Loved It? Hated It? What did you think of "Canaries?"

[Sunfayrie]

The best part of this episode was the scene between Laural and Felicity. It's probably as close as we're gonna get to the Black Canary/Oracle friendship and it was beautifully done. Dinah and Barabra have such a beautiful friendship and even though Dinah had already been the Black Canary for a number of years before Barabra contacted her to join the Birds of Pray, it was Barabra who helped Dinah find her true purpose. It was very fitting to see Felicity help Laurel as she struggled with her idenity. I wish we could see more of the friendships that exists between all the heros of the DC universe instead of the CW romance drama.
As for the whinny Felicity...I've never been the biggest Felicity fan in the first place, but there's really nowhere her character can go except into this superioristic brat she's becoming. Felicity's characterization has grown stale and she really doesn't fit anymore into the shades of gray that Arrow deals with. Something big needs to happen to Felicity to drive her a) into Orcale, b) back into Death, c) send her to the Flash where her characterization or d) write her out. But whatever happens, I'm tired of all this Olicity drama and it's been stalling the pace of this season.

[bobslob]

Ratings down 17%, so let me speak for all the fans that are leaving the show behind.

Katie Cassidy does not have charisma, and is not a good actress. She is also too thin to be a superhero, and has no training or superhero magic (like the Flash) to explain anything. She's like Barney Fife put on tights and took Tae Bo classes, and can suddenly beat everyone up. It's too stupid to be believed. Katie as Black Canary is where this show officially "jumped the shark".

The Shows producers are choosing Katie over happy fans, and ratings. It'll end in cancellation... soon.

[dash142]

Ratings down 17%, so let me speak for all the fans that are leaving the show behind.

Katie Cassidy does not have charisma, and is not a good actress. She is also too thin to be a superhero, and has no training or superhero magic (like the Flash) to explain anything. She's like Barney Fife put on tights and took Tae Bo classes, and can suddenly beat everyone up. It's too stupid to be believed. Katie as Black Canary is where this show officially "jumped the shark".

The Shows producers are choosing Katie over happy fans, and ratings. It'll end in cancellation... soon.

Agreed, let's hope they bring back Caity via the Lazarus Pit for the finale and next season.

Another thing wrong with the episode... Roy and Meryln basically listened/watched Thea having sex with that dude... then just burst in almost right after one another from the same front door... in costume. They were planning on killing him after he had sex with her either way I guess but how odd they just waited together in the hallway or whatever is outside like that lol. and then Roy let her kiss him right after she had done stuff with DJ Nanda Parbeatz (not his real name but its funny)

[Fletching]

I think the reason Thea was mad at Malcolm was because he was the only person in her life that didn't lie to her. Once she found out Malcolm knew Ollie was the Arrow than she knew he wasn't honest with her so that ended her trust of him.

This fits the Thea character. For me, I sorta believe Thea was trying to convince herself that Merlyn was the stable, trusted father figure to replace Richard Queen. She was trying to rebuild her life and Merlyn made it happen. However, she only knew him for, what? six months? Pit that experience/knowledge against that of knowing her brother her entire life and clearly Ollie wins. When Oliver reveals his secret, I think it was totally believable that the pieces slid into place for her - Oliver is the hero, Merlyn is the one to be distrustful of.

[President_Luthor]

And I have to agree with practically everyone posting before, I'm glad DJ is gone. Don't care how, don't care why, don't care, just glad he is gone. Every time I saw that guy I couldn't stand him. And I think his hair was more irritating than Ollies HK wig.

I think that's the reason, right there, why DJ dude bugged the hell outta me. It couldn't be his story arc, because there wasn't much to work with. His status as an LoA mole wasn't it -- I could never buy into him as a League assassin with Ra's complete trust in him. Heck, Ra's shouldn't trust him to do the dishes. His romance with Thea was typical CW cheese, but that wasn't it either. It was his 'lost member of Hanson' hair. That hair! I could. not. get. past. it. He's dead now, a fate well deserved. He can curse the underworld with those dreaded locks now, we don't have to see 'em any longer.

At this point, Ollie's Wig needs to have its own credits listing. Ollie, you can get a hair cut in HK (and in SC) -- get one. I'm a bit hazy about the details of the flashback, and it's partly due to Ollie's retro-grunge-hair. They should make him wear that knitted cap (toque for those of us N of the 49th) 99.9% of the time. 0.1% for when he needs to clean up or for when he must take the cap off for mission-critical reasons. I guess those are two follically-based issues I had with an otherwise pretty solid episode.

