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Social Media and Behind the Scenes: AKA Everything Else Not "News and Media"

Zalyn

By Zalyn
in Arrow

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dtissagirl
dtissagirl

What bugs me is the implication that if you are not patient, you're watching it wrong. Naw, son. You don't get to tell me how I watch TV. I'm an actual pro at doing it.

WindofChange
WindofChange

Oh wow, Emily. I'm impressed because this is really brave and I'm really proud that she said this in such an eloquent way.

dtissagirl
dtissagirl

Ha. Reading those stage directions, and realizing how EBR went the opposite way [curious and skeptic rather than faint by hot guy] makes me understand 100% how fucking lost they were at that time, and

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Sakura12

Sakura12

I loved that John Campea went off about not liking Laurel or wanting her to be BC. I figured Stephen was prepared for that question having seen the show before and knowing him. So he gave a typical Hollywood spin answer, which boils down to "it gets better". Sadly, it never did with Lana on Smallville for 8 season and I didn't hate Lana nearly as much as I hate Laurel. So saying it gets better doesn't mean it actually it is. 

 

But I still feel like Stephen is not as happy with the direction of this season. He seemed much more excited last season. 

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statsgirl

statsgirl

(edited)

They're not the greatest with theories.  On this, they thought that Thea was turning evil.

 

When Stephen Amell phoned them last season, he told them that their speculations were totally wrong.   I guess Talia comes closest to Ra's.

Campea is still convinced that Roy killed Sara because he remembered Sara's exact words that night.

 

I don't think they mentioned romance per se but someone who's seen it more recently may remember better.  Campea is against Olicity because he likes Felicity just as she is.

Edited by statsgirl
Chaser

Chaser

I thought he was really excited at Comic Con this year. But as the show has progressed, it just seems to be waning. At the time, I want to say they were shooting 'Sara' (That's a pun and it's horrible). He may have loved the themes but realized (IMO) the actual execution is lacking. Also, there was so much negativity after that first episode; it had to affect him. I feel he takes the show very personally….understandably. 

Kymmi

Kymmi

Does anybody that follows SA on facebook have any opinions on his excitement level this season?  Is he posting less Arrow stuff, is he less enthusiastic than normal?  None of the above?  I rarely check out his page, so I have no idea, but I'm curious.

 

He's been posting less the last few weeks, but I think it's because of all his time off.  When he does post about Arrow, he is very positive.  He seems to think this is the best season ever.  I recall reading (may have been Twitter) that he thinks S3 is going to "annihilate" S2. He was super pumped about "The Magician" and has been raving about episode 9/10 as being the best ever.  Maybe he always does this?  Strikes me as genuine, though.

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statsgirl

statsgirl

I didn't know Berlanti still wrote, I thought he was only doing productions now.  Given his "encyclopedic knowledge" (per SA) of television history,  it will be interesting to see what he does.

 

Kreisberg said a number of times when he was talking about Brandon Routh joining the show that it will be good to have someone who can do comedy off of EBR.  So I know he likes to write funny, not sure how good it is though.

I really wish he would stop saying that. He realizes that adds up to negative one step, right? lol

Err... going by what's happening, I'd say 'no'.

statsgirl

statsgirl

He's always excited about some upcoming episode.  I rolled my eyes when he said The Magician was the best this season so far, because that one really made me want to throw things at the TV because it was so stupid.

 

I think for SA, a lot of what he thinks is a great episode is about the stunts rather than the characters.

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dtissagirl

dtissagirl

(edited)

Wow, that seems like a really weird choice for the Oscars. I don't know anything about the other two writers, but I don't really think "funny" when I think of Berlanti and Kreisberg. Maybe they'll just write the earnest stuff...

They gotta be going for a superhero theme there, otherwise these writers make no sense. Michael Green wrote for Smallville way back, and Heroes too, and he worked with Berlanti on a bunch of his old WB shows. Seth Grahame-Smith is the wild card here, because he's the dude turning the likes of the Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and Pride & Prejudice & Zombies books into movie scripts. So maybe superheroes and monsters? Zombies are a big thing right now after all. :)

Edited by dancingnancy
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HighHopes

HighHopes

(edited)

There will be a private screening of the two crossover episodes on November 22 in LA. Details are here. (Looks like it's only open to Americans.. Which as a Canadian makes me super upset. You film here and some of your cast are Canadian...and yet we can't enter the contest?). However it does look like a lot of the cast will be there (Team Arrow included!).

