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The Starling City Times: News and Media about Arrow

Grammaeryn

By Grammaeryn
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Morrigan2575
Morrigan2575

I always find it odd when people blame the writing for LLs failure. I'll give them that for Lauiver because of the whole cheating thing but, let's be honest if SA/KC had the chemistry that SA/EBR had,

lemotomato
lemotomato

Sorry, that argument rings really hollow when the show has had a history of killing off/mistreating other female characters without a peep of protest from those same "concerned" people. Moira Queen, S

ComicFan777
ComicFan777

I know that this is supposed to be Felicity's dark arc, but...Felicity desperately doing whatever she can to save people (damn the consequences down the road) doesn't make me think that she's losing w

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tv echo

tv echo

(edited)

Why Michelle Yeoh, Daniel Wu, and other Asian film actors are hitting small screens
BY VIVIAN CHEN  10 JUL 2017 / UPDATED ON 10 JUL 2017
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/2101576/why-michelle-yeoh-and-other-asian-film-actors-are

Quote

Hong Kong actress Celina Jade has had a recurring role in Arrow. Veteran actress Michelle Yeoh starred in the Netflix original Marco Polo. She will be joining CBS’ new sci-fi adaptation of Star Trek: Discovery, scheduled to premiere in September.
*  *  *
Jade of Arrow fame says: “In Arrow, we have Asian characters, Chinese dialogues and even philosophy. This is great, as it shows how globalisation has [led to] an integration of cultures. People want to see more cultures and differences because that’s what makes the world beautiful.”

Edited by tv echo
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tv echo

tv echo

(edited)

This podcast interview was recorded on July 7 (EK was careful not to spoil anything about S6)...

Kneel Before Pod Interview With Arrow's Echo Kellum
Published on Jul 8, 2017, by Craig McKenzie

Edited by tv echo
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tv echo

tv echo

(edited)

No spoilers...

'Arrow’: 5 Questions We Want Answered at SDCC 2017
July 10, 2017   by ALYSSA BARBIERI
http://fangirlish.com/arrow-5-questions-we-want-answered-at-sdcc-2017/

Quote

One of Arrow’s strongest elements throughout its history has been the dynamic between Oliver and Felicity. It’s the ship to end all ships on the show, which is exactly what you need to create that fandom hype that can sustain a show. But Arrow did a big disservice to Oliver and Felicity’s relationship dating back to mid season 4 when they elected to introduce the worthless baby mama drama. In season 5, it felt like Arrow tried to ignore Oliver and Felicity’s past and everything that defined who they are. But things took a turning point at the end of the season where the show all but shouted that Oliver and Felicity are a go again. Following that season finale kiss and the promise of a future, we’re curious as to where we’re going to find Oliver and Felicity six months in the future. But more than that, we’re wondering what we can expect from their relationship moving forward? We know they have to rebuild that trust that stemmed from that baby mama drama. But we also know that they were engaged to be married. When they get back together they shouldn’t be dating for too long. They’re past that part. Can we expect a season premiere re-engagement? A wedding in the not-so-distant future? We’ve got questions. And we want all the answers.
*  *  *
Perhaps the most consistent and impressive aspect of Arrow’s fifth season was the emergence of Josh Segarra as Adrian Chase, who provided an inspired portrayal of one of the DCTV universe’s best villains. Segarra was able to capture the madness yet intelligence of Chase where he was more terrifying in a psychological sense than a physical sense, although he was also physically imposing. Segarra and Stephen Amell truly brought out the best in each other, which is why we’re asking the Arrow Gods to find a way – any way – to give us Josh back. Given Chase killed himself in the finale, Adrian returning is out. But there’s a little someone named Vigilante, who was introduced early on last season that we never saw his face. In the comics, Adrian Chase is Vigilante. Perhaps the real Adrian Chase is out there? And perhaps he looks exactly like Josh Segarra. I’m just saying, I’d accept the hell out of that if it meant Josh returned.

1. Where is the season premiere going to pick up?
2. What can we expect from Oliver and Felicity’s relationship?
3. Is William going to be a major factor in season 6?
4. Who’s the new big bad? And how can they possibly top Adrian Chase?
5. Is Josh Segarra going to return as Vigilante?

Edited by tv echo
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Guest

Guest

All I need/want from SDCC is some positive hype for Olicity and solid teases about Felicity and Diggle's individual storylines. 

