Includes review of Arrow 502...
Agents of GEEK Podcast Episode 47
Craig Wack & Tatiana Torres 10/14/2016 http://agentsofgeekpodcast.com/wordpress/
-- Craig said that Arrow "is doing its best to get back into our good graces after, like, two seasons of magic and gloominess and a lot of crying." He thought that these first two episodes were "very reminiscent of the way the first three seasons of Arrow were and really what got you hooked on the show in the first place." Tatiana really enjoyed Arrow "a ton this week" (esp. compared to Flash and LoT). She thought a couple things still felt "a little off but they were good for the story" and she also thought the flashbacks were "a little too on the nose now." You would see the thing in flashback and then immediately see the same thing in present day. In past seasons, you wouldn't see the payoff until the end of the episode or after the commercial break. But the flashbacks were still better than last year when we didn't know "why they were going to the f**king island." They both enjoyed the episode and found it entertaining, despite not moving the plot forward much.
-- Craig and Tatiana noted some unintended similarities between Agents of SHIELD and Arrow, almost like they were copying off each other (like a strobe fight scene and a new mystical person who's avenging a past family member).
-- Tatiana said to "stop mentioning Laurel so much!" Craig added: "Yeah, the whole 'do it for Laurel' thing is just not good." Tatiana joked: "'Go look at the statue of Laurel Lance!'... 'No! Because it looks like a block of cheese.' Go away." Craig: "Nobody needs to see that statue."
-- Craig said that he's a "huge fan" of the storyline of Oliver trying to split his duties between being Mayor and being Green Arrow. Craig thought that after Oliver lost the company and had nothing to do other than be the vigilante, he became a less interesting character. Now having to balance that public face as well as being the Green Arrow "adds a little more depth to Oliver's character" and "makes it more real." Tatiana added: "I like when he has to do that because he has more layers that way. But it's like what Felicity said, like, the thing that makes him special is not when he's just trying to be Arrow, it's when he does have to marry those two parts of his personality. Um, and I think that's one of the reasons I really liked this episode is because she's - Felicity's always been the person that pushed him. But at the same time, she would sometimes cower back and not be fully honest. And I feel like in this episode, she's like, well, 'Paugh! Stop it!' Like, 'No, you're not the only one in charge anymore and, heads up, I stayed.' Like, 'I'm still part of this team, I didn't leave you, you don't have to be a sad sack, you're not all by yourself, you do have to form a new team, and you can't just be like gloomer guy.' And it was just like really beautiful." Tatiana noted that this came about in the middle of the episode when Oliver was talking to Felicity about Bratva. When Felicity said that he never talked about Russia before, Craig pointed out that that was because Oliver "can only remember his past in 90-second bursts in chronological order."
-- Tatiana said that, although she's an Olicity shipper, "they don't have to be together for the show to work" because Oliver & Felicity weren't together and the episode still worked. However, "it made seeing her with the new boyfriend that much harder, to see how still how deep their connection is, you know?" She added: "Obviously they have to get back together at some point, whether it be at the end of the season or the middle of the season or like at the end of the show... They have to get back together or else millions of people will riot, including myself. And Berlanti knows that... I think what's important with the way their relationship is now is that, even when they were 'happy' for like a minute at the beginning of season 4, I feel like they were both lying to each other in certain ways. Like, Ollie was pretending like he really liked suburbia and cooking and, like, that that could be enough for him when obviously it wasn't. And the same thing when she was lying too because it wasn't enough for her either. And then you had the lying with the son and you had this, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But now I feel that, because they've had the relationship, they've broken up, and now they've seemed to at least get back on the same ground with their vigilante-friendship-relationship bond, blah, blah, blah - that maybe when they do get back together, we won't have to deal with that same stupid drama that ended up coming up in season 4, because they're already more comfortable, with, like, him being more truthful and vulnerable, and with her calling him out and forcing him to talk about stuff, you know?"
-- Craig: "This show is stronger when Felicity is stronger... For whatever reason, whenever they make her a weepy basket case, which they did for large chunks of the back half of last season, the show definitely does suffer for it... She is the heart of both this show and of Team Arrow. And so when she is weakened and isn't, you know, 'herself' - I don't think she necessarily has to be - I think the problem is that, you know, when they sort of make Felicity not at her best, there's no, like, middle ground. There's no, like, her just kinda in the dumps - like, she goes from being hyper-competent to almost worthless. And there's no, like, her just being a little off. And so, when she's strong and she's competent, I think that that is the best way that Felicity is written and that Emily Bett Rickards performs it... I think the show really does suffer when, you know, Felicity is sort of more dependent than independent." Tatiana noted that Felicity was kinda shown to be in the middle ground when she was paralyzed because she was weaker but she was still strong and independent in running Palmer Tech and working with Curtis to think of new things; however, they "leaned into the negative part at the tail end of last season." Tatiana: "But I definitely think she's back to being - calling people out. And she's basically the backbone of that team. It's not Ollie right now. Like, yes, Ollie is technically the leader. But she's definitely the leader because she's putting the new kids in check and Ollie in check and making sure that everything actually kind of f**king functions." Craig noted that that was the role Felicity had in the past, that she was the one "who kept the family together in a lot of ways."
-- Tatiana liked that Thea is more of her own character this season and not tied to Malcolm. They also both liked her developing father-daughter dynamic with Quentin Lance.
-- Tatiana was very concerned about Diggle and how he's going to be rescued. They both wondered if Lyla still existed, since Barry wiped out Diggle's daughter. Tatiana: "Listen. Bartholomew. If you took away Lyla, I will cut you... She is too cool for you."
-- Craig concluded that 502 was a good episode: the fight scenes were still good, the way the new team was "maneuvered in" was done in a way that he didn't hate them, and "Arrow feels like Arrow again."
(They then went on to review the Flash episode. Craig has decided to treat Barry like a villain going forward. I didn't listen to their entire Flash review, but I did catch their comments on Tom Felton. Craig: "And then CSI Draco Malfoy is now Barry's partner." Tatiana: "Obviously, Slytherin are never going to get along with Hufflepuff... And if anybody thinks Barry isn't Gryffindor, you have never read Harry Potter.")
Don't recall if this was posted before...