 

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Edited by HighHopes
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catrox14

catrox14

I understand he gets time off, but he's also pretty vocal about this show. He's highly competitive and he has said he wants Arrow to be the best show on TV. Surely he can't think what they are doing now makes it the best show on TV. I just feel bad for the guy because he puts his all into the show.

 

I was being a bit facetious about him wanting out but I do think he doesn't seem to have the same enthusiasm as last season or over the summer.

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statsgirl

statsgirl

I think he's working very hard to make it the best show he can and he really believes that it is a great show. To be honest, it has made superhero shows acceptable, there are a number of good actors and the stunts are amazing.

 

I think he gets discouraged when fans get upset, like over the poster and now about Laurel's storylines, and it's especially bad when he gets too tired.  He was still selling the January stuff pretty heavily but who knows what he really thinks of it?

 

 

 Why do you think KC is sticking around despite getting shittiest story lines? Because it is a solid job with good money and exposure on TV 23 weeks a year.

 

I have to disagree with this.  I think Willa Holland is getting the worst storylines and what Susanna Thompson got in the first season was no picnic.  Compared to what other people get on this show Laurel has got storyline after storyline and I think it's on KC that she can't sell either a romance with Oliver or an addiction arc.  I really believe that this is as good as she's going to get in terms of being a leading lady on a TV show because she's now tagged as miscast and the weakest link on the show. At best after this, IMO she'll get supporting roles as the bitchy best friend.  

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TanyaKay

TanyaKay

I have to disagree with this.  I think Willa Holland is getting the worst storylines and what Susanna Thompson got in the first season was no picnic.  Compared to what other people get on this show Laurel has got storyline after storyline and I think it's on KC that she can't sell either a romance with Oliver or an addiction arc.  I really believe that this is as good as she's going to get in terms of being a leading lady on a TV show because she's now tagged as miscast and the weakest link on the show. At best after this, IMO she'll get supporting roles as the bitchy best friend.  

 

Oh I agree with you completely on the KC bit. I think she is a very mediocre actor at best and she really got lucky with this role but she could not do anything with it. What I meant was that she must have a fairly good idea what people think of her skills (they are non existent) but she still is sticking it out because she knows she is probably not gonna get anything better (if her instgram and twitter feed is any indication, she is trying really hard to get the role of Christian Grey's crazy ex in the next 50 shades movie).

I think everyone on that crew knows how much people dislike that character, KC has to hide under a rock to not know that, she is probably hanging on because of lack of options but then Hollywood is full of mediocre actors who get by on the basis of their looks, body and contacts in the business.

 

Willa was always supposed to be an auxiliary character - I don't think hero's sister meant that she would get a meaty chunk of story (she did ok in season but was totally shafted in season 2) but it is nice to see that she is back in big way but that is only because her story is tied with Malcolm, if she was not revealed to be his daughter, she would have remained on the sidelines.

 

I have to disagree with you on Moira's account. I think she got interesting storylines and because she was a very competent actor, she sold them to the audience in the best possible way. For a shady/dubious character, she managed to win everyone's hearts.

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foreverevolving

foreverevolving

It's kind of funny(and sad) when you compare Willa and Katie.

Both actresses are being given meaty story lines this season, each is acting opposite an actors who are considered by many in the biz (let alone the sci-fi genre) as two of the best ones out there - I honestly don't know anyone who is into the superhero/sci-fi thing who does't worship the ground Barrowman walks on, and Paul is not far behind - And yet while Willa is bringing her A-game in every scene she has with barrowman and Stephen too, KC is still trailing behind... like waaay behind.

 

honestly if I were one of the EP's I would have personally paid for KC acting coach.

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statsgirl

statsgirl

I have to disagree with you on Moira's account. I think she got interesting storylines and because she was a very competent actor, she sold them to the audience in the best possible way. For a shady/dubious character, she managed to win everyone's hearts.

One thing I think the writers do well is to write to the strengths of the actor.  I think when Susanna Thompson got some of her season 1 scripts, she must have gone 'WTH?' but because she's a good actor, she put all sorts of shades of grey into it and made Moira into an even more complex character, although the start of it was there in the pilot when she had Oliver kidnapped.  David Ramsey was found to be really good at understated comedy and so Diggle became funnier and more sarcastic (much like Worf did when he moved from ST:TNG to Deep Space Nine).  EBR made Felicity funny from her first episodes so she got comedy too, and I like that this season they've found CH's strengths and are writing to them.  

 

I think the problem with Laurel is that KCs strength is playing entitled and bitchy and that didn't fit the plan they had for Laurel. This season, they're writing more to that and it's making Laurel a more believable character.

