statsgirl

I think having Diggle and Felicity sidelined for some episodes while the writers play with other storylines is going to be inevitable. They're not the greatest at plotting on this show. Hopefully the audience response it happening s2 is going to make them think a bit more about what does into an episode and what gets cut. At least Diggle and Felicity will be getting some storylines of their own next season (hopefully) but I have to agree, the two of them snarking at Oliver is some of the best parts of the show. Unlike Oliver, Slade had helpers, not partners. Blood barely knew anything about his plans and even Isabel, who knew about Oliver's secret identity, didn't know about Shado. Slade being fixated only on Oliver's family, Laurel, Thea and Moira makes a lot of sense. It would have knocked Slade for a loop, finding out he was so wrong about who Oliver loved, possibly giving Oliver a slight advantage.

Keep out sign on the casting door https://twitter.com/RapaportCasting/status/478696350440112128/photo/1

My money's on Oliver being the one to put the brakes on because of that whole 'because of what I do' thing. If it's Felicity, I don't think Felicity was brought on to be the female love interest; I think she was brought on because the character clicked with people and she lightened up a dour Oliver. This may also be why Olicity works better than Lauriver, because Felicity, like Sara, has her own role on the show independent of being Oliver's love interest while Laurel doesn't. She should, she's a lawyer and could be useful in terms of the overall show, but they haven't found a niche for her yet.

quarks, what do you mean by the opposite reactions are coming from the industry pros? Do they think O/L is happening, or not happening? I'm really curious how someone with more real world experience sees it. (I'm coming from House M.D., where I was badly burned. The show seemed to be going in one direction, and then Bryan Singer left and it became something very different. And the more people asked for one thing (the original ducklings back), the more the show-runner dug in his heels and pushed the other harder. It wasn't just viewers who didn't like the direction, it was reviewers like Matt Roush and Maureen Ryan too.)

Laurel will forgive him because he's a hero and she knew that all along, even when she was turning two blind eyes to his screwing around and dropping out of four schools and just generally being a douche. She believed in him, and this is her reward. I think at this point there is no way they can make O and L look good. But since this is a CW show, all bets are off. Nobody that I know in the outside world (people I talk face-to-face to or even in individual e-mails) like Oliver/Laurel or even think Laurel is a good character. But then I listen to the EPs and it is like being on a different planet. If I were an EP, and Lauriver was the endgame, I would tell the rest of the cast to cool it on the Olicity promotion because it would be setting up an expectation that was going to fail, or at least to mention Laurel and Oliver too. But then, I'm not one of the EPs. I can see them thinking they would try Laurel out as BC next season and see what happens, leaving Oliver/Felicity in the background because that has turned into a bigger part of the show. But after seeing Caity Lotz do Canary and KC play Laurel, it's hard to see how that would work. I can't see Laurel in the new Arrow lair. She won't be good enough to spar with Oliver or Diggle. Will she be put with Roy? That seems kind of bizarre to me. Still thinking that Laurel and Oliver will get back together, either while Felicity is with Daniel or in the middle part of the season. Mid-season was the messed-up part of s2, so maybe that's when it will happen in s3.

Hee. Yes. But back then, it was just another movie that a p.r. person was shilling, and the people who had been working at the station for years were very unimpressed at the nobodies who showed up to promote it. (But I still remember that Harrison Ford was a real cutie back then.)

From the media thread: NCIS has changed show-runners 3 times. Donald Bellisario, who created the show, was pushed out by a general strike led by Mark Harmon. Shane Brennan then took over, and left to run NCIS:LA which he created. Gary Glasberg is running it now. I find that when a show changes show-runners, it changes tone too so if you're a fan of a show, it's time to be wishin' and prayin' when a new show runner comes on, or even when one leaves. When Bryan Singer left House, even though David Shore was still there, it was a very different show. I've liked Marlowe's Castle, except for seasons 3 and 4 when both Castle and Beckett became so stupid I couldn't stand them. I think it's a good time for him to exit the show, he's done what he set out to do, it's a solid show in terms of ratings, and it's time for new blood to take over. It also seems like a step up the production ladder since he'll be developing new shows.

