Arrow S01E02 - Pleasant Surprise

Intro

After the first episode of Arrow left me rather unimpressed, I've got to hand it to them: This one feels a lot better. Far from perfect, but a lot better. It seems like with the pilot out of the way, they actually got enough time to make a decent episode. However, before I start my review, there is something I haven't mentioned about the whole Arrow background-story yet:

I don't really get Oliver's motivation. Bear with me: His father, for his whole life, exploited the city for what it's worth and didn't give a shit about anyone but his family. And then suddenly, when facing death, he tells his son to clean up his mess.... Wait a minute. That's Oliver's motivation? Imagine your father telling you about how he just killed a prostitute - and then wants you to hide the body. I guess it kind of helps the story that Oliver's father offed himself to save his son, but it still doesn't feel right.

One more thing: I tried to bring some system into my reviews: I will now split it in three parts: The Plot, Character Development and Presentation. That should help both you and me to have some sort of guidelines. Enough said, let's begin.

The Plot

Episode one disappointed in this category. The plot was not very conclusive and more importantly completely failed to bring some sort of satisfaction to the viewer. Episode two is basically the exact opposite, it's thought through, fast-paced and exciting. It baffles me how they missed out on this in the pilot.

Yep, he's a bad guy.

First of all, we get a reason to hate the villain this time: We actually see how Martin Somers kills an innocent man, single father to a loving daughter. She is also the one suing Somers for murder, with evidence backing up her claims. The attorney, who would've guessed, is Laurel Lance. This is a smart setup and doesn't seem forced in any way: We get a good reason to hate Somers, something often overlooked by series. Real emotions are what makes a good TV series, and seeing the daughter of an innocent man fighting to get justice is a pretty good way to get us attached. Especially because we see how well protected the rich Somers is by a wall of lawyers, not leaving a chance for her to win, even with a ton of evidence against him. It's not surprising that Somers' name is in Oliver's book of bad guys then.

Oliver - also part of the 1% - soon realizes that Laurel won't stand a chance against Somers' legal department and creates a plan. As (rather poorly) portrayed in episode one, Oliver likes to give people a chance to turn themselves in. He does the same for Somers, ordering him to plea guilty for murder in front of the jury. If he doesn't comply, he'll wake up with an arrow stuck in his forehead. At least that's what Oliver hints at. Again, no complaints here. Of course, there is the question how Oliver even figured out where to find Somers, but we'll just have to accept that he built a super advanced tracking system by himself, in his Bat Cave. What I don't get behind is why Oliver gives all these people second chances, yet proceeds to plow through henchmen as if they were sand bags. It's kind of excusable in Somers' case, because he is facing a life in jail, but that still doesn't really satisfy me. I mean, come on: A man that is responsible for probably dozens of murders gets a chance to live on while a slightly crooked small-time gangster gets an arrow between the eyes.

The next morning, Officer Lance visits Somers, who denies being attacked by Arrow. This is understandable, considering he is tied tightly with the Chinese mafia and probably has his own way to handle these matters. Somers uses the situation to threaten him and Laurel. Lance, while playing it cool, is seriously concerned for his daughter's well-being and puts her under police protection. I really like how they chose to portray their relationship, even though the acting is mediocre. It makes sense that a high ranking police detective would use his influence to protect his only daughter. Again, the plot stays conclusive.

Somers meanwhile asks the Chinese mafia for help. They come to the conclusion that Laurel needs to die, setting an example for everyone trying to touch him. Now here comes one of the weaker points in the story: For no good reason - except to make for an exciting episode - Oliver is conveniently in Laurels flat, eating ice cream with her. This seems a bit out of character for Laurel, but I will get to that later. Another problem: What are the chances of Oliver being with Laurel when the Chinese assassins come for her? If I was an assassin and my target had police protection, I would wait until 4am or something to make my move. These guys don't seem to care that much and do it in the late evening. Maybe they are very confident about their success - understandably. They are not expecting any resistance and it doesn't really seem that they have to worry. All Oliver does is push Laurel out of the way of their gunfire - which of course never hits even once. Again, this apparent invincibility of his is annoying, but far less so than in the last episode. It actually gets really close to them dying until Diggle comes to save their asses. This actually makes sense: After having heard the gunfire he went straight through the front door to protect Oliver - and succeeds. Well, almost, until a Chinese dagger-swinging chick almost cuts his throat. This is a very strong moment in this episode: Oliver has to compromise his cover and throw a kitchen knife at her, knocking her back. Such a throw would be close to impossible for an untrained individual and Diggle knows that.

I really like moments like these: These few seconds move the story in a completely new direction, without seeming forced or needing any dialogue at all. This is how it should be done. No talking, just letting images do the work.