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insomniadreams88

insomniadreams88

(edited)
11 minutes ago, Angel12d said:

All I need/want from SDCC is some positive hype for Olicity and solid teases about Felicity and Diggle's individual storylines. 

Well, the hype should be better for Olicity this year. Wonder if they'll try to sell "Oliver loves Star City oh so much" again though along with it. 

I'd also like something about Lance and Thea's storylines this season. And for Lance's to not include "Well, will he start drinking again now that the evil doppelganger of his dead daughter is hanging around?" Or for Thea's to be "She's going to be taking some time away from Star City to figure some things out." 

Edited by insomniadreams88
Adding the entire first paragraph, which...somehow disappeared?
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Guest

Guest

I've pretty much accepted it's likely to be a bird fest tbh but as long as I get my Olicity and Felicity/Diggle storyline teases, I can let it go.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

6 minutes ago, insomniadreams88 said:

I'd also like something about Lance and Thea's storylines this season. And for Lance's to not include "Well, will he start drinking again now that the evil doppelganger of his dead daughter is hanging around?" Or for Thea's to be "She's going to be taking some time away from Star City to figure some things out." 

Because Lance was barely in last season (and because I didn't even watch all of it) I feel weirdly disconnected from his character at the moment. I expect his storyline will revolve around BS/BC, Thea and Rene. As for Thea, I have no clue what they're doing with her character anymore. I liked the idea of her becoming a mini Moira Queen but apparently that's wrong so IDK.

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tv echo

tv echo

(edited)
1 hour ago, insomniadreams88 said:

Well, the hype should be better for Olicity this year. Wonder if they'll try to sell "Oliver loves Star City oh so much" again though along with it. 

I'm fully expecting something along the lines of the following at SDCC this year (yes, I'm paraphrasing last year's quotes)....

-- SA: "Oliver's most important relationship in the entire show is his relationship to his son and what he means to him, and the fact that it's his son." 

-- SA: "Like, Oliver's most important relationship in the show is not with Felicity, it's not with Thea, it's not with Diggle, it's with William. And that's what we focus on this year. And it feels good."

-- SA: "Listen, the most important - Oliver's most important relationship in the entire show is his relationship with his son, and his objective to make him a better man than what he is."

Edited by tv echo
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BkWurm1

BkWurm1

26 minutes ago, tv echo said:

I'm fully expecting something along the lines of the following at SDCC this year (yes, I'm paraphrasing last year's quotes)....

-- SA: "Oliver's most important relationship in the entire show is his relationship to his son and what he means to him, and the fact that it's his son." 

-- SA: "Like, Oliver's most important relationship in the show is not with Felicity, it's not with Thea, it's not with Diggle, it's with William. And that's what we focus on this year. And it feels good."

-- SA: "Listen, the most important - Oliver's most important relationship in the entire show is his relationship with his son, and his objective to make him a better man than what he is."

Lol.  I get keeping expectations low so as to not be disappointed but if the recent cons are any indication, Myson is only going to be a small part of the whole.  Last year they had SA talk about the city because frankly IMO, he had such a distance between him and any of his other relationships, it was the only one left they COULD talk about.  Now we have the actors already bubbling over with juicy tidbits on a whole range of topics.  

Basically, I'm not worried the kid will steal all the focus or even most of it. 

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way2interested

way2interested

(edited)

Yeah, somehow I can't picture CW wanting to suddenly promote fatherhood for a main character especially since Black Lightning's promotion is probably going to be focused on that.

Edited by way2interested
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BkWurm1

BkWurm1

1 hour ago, way2interested said:

Yeah, somehow I can't picture CW wanting to suddenly promote fatherhood for its main character especially since Black Lightening's promotion is probably going to be focused on that.

That's a very good point. 

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lemotomato

lemotomato

(edited)

I was looking up old articles about Arrow to see how it was promoted back when it debuted, and I found this on Grantland (RIP). I thought it was interesting that even back in season 1, Diggle, Felicity, Thea, and Lance were getting nods of appreciation and that the writer thought the show was a dud in the beginning but felt that it started to get better at the end of the season.

Exiled in Smallville
by ANDY GREENWALD

Quote

A grim and gritty reimagining of second-tier DC do-gooder Green Arrow — think a rich Robin Hood less into the redistribution of wealth and more into making criminals quiver — Arrow‘s pilot struck me as little more than a minor-key cover of Christopher Nolan’s majorly dour Batman movies.

