‘Arrow’ Pilot Coverage: CW’s Newest Bullseye

Stephen Amell is one of those guys. After his stints on “Heartland,” “Private Practice” and “Hung,” you knew he was one perfect role away from “making it.”

“Arrow” is easily one of the most exciting shows on television this fall and Amell is the reason. While the supporting cast is good-looking and well accomplished, Amell is stellar as the Green Arrow himself, Oliver Queen.

Savvy, smart and stunt-driven, “Arrow” hits all the right places, especially for fans of “Smallville” that thought they’d never get another decent live-action superhero-themed sitcom.

This is what “The Cape” should have been, but never was.

The cinematography of “Arrow” matches the source material perfectly. It’s top self for a network TV show. The same thing goes for the stunts. The fight scenes are orchestrated in such a smooth and realistic fashion that the smile they induce doesn’t wear off until the show is over. It’s like “Rumble in the Bronx” meets “Max Payne 3.” MMA fans will also notice that Queen doesn’t fight like a superhero. He uses chokeholds and the ground and pound that put the UFC on the map in the United States.

While all of this is cool, nothing is more intriguing than the main character. Queen is Batman-smart, Spider-Man-sneaky and Deadpool-sweet. Even though Amell is cool and charismatic in the role, he has help in the right places too. His best bud, Tommy Merlyn, (Colin Donnell) his ex-flame, Laurel Lance (the smokin’ hot and talented Katie Cassidy) and Detective Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne) add a layer of depth not found on a CW show since well, “Smallville.”

The plot is built in a way that it will reward those that stick with it. The twist-turn at the end will definitely keep people interested for the next few weeks, as the show begins to show more of its teeth. Director David Nutter has organized and crafted Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim’s story well enough that even the few maize-filled lines and cliché that pop up occasionally, are forgiven. Simply put, there’s more than enough fun to go around and plenty of action and story to keep you interested.

But be warned, just like “Smallville,” the show is different from the comic book that made it possible. Queen’s sidekick, Speedy, will most likely be his sister, Thea (played by the equally sly and sweet Willa Holland). At the same time, the instances of wanton drug usage and reckless personalities that drove the comic through the ‘late 70s and 80s will still be prevalent.

Talk about having your cake and eating it too.

In the end that’s exactly what “Arrow” is, as it successfully amalgamates a classic, yet-underrated comic book character and manages to make it something a fan of “Vampire Diaries” and “Supernatural” would dig.

Comic book fans won’t mind it too much either.

If you missed the pilot, you can watch it on the CW’s official site, here.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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