I remember SA last year saying he was exhausted because when he was done taping the show, and recovering from being sick, WB sent him all over the world on press tours to promote it so he didn't really get all that much time off. I think it says something about EBR and CH's status that this year WB sent them to Europe instead. And MB, JB and KC in Australia. Thanks for the clips, tvecho. EBR looked very tired in the not-Madrid clip. CH looked very Abercrombie. My first job out of college was as a story producer for a daytime talk show. We got guests either from the publicity people for an event contacting us to have the actor on to promote the event or the play, or by reading all the press releases to see who was in town and then phoning up to see if they would come on our show. If Barrowman and Cassidy were in town at the same time, their publicists could had them appear together since two stars are better than one.. Or Barrowman got booked for his Sing Your Face Off show and the morning show's producers realized KC was in town and called up her publicist. (The first year I was there, a movie publicist called us to offer the three junior stars of a new science fiction movie, and the oldies at the station were grumbling about these kids and why didn't they send the real actors like Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing? (Yes, I'm really old. Shut up.)) I think the idea of having to paying for autographs happened when people started selling the free ones on ebay and other internet sites, and then those signing them started charging. There is a fan-run convention in my town and the people on the committees contact the actors to see if they will come. Because it's not a big FanExpo/ComicCon thing, autographs and pictures run from $30 to $50.

'Daniel' is "a handsome, enigmatic and highly intelligent entrepreneur developing groundbreaking technology. (Picture a business magnate in Ryan Gosling’s body.) Though exuding charm and confidence in public, he privately harbors a tragic past that will drive him to become a tech-powered superhero. Watch for this formidable fella to be a love interest for Felicity and a rival of Oliver’s – both personally and professionally." So while he will be a romantic interest for Felicity, that's only going to be a part of the rivalry/parallel with Oliver -- the business magnate (CEO?) and superhero are the other two legs of it. Even the tragic past mirrors Oliver's tragic past. Like Barry, who came on board with all sort of hype about his relationship with Felicity but it ended up being about Barry&Oliver instead, it sounds like Daniel's going to be there to shake up Oliver in a number of ways. I doubt he's permanent for Felicity, not at this point at least. There is just too much going for Oliticy. Which is the better option, in my opinion. As much as I like the shippy parts, they are a sinking sand basis on which to build a story. Fear. I don't think the show will end on Laurivier, or if it does I won't be around to see it, but I'm girding my loins that they will revisit it fairly soon, possibly while Felicity is involved with Daniel (another reason to bring him on now) so the Felicity and Olicity fans don't firebomb the writers' room.

Two things that comic books and soap operas have in common is that they need a lot of material to fill their space, and they're open-ended. Messy personal relationships and back-and-forthing fill those needs. Because Arrow (the TV show) is build on a five year plan (per SA in Denver), my hope is that the EPs have plotted out the five seasons in rough and we don't have to have all the soap opera stuff happening. If the show goes longer, maybe they can move into different territory.

But he didn't really do right by her after all. She took down that thug but the next one got her, and then the rest of the season was spent with Laurel either being annoying (fighting with Sara) or off in her own little addiction arc. When they finally got back to her being part of the main storyline, they overdid it in Seeing Red, underdid it in the arc of taking down Slade, and then overdid it again with the jacket scene. Now they're letting KC spread the word about how she's going to be the BC next season and since no one is taking her aside and telling her to tone it down, it gives the impression that yes, she will be. The tweet sounds like placating to me. But then, I have no idea what they're trying to do with Laurel.

Should we all ask the same questions? Or each of us get a couple? Who to? Kreisburg, Guggenheim and the ArrowWritersRoom?

I wish you could send that to the EPs, maybe by posting it on the Arrow FB page as the interview you'd like to see from KC. You could answer #4 and #5 for her.