...
Recent episodes have revealed a series not so much finding its groove as settling into it. Lurid and pulpy, Arrow is a brutally effective entertainment, much better than I initially thought but not quite as good as its diehards insist. A great deal of the credit goes to Amell, who has a sly humor lurking just beneath his Hollister veneer. Thanks to his performance, Oliver Queen — both in his snotty island flashbacks and slick, nightclub-managing present — is far more interesting than the hooded, bow-hunting vigilante he becomes as soon as the sun sets over Starling City. Historically it’s a trademark of Marvel, DC’s rival, to have the secret identity be more compelling than the super heroics, but it’s also necessary considering The CW’s limited funds and ambition. “The life I’m leading now doesn’t leave much room for an actual life,” Amell growls to his loyal bodyguard, Diggle, on a recent episode, though the liveliness in his remarkably well-sculpted eyebrows betrays him.

...

The most intriguing characters are the ladies in Queen’s life, particularly Emily Bett Rickards as hacker Felicity Smoak and Willa Holland as Oliver’s fast-living sister, Thea. But, as is usually the case with superhero adaptations of any size, the women are invited to the stadium but not allowed onto the field; instead, they’re stuck to the sidelines, emoting and reacting as the boys play with their high-tech toys. The person having the most fun by far — although possibly at the expense of the show — is English actor Paul Blackthorne, who plays an American cop like McGruff the Crime Dog gnawing on the leg of Stanley Kowalski. Arrow is improving, but I still found it to be more oppressive than escapist; it lurks in the shadows of its source material instead of seeking out unfamiliar daylight.

Edited by lemotomato
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BkWurm1

BkWurm1

20 minutes ago, lemotomato said:

I still found it to be more oppressive than escapist; it lurks in the shadows of its source material instead of seeking out unfamiliar daylight.

I really get the "more oppressive than escapist" feel.  It's the reason I almost quit after the second episode.  

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tv echo

tv echo

(edited)
17 hours ago, lemotomato said:

I was looking up old articles about Arrow to see how it was promoted back when it debuted, and I found this on Grantland (RIP). I thought it was interesting that even back in season 1, Diggle, Felicity, Thea, and Lance were getting nods of appreciation and that the writer thought the show was a dud in the beginning but felt that it started to get better at the end of the season.

Back in 2012, Arrow was promoted as a crime drama, a character drama, and a hero show. They downplayed superheroes. They also said no superpowers and no aliens (how things have changed!)...

GreenArrowTV (Jul. 19, 2012) - MG: "One of the things we’re doing is, we don’t really consider the show a superhero show. We consider it more like a hero show; more like a crime thriller, and as with any with crime thriller, you’re going to have a mystery. Except unlike CSI where it’s a body drop at the beginning of every episode, the mystery is Oliver. Oliver is the case of the week, basically. Each week we’re peeling back the layers of his character, both in the present and in the past. We’re going to be continuing the flashbacks into the series, so you’ll get to see what happened to him on the island, and it won’t always be the things that you expect. We’re trying to always surprise the audience, so the mysteries and the twists come out of character as opposed to out of plots.”

Nerdist (Oct. 9, 2012) - AK: "There’s no supervillains or superpowers on the show. No aliens." MG: "We’re always trying to take a 'world outside your window' approach. This is not a show about superheroes; this is a guy taking the law into his own hands like a vigilante. We’re always asking ourselves the question: is this something that could happen in the real world? How do we make this believable?"

Blastr (now SyFyWire) (Dec. 16, 2012) - According to The CW's head of development, Thom Sherman, Arrow's pilot is "not as comic book-y as Smallville or other [superhero projects] from other networks." Arrow will be more grounded in reality, but the tone will be less Dark Knight, more Jason Bourne. 

Edited by tv echo
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lemotomato

lemotomato

Thank you for those articles, @tv echo! They're exactly what I was looking for. I saw a discussion on twitter with claims that Arrow only got picked up because of the success of Smallville, but I distinctly recalled the show being promoted as not a superhero show like Smallville.

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leopardprint

leopardprint

9 minutes ago, tv echo said:

AK: "There’s no supervillains or superpowers on the show. No aliens." MG: "We’re always trying to take a 'world outside your window' approach. This is not a show about superheroes; this is a guy taking the law into his own hands like a vigilante. We’re always asking ourselves the question: is this something that could happen in the real world? How do we make this believable?"

So, as usual, it's all Barry's fault? 

