Thursday, February 15, 2018

Arrow 6x13 "The Devil's Greatest Trick" is relying on daddy issues and flashbacks


"The Devil's Greatest Trick" feels like somewhat of a misnomer, seeing as the episode uses a lot of what I would consider storytelling clutches that Arrow falls back on fairly often to try to wrench some kind of reaction from the audience. In terms of its plot developments, it is an interesting finish to the first big arc of the season, but otherwise, the writing feels really fraught and cheap at times in an attempt to maintain the tension the show had continually told us about but failed to show us - at least until the last minute.

It seems where Arrow wants to head to involves Ricardo Diaz - played by the wonderful Kirk Acevado - though the show makes him seem more like an empty vessel and generic villain more than anything. It's one thing to keep your villains mysterious and operating in the background, but not even hinting at it makes it feel like the writers just pulled nonsense out of thin air with little work to back it up. This extends to Cayden James, as it feels as if he was nothing more than an angry cypher at times. Michael Emerson's performance definitely raised the material above anything else, but as someone who had watched his performance through Person of Interest and Lost, it was somewhat lacking in nuance of those two roles, even as he tried to imbue the character with some complexity. It's not until this episode that Arrow wants to reveal its hand regarding Cayden James, which is a shame that it took so long. The material given to Emerson finally comes through and helps provide some sympathy and nuance to what seems like just-another-angry-hacker with a dead child bolted on to justify his vengeance. 

Therein lies some of the problem with how Arrow sometimes handles its secondary characters, coupled with the fact the show decided to have two back-to-back flashback-and-they're-dead episodes, as if they needed to finally extend some consideration to the character they're killing off. It's not really brilliant symmetry, as the show posits, when it feels so manufactured. Last week's episode had already had dueling present-past stories involving Dinah and Vincent playing undercover ending in the death and re-death of Vincent Sobel. It feels as if there is no confidence in the audience with the need to show everything and cram it all in the last possible moment. It feels like a waste of Emerson's performance for him to keep so much hidden behind a line of dialogue or two up until the last second. Flashbacks have proven to be strong storytelling tools since Lost deployed them over ten years ago in arguably the most interesting manner. Arrow is no stranger to flashbacks and has always been somewhat of a balancing act in deploying them, but for their villains more often than not, it's typically deployed as a sympathizing tool sometimes too little, too late.

Perhaps that's just the nature of the superhero genre, to make sure we don't sympathize too much for the villains (until they become too popular to simply be villains), though I imagine they could've gotten a terrific performance out of Michael Emerson witnessing the video of his son's murder had the show decided to possibly show their hand earlier, for instance. Sometimes, Arrow seems more concerned about making sure that the viewer follows exactly along with Oliver and his compatriots rather than drawing a broader picture and letting the characters discover organically what the audience has already learned.

Although the show also teased Dinah's dark turn last episode, it seems entirely non-committal in trying to make Dinah seem like someone completely hell-bent on taking revenge on Laurel, and just someone who was really angry and had to take their anger out on someone. Dinah asserted maybe that justice by the bullet was truly necessary, but she still continues on with her bo staff to attack henchmen, and it's not until the final confrontation with Black Siren that she shoots Laurel with Lance's service weapon that makes her entire turn to Vigilante-inspired vengeance seem half-hearted.

The episode's use of Laurel is drastically more interesting as it tries to show that perhaps Lance has gotten to her, but her villainous past has still left an indelible mark on her. She tries to show that much wider range of emotions this season beyond just pure sass, following up with remorse, for instance. There's some interesting complexity in Black Siren as she does try to bluster around trying to convince everyone else she is as evil as they expect her to be, but I get the impression the show wants to move her toward the free agent route like they had planned with Slade Wilson for a long time; having a somewhat repentant villain pop up when needed but not act fully antagonistic towards the heroes unless their agendas don't align. One could argue Anatoly also fits this mold, and the show is stronger for having characters like that in their stable to work with than simple one-and-done villains.

