themselves when, in fact, they're being extremely petty and immature and self-centered. Everyone in the show keeps saying "I know it was hell where you were, but it was hell here too". They use it as an excuse to demand "normal" behavior from Oliver and it's annoying. The guy was basically off at war on his own in a place he didn't know at all, basically signing himself off as dead. That's a LITTLE more traumatic than losing your sister or your brother/father or your husband.

                      And like I edited above, I really do like the show. Sounds like it just goes up from here, so looking forward to it!

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                      • #56
                        Hi again,

                        I agree with you that Laurel seems overly resentful sometimes, and that Thea behaves like a spoiled brat who can't tell the difference between "hell on Lian Yu/Purgatory" and "hell in Starling city"! I think that some of these problems concerning character portrayal have to do with the melodramatic style of of writing in "Arrow". If Oliver is to be portrayed as a former douchebag and cheater, who returns home as a changed man after five years in "Purgatory" (where he was sympolically "cleansed" from his sins), the people he wronged must make life difficult for him in the beginning, because otherwise he wouldn't have to struggle to regain their love and trust. What I want to say is that if everyone around him were kind, forgiving and understanding, things would have been too easy for Oliver and the show would probably have been less interesting to watch, at least according to the writers' way of reasoning!

                        As for Laurel, you will see a change in her attitude in episode five ("Damaged"), where she realizes that Oliver has also suffered and where she acknowledges that she has been selfish and too wrapped up in her own pain to be able to think about what he has been through. Thea also becomes less self-centered in later episodes. So, the relationships between the key characters actually evolve and change over the course of the season....although my impression is that Oliver and Tommy never really become as close again as they were before the shipwreck. I think Oliver had changed too much for them to be able to pick up where they left each other.

                        As for Oliver's PTSD, it's not something that is really discussed or acknowledged on the show, and I think that this has to with genre expections. Comic book heroes are not supposed to deal with their traumas by going to a shrink-they're supposed to deal with them through helping others... As you will see that's the case with Oliver as well, at least that's how I see it. His single-minded focus on his mission is partly his way of dealing with his Island experiences. It's a way for him to somehow make those five years in hell meaningful by using the skills he acquired on the Island to atone for his father's sins and do something good for Starling city. I know I'm sounding a bit like an amateur psychologist here, but that's my take on the matter anyway!
                        Last edited by evaba; 10-01-2013, 09:01 AM.

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