The CW channel, home to Supernatural, has a new series titled, Arrow. Long-story short, it’s about a character named Oliver Queen, son of a deceased billionaire, who returns from 5 years of living on an island with what we would call “ninja skills.”
Armed with his father’s list of enemies who need the iron hand of justice to sort them out, Oliver uses his skills and his bow-and-arrow set to bring them down.
This is basically the TV version of DC comic’s Green Arrow with a strong does of Christopher Nolan’s Batman.
And I love it.
Revenge, dangerous and innovative villains, cool training scenes, and a Macbeth-like family make for fun viewing and I look forward to several seasons of this (they have been confirmed for a full 22-episode season).
So what are the cons? Just one for now.
It’s the emphasis on having every female character to be a scrawny model. Especially disconcerting is that Oliver’s love interest is clearly being set up as a side-kick for later episodes (in the most recent episode she dispatches a guy with swift in-fighting skills).
Unfortunately, I can’t take that seriously. The actress has absolutely no muscle and seems to live off-screen on diet soda and cigarettes (professional model fare). When shows groom actresses to be bony eye-candy while the male hero is in fighting shape, yet both can fight and move well, it sends a confusing and unrealistic signal.
Another show that falls deeply into this pit is CW’s Nikita. That show consists of impossibly scrawny women beating men twice their weight and size while wearing stylish clothing. And that is stupid.
No matter, I’ll be there to watch Arrow every week but I will be sending packages of sandwiches and kettle-bells to those poor women…
Mondo 