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tv echo

tv echo

(edited)
17 hours ago, lemotomato said:

Thank you for those articles, @tv echo! They're exactly what I was looking for. I saw a discussion on twitter with claims that Arrow only got picked up because of the success of Smallville, but I distinctly recalled the show being promoted as not a superhero show like Smallville.

Some more for you...

Adweek (May 7, 2015) - Adweek: "The CW audience is now almost 45 percent male. What shows are most responsible for adding men?" The CW President Mark Pedowitz: "It's The Flash, Arrow, The 100 and Supernatural." Adweek: "Had you been actively pursuing a male audience with those shows?" Pedowitz: "We recognize that when Smallville went off the air [in 2011] we lost a boatload of men. So this was a thoughtful, executed piece of a strategy to balance it out a little more."

Dragon Con (Sep. 4, 2015) - SA: "And Arrow was, in many ways, Arrow was a reaction to Smallville, a little bit, inasmuch as, you just wanted to make something different. It's not better or worse. You just wanted to make something different."

EW (Feb. 28, 2017) - SA: . “Green Arrow was conceived as a show without superpowers and a show that was meant to be a little more grounded that was a specific reaction to an incredibly successful 10-year run of Smallville."

Fake Nerd Guys (Mar. 1, 2017) - On how the Arrow TV show originated, MG: ""I'll tell you what happened. So basically, Greg Berlanti, uh, was at ABC Studios... and he made a deal to return to Warner Brothers, where is, we know, he started and, you know, when they were sorta talking, he mentioned that he had a take, um, to do the Green Arrow on television. Um, it had no relation to the iteration of Green Arrow that you see in Smallville. It was a completely different take - a brand new take. Um. And, you know, then he got to Warner Brothers and then something happened, um, where this movie that Greg and I and Michael Green wrote came out, uh, with - involving another DC character also with 'Green' in his name. (FNG guys laugh) Um, and the reception, shall we say, was not great. Um, so right on the heels of that, like in the case of the worst timing ever, um, Peter Roth at Warner Brothers Studios came to Greg and said, 'hey, so that, uh, take for Green Arrow, I would love to see you go forward with it.'  And, again it was terrible timing because, you know, both Greg and I were licking our wounds, uh, over the whole Green Lantern experience. Um. And, you know, Greg came to me and said, 'listen, I've got this take for Green Arrow,' he told me what it was, and I was really blown away by it. Um. But, you know, we were both sort of feel - and he was asking me if I would do it with him. And, you know, we were both feeling this kind of, you know, trepidation about approaching, you know, another DC character. Um. And, you know, after a lot of soul searching and discussion, we basically realized, like, you know - where things sort of went off the rails for us with the Green Lantern is - at the end of the day, we weren't responsible for the whole product. Um, you know, we did a few drafts of the screenplay that got rewritten by another, uh, you know, writer. And then, of course, got - went on to be directed by someone not Greg. So, um, you know, the only way, I think, we could sort of feel like we were, you know, willing to try to do this again is if we were able to do it with a lot more control over the process than we had with the Green Lantern. So, to that extent, what we ended up doing was, we said to the studio and the network, 'look, we're not going to - we're going to do this outside the normal development process.' You know, in pilot development, there are these - all these steps. You write a story [unintelligible word], you write an outline, you write, you know, draft upon draft. You get notes in every stage. And there's, you know - it's called 'development' for a reason. There's a lot of development. And, you know, Greg and I just wanted to sort of go away and, you know, basically just - just write the script. Um. And then we were going to present it to the, you know, the studio network, saying, 'okay, here's the script, make it, don't make it, up to you, um, but this is our mission.' Um. And that's what happened."

HVFF-Nashville (Jul. 8, 2017) - SA: "I think that our show was created - you say, go back to the comic book origins - every interpretation of the character is different. Right? So for me, my interpretation of the character was built off of what David Nutter, Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg wanted. Right? They wanted a show that was not reactionary, but was definitely a pivot from what you saw on Smallville. Right? Where Smallville was bright, we were dark. Where Smallville was light-hearted, we were a little bit more - you know, fantastical, we were a little bit more grounded. But then you pivot, because the show's successful. And the show's never supposed to have powers. But then DC says you can have Barry Allen. So, screw that."

17 hours ago, leopardprint said:

So, as usual, it's all Barry's fault? 

Of course, that's why Grant Gustin/The Flash is one of the nominees for #ChoiceTVVillain in this year's Teen Choice Awards.