Lastly, it's worth speaking a bit about Oliver and William, whose relationship reached an interesting point in this episode. It's not particularly in a forward motion as some of the earlier plotting of their relationship in the previous episodes (which placed most of the emphasis on Oliver trying to learn how to be a parent), but it does add some nuance to the matter. The show seems to put some more interest in William being more like his father than he lets on - the toy bow-and-arrow shooting contest, William's bravery in the tunnel attack, and also William "brooding" somewhat like his father while in the bunker as recent examples. So for myself at least, it's not much of a surprise that William might take after Oliver, which works into how he ends up at the tense standoff around the thermobaric bomb, even if it feels slightly forced if only to have Cayden James monologue about his son. Perhaps there's something on the horizon for William to become a vigilante like his father. It's also interestingly complicated by the fact that William - now that he knows Oliver is probably back full-time as Green Arrow - that he would rather be involved as much as he can with the only parent he has left.

Miscellaneous thoughts:
  • Not quite sure how to feel about Oliver using Barry to help him intercept Cayden James. It felt more like a compromise on budget and runtime to not have to shoot a motorcycle/vehicle chase sequence because of all of the Cayden James flashbacks having to be crammed in. And it begs to wonder why they didn't ask Barry for help in locating the bomb in that case.
  • Although I'm sold on Kirk Acevado, I'm not sure how I feel about Ricardo Diaz yet. Again, too many of his moves feel like they've been made off-camera with no regard and right up until the end of the episode, Diaz has been played mostly as a middling criminal with a small connection to Team Arrow (supplying Diggle's steroid drug) with little else of value. How someone who seems like a rising but crappy criminal businessman somehow manipulate others to do his bidding to the point of fracturing a vigilante team and sending a city spiraling, well the show has its work cut out for them.
  • I am actually excited that the two halves of Team Arrow remain split; as noted before I do hope that both teams get some time to breathe dealing with some more minor threats this season before the inevitable reconciliation.
  • I could be wrong, but Cayden James stealing 50 million from a pharmaceutical company is definitely a Person of Interest reference to when Emerson's character basically did the same thing, more or less. What I'm really trying to say is if you enjoyed Michael Emerson's performance here, watch Person of Interest.

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Arrow 6x12 - "All For Nothing" brings its characters to their lowest of lows, in the hopes of something better on the other side



Arrow has messed around with playing with the futility of the superhero life, because naturally when it comes to superheroes facing off with supervillains, sometimes it's necessary storytelling to put the hero on the back foot just long enough so you can propel them forward again. The division of Old and New Team Arrow is something I have thoroughly enjoyed this season and has helped to serve in a way to remix old motifs and tropes the show has relied on and usually, they come out fairly refreshing. When it comes to the case of "All For Nothing", Arrow also brings back their flashback format to help hammer home some of the feeling of futility its characters are trying to fight with Cayden James in control of Star City. "All For Nothing" feels like a bit of a transitional episode even with a lot of plot being churned through, simply because it seems like the show wants to work towards an inevitable Dinah-Laurel-Quentin Mexican standoff.

Unfortunately for one aspect of the show, it's been a bit of a bummer to see the show can't really afford to use its budget to really show Star City under siege by the invisible hand of Cayden James other than Oliver having to wire money to make things less worse, a few lines from the news report reminding us of the dire straits they're in, and Thea asking everyone to pinch some pennies to make the next installment. Admittedly, the opening teaser does show how far Cayden James can reach by dispatching an ARGUS squad in no time flat, though it stands to reason the budget will be best spent elsewhere in the future for something a little more flashy and assuming Star City citizens have even given up rioting in the face of uncertainty or having their smartphone murder them while on the toilet. This is especially hard to swallow when the show was willing to show exactly how bad it can get in the previous episode's teaser that taking the city out of the equation from a storytelling perspective feels almost like dialing back the stakes.