Well, I guess there was also Ollie dredging up the tired old addict issues re: Laurel. She's long moved past them (and she was the addict!) -- why can't he get past it? It really is tiresome when they bring up ancient baggage, long after said baggage is done and dealt with. Ollie seems to be collecting more than a few ripe putz moments ever since his resurrection, and this ep he was like that with everyone who wasn't blood family or Malcolm. Laurel and Felicity rightly called him out on some of his sanctimonious behaviour, which was a good thing in my books.

[missingalias]

The Shows producers are choosing Katie over happy fans, and ratings. It'll end in cancellation... soon.

Personally i don't think its gonna be that easy. She has fans too.. Unfortunately. I don't like laurel even if she's a little better than before. She takes the spotlight from Oliver WA too much though and the huge load of superheroes is just too much. However, it's gonna be the final episode I watch if they put laurel together with oliver.

Also isn't anybody enjoyed by the inconsistency that Oliver wasn't at all mad for laurel messing the hunt for vertigo? If she hadn't been shot with vertigo, arrow could have caught him at the first moments in the episode. I expected him to be furious, but he didn't mind cutting the hunt short. Compared to the previous seasons that wasn't continuous.

Also I didn't feel like felicity was that whiney in this episode. Even if i don't like laurel she was such a good and grown up friend to her this episode.

[evaba]

Well the Canary Arc is now over, so what affect did it have on the show? The overnight ratings are in, and they are bad. Canary received a 1.0 in the key demos and 2.5 million viewers. Ratings for the other two parts were a bit better in key demos, but not much. So what does this tell us? Well, sadly arrow has been struggling with ratings all season, but the decision to focus the show on anyone but Oliver was a ratings mistake. The writers had best return to writing good scripts with an actual season long villain to root against, or season 4 could end rather quickly. I don't think Arrow has jumped the shark just yet, but Oliver is definitely on skis and diggle is circling the shark tank in a speedboat.

I think that you might be jumping to conclusions....The adjusted ratings for the "Canaries" episode are now in and they are not bad at all:

http://www.tvwatchus.com/ratings/2015/02/12/final-tv-ratings-wednesday-0211-empire-arrow-adjusted-100/

Now, considering that these ratings are BETTER than the ratings of five other season three eps (3X2, 3X3, 3X4, 3X6, 3X7), I can't see how the "Canaries" ep could be considered a failure and a case against Laurel/Katie Cassidy as BC. Furthermore the whole Canary arc (which actually dealt as much with the other characters and their storylines) was a ratings' success:

http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/arrow-season-three-ratings-34284/

These three eps actually had MORE viewers and better ratings than many season two episodes, INCLUDING many episodes which featured Sara as Canary:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arrow_episodes

So, if you want to base your arguments against Laurel as a character (and her Black Canary storyline) by referring to its effect on the ratings, you are not making a very convincing case. In fact, both the audience numbers and the 18-49 ratings have been considerable HIGHER for those eps than for several other season three eps AND many season two eps (regardless of whether they highlighted Sara or other characters). Heck, even the "Secret Origins of Felicity Smoak" did just marginally better (2.72 million viewers and 1.1 demo). So, the Felicity-centric episode only had about five thousand more viewers than "Canaries" (a very marginal difference), despite the fact that it was the first time we learned anything about her background and despite the fact that she is supposedly a great fan favourite and audience magnet.

In general I have a feeling that you, just like many other Laurel-detractors, generalize your own feelings and opinions and attribute them to millions of viewers whose opinions you can't possibly know anything about. I have seen many positive reactions to the Canary episodes, both on various discussion forums and on social media like FB and twitter. The reviews have also been predominantly enthusiastic, and many fans/reviewers enjoyed seeing the team operate on their own. Furthermore, in the past few weeks I have read many more complaints about Felicity and her storyline/behavior than about Laurel and her BC storyline. In general, I think fans should be a little more careful when it comes to making assumptions about how viewers feel about Laurel as BC and how it will affect the show....

In conclusion I would say that from the producers/writers perspective the past four episodes were a great success, both ratings-wise and in terms of how they were received by both reviewers and the general fandom. I'm not saying that season three is perfect, because it has its share of flaws and weaknesses. What I don't agree with is that Laurel and her BC arc is somehow dragging the show down, quality-wise or ratings'-wise. In fact, judging by the numbers I have provided that assertion is simply untrue, since both the "Canaries" episode and the other eps did just fine, in comparison to the season as a whole and in comparison to season two.

