★★★☆☆ Arrow, created by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg
Pretty actor-like performers
Arrow
Created by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg
Pretty actor-like performers
I’m going to try to keep this short, since I don’t enjoy writing negative reviews.
A month or so ago I watched Season 2 (currently the last released) of Daredevil Born Again—an excellent TV show, in my opinion. That finished, I went on to the next Marvel TV show that I hadn’t yet seen, Spider-Noir, which was considerably less impressive. Spider-Noir is on Prime Video, and when I finished it, Prime recommended Arrow. I was pleased to see that Arrow had run for eight seasons. I took that as a good sign, first, because no show runs for eight seasons unless a lot of people enjoy it, and second because I thought it would keep me entertained for a long time. I am writing this review after watching the entire first season. I don’t intend to watch any more.
The first thing that struck me about Arrow, in contrast to Marvel TV shows, was that the stars had clearly been chosen because they were pretty people. Say what you like about Vincent D’Onofrio (who plays Kingpin in Daredevil), he is not a pretty person, not when wearing a fat suit. A very good actor, but not pretty. Nor, in my opinion, is Nicolas Cage, or even Deborah Ann Woll, as she appears in the last episodes of Daredevil Born Again. Charlie Cox (who plays Matt Murdock/Daredevil)), is, I will grant you, a good-looking guy. He’s also one Hell of an actor.
Arrow stars Stephen Arnell as Oliver Queen. He’s a good-looking, buff (and often shirtless), and absurdly carefully groomed man, who apparently calibrates the length of his stubble to the micron. He can’t act. He does occasionally try—you can see him trying—but he just can’t do it. Katie Cassidy as his love interest Laurel Lance is another very pretty person, who shows no real sign of being able to act.
I don’t want to be completely unfair to Arrow—it is not devoid of acting. Some of the minor characters are not bad. I’m thinking particularly of Paul Blackthorne (who plays Laurel’s father Quentin Lance), and Emily Bett Rickards, who plays tech geek Felicity Smoak with understated humor.
But it is 100% clear when you watch Arrow that “pretty” was the thing they were looking for in their actors.