Although Thea and Quentin have mostly carried on with C-level plots through the season, their journey brings them closer and closer to maybe turning Earth-2 Laurel into a neutral character (how Slade Wilson/Deathstroke stands now). It eventually leads into some kind of revelatory moment for Quentin and Earth-2 Laurel that they can make each other better people if they only tried, right up until Cayden James demands loyalty from Laurel and the rug is pulled from under Quentin. The show makes no secret that Laurel feels a bit more regretful as she is asked to murder Vincent, but that shot seem reserved mostly for the audience (and James) and not so much Dinah or Quentin. Quentin has always had a poor time recovering from bad news involving his family and it will be interesting to see how Dinah complicates things.

Dinah meanwhile, continues this season with much more definition than last season as she comes off just as headstrong as Oliver can be and acts almost as a de facto leader of New Team Arrow. "All For Nothing" is somewhat of a headliner for her as Juliana Harkavy has to run double time in the present and in flashbacks to just before the Central City particle accelerator explosion five years ago. With flashbacks on Arrow being absent for much of season six, they have been deployed in a much more pointed storytelling method rather than feeling like plot that sometimes needs to be played forward for its own sake. In this case, this episode shows the parallels from Dinah and Vincent's undercover stint for Sonus and how it went down contrasted with how it ends up affecting the present. Dinah's the one that thought that even with Sonus aware of an undercover cop in his employ that the two of them should see their mission to the end; Vincent was the one who was wary. The tables are turned possibly because of Vincent's metahuman ability to regenerate while Dinah becomes extremely protective of Vincent as a result of her past mistakes. In the end though, Dinah is forced to relive watching Vincent die for a second time as the extreme demands of Cayden James citywide ransom forces everyone's hands to this conclusion.

Make no mistake, "All For Nothing" never dips so far low to the point of absolute futility for our heroes, but for Dinah's sake, trading Vincent's life for a bunch of data rather than his bomb was not worth it for her in the long run. As for Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle, having access to James' treasure trove will likely put the heroes back on the hunt as they have real leads to move on even with his bomb still in play. As for the forged video of the murder of Cayden's son, it seems rather poorly put together to work as a real motivating factor for Cayden James and more as a foreshadowing of someone behind all the events that have played out. Although it's not to dismiss the simple distress of a parent losing their child to make them blind to anything but simple (or in Cayden's case, extremely advanced) revenge.

The show also seems to want to move Dinah in the direction of carrying on Vigilante's modus operandi of simply snuffing out criminals instead of working to assist law enforcement. Whether or not any of Old or New Team Arrow will be able to help her walk back her newfound stance will be interesting to see, as the show seems determined to put her on a collision path with Laurel and Quentin in her quest for vengeance.

Miscellaneous thoughts:
  • Loved the shot of Earth-1 Laurel in costume superimposed over Earth-2 Laurel's face in the projector.
  • I absolutely cannot get over how silly the forged video is on multiple viewings and how a simple criminal can evade a shot from the Green Arrow like a ninja. Although perhaps that speaks to how events might unfold coming up, or is telling about who might be involved.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Arrow 6x11 "We Fall" - a strong purpose - and crisis - binds all of Arrow's separate parts together


What interests me most about season six of Arrow is their committal to breaking up the team and actually having them operate separately. The only real downside is that the show makes it seem pretty obvious it is just "a phase" at times and the division of the team is really eventually going to come to a head at some point in the season. There's not going to be a moment where Dinah, Rene and Curtis spin off into their own show (if it were comics, they might) because the logistics behind television production simply won't allow it. But for the moment I will enjoy what the show will have to offer.

"We Fall" follows Team Arrow and Team New Arrow (what a name!) responding to a huge electronics hack attack by Cayden James against Star City. There's a couple of interesting threads that emerge out of the attack as part of it. Oliver and William's relationship comes to a head, Dinah and Vincent's relationship shifts slightly, and the audience and characters learn a bit more about what truly motivates Cayden James. The episode has a nice setup as it allows all the disparate parts of Arrow to come together in a stand-alone way but keeping many of its continual arcs on track.