 

From the spoiler thread

This show being named Arrow is misleading, I've always felt. It's always been about Oliver AND Laurel's development into heroes. There's a reason they originally wanted to call it Starling IIRC. 

I'm answering this here because it's about the planning and the writing for the show.

 

I thought "Guilty" didn't work nearly as well as it should have and it was because they tried to shoehorn in both Laurel's origin story and Oliver's mentoring of Roy, which is Oliver's origin story.  But then I remembered that Sara's origin story worked alongside Oliver's, and so did Slade's and Roy's but Laurel's doesn't, and I think the reason is that Sara and Roy and Slade's stories were like Oliver's -- big and comic-booky and ridiculous but because they were all the same, they fit together.

 

Laurel's origin story, like Laurel's addiction arc last season, is from another CW show.  There is nothing wrong with Laurel seeing her sister killed and deciding to take up boxing lessons because her life as an ADA isn't enough. But it doesn't fit with Oliver's shipwreck and five years tortured, Sara on the Amazo and with the LoA, and Slade and Roy's mirakuru powers.  It's apples and oranges and I don't think that even with another actress Laurel's realistic transformation would have worked with Oliver's grand island experience. Certainly with Laurel starting training 7 years later than Oliver she couldn't become his equal or superior in fighting without some mirakuru-like transformation.  What you end up with is a tortured soul donning a hood to honor a promise, and a realistic ordinary person dressing up in black leather because other people are doing it.

 

If the original plan was to call it Starling and have Oliver and Laurel equal stories, I'm glad wiser heads prevailed.

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Starfish35

Starfish35

(edited)

I think having Oliver and Laurel having equal stories from the beginning could have worked. But Laurel's story would have needed to have been written very differently from the very beginning to do that, so much so that she would really be a completely different character than she is now. You can't start her story seven years behind Oliver's and expect them to have equal weight. It just doesn't work. For them to be equals, they need to be at similar places in their journey, and they're not, not even close. Honestly, I think Laurel was put into the show to be Oliver's love interest. Period. Perhaps she may have donned a costume by the end of the show, but I don't think it was her primary purpose. I believe the reason the BC thing is being accelerated now is because the love interest portion of her role got handed to Felicity, and they needed some way to keep her relevant to the show. Thus the sudden offing of Sara and the fast forward to BC.

Edited by Starfish35
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tv echo

tv echo

I think the show needs to add a new EP - one who doesn't have a comic book background, who will watch every past episode, and who will keep track of all of the story lines and character arcs.  He'd be responsible for making sure that future episodes are consistent with past episodes and that the series as a whole makes sense within its own TV universe.  

 

GB. MG and AK would still be EPs (with their comic book input) - but they've either been too distracted by The Flash, spread too thin over multiple projects, or just too sloppy in their oversight of Arrow to do this show justice.

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dtissagirl

dtissagirl

I think the show needs to add a new EP - one who doesn't have a comic book background, who will watch every past episode, and who will keep track of all of the story lines and character arcs.  He'd be responsible for making sure that future episodes are consistent with past episodes and that the series as a whole makes sense within its own TV universe.

 

But the thing is, that's the Executive Story Editor's job. Last season it was Keto Shimizu, this season I think it's Ben Sokolowski? But whoever it is, they're just not doing their job well.

catrox14

catrox14

It might be the executive editors job to keep track of details, but if the overarching plots, and characters points are being driven by the EPs, the details of what's gone before don't matter or are possibly disregarded in favor of what the EPs what to have happen.

 

Arrow seems to  be going through a similar thing as Supernatural with terrible continuity in both story and characterization and mythology gets jacked around all the time. I'm to the point now where I can't decide if it's intentional to make a kind of reset or just sloppy, and lazy.  I think Arrow is in that same stage. I will be sorely disappointed if it becomes more about the Justice League than Oliver.

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dtissagirl

dtissagirl

It might be the executive editors job to keep track of details, but if the overarching plots, and characters points are being driven by the EPs, the details of what's gone before don't matter or are possibly disregarded in favor of what the EPs what to have happen.

 

This is a good point. Maybe the story editors are raising the continuity concerns, but the EPs are choosing to retcon stuff for plot-advancing reasons anyway.

 

Dating myself but, back on the X-Files, they first told one story about how Scully got the cross necklace she wore, and then a few seasons later they changed that story. The EPs were aware they were retconning it, but they liked the second story best, so they changed it and hoped nobody would notice. They admitted it later on.

