It looks like archery has become fodder for pop culture. The Hunger Games emphasized bow and arrow skills. I understand there are crossbows used in The Walking Dead. People were using bows in Revolution. Now we have DC's Green Arrow coming to television as Arrow. I was always more of a Marvel Hawkeye fan myself and never paid much attention to the DC universe, so the Green Arrow is all new to me.
I ended up watching several episodes of Arrow via Hulu, and it isn't too bad. Overall the acting is better than Revolution. I don't know if it a matter of the director or just a much higher level of actors, but aside from Paul Blackthorne as Detective Lance, there is very little overacting, and in Blackthorne's case, that's simply what the character calls for. One of the messages is that the One-percenters are bad unless they are tortured by their responsibility to their city -- or something like that. Oliver Queen isn't exactly renouncing his vast wealth but instead uses his resources to effectively carry out his revenge against the Rich. Very Batman-like, though Starling City is not nearly as bizarre as Gotham City. Queen has a book his father gave him with a list of names of the corrupt who must be taken down.
The flashbacks to the island where Queen was marooned and where he developed his amazing ninja skills are entertaining and do add a bit to the story. The plot of a given episode is not complicated but there are some elements of the overall series' plot that are complex and convoluted enough to give the show some texture. And it's gritty. And the Green Arrow -- so far known only as "the Hood", doesn't always come out best in some of his fights.
As the backstory can take up quite a bit of screen time each week, the character development of a given episode can suffer noticeably. A good example of that is the installment called "Trust but Verify" where Queen's partner, Diggle, deals with a man named Ted Gaynor who was his commanding officer in Afghanistan. It's unclear why, exactly, Gaynor is on a list of mostly white-collar criminals or how Queen's father would have known about Gaynor prior to his death five years earlier. Still not bad for television.
I like the casting of Stephen Arnell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow. Actor David Ramsey (not to be confused with Dave Ramsey, replicant) is solid and credible as John Diggle, Oliver's bodyguard and confidante. John Barrowman as Malcolm Merlyn effectively portrays a suavely satanic and dangerous villian. Hong Kong actor Byron Mann is seen the island flashbacks as Yao-Fei, and he looks the part of a deadly martial arts practitioner. So far the family and romantic tendrils of the story haven't overwhelmed the action that drives the series. Overall I'd give Arrow a slightly above-average 6, keeping in mind that I rate Downton Abbey as a thoroughly boring 5 and Firefly as a high 9.
You are not going to learn a lot of real world survival skills watching Arrow, but Oliver does remind us of the importance of conditioning and practice. Just good shooting is not enough. You have to be able to get into the right position and maneuver quickly. Being able to execute a tactical retreat is crucial to success. Everything isn't resolved with a stunning bow shot or a trick arrow. Secondary skills often save the day. It's also important to have a well-defined mission and to remember that achieving the goal is more important than how others might see us.
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