OPINION:
You don’t have to look far these days for tales of high-powered greed and corruption.
So last night’s premiere episode of stylish action series Arrow (Wednesdays, 9.35pm, TV2) felt topical. Its vigilante superhero is fixated on society’s less scrupulous business people. Sure he might have a name that sounds like a courier company, but he’s perfect for our cynical recession hit world. Think Batman but with an impressive archery set.
Like all good comic book characters, by day Green Arrow has a different persona as easy on the eye, billionaire playboy Oliver Queen (played perfectly by Canadian Stephen Amell). Flashbacks showed us tantalising glimpses of Oliver’s ill-fated jaunt on his father’s private yacht. His father drowned and Oliver ended up shipwrecked alone on a jagged, rocky island for five years. I can’t imagine how awful that would be – camping is bad enough but at least you’ve got a tent and travel Scrabble.
Anyway, rather than going mad and contracting scurvy Oliver managed to get incredibly buff and develop some extraordinary archery skills. Back in Starling City he set about working through a list that his father had given him of people that “had brought the city to its knees”.
Last night’s target, Adam Hunt, was a nasty piece of work and we all like to see a nasty piece of work get his comeuppance. Which Queen delivered by leaping through his window in a green hood scaring the hell out of him. Then he made $40 million disappear from Hunt’s bank account quicker than the most adept rogue trader.
Interesting characters make for an interesting story and Oliver isn’t the only one who isn’t quite what he seems. His mother is far too perfectly groomed to be anything but evil, his sister is battling her own demons, his best friend offers light relief by being chirpy and shallow but has been having a secret liaison with Oliver’s ex-girlfriend.
Of course, it’s all deeply implausible but this is a story with comic book roots so you have to suspend belief slightly. And as utterly unlikely as all those glowing green arrows and fancy footwork were, I found it gripping. Perhaps because there’s something satisfying about watching unpleasant people get dealt a bit of justice.
Perhaps because it’s just a cracking good story. The list of baddies for Green Arrow to deal with could get fairly repetitive. But as the plot develops in tomorrow night’s episode it really does start to draw you in.
There’s a burgeoning friendship between Oliver and his bodyguard, the comically named Mr Diggle. Oliver’s mother shows a little more of her true colours and Green Arrow meets a match for his skill in the form of a frighteningly agile lady from the triad. There’s also a hint at how Oliver acquired his amazing skills.
This looks set to become what I think of as “commitment viewing”. That is once you start watching, the complex storyline will mean you can’t afford to miss an episode.
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