Arrow S01E03 - The failed disguise

Introduction

I'm going to change my review stile again. Splitting it into three parts was not a bad idea, but it really gave me problems when two major story elements including characters and the plot were overlapping.   It was hard to show the "bigger picture". This is why I will from now on choose a few aspects I want to talk about and provide examples from the episode. The most important one will come last. At least I think that's what I'm going to do.

1. Small things do matter.

Attention to detail is important. You may not notice it at first glance, but even small details go a long way to establish the atmosphere, the feeling of a series. If you are sloppy, people will notice sooner or later. The show loses "grip", becomes less believable.

It's a shame then that Arrow is full of those minor annoyances that could have been avoided so easily. One of the most irritating is the series' tendency to have coincidence play a major role in their plots. It's not even like they would have to, they just want to make room for weird forced plot progression. A good example for this can be seen right at the beginning of this episode: Oliver kills his way through a bunch of security guards, for some reason off-camera, and catches his target, Mr. Holden, by his rooftop pool - Just to see him get shot right in front of his eyes from another rooftop. Quite the coincidence if you think about it. Neither of the assassins, Oliver and the sniper, knew about each other. Oliver even chose his target at random, actually, while the sniper was assigned to it, as we later discover. The only thing more unlikely would be Holden getting killed by a meteorite right before their eyes.

Really stealthy.

Also, and this might seem like nitpicking, but why does the sniper have to put a big, red laser dot on his targets body. That doesn't seem like something he would need: As we later see, he has the ability to switch the laser off and STILL has very accurate crosshairs at his disposal. The only reason he need the laser dot is to give people a chance to stop him, I guess. If they really have to go with the whole red dot thing, at least give the sniper a reason to use it: Maybe he is so good that he doesn't even use a visor, just the dot and his eyesight. Once again the writers made a decision based purely on convenience.

They also threw away the only side-plot I really liked: Diggle slowly finding out about Oliver's secret, discovering one clue after another. I mentioned this in the episode two review: Oliver has to compromise his cover by throwing a kitchen knife in a way no untrained person would be able to and then lies about it. Diggle didn't buy, but kept his mouth shut for the moment. There is also the car scene, where he tells Oliver that he is on to him, indirectly. So what would be the smart thing to do in the next episode? Completely throw these exciting developments away, obviously. At the end of the episode, Diggle gets hit by ricochets. That's right, the guy that has served in a war without getting killed and probably has tons of experience with guns get hit by someone not even aiming for him. He doesn't even have a reason to be there, to be honest. You could argue that he heard the gunfire, but why the hell would he run right into the room without taking cover first? And again, a logical plot was thrown away just so the writes would have a convenient reason to have Diggle discover Oliver's secret. On a side note: Oliver could have brought him to a hospital just as well as to his own base. And if that doesn't work, he could still just cover Diggle's head with some fabric or something so he won't recognize his face. But no, not today, Oliver goes full retard instead.

Neat handwriting by the way.

It wouldn't be fair not to give them credit for the easy-to-miss side-plot they intelligently included in this episode: We learn that Diggle's brother was killed during his work as a bodyguard, but the characters never mention by whom. Then, when we see the sniper tattoo his last victims name on his arm, the observant viewer will catch the name "Andrew Diggle" written on his chest. I think it's a neat idea to reward you with some cool-to-know background information for being attentive. Well done.

It feels so real I'm going to cry.

There are two more small annoyances I want to mention, just to keep the list complete: Oliver gets shot in the beginning, but that plot never gets picked up again. This is not a plot hole and you might think I am complaining too much, but think about it this way: Wouldn't it make for a much more interesting story-line if he had to explain his injury to his family and friends? If it would somehow limit him from effectively fighting and giving him another reason to work together with the police? The other thing is the implied Merlin-Laurel love-story. It just seems out of character for Laurel to be together with someone that couldn't be more different to her if he tried. The real reason behind this is not progressing Laurels character: It's simply to give Merlin something to do. Think about it: He is, by far, the character with the least reason to be in the series.

2. They can do it!

Honestly, this is my favorite Arrow character.

I have to give Arrow credit for actually creating believable relationships, for the most part. The most convincing character on the show is definitely Thea: She was struggling with her brother's and father's deaths and, without someone to tell her off from time to time, turned to drugs, booze and a party-lifestyle, just like her brother did before her. Now, with him back as a fatherly figure, she revolts against advice from someone she has kept as an idol for the last five years. I really like her character: She doesn't overact, is genuinely helpless and secretly seeks for someone to guide her. It's just hard to accept that this person is going to be your brother, who made a lot of mistakes himself.

Laurel, while not even close to the emotional depth of Thea, is actually alright as well. After life took a big dump on her by killing her sister and boyfriend, she turned away from the party-lifestyle and turned her life around. This actually makes sense and feels genuine. It's quite the opposite for her relationship with Oliver, though. She hates his lifestyle, has every reason to hate him, doesn't even know him well after five years and still she has feelings for him. I know love is supposed to be complicated, but this is really far-fetched.

3. We can't accept everything you throw at us.

This is probably the worst part about this show, and we've seen it in every episode so far: Information is created right out of thin air, no explanation whatsoever. It just pops up when it's convenient for the plot. Did you ever ask yourself how Oliver know about the location of every single member on the list? Not even the police know that, or there would be quite a few arrests from what we have seen.  We are just forced to believe that - after living on an island for five years - Oliver has somehow magically learned how to get information that even the most advanced government agencies can't get a hold of. This episode however takes it to a new extreme: Just by finding the bullet the sniper shot, Oliver actually manages to follow the money trail to the Russian mafia - Again, all he has is a bullet. He then takes up the identity of an American general named Bratva and finds out where the Russians have their secret hideout. All off-camera, of course. We are just forced to accept it, because the show never explains how - probably because it would be impossible. I don't know about you, but I can't feel immersed in a show that tries to cover up plot holes by just having a few computer screens in the hero's base.

4. Looking cool doesn't replace a plot.

Yea I just recognized your face in Forbes Magazine and
it didn't say that you were "Bratva".

For some reason they never bothered to explain logically, a few Russian guys in a garage have information about the sniper. Whatever. So he walks straight into their garage and tells them that he is some general ranked Bratva or something. He doesn't even bother to disguise himself. Remember, this is the same Oliver Queen that was on TV for probably five weeks straight after his return. It's hell of a bet to assume that they have never seen his face. If they would recognize him, he'd have to kill them both - bare-handed - to protect his family and friends from the Russian mafia. So the only explanation why this utterly stupid scene is the episode is to show us how much of a badass Oliver is. Making sense just doesn't look cool enough, I guess.

This is the main problem of the whole series: They create a sloppy plot so they can see what they actually want to show: Action. Arrow tries so hard to create interesting characters just so they can throw them in some nonsense plot that leads to Oliver shooting a few people with his bow and doing choreography. They don't seem to understand that we can't really care about action if the plot around it doesn't make any sense. I'm not talking about realism here, I'm talking about immersion. Actually believing what is going on, being excited for what's going to happen, if the characters are going to make it through. There is never a real feeling of danger, of fear and excitement involved. 

It's just all an empty hull, trying to disguise this show as some sort of realistic, gritty action-drama it just isn't.

Conclusion

The two things I like about this episode are Thea and that the plot involves a side-character, Walter. And that's about it. The plot doesn't make any sense, not even if you try to be forgiving, and Merlin starts a weird relationship with Laurel that doesn't fit her character, just to give him something to do. They try to immerse us in a story while not paying attention to details - I give this episode two stars just because of Thea's solid acting, the high production quality and the hint at Diggle's brother.