[costas22]

Wild guess, but maybe the viewership decline this week has something to do with how the "Oliver is dead" cliffhanger was handled. Quite honestly, it's been an insult to the viewers' intelligence. They made it look like a big deal in the Climb and then poof, he's alive in the next episode thanks to Tatsu's penicillin tea. And a couple of episodes later, he's back in Starling as if nothing happened. Now maybe there's more to this storyline and they will reveal that Ollie was resurrected by the Pit in a future episode. But as things stand, it feels like they pulled a bait and switch, resolved the mid season cliffhanger and will now stall until the last 3 episodes of the season again. Viewer tend to tune out when that happens. Just look at last season's second half.

I doubt it had anything to do with Laurel becoming the Canary. Hasn't it been obvious that this is where the show has been heading for a long time now?

She was only doing her job as the Chloe Sullivan of this universe.

Yup. Only it took her 2 seasons to get there. At least it took Chloe 6-7, lol.

[evaba]

Wild guess, but maybe the viewership decline this week has something to do with how the "Oliver is dead" cliffhanger was handled. Quite honestly, it's been an insult to the viewers' intelligence. They made it look like a big deal in the Climb and then poof, he's alive in the next episode thanks to Tatsu's penicillin tea. And a couple of episodes later, he's back in Starling as if nothing happened. Now maybe there's more to this storyline and they will reveal that Ollie was resurrected by the Pit in a future episode. But as things stand, it feels like they pulled a bait and switch, resolved the mid season cliffhanger and will now stall until the last 3 episodes of the season again. Viewer tend to tune out when that happens. Just look at last season's second half.

I doubt it had anything to do with Laurel becoming the Canary. Hasn't it been obvious that this is where the show has been heading for a long time now?



Yup. Only it took her 2 seasons to get there. At least it took Chloe 6-7, lol.

There were also preemptions, which may have impacted on the ratings, although the final ratings adjusted up. In general I think fans/posters make too much out of pretty slight variations in ratings. We saw such variations on seasons one and two as well, but I can't recall anyone here claiming that (for example) the Sara Lance arc was the reason why ratings were not very good for certain season two eps. It seems that ratings and slight dips in ratings are ONLY mentioned when the poster needs to support/bolster his/her complaints about a certain character/storyline.

I'm just hoping that this won't turn into "Smallville" 2.0, where fans were forever using ratings to prop their girl, or "prove" how the amount of Chloe/Lois etc, scenes in a certain episodes caused the ratings to plummet. There are many other factors than the prominence of a certain character/storyline that may affect the ratings, factors which may have nothing to do with story content.

[DoubleDevil]

I think the drop in viewers has to do with the show in general, S1 and S2 seemed like the showrunners knew roughly where they wanted to go with the show over 5 seasons while in S3 it seems like they're flying by the seat of their pants with only a small idea of what they want to do (Laurel becoming BC for example), everything else (including Olicity) seems to be spur of the moment trial and error with ideas being shown and tossed overboard at the drop of a hat. Ted Grant as a romantic interest was scrapped and even Ray Palmer they seem to be lost with where they want to go but are somehow holding on to him. Very little is moving forward and few of the prolonged mysteries are being answered (finally after 13 episodes Quentin discovers Sara's dead but that was dragged out to the utmost already so it HAD to be resolved). We've seen no major change in Oliver's character and only marginal change in the rest of the cast and NO explaination to how Oliver survived so that the midseason cliffhanger, as dramatic as it was, has fallen flat

[evaba]

I think the drop in viewers has to do with the show in general, S1 and S2 seemed like the showrunners knew roughly where they wanted to go with the show over 5 seasons while in S3 it seems like they're flying by the seat of their pants with only a small idea of what they want to do (Laurel becoming BC for example), everything else (including Olicity) seems to be spur of the moment trial and error with ideas being shown and tossed overboard at the drop of a hat. Ted Grant as a romantic interest was scrapped and even Ray Palmer they seem to be lost with where they want to go but are somehow holding on to him. Very little is moving forward and few of the prolonged mysteries are being answered (finally after 13 episodes Quentin discovers Sara's dead but that was dragged out to the utmost already so it HAD to be resolved). We've seen no major change in Oliver's character and only marginal change in the rest of the cast and NO explaination to how Oliver survived so that the midseason cliffhanger, as dramatic as it was, has fallen flat

I agree with many of the things you're saying, except for the drop in the ratings. If you look at the chart of episode ratings that I provided, you'll see that many season two eps had decidedly LOWER ratings than most season three eps. So, even if season two was more coherent, it didn't really draw in more viewers. So, there might not be any immediate connection between the flaws in the writing that we discuss here, and the amount of casual viewers who tune in every week.