Yes, that's what I meant. He had a thing for Barbara Gordon, but it could be changed to Sara or someone else who comes on as Oracle if Sara stays with Nyssa and she joins a potential BOP show. I don't think there's room for two superheros on Arrow, not right now anyway. They had trouble knowing how to do Sara in s2. Since we're talking about the Blue Beetle rather than just Ted Kord, I think we're supposed to be in the spoiler thread.

I think they said something about now that she knows Oliver's secret, she's going to be part of Team Arrow. The question is how much? If she's going to be Manhunter or working from the DA's office, I woudn't have trouble with that. But if she's going to be fighting alongside Oliver as Sara did... I had enough trouble with the episodes when Sara sidelined Diggle and Felicity, there's no way I would accept Laurel doing it. I understand the comparison to Smallville, especially with also having a Green Arrow. But there seem to me to be some differences (keeping in mind that I didn't watch Smallville: I don't care what Andrew Kreisburg says, Clark/Lana and Clark/Lois are much more iconic couples than GA/BC, just as Superman is better known than Green Arrow. You can mess around some with a superhero story on TV but I think there would have been an uproar if Clark Kent had ended up with anyone other than Lois Lane. Not so for Arrow, where already Felicity Smoak is considered the love interest rather than Laurel Lance. Smallville is about a place while Green Arrow is a person. I think it less likely that Arrow is going to share the stage with a number of other superheros. Green Arrow arrived on Smallville in season 6 when Clark had been firmly established. This is still season 3 of Arrow so it 'Daniel' is going to be another superhero, I don't think he'll be staying on as a regular, just as I see Sara as recurring if she stays. Did Clark ever say 'I love you' to Chloe? I know he kissed her but even as a ruse an ILU is a pretty big deal.. I wouldn't be surprised, if 'Daniel' turns out be the the Blue Beetle, they're also setting up the possibility for him being on a Birds of Prey spin-off, especially if he's romancing one of them..

I remember wearing fishnets, back in the dawn of time. They were drafty and provided zero protection from either elements or cuts. Black leather pants is the way to go. Doing pushups back stage seems like it's in the 'she doth protest too much' category. It seems like she knows people are having a hard time accepting her as the Black Canary and she's trying to prove she ready. Unlike Oliver who will be in Hong Kong flashbacks and Felicity and both of them trying to work out what they will do now that Oliver has no money, we don't know anything about what will happen to Laurel next season. As the leading lady, wouldn't there be hints about what is going to happen with her next season? At the Calgary convention in May, she said she hadn't read the comics. I wonder if she has now or if she's referring to what she's been told about the on-again, off-again relationship between GA and BC.

I think wanting to get healthier and keep away from her addictions would be a great reason -- none the least because it's true that exercise endorphins would help her. Or maybe, since she a good-doer, she can take classes and then decide to teach self-defense to other women who need to protect themselves. i hope it's not to compete with Sara though, there's been too much of that in Laurel's life.

New York fashion week is the biggest of the North America ones, isn't it? That would be a lucky coincidence. (I try not to be nasty about her but she put down Vancouver fashions in one of her interviews and I can't forget that.) SDCC is the big one, the one all shows bring out their heavy guns for. She should be there because there will be a lot of show promotion going on, and a lot of media.

