Arrow

Arrow – Star City Slayer

  • Title: Arrow – Star City Slayer
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Arrow - Star City Slayer television review

There are definitely pieces that work in “Star City Slayer” but also just as much that will likely frustrate fans of the show. With a large portion of the episode set aside to deal with William‘s (Jack Moore) return, it becomes obvious fairly quickly how the character has been mismanaged up to this point. Not fitting into the show’s larger plans, the only available option is to ship him off to his grandparents while a villain’s attack helps convince Oliver (Stephen Amell) that it might be for the best (and help explain his disconnect to the city and his family in the future plotline). And for that villain, Stanley Dover (Brendan Fletcher) returns as the killer threatening Oliver’s friends in a crazy attempt to reconnect with his former prison buddy. Dover actually works fairly well here, especially with the addition of his paralyzing agent that leaves his victims completely at the mad man’s mercy.

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Arrow – Emerald Archer

  • Title: Arrow – Emerald Archer
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Arrow - Emerald Archer television review

Several familiar faces return for Arrow‘s 150th episode presented as a documentary (featuring alternate takes and camera angles of clips from several episodes over the series runs) about Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), vigilantes, and their role in Star City. Those returning include Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne), Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), Thea Queen (Willa Holland), Sin (Bex Taylor-Klaus), Barry (Grant Gustin), and Ragman (Joe Dinicol) who provide their own takes on Oliver and vigilantes along with interviews and sequences from the current cast of series regulars. And when Oliver puts himself in harm’s way to be lure out the villain of the week, the episode even offers the return of Team Arrow. The documentary-style of much of the episode offers its strengths and weaknesses, but overall the episode turns out well (and we do get more regular scenes between characters when not in front of the documentary crew).

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Arrow – Past Sins

  • Title: Arrow – Past Sins
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Arrow - Past Sins television review

Arrow delves back into First Season plotlines in “Past Sins” when the son of the bodyguard murdered in the life raft by Robert Queen (Jamey Sheridan) shows up looking for revenge by targeting Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and the Star City Police Department. As whacked-out loonies go, the baddie of the week is pretty far out there (what did he really hope to gain by targeting police? and how does killing Oliver avenge a death he had no part in?), but the episode fulfills its intended purpose of helping Oliver win some trust with his half-sister Emiko (Sea Shimooka) by throwing his father under the bus. Just how Ollie plans to balance his new public transparency and his knowledge that his sister is the new Green Arrow with attempting to keep Emiko’s trust, however, is yet to be seen.

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Arrow – My Name is Emiko Queen

  • Title: Arrow – My Name is Emiko Queen
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Arrow returns from mid-season hiatus unmasking the new Green Arrow and revealing it to be… Oliver Queen‘s never-before-mentioned half-sister Emiko (Sea Shimooka). A comic character originally inspired by Thea (a character created specifically for the show), there’s a weird circular logic to her introduction here as Emiko seems like an unusual choice to throw into the mix this far into the show’s run (especially presenting her as a near carbon-copy of Oliver from the show’s first couple of seasons complete with her own book of names to cross off). While we have to wait until next week for the first conversation between the siblings, this episode does see Emiko put her own posse together as Rene (Rick Gonzalez) and Curtis (Echo Kellum) join her fight.

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Supergirl – Elseworlds (Part 3)

  • Title: Supergirl – Elseworlds (Part 3)
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Supergirl - Elseworlds (Part 3) television review

Although apparently it will be the last we see of him for awhile, Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) gets quite a bit of screentime in the the “Elseworlds” finale as Hoechlin does double duty as both the Man of Steel and the new form of John Deegan (Jeremy Davies). As with the previous two episodes, Part 3 gives us more nods and winks at both Crisis of Infinite Earths (which apparently will be next year’s big crossover) and other famous moments of our heroes climaxing in the Flash (Grant Gustin) and Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) circling the globe (Superman: The Movie) so quickly they begin to burn themselves out of existence (Crisis of Infinite Earths). The visuals work quite well, even if the logic of the entire segment seems pretty shaky on multiple levels.

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