There have been many attempts to take comics from books to screens over the years. Some worked and some didn’t. The failures are a bit too numerous to list while “Smallville” comes to mind in terms of successes with 10 years on the air. After “Smallville”’s run, any DC show that came after would be forced to emerge from the long shadow Superman casts. Only 18 months after the series finale of “Smallville”, “Arrow” was slated to premiere on CW in October 2012.
When CW announced that they were putting together a show about Green Arrow, there was a fair bit of skepticism. Many people watched “Smallville” but a lot of those viewers have a lot of complaints about the heavy teen drama throughout the show. The saving grace was the great comic moments that would occur with increasing frequency as the show progressed. Most fans agree that any successor would need to focus on these moments and deliver a less drama oriented narrative.
As the details started to come out about “Arrow”, opinion was still up in the air about how the show would turn out. The show’s creators have mixed pedigrees, which didn’t help fan confidence. Andrew Kreisberg wrote for many popular shows like “Boston Legal”, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”, and “Justice League”. He also helped the show “Fringe” go through its first season as Co-executive producer and writer. The other members of the creative team didn’t engender so much confidence. Greg Bertlanti co-created “Everwood” (eh), “No Ordinary Family” (eh), and “Jack & Bobby” (what?). He also created “Eli Stone” with another Arrow creator, Marc Guggenheim, which was a show that crashed and burned pretty hard. Guggenheim had a couple unimpressive runs with a few comics and his work with Berlanti. The biggest strike against Berlanti and Guggenheim was their involvement on the writing team that brought us the trainwreck that was “Green Lantern”. Many comic fans were unsure about the future of “Arrow” before it even began.
Despite those fears, over 4 million people tuned in for the first episode and the show maintained an average of 3.5 million viewers over the first season. The show impressed many with great action and an engaging narrative that reminded comic fans of their favorite books. The performances by Stephen Amell (a relative unknown), David Ramsey (another relative unknown), John Barrowman (with a guaranteed fan base), and others all helped make the show amazing. There were even surprising fan favorites who found permanent places on the cast like Emily Bett Rickards and Manu Bennett. The show definitely took a cue from Smallville critiques and made sure to deliver a great comic book story right out of the box.
Season one ended on such an incredible note, many weren’t sure if the second season could deliver but they were proven wrong. The second season has taken the concepts from the first and ran with them. More comic like stories, more amazing cameos from various DC characters, and a developing universe that speaks of unplumbed depths for future storylines. I mean, come on, they introduced the Flash and gave him his powers during the mid-season finale in December.
The reason this show is great for comics in general, beyond just being a good Green Arrow series, is that it shows how rich a comic show can be with the right chemistry. Since the success of comic films, comic tv series are being signed with alarming frequency. With so many shows being created, it would be easy for them to be hastily put together like Green Lantern and become disasters. Arrow shows that they can be successful but need to put it together right. It artfully blends action, character development, and a broad story without emphasizing too much on a particular element. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has had a problem with this but it has been getting better. It has been at a disadvantage since its first season is being compared to Arrow’s second. I’m sure that given time S.H.I.E.L.D. could rise to the challenge.
All in all, Arrow has the potential to set the bar incredibly high for the future of comic tv series and give fans hope for new shows that would actually impress. I’m sure that out of all the upcoming shows, some will be flops. As long as The Flash and Gotham work out, I’ll be happy. With the solid combination of action, intrigue, drama, and the right kind of humor, Arrow is poised to become the definition of the comic to tv conversion. With surprising moves like introducing the Flash concept through Arrow and teasing a broader DC universe like Marvel’s, many fans are eagerly anticipating the second half of season 2 and the future of Arrow.
Arrow returns tonight at 8pm on the CW.
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