  • Love 3
AnalyzeAndCritique

AnalyzeAndCritique

In this era of streaming media, continuity is the friend of every show runner. Someone who signs on to watch the show in two years on Netflix won't have the time between episodes to forget minute nor big details to later be retconned. It would be bad enough for viewers who buy the DVDs, but these days you don't have to. If you are still relying on income from DVD sales, you better have damn good extras.

  • Love 7
Genki

Genki

(edited)

In this era of streaming media, continuity is the friend of every show runner. Someone who signs on to watch the show in two years on Netflix won't have the time between episodes to forget minute nor big details to later be retconned. It would be bad enough for viewers who buy the DVDs, but these days you don't have to. If you are still relying on income from DVD sales, you better have damn good extras.

 

 

So far the Arrow extras have not been enough to buy the DVDs for me.

I started this season planning to by season 2 and tossing up between buying Season 1.

 

But after the current start to S3, I'm not sure even about buying Season 2.

 

As an overseas, *cough*internet viewer*cough* DVD sales are the only way to make money from me.

 

The plot holes and continuity does have to get better. I like that not everything is spelled out and that I have to sometimes interpret actions and intentions, but lately there has been a lot of fan-wanking required.

 

Also agree with @tv echo, the addition of a non comic book EP may help with general direction and overall cohesiveness of the show.

Edited by Genki
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foreverevolving

foreverevolving

(edited)

 

As an overseas, *cough*internet viewer*cough* DVD sales are the only way to make money from me.

 

I'm no longer an overseas viewer, but neither than nor now when i'm a US viewer I don't pay for episodes- i pay for internet with which i can stream said episodes, so why would I when I can - with little effort- locate the episodes for free online- and even view them live!

Honestly the only shows I have on DVD are: ER (up until season 6 I think), The West Wing and Ugly Betty. I don't even buy movies anymore. everything is online if you know where to look- and i know where and how to look. Also DVD extras are usually uploaded within a couple of days after they are released.

Edited by foreverevolving
foreverevolving

foreverevolving

Am also overseas. I am impressed that NZ, Singapore etc. air on the same day as the US. Australia is still somewhere in season 2.

Yep. I was actually impressed to learn that my home country was really ahead of the game and that they had just started airing season 3 several weeks ago.

BkWurm1

BkWurm1

Smallville's biggest fault (and this is something that Arrow of course shares) was first hanging onto a dead horse ( Clana) and then not following where the story wanted to go. Instead they would shove PLOT! down our throats and pretend what we'd actually seen each week on screen wasnt happening.

  • Love 2
tv echo

tv echo

(edited)
Emily Bett Rickards @EmilyBett  ·  11h 11 hours ago

You’ll look old one day @david_ramsey  Happy Birthday!

https://twitter.com/emilybett

Greg Berlanti @GBerlanti  ·  14h 14 hours ago

@david_ramsey Happy birthday DR! We are so blessed to have you on the show.

Colin Donnell @colindonnell  ·  14h 14 hours ago

Happy birthday @david_ramsey! Hope it's a good one sir

Colton Haynes @ColtonLHaynes  ·  15h 15 hours ago

#HappyBdayDavidRamsey . #HappyBdayDiggle . Show ur love for this incredible human!!! Make funny things so I can show him at work today haha

Colton Haynes @ColtonLHaynes  ·  16h 16 hours ago

To celebrate @david_ramsey 's Bday today...we took glamour shots by @emilybett . #HappyBdayDavidRamsey http://instagram.com/p/vhTLiIDTIF/

Arrow @CW_Arrow  ·  16h 16 hours ago

Proof that you don't need a mask to be a hero.

Happy Birthday to our #MCM, @david_ramsey!

https://twitter.com/CW_Arrow

Edited by tv echo
wingster55

wingster55

(edited)

Smallville had it's faults...but for me I'd say the first 5 seasons were pretty good (some faults sure...but the over all story was good).

Like Clark and Lana were presented as a doomed couple (they then stopped thinking that in s6 but still) and how she may not accept his Kryptonian side or even when he had the epiphany in s5 and let her go.

 

More than I can say for Arrow

 

Back to my original point...Smallville adding the Green Arrow character to its show was (imo) a big reason Arrow was even approved.

Edited by wingster55
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BkWurm1

BkWurm1

Ah, yes, I agree. Smallville should get the credit for popularizing the character enough for it to have a shot at its own show. No one is fooled of course, he's being used as a pseudo Batman but I think people want a non powered dude running around saving the city. There's a reason why Batman is more poplar than Superman. At this point Arrow has enough characters and background unique unto itself that I no longer actually think of GA as the poorman's Bats (unless I've just watched Batman Begins - though even Rachel Dawes has a kinder backstory than Laurel).

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