Arrow season 1 review (2012)

I have recently just rewatched the whole of arrow season 1 again so I think it is a good idea that I review it.

This series documents the story of Oliver queen a young billionaire who survived 5 years on a desolate island and has returned to rid his city of evil under a new identity called the hood.

Now in the comics the character of green arrow is a cocky billionaire with allot of jokes but I am really happy that they changed that and made him a more damaged darker character. Stephen amell plays the part fantastically and really gets the great lance between the Oliver queen character and the hood character, it reminds me of Christian bales performance in the dark knight trilogy.

The supporting cast is also superb in this season with all the main characters having story arcs that are emotionally investing and worth the pay off. Katie Cassidy plays laurel lance and her performance is great with her performance is really empowering and her story works for this season. David Ramsey plays Oliver's partner John diggle and their chemistry together is great with there relationship being a big part of the season. John barrowman plays Malcolm merlyn and his performance becomes more important as the season progresses. The characters of moira queen, thea queen, Tommy Merlin, felicity smoke and detective lance are important with their relationships with Oliver and the hood being key to the different stories. But the show stealer is Manu Bennett as slade Wilson and his character single handedly made the flashback island scenes interesting.

The story is fantastic with Oliver coming back from the island and taking out the evil of the city while their is flashbacks to what really occurred on the island. Now the first few episodes are quite episodic but it starts to unravel a big mystery and the different stories becomes really interesting. For the first half of the season i found the island scenes to be quite boring but as I said once slade appears it becomes fantastic too as you see it coincide with the main plot really well.

The script is alright but I do think sometimes it can be a bit rigid and a bit cliche with some of the dialogue and in fact I believe it is the only criticism I have of arrow season 1.

The style is great with the dark gritty tone being especially what the show needed to build these comic book characters in a more realistic tone.

Overall this is a fantastic first series that really set up to the epic season two and so far an epic season 3.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XQS7JkQmlx8
This is the trailer for season 1 if you do fancy giving it a try.

Final rating 9/10