The episode eventually culminates in a showdown at a community centre-turned safe zone following Cayden James' electronic hack attack on the city. The episode makes an interesting choice by having the large fight scenes narrated over by Felicity as she explains to William what his father does, and tries to assuage his fears about his father taking up the mantle of Green Arrow despite his wishes, as she draws on her own personal experiences. It never takes on the demeanor of adult-lectures-child as Felicity treats William more of a capable individual, if not an adult. It happens to work on top of that because of the school bus-tunnel scene where the show implies that William has perhaps inherited some of his father's more heroic traits. As Oliver and Diggle rush to rescue William from the tunnel attack, the show explicitly shows us William is at least not a hapless child as he takes charge of the situation, even in spite of the bullying he suffers from some of his peers; like the relationship between Team Arrow and Team New Arrow, the personalities involved are able to rise above their differences to help those in need. It means that when William accepts that Oliver and the Green Arrow are intrinsically tied, there is some implicit understanding within him that agrees and appreciates what his father does. I did wish there was some acknowledgement of it, but I'm also glad the show doesn't spell it out, as most of William's heroics happened out of eyeshot of Oliver and Diggle.

On the subject of the two vigilante teams, it stands to reason that any following episodes in this particular status quo will ultimately lead to some kind of team-up or ultimately having their threads colliding with one another. Part of me also hopes the split stays for longer for the show to examine the two teams and their professional relationship outside the likely many Cayden James-fueled crises. Perhaps something as simple as a metahuman in town creating chaos, or smaller criminal factions connected to one another, to see both teams operating almost entirely independent of another. This does happen in "We Fall", but more so in the context of the two teams (and for Team New Arrow in their inaugural dilemma) working in tandem to keep the city together. There's little begrudging done on both sides as with the crisis of the week, both sides agree it's too much to handle alone at times. I have my position on this element of the show fairly set, so I do hope the show allows this time to breathe as it did with Diggle-as-Green-Arrow earlier this season.

Dinah is a particular strong personality as well in this episode as she makes her discontent with Vigilante from the previous episode, as well as after it's revealed he provided intel for two attacks to help win back Dinah's trust. The new team does temporarily feud on how to best act on his intentions, but the show does seem very intent on making Vincent Sobel/Vigilante a double agent within Cayden James' organization. By the end of it, Dinah is relieved and the two of them meet in secret to resume their relationship. It makes me wonder if there are more twists and turns in store for the two, but at least there is some more substance to their interactions mixed with some intrigue.

Lastly, there is the matter of Cayden James' motivations. A lot of it is left to words throughout the episode, and any attempts to find the source of the forged information that was left for him happens off-screen. Part of me wonders if the forged proof of Cayden's son's death is one last gift from Prometheus last season (which would cement him as the most hilarious but best villain Arrow has had). It stands to reason Felicity especially will try to get a hold of the information but with Cayden's incredibly onerous demands on the city, perhaps it will come too little too late for Oliver as he ends up giving into his demands to keep his city together as much as he can as mayor. It makes me wonder how long it can continue.

Miscellaneous thoughts:
  • Much love for Thea and Quentin, who always have great chemistry together. They don't have too much to do again this episode, but having Thea back to help Quentin as almost a third daughter is always delightful to see.
  • Although he was generally a background character, it kind of sucked to see a character like Pike basically get killed off before the title card.
  • Cayden James' alias for getting into Oliver's office was Ben Gale, which was a nice nod to Emerson's two character names on Lost - Benjamin Linus and Henry Gale.
  • "Suit up" is getting a little worn out but I guess they really like to commit to it with Curtis.
  • This episode is the combo breaker for every episode beforehand having an extended single-cut action sequence, but makes up for it with the speech from Felicity.
  • There is a bit of sadness in Diggle's eyes when he has to put on the (new!) Spartan costume rather than the Green Arrow one.