Edited by tv echo
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tv echo

tv echo

(edited)

Transcribed from video of Michael Rowe interview in below ComicBook.com article (no spoilers)...

-- MR: "Me coming back to Arrow or any of those shows is always a possibility. You're talking about a universe where they deal with time travel. There's all kinds of flashbacks. There is, you know, ways to bring people back to life. There's ways to go to alternate Earths, like you've seen in The Flash. We had fancy plans for Deadshot. But it wasn't the producers or anybody involved in with the shows. It went way higher than that. It was just an executive decision to slow down Deadshot's role on TV so they can focus on Deadshot in the film - Suicide Squad film. I feel like we have unfinished business with it. It's just, will they let us get back to that? I don't think Deadshot died in that explosion. Maybe that's just me giving the character a lot of credit. I just know he's notoriously hard to kill. And, um, I have my own sort of theories on what happened in that situation. You didn't see a body. They just had to sort of remove him quickly from the show because of the business. And, um, there'd be a lot of fun ways to bring him back and, uh, revisit some of these storylines that we originally had. And one of the major ones would be Deathstroke, Deadshot - either versus or team up. And me and Manu, we're pretty fired when we get together in real life, so we'd love to see us through those characters end up in the same scenes and scenarios together. I think that'd be really fun, really interesting."

-- MR: "They wanted to bring the Suicide Squad out and they used Arrow like a laboratory to test the Suicide Squad. And it worked real well, but then it sorta got taken away from us, unfortunately, to be graduated to, like, A-list actors and ‘let’s put all our money into it,' and that’s just how the industry works, you know. In hindsight it was the best thing that ever happened to me. It helped me get my ass in gear. I produced my own film, I wrote my own film, I started on this project. I did a bunch of other cool things that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do if I was locked into that show. So, it was kind of a gift, to be honest with you. But I love playing the character, and if they ever called me, I would enjoy revisiting that.”

Michael Rowe: Leaving Arrow Was Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me -- But I Would Come Back
by Russ Burlingame | July 11, 2017
http://comicbook.com/dc/2017/07/11/michael-rowe-leaving-arrow-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-me/

Edited by tv echo
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BkWurm1

BkWurm1

(edited)

He's an expert in hand to hand?  Since when?  Being better than Curtis doesn't mean that much.  

 I'll give him a pass on the weapons' expert since he'd been in the army(?)  even if we never saw anything to support his special knowledge on screen.

Edited by BkWurm1
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Primal Slayer

Primal Slayer

23 minutes ago, BkWurm1 said:

He's an expert in hand to hand?  Since when?  Being better than Curtis doesn't mean that much.  

 I'll give him a pass on the weapons' expert since he'd been in the army(?)  even if we never saw anything to support his special knowledge on screen.

Since the finale where he took on the putty patrol lol.

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EmilyBettFan

EmilyBettFan

Can you imagine Emily saying that? She would be roasted. Why can't these people come up with good things to say about their character instead of appearance? 

The only ones who actually know their characters are Stephen, David, Willa and Emily. 

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leopardprint

leopardprint

13 minutes ago, EmilyBettFan said:

Can you imagine Emily saying that? She would be roasted. Why can't these people come up with good things to say about their character instead of appearance? 

The only ones who actually know their characters are Stephen, David, Willa and Emily. 

I don't really disagree but in JH's defense, I'm not sure there is that much to say about Dinah as a character. She's a pretty generic "strong woman" with a standard tragic backstory. She did have fabulous hair. ?????????

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Mellowyellow

Mellowyellow

1 minute ago, leopardprint said:

I don't really disagree but in JH's defense, I'm not sure there is that much to say about Dinah as a character. She's a pretty generic "strong woman" with a standard tragic backstory. She did have fabulous hair. ?????????

She might still! Don't give up hope! 

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strikera0

strikera0

(edited)
29 minutes ago, leopardprint said:

I don't really disagree but in JH's defense, I'm not sure there is that much to say about Dinah as a character. She's a pretty generic "strong woman" with a standard tragic backstory. She did have fabulous hair. ?????????

JH and Lexa Doig are sitting in the same boat. They got stuck with one-dimensional characters that received zero on-screen development, so all they can talk about are superficial things or head canons. Heck, in Lexa's case, Talia wasn't even depicted as badass although she kept referring to her as such. She was thoroughly embarrassed by Nyssa during their season 5 finale encounter, but in Lexa's defense, she couldn't have known that that was going to happen to her character. 