Having daddy issues doesn't necessarily mean a lack of self-esteem (although interestingly studies have found that very successful women often have daddy issues because they're trying to prove something to their disapproving or absent father). But for me, it's how Felicity behaves rather than her backstory. She did tell Walter that firing her would be a big mistake, but when she was called to his office, she automatically assumed that it was because she was to be fired. A self-confident person would have been more likely to assume that she was either being given a promotion or pulled aside to work on a special project because she was so good at her job. Felicity is afraid of a lot of things but even while afraid, she goes and she does them because she thinks it's the right thing to do. She's afraid of heights but she swings on arrow vines with Oliver, or window sashes, and jumps out of a plane to get him. That's one of the reasons I love the character so much, because even terrified she does what she needs to do. She told off Oliver even right after she's just joined the Team even though you can see that she's scared while she does it. She knows Moira doesn't like her and that she's one very scary woman but she still confronts her with the information about Thea's parentage. And then when that doesn't work, she tells Oliver himself even though it would hurt too badly if Oliver abandoned her. A self-confident woman wouldn't have been stunned when Oliver told her Slade took the wrong woman, she would have said "ah, that explains it." When Oliver told her in Tremors that when she was away he was aware of how much they needed her, she asked "Do I have a shot then at being employee of the week?" instead of saying "It's about time you realized that" as a more self-confidence person would have done. Think what Laurel would have said in that situation. Felicity's self-confidence has grown over the time of the show as she's realized that she is important to Oliver and Diggle and to the mission, but I still think she's more likely to defend another person than herself. I didn't think she was being snarky to Nyssa; more that she was defending their territory. I wonder how Felicity is going to get on with Lyla, and whether Lyla will be spending time with them in the new lair..

I agree that for those two episodes, to have Laurel there would only have detracted from telling the story. And that those are two of the better episodes of s2. I didn't care much for The Promise but that's because I was on Slade/Sara/island overload by then.

They do it for people they value enough about to accommodate. House was the first show I was internet savvy enough to learn about what went on behind the scenes. At the end of season 3, they moved two of the original fellows to the backburner and barely used them after they brought on three newbies, including Olivia Wilde, but the two original actors had to remain on call for the show. They accommodated Olivia Wilde's film career, writing her off for two long arcs but Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer were prevented from doing other projects even though at that time they were barely on the show. (At one point Morrison did not appear for five episodes in a row.) Spencer had to turn down a film shooting in Hawaii because the House EPs wouldn't let him do it, and Morrison got to do Star Trek because shooting was on hiatus during the writers' strike.. So it may be that the show didn't need her, or it could be that they wanted to accommodate her because they don't want to lose her (like David Ramsey, Manu Bennett s2 and Summer Glau). Nathan Fillion doing awards shows and cons is good publicity for Castle. I do agree, however, that that it wasn't a good thing for Laurel to have Katie Cassidy missing those episodes, and show how little Laurel is needed on the show.

laurendrew, will you be wearing fishnets or fishnet patterned black leather pants? Since you're been watching the show, you already have a leg up on KC. I hope they cast someone good as 'Daniel'. I wonder if, if he is Ted Kord/ Blue Beetle, they will cast with an eye to another possible spin-off. (I remember Manu Bennett talking about being in line at an airport and hearing about the press release that he had been cast as Slade and saying Wait, they got it wrong, I was cast as 'X' (the name that was on the audition script to keep the casting secret).)

That's just awesome. The three of them really are the core of this show.

Just my opinion, but I don't think SA would be talking about Canary in the same sentence as Caity Lotz if he were referring to Laurel being the Canary. Or even Sara being the White Canary since she's been introduced in the black outfit. It just doesn't make sense. KC has said that she hasn't read the comics yet, she's waiting till she becomes the Black Canary. EBR said that she hadn't read the GA/BC comics when she got the part but she's since bought a bookshelf just for the comics, and is reading them. Felicity has earned having a love interest of her own rather than having to compete with Laurel, Sara or Iris.

whew.... okay, I'm calming down now. I'm a believer in not looking at when they say but at what they do. Laurel got two non-Oliver love interests: Tommy, who died at the end of s1 and Sebastian Blood, who ended up a bad guy and who Oliver wished her well with. Felicity is also getting two non-Oliver love interests: Barry who will become a superhero and who they needed to be attractive to the audience to sell the possibility of a spin-off (and who did so well on Arrow that the network pushed him right into a pilot instead of the backdoor episode they had originally intended) and now 'Daniel' who will be a tech-powered superhero. Felicity is definitely getting the better guy, especially the second time around. Add to that the media buzz that Oliver/Felicity generates, it doesn't make sense to have Oliver end up with Laurel.