Arrow: S01E02 - Honor Thy Father.

Can Arrow keep up the quality of the pilot or will it descend into a borefest like Sarah Connor Chronicles? Let's find out!


Largely Honor Thy Father is about Ollie and how much of a dick he is, it is a little jarring that just last episode he was pushing everyone away for 'their safety', then he gets one guilt trip from his sister and decides to go rekindle his relationship with Laurel but whatever. There are continued tensions with his family, his bodyguard and Laurel's father but the script isn't well written enough to get much out of these scenes. The cast do have a decent amount of chemistry though. We don't get much about his time on the island this week and what we do get only raises further questions, I guess just like Lost then... And of course, a villain of the week is there to be defeated.

One thing I did enjoy is the romance aspect to the show. I know it's only the second episode so they still have time to screw it up but Laurel and Queen still aren't really a thing by the end of the second episode. Laurel's sister died because Queen was cheating on her and I'm glad they don't just avoid that fact for the sake of a forced love interest. There is a lot of meat to their relationship and a lot to get passed and admit before they get anywhere, I know this isn't a romance show so they don't get much time each week to explore this, but it's a complex relationship and I'm interested in the exploration of it throughout the season.


Actionwise this episode was almost spectacular in how unspectacular it was, the smooth, visceral Takenesque action from the pilot? Gone. In its place is clunky action moments that end way too quickly to leave any impact other than, "wow that looked crappy". And yes, China White, what about her? Thanks to some bad cinematography and some clunky choreography she created no impact or sense of threat and she is in the episode so little, blink and you'll miss her. I hope when she comes back into the show, she leaves much more impact than she did in this episode.

Probably the worst aspect of Honor Thy Father though is the cinematography. I know what you are thinking, the cinematography  huh? You rarely talk about that in TV reviews! That is true, due to budget constraints a large number of TV shows are completely formulaically shot and as long as it functions and does its job, I can't really complain, even if it lacks any kind of artistic vision. But here...my God it is awful. When you actually notice how bad the cinematography is in a TV show, when it keeps pulling you out of the episode over and over again, we have a serious problem. And why does it matter? You are probably asking. Well Arrow has gone for a Nolanesque grim gritty superhero realism feel. It's all designed to make you believe in it, feel that it could be real, you need to be fully immersed and not able to notice the fourth wall between you and the show but it's kinda hard not to notice the fourth wall when large chunks of this look like they came straight out of Cloverfield, Jesus. And apparently that was their intention? Why? And yes, I know there was a load of this in the first episode, but it was executed well there, here, not so much...


So there is something I'm really confused about, am I just not paying attention? In the first episode Ollie went on about how his Dad told him to right his wrongs, save the city etc but when did he ever actually say that? He kept going on about his Dad's secret but I remember not knowing what the hell that was, having to watch back over and only really picked up what the 'secret' was by the dialogue from characters around Ollie - not from the flashbacks. When did he say? Now this episode we get this odd flashback and find that Ollie's little book he carries around, which we assumed his Dad wrote, was completely blank when he found it. Am I just missing the point or are we supposed to be assuming that Ollie is like completely nuts and just acting out some huge conspiracy fantasy he dreamed up while on the island? Because that doesn't work either with his mother's shady meetings. What is going on?!

What is Rollie doing in everything? I haven't seen Ty Olsson in anything since Defying Gravity got cancelled, then he turns up as a seemingly important character in Supernatural and the villain of the week in Arrow. Looking on his IMDb page, he's been in loads since Defying Gravity, I just either never watched it or never noticed before, I guess. Random, pointless, padding paragraph!


Really the whole episode was so underwhelming, but still not particularly bad, it really doesn't leave me with a whole lot to say. Everything is noticeably shoddier in the second episode. It's basically just a much shittier version of the pilot. And this really isn't a good sign. Although I must say, I still think Stephen Amell is great, even if he is more like a cross between Tony Stark and Batman, rather than a true Green Arrow.

Pros;

• I think the cast play off of one another well. 
• Cassidy and Amell have a lot of chemistry which is key to a good central romance. 
• Despite criticisms of Amell being wooden, I find him really charming. 

Cons;

• Poor dialogue. 
• Weak action. 
• Bad fight choreography. 
• Appalling Cinematography.
• Why is everyone going on about China White? She didn't fucking do anything!
• What the hell is actually going on on the island? It's like bloody Lost.
• The fact that overall, it's just a shoddy, underwhelming follow up to a pilot I really enjoyed.