Edited by strikera0
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Mellowyellow

Mellowyellow

6 minutes ago, leopardprint said:

I'd give up amazing hair in exchange for actual character development. ?

Can't have everything with this show. 

I'll let Dinah have the hair. I need Felicity to be the business mogul and I want to see her doing more techie sciency stuff! 

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SmallScreenDiva

SmallScreenDiva

Not a fan of the character nor the actress, but I read the "great hair" comment as tongue in cheek. I did wonder about her brute strength reference. Her meta cry is not brute strength, brute strength refers to physical strength. I'd bet she's not any more physically strong than WD or Digg or even Curtis. She should have referred to her sonic scream since that's something no one the team has. (Of course, it highlights the ridiculousness of having a meta on a "grounded" show like Arrow, but whatever.)

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wonderwall

wonderwall

(edited)
10 minutes ago, SmallScreenDiva said:

I haven't seen this posted anywhere so I thought I'd share. Unfortunately, I don't have the source for the original interview

 

This is from 2013. She posted the source in the thread.

Edited by wonderwall
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tv echo

tv echo

(edited)

Nonspoilery portions of jbuffyangel's interview with MG...

Marc Guggenheim SDCC17 Interview
http://jbuffyangel.tumblr.com/post/163286824873/marc-guggenheim-sdcc17-interview

Quote

We shifted into Season 5, since Season 6 is so difficult for them to tease right now.  Now that the Olicity break up arc is completed I asked Marc if they accomplished what they set out to do.

Marc said, “You know what? I do. I feel really good about 5x20. Every season I have the things I like and things I wish we did better. I was pretty honest in Season 4 that I didn’t love how we handled their break up. For me, the way we handled their break up… they didn’t have an adult conversation. So we went into Season 5… it was like we need to figure out a way for them to have that adult conversation and deal with their issues. I was pretty happy with the way that turned out.”

Marc continued, “Stephen and Emily were terrific in the episode. Wendy Stanzler directed the hell out of it.”

He discussed how difficult it is for a director to come in and direct a bottle episode. Bottle episodes are typically a way for television shows to lower their production costs. “The really good directors like Wendy embrace the creative challenge of, ‘Well how do I get that production value while still operating with less resources?'”

I asked Marc how he felt about the length of time it took Olicity to get to 5x20.

He said, “Here’s the thing that I was interested in doing as a writer. I haven’t really seen this on television – I’m sure it’s been done on television, but I haven’t necessarily seen it. I like the idea of you have a couple, they are engaged to be married, they break up and they are still in each other’s lives. In this case they are working together. I hadn’t seen that and the ins and outs of that. I thought that was really interesting. As a writer I am always gravitating towards and attracted to stories I haven’t seen, but still reflect a real life dynamic. There are plenty of people who break up and, for whatever reason (be it kids, work, mutual friends, whatever it is) they have to be in each other’s lives. And that’s hard. That’s an interesting dynamic.”

I asked Marc if Felicity’s dark arc was planned for Season 4. He said no, it was always planned for Season 5. They discovered as they explored the Helix arc that it was “a great way to address the 4x15 of it all.”

“We realized, 'Oh wait a second, this darker storyline means she’s walking in Oliver’s shoes and that’s going to give her a new perspective on him.’ Once we sort of realized that it all sort of fit together.”

I added I felt like Oliver learned what it’s like being left out of the decision and not being in control of someone’s choices. Marc answered with an emphatic YES.

“I always say that Oliver is a total hypocrite. A lot of the show survives and is successful for all the hypocritical choices Oliver makes...
*  *  *
My amazing editor Jenn gave me a wonderful question to ask Marc, “What do you think defines a strong female character?”

Marc answered, “Oooh. That’s a good question. Yes. I’ll be honest. I find answering questions along these lines, as a straight white man, is flirting with disaster. I will say that as the father of two daughters and the husband of a very strong and successful woman, I really kind of approach it as – I don’t think of it as a strong female character. I approach it as a strong character.” While he obviously understands the difference between a man and a woman, when it comes to writing there’s no differentiation.

He discussed Felicity as an example of a strong female character, “Felicity as a character has really grown and evolved over the years. When we first met her she was easily distracted and a little neurotic. I think she’s grown tougher over the years by virtue of what they do.”