[DoubleDevil]

I agree with many of the things you're saying, except for the drop in the ratings. If you look at the chart of episode ratings that I provided, you'll see that many season two eps had decidedly LOWER ratings than most season three eps. So, even if season two was more coherent, it didn't really draw in more viewers. So, there might not be any immediate connection between the flaws in the writing that we discuss here, and the amount of casual viewers who tune in every week.

I don't look at ratings so the drop was only mentioned IF they actually did drop. Since they haven't I guess the reasons I mentioned are a much more personal issue I have with the show and why I'll probably only watch the show when I don't have anything better to do instead of anticipating the next episode.

[Quark]

I love the comments about Oliver's hair on here in the flashbacks. They really make me laugh.

I think the problem with Oliver's hair is a continuity issue. In the series premier he had a LOT of hair just before he was picked up by the boat crew. I don't think that amount of growth could occur in the two years from now in the flashbacks if he were to get a haircut.

On another note, I agree that this season has been a lot less coherent than previous seasons.

[Genny]

I think that you might be jumping to conclusions....The adjusted ratings for the "Canaries" episode are now in and they are not bad at all:

http://www.tvwatchus.com/ratings/2015/02/12/final-tv-ratings-wednesday-0211-empire-arrow-adjusted-100/

Now, considering that these ratings are BETTER than the ratings of five other season three eps (3X2, 3X3, 3X4, 3X6, 3X7), I can't see how the "Canaries" ep could be considered a failure and a case against Laurel/Katie Cassidy as BC. Furthermore the whole Canary arc (which actually dealt as much with the other characters and their storylines) was a ratings' success:

http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/arrow-season-three-ratings-34284/

These three eps actually had MORE viewers and better ratings than many season two episodes, INCLUDING many episodes which featured Sara as Canary:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arrow_episodes

So, if you want to base your arguments against Laurel as a character (and her Black Canary storyline) by referring to its effect on the ratings, you are not making a very convincing case. In fact, both the audience numbers and the 18-49 ratings have been considerable HIGHER for those eps than for several other season three eps AND many season two eps (regardless of whether they highlighted Sara or other characters). Heck, even the "Secret Origins of Felicity Smoak" did just marginally better (2.72 million viewers and 1.1 demo). So, the Felicity-centric episode only had about five thousand more viewers than "Canaries" (a very marginal difference), despite the fact that it was the first time we learned anything about her background and despite the fact that she is supposedly a great fan favourite and audience magnet.

In general I have a feeling that you, just like many other Laurel-detractors, generalize your own feelings and opinions and attribute them to millions of viewers whose opinions you can't possibly know anything about. I have seen many positive reactions to the Canary episodes, both on various discussion forums and on social media like FB and twitter. The reviews have also been predominantly enthusiastic, and many fans/reviewers enjoyed seeing the team operate on their own. Furthermore, in the past few weeks I have read many more complaints about Felicity and her storyline/behavior than about Laurel and her BC storyline. In general, I think fans should be a little more careful when it comes to making assumptions about how viewers feel about Laurel as BC and how it will affect the show....

In conclusion I would say that from the producers/writers perspective the past four episodes were a great success, both ratings-wise and in terms of how they were received by both reviewers and the general fandom. I'm not saying that season three is perfect, because it has its share of flaws and weaknesses. What I don't agree with is that Laurel and her BC arc is somehow dragging the show down, quality-wise or ratings'-wise. In fact, judging by the numbers I have provided that assertion is simply untrue, since both the "Canaries" episode and the other eps did just fine, in comparison to the season as a whole and in comparison to season two.

Thank you for saying that.

[NightHawk777]

Wild guess, but maybe the viewership decline this week has something to do with how the "Oliver is dead" cliffhanger was handled. Quite honestly, it's been an insult to the viewers' intelligence. They made it look like a big deal in the Climb and then poof, he's alive in the next episode thanks to Tatsu's penicillin tea. And a couple of episodes later, he's back in Starling as if nothing happened. Now maybe there's more to this storyline and they will reveal that Ollie was resurrected by the Pit in a future episode. But as things stand, it feels like they pulled a bait and switch, resolved the mid season cliffhanger and will now stall until the last 3 episodes of the season again. Viewer tend to tune out when that happens. Just look at last season's second half.

I doubt it had anything to do with Laurel becoming the Canary. Hasn't it been obvious that this is where the show has been heading for a long time now?



Yup. Only it took her 2 seasons to get there. At least it took Chloe 6-7, lol.

I forgot to mention this in my earlier post. This bugs me in that not even a hint was dropped as to how Ollie survived the fall from the mountain. They probably will address it in a future episode, but this was a huge shocker for the mid season finale.