Arrow Review: “Muse of Fire”

Jethro has a review of this week’s Arrow.

Oliver meets a kindred spirit, Tommy’s life suffers a major course change, and we find out a bit more about John Barrowman’s character.

Oh and Tahmoh Penikett continues his role as our genre’s Ted McGinley.

Information for cast and crew may be found here
and here.

Title: “Arrow” Review: Muse of Fire

Cast and Crew

Director: David Grossman
Writers: Andrew Kreisberg (story), Geoff Johns and Marc Guggenheim
(teleplay)

Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green arrow
Katie Cassidy as Dinah “Laurel” Lance
David Ramsay as John “Dig” Diggle
Willa Holland as Thea “Speedy” Queen
Paul Blackthorne as Quentin Lance
Colin Salmon as Walter Steele
Roger Cross as Hilton
Susanna Thompson as Moira Queen
Jessica De Gouw as Helena Bertinelli
John Barrowman as Well-Dressed Man as “Well-Dressed Man”
Tahmoh Penikett as who cares, it’s Tahmoh Penikett.

Premise

Reacting to his mother almost becoming collateral damage in a mob
shooting, Oliver attempts to go undercover to investigate a mob-connected family. He finds more than he bargained for. Meanwhile, Tommy and Laurel’s relationship moves forward, while Tommy’s personal life goes downhill. But he does get pizza, so it’s not all bad.

I’ve not read the comics, so I had no idea who or what Huntress is. It was fairly obvious that Helena’s character was set up to be a bit more than a casual romance or one of Arrow’s victims. I hate spoilers, but just looking up the actress’ name gave me way more information than I needed.

Such as the portion spoilered above.

High Points

  • Tommy actually telling Oliver he’s asked Laurel out was fantastic.
    Avoided a huge cliché trap.
  • We learned how John Barrowman’s character fits into the story.
  • I have a feeling that Helena Bertinelli aka
    Huntress
    is a high point for people who know who that is.

Low Point

  • I thought it was a bit odd that Oliver was on a motorcycle, and
    yet chose to chase a motorcycle-riding gunman on foot. They did “explain”
    it later but you know.
  • Wasn’t a hell of a lot of action in this episode, which is strange
    considering it introduced the aforementioned spoiler. I don’t know that we
    even saw arrows.

The Scores:

Originality: I have no idea how Helena Bertinelli origin story corresponds to that of the comic book. However, this show still does manage (at least to me) to present the stories in a fairly original manner, even when the stories themselves are not super-original. The whole Tommy dating Lauren thing, for example, didn’t go the usual Lets-Date-In-Secret way, which is refreshing. I give it 4/6.

Effects: nothing to write home about this week. What action sequences we did have were in the dark and/or very quick cuts. 4/6.

Story: I’m still liking this. The Barrowman reveal was good, Tommy’s
downfall was somewhat of a surprise for me, and Oliver finding that there might be other people who understand his experiences were all good. 5/6.

Acting: You know, I just wasn’t crazy about Jessica De Gouw’s performance, especially with the action sequences. I hope she grows more comfortable with the role. The rest of the cast are still doing good work. I hate to knock off 2 points for just one character, but she did play a major part and will be returning, so 4/6.

Emotional Response: Pretty good this week. Several big things happened to a few major characters this week and I find myself caring about all of them. Also happy that Thea seemed to be doing ok. I’m extremely happy (and surprised) that John Barrowman manages to creep the hell out of me. 5/6.

Production: Not a big production this week, but nonetheless this show’s production values are great. 5/6.

Overall: We’re still doing a biiit more Character Development and a biiit less action than I’d like, but it’s still ok. The story is developing uninteresting ways, and I’m still very interested to see where we’re all going. Next week should be interesting. The one nit I have to pick with this episode is Oliver’s instant change of heart when he finds out that the killer he’s looking for is a hot chick, but you know. 5/6.

In total, “Arrow: Muse of Fire” receives 32/42 points.

9 replies on “Arrow Review: “Muse of Fire””

  1. With regards the the spoilers– frankly, once you have a character with that first name in a DC production, the fact that she’s The Huntress is a given.

    As for who she is, at this point, who knows?

    Originally, she was the daughter of Earth-Two’s Batman and Catwoman. After Crisis, she was Helena Bertinelli, the daughter of a mob boss and… Blah blah blah. Then it was revealed she was Helena Wayne after all, who had assumed the identity of Helena Bertinelli as well as the Huntress.

    At this point, I have no idea, other than another butt-kicking DC female in a mask and this show has the right to feature her.

    • Yeah, that kind of name is kind of a giveaway, isn’t it. I did look her up and didn’t really find any Green Arrow connections, but again, I’m no comic book expert. Mostly because comic books weren’t really available where I grew up (which saved my parents thr trouble of not letting me buy them).

    • I’m glad you posted this, JD, cuz I was gonna have to ask!
      Not a comic fan, but lovin this show!

      :)

      • Thanks go to Jethro, who actually writes our Arrow reviews.

        I’m less a fan, but we do watch it. Arrow still has the potential, I think, to be the show Smallville should have become after its first few seasons.

  2. The one nit I have to pick with this episode is Oliver’s instant change of heart when he finds out that the killer he’s looking for is a hot chick, but you know.

    I didn’t have a problem with this, the change of heart is mostly because the killer is the girl he’s falling for and the daughter for the kingpin being targeted and she seems to share his beliefs.

    • I didn’t have a problem with it as such, but I’d like to have seen him go “Oh no! Well I have to think about this for 3 seconds now.”

  3. Although, as a whole, I did enjoy the episode, I was a bit underwhelmed by Jessica De Gouw’s performance. Hopefully she improves if she sticks around a while.

    I was already familiar with who she was, so no surprise there. Not terribly shocking how Oliver reacted either, given the history/motivations.

  4. Something else interesting is that the Police are seeing an increase in anti-gang activity. Its not all “Green Arrow” all the time. They can’t just focus on a vendetta to capture him and shut him down.

    The potential for one persons actions to start a gang war is something that perhaps should be explored further. Why does Huntress’ actions potentially trigger this event when Arrow’s don’t?

    • I got the impression that her actions were more likely to trigger it since she was going from the bottom up and keeping herself hidden, like a rival gang might do to hurt their bottom line. Whereas Green Arrow tends to go right for the top and make it known that it’s him doing it.

      Basically his actions/intentions are clear to the leader of $evil_dude_of_the_week, whereas her actions left the leader of the gang with few other options than to assume a rival gang was to blame.

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