I added that Oliver has grown a little softer and Marc replied, “Yes definitely. I think they’ve had a good effect on each other. She humanizes him and she’s gotten more of a sense of self.”

“A confidence?” I asked. Marc said, “Yes. Also I think it’s a maturity thing. When we first met Felicity she was five years younger. That’s a big difference in anyone’s life… hopefully.”

He continued, “I think with all the female characters on the show they are all strong, but in very different ways. Sara Lance is super strong, but very different from Felicity. Felicity is light and Sara has an incredible darkness in her, but they are both really strong women. Nyssa is incredibly strong, but she has a different form of darkness than Sara’s. I actually think Nyssa and Sara’s darknesses compliment each other in a really complex and interesting way.”
*  *  *
I asked Marc how he felt about some of the fans’ reactions to Season 5, specifically the frustration and anger with Oliver and Felicity’s storyline.

“You know, that’s a good question actually. It was hard at the beginning of the year. I think over the course of this past season I developed a different perspective on reactions to the show. If I’m thinking about it - it was probably more the reaction to Season 4 that had me go, 'I need to not take this personally.’ This is the story we are telling. I believe in this story we are telling otherwise we wouldn’t be telling it. Some people are going to like it and some are not going to like it.”

I asked, “When you say that they changed your mind was it how you guys broke them up? Was it the storyline? Because I felt like the William storyline was kind of a holdover from the Laurel days. That would have worked great if she was still be the love interest, but with Felicity it didn’t feel quite as true to them.”

“I think for me it was purely I wish we had taken the time to devolve their relationship in a more organic way. I’ve said this before, but we went into Season 4 with certain tent poles and we were too diligent in terms of hitting them. As a result very key emotional moves were rushed and felt abrupt. That I own,” Marc explained.

This is something I’ve written about frequently on the blog, so I shared my perspective with Marc and said, “My attitude was if you have to break them up, which you know I am not of that opinion that you have to break them up -”

“Oh I know,” Marc interjected. I may have shared my disagreement with him in the past once or twice. ;)

I smiled and continued, “But if you have to break them up, I ran through a list. At the stage they were at, you are really at cheating, killing, lying or stealing. Out of those options, I’m gonna go with the lie.”

“Yes, exactly.”
*  *  *
I told Marc that Stephen and David were doing a phenomenal job with getting the fans whipped up for the new season at the conventions. We discussed their natural chemistry and how great they are together. The word “chemistry” trigged the newbies in my mind so I asked, “There was a lot of new characters. So how did you feel about the reaction to the new characters? What new character was easiest to slip in? Who was the most difficult?

Marc answered, “They were all the same level of difficulty or easiness. What’s always the hardest is the casting. We were four for four. The original plan with the newbies was very different. The original plan was we were going to cycle a whole bunch of newbies throughout the season. And then we’ll keep whoever pops.”

This totally surprised me and I said it sounded similar to the rotating Season 1 love interests. Arrow rotated many women throughout the season to see who worked best with Oliver (Felicity). Marc agreed and said much to their surprise each new cast member was great. They didn’t want to get rid of anybody.
*  *  *
“5A was a lot of focus on the newbies,” I said. Marc agreed and I added, “It did feel like the core characters we are use to were not getting as much screen time. But once you guys set the newbies up, they really did move into a B storyline capacity. Then you shifted back to Felicity, Diggle and Oliver. “
*  *  *
“There’s stuff I love every season and stuff I don’t. That’s just Arrow… and every television show on TV,” I said.

Marc exclaimed, “It’s 23 episodes!”

I agreed, “I do think that’s a some of it. Listen, I loved Whedon. He writes amazing tv, but there’s some hours in there that were not so good.

“And that’s one of the best writers who ever worked in the medium,” Marc added.

I explained that I accept Arrow is going to try new things and sometimes they aren’t going to work. Marc said they always go in with the best of intentions though. Once a show has reached a certain number of seasons, there can be a tendency to phone it in. I appreciated that Arrow hasn’t done that. At least from my perspective.

Marc said, “There is a huge temptation to be like 'Oh it’s Season 6.’ There’s also a huge temptation to say, 'It’s 23 episodes. They are not all going to be good.’ But we still try to make every episode good.”

Edited by tv echo
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bijoux

bijoux

I like that she asked about William being holdover from the course the show was set on much earlier. Too bad he didn't really answer the question. Also too bad that they didn't keep the one newbie I liked from the start - Rory. His rags being depowered and him finding other ways of helping could have been a good story.

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