Time to move on: After getting yelled at by Laurels father, Oliver returns home. Diggle approaches him with the question how he threw the unbalanced kitchen knife with such accuracy, but he dodges the question. While short, this is a well acted powerful scene. Especially because you see clearly see how Diggle isn't happy with Oliver's answer but chooses to let it be for the moment.

The finale is alright as well: Arrow forces a confession out of Somers which he records with an audio-taping arrow. This is far less ridicolous and impossible than last episodes hacking arrow and actually quite clever. There is however a slight annoyance in this scene: Arrow fights the Chinese dagger-girl we saw earlier, despite Somers clearly stating that the Chinese wanted to cut every connection to him. Also, the fight is not very exciting, no one gets even a scratch.

Then a shock: Arrow is caught by Lance, defenseless on open ground. It looks quite bad for him, really, but then he resolves the situation by throwing something at Lance. Very cheap, if you ask me, but an effective way to get the audio recording to the police. Want to guess how Oliver escapes this already pretty weak scene? By running away while Lance stares at his hand. Literally.

"My hand is much more interesting than this mass murderer in front of me."

Character Development

The first episode already manifested the characters and their relations as one of the stronger parts of the series. Oliver as an uncomfortable outcast, struggling to find a connection with his family again. That's what episode one hinted at, at least. This one focuses more on the relationship between Oliver and Laurel. After having cheated on her with her own sister and then subsequently killing her in a yacht accident, they don't exactly have a promising base for a relationship.

Oliver first meets Laurel shortly before the Somers hearing. She reacts understandably aggressive towards him, staying consistent to what we saw in the last episode and fitting to the tense situation. Nothing to complain here.

The big background-story in this episode is that Oliver's mother wants him to take a leading position in the company. That would obviously interfere with his plan to shoot arrow at people while dressed like Robin Hood, so he rather awkwardly denies the offer. If this scene wasn't so weirdly delivered, it would be perfectly fine, but that's for the third part. It definitely makes sense story-wise and progresses the characters. Back to topic: Oliver's mother, being angry at him for being irresponsible, storms off. Note that Diggle was in the room this whole scene - I will get back to it later.

Back home, Oliver's sister Thea snaps at him for not talking to her - and promptly shows him his own gravestone, stating that she enjoyed talking to him more when he was dead. This is valid development, as all Oliver has done until now is lecturing Thea about her lifestyle. Their relationship seems pretty natural: The typical bond between brother and sister still connects them and even when pissed off at each other the still want to get along. I'd say they did a pretty good job here, it doesn't seem like anything is forced.

"I banged your sister and killed her, but I guess this
ice cream makes us even."

It's a whole different story with Oliver and Laurel though: The only chemistry between these two characters is that they both look attractive and are apparently have an affection for ice cream. Their dialogues are shallow: "I realized that I hurt you" is only one of the many cheesy clichés they exchange. It's really just an excuse for Oliver to be there so he can defend her from the Chinese assassins - a plot mostly based on convenience. Their relationship just feels really shallow, it's not based on anything we get to see. Yes, maybe they have a history, but from what we heard Oliver was pretty much the biggest douchebag alive. So the only thing drawing Laurel to him is his looks - how romantic.

Now if only Amell was capable of facial expressions.

Now here's the big winner of this review: Oliver and Diggle have a really good chemistry, especially David Ramsey as Diggle does an outstanding job. You can really see that this is probably the most experienced actor of the bunch, having also worked on the set of Dexter. You notice how the subtle doubts about Oliver grow in his mind, but never quite make it out. He delivers his lines exactly right while Stephen Amell does alright as well. At least it feels more natural and believable than his usual rather monotonous style of speaking.

The Presentation

Arrow carried over one major disappointment from episode one to this one: The over-dramatic acting. While it's not as noticeable as last time, there are still several scenes where the characters movements and ways of speaking feel forced and unnatural. One good example is when Thea walks in on Oliver changing and catches a glimpse of his scars. Amell overdoes the "being irritated" emotion quite a bit:

"Oliver angryyyyyyyyyy"

Like I said in the first review: You definitely notice that these actors are not very experienced. I will also mention Laurels father, played by Paul Blackthrone, here, who also goes a bit over the top with his role. But then again, so do Laurel and Oliver's mother. Basically everyone except Diggle.

Let's talk about the presentation per se real quick: The scenes are well-lit and don't feel like a TV set, the director and/or camera crew definitely have a sense for aesthetics and we event get some memorable shots, notably this one:

All jokes aside, this looks really cool.

Conclusion

This episode does a lot of things right, most notably the exciting plot and the great Diggle moments. It's a shame then that they can't fix the major annoyances of this series: Cheesy acting and shallow character relationships. They also often resort to the most convenient plot available, most notably when Oliver is at Laurel's for no real reason when the Chinese attack and at the end, when Arrow escapes from Lance holding him at gunpoint just by throwing something at him. I'm actually a bit sad over this final rating, because the plot could've easily earned this episode the fourth star, but I'll have to resort to three for now.