Arrow: Broken Hearts

March 29, 2016 10:08 AM - Season 4, Episode 16

Brokenhearted, Cupid returns to Star City to destroy lovers on their wedding day, so Oliver and Felicity pose as bait.
posted by DirtyOldTown (20 comments total)

Diggle to team: Yeah, so this is definitely Cupid, that homicidal maniac who sometimes stalks my best friend and his family and kills innocent people for crazy reasons. My wife released her from ARGUS prison, but neglected to mention it.

Team: OK, sure, that seems fine.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:10 AM on March 29, 2016

I will say though that bitter-ex-fiance Felicity is entertaining.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:19 AM on March 29, 2016

A few more observations:

-he doesn't even shave the stubble for his wedding?
-the judge looked like Mallory Ortberg in a weird way
-security at that jail sure sucks
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:50 AM on March 29, 2016

This was a huge low point for Arrow. They seem to have lost the plot awhile ago, but this episode seemed to illustrate all the reasons why. To much overdramatic relationship angst, not enough action and plot. I didn't find bitter ex-fiance Felicity entertaining at all, in fact, I found her a little annoyingly juvenile/bordering on emotionally abusive. And in general I really like Felicity and Oliver and Felicity together. But they should just decide one way or another whether they're going to be a couple or not, and then make it a non-issue, because the back and forth has been entirely played out and is now tiresome.

The most interesting part of the episode for me was the courtroom drama with Laurel and Quentin, and we didn't get nearly enough of it.
posted by katyggls at 10:51 AM on March 29, 2016

I share your exasperation with the over-elongated Olicity storyline. Honestly, I liked bitter Felicity as a respite from that.

But to me, the thing that is killing this show is the over-reliance on the Big Bad Who Wants to Destroy Star City storyline. I'm goddamned sick of it. It's patently obvious "Everyone in town dies" (or whatever other city-specific end times this particular villain wants; honestly I forget) is never going to be a development that actually happens and I couldn't give two shits about watching them drag their feet on the latest doomed attempt to make that happen.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:10 AM on March 29, 2016

Also, at this point, every flashback that isn't "the story of how Oliver is technically Bratva" is just pissing me off.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:11 AM on March 29, 2016 [3 favorites]

DirtyOldTown: "
But to me, the thing that is killing this show is the over-reliance on the Big Bad Who Wants to Destroy Star City storyline."

Yeah, definitely. Basically, every super-bad on the show is a rehash of the last one because they have exactly the same motivations and goals. They might as well just throw the rest of them away and have Malcolm be the one constant big bad, always striving to destroy Star City with his earthquake machine. (Dear Arrow writers, I'm being sarcastic. In case you are trolling the internet for ideas, please don't do this.)

And yes to the dragging of feet as well. They've been playing the slowest defense in the world with Darhk. They basically wait for him to attack them, and then barely survive it, and count that as a win. They've done absolutely nothing to proactively go after this guy, even some research. Nobody has even talked about the fact that Thea is apparently immune to his magic and how that could somehow, maybe, be useful in taking him down for good. And of course, the whole Damien Darhk goes to jail thing is ridiculous. He could probably escape at any time, so him meekly being led from the courtroom and off to jail was actively hilarious.

To be honest, I'm at a loss with this show. In season 1 and 2, I loved it, and I would have recommended it to anyone as the way to do a superhero show. Now, not so much. Did they give away all their good writers to The Flash?
posted by katyggls at 11:31 AM on March 29, 2016

Every villain on Arrow ever:

And now... behold the horror of my plan: to nonspecifically destabilize and partially destroy the 25th largest city in the United States!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:51 AM on March 29, 2016 [4 favorites]

So...basically, Dr. Doofenschmirtz?
posted by briank at 12:22 PM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm with Cupid; I miss Deadshot. :(
posted by nicebookrack at 12:47 PM on March 29, 2016

I didn't find bitter ex-fiance Felicity entertaining at all, in fact, I found her a little annoyingly juvenile/bordering on emotionally abusive. And in general I really like Felicity and Oliver and Felicity together.

Agreed. This show has been treading into "making me feel bad for the actors" territory lately and the latest Olicity drama has been pioneering that front.

I thought the courtroom drama was handled surprisingly well; admittedly my expectations were not high (because this show has never really excelled at Laurel-having-a-day-job stuff) but they did much better than I expected.
posted by mstokes650 at 7:41 PM on March 29, 2016

Remember, bitter ex Felicity is a Felicity who's less likely to be "fridged in order to give Oliver the Feels" Felicity.

Hopefully they'll put her on a bus so she can end up over on the Flash or Supergirl. Tosh that would break the Flash's "only two women" role. Oh hey, bye Iris, hello Felicity.
posted by happyroach at 8:36 AM on March 30, 2016

I keep thinking about briank's comment... and it's so spot-on. The Arrow villains are pretty much all Dr. Doofenshmirtz at this point.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:40 AM on March 30, 2016

A helpful diagram of Arrow supervillain plans.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:47 AM on March 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Well to be fair, HIVE doesn't want to destroy the city. It just needs to control the city to further whatever plans they have for that underground corn field. I thought this episode was weak because it barely went any further with the main plot, and Cupid was just blah. And I'm not digging Felicity and Oliver not being together.
posted by numaner at 9:53 AM on March 30, 2016

I feel like the reason hack writers are constantly putting couples together and breaking them up is because will they/won't they is the easiest form of romantic interest to write. Writing a convincing adult relationship in which people stay together and navigate ups and downs is altogether more complicated.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:19 AM on March 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh you mean they'd have to actually do their job as writers? Imagine!
posted by numaner at 2:11 PM on March 30, 2016

Hey guys, remember when this show was awesome?

I blame the lack of salmon ladder training, plus Roy leaving town. *sadface*

Oh and speaking of dragging stuff out DirtyOldTown, when the hell do we get Mr. Terrific?

At this point he's gone so far past Chekhov's Assistant that I'm actively angry -- he's a wonderful character, tons of charisma, and they've let him linger in the background nearly all season. Echo Kellum's brilliant Curtis Holt was introduced on the show in what, October of last year? WHAT THE FUCK, WRITERS?!!!
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 4:34 PM on March 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

I feel like the reason hack writers are constantly putting couples together and breaking them up is because will they/won't they is the easiest form of romantic interest to write. Writing a convincing adult relationship in which people stay together and navigate ups and downs is altogether more complicated.

I'm going to try to think this through, even though I know very little about it. Why not.

I think it might be that so many people are learning about relationships from media, so creativity is hindered and audience sympathy (audience having a similar, and narrower, background) is likewise hindered.

Relationship issues beyond will they/won't they are maybe not so clear without understanding more about people as individuals; there are issues that only come up with people who have some particular traits or background, and those are difficult to imagine unless you've somehow experienced them yourself. Issues we connect with on a gut level, immediately, are going to lack subtlety. Other than will they/won't they, you've got "they treat each other terribly" -- which might alienate the audience -- and maybe "happy couple suddenly torn apart by obstacle" which is harder to make credible, I guess.

Also, if audiences are more diverse in lifestyle, maybe situations that most people can relate to are harder to identify. Parental disapproval? Trying to conceive a child? Can't afford a good school? Snobby boss? Maybe the number of people who can relate on a _gut_ level to any one person's "real life" situation is not "most" people anymore.

I'd love it if someone could prove me wrong...
posted by amtho at 5:21 AM on March 31, 2016

when the hell do we get Mr. Terrific?

I have to get the hell out of work right now so I don't have time to post the episode from last night, but holy hell that was some crazy tease about Mr. Terrific, with the Olympic level flipping away from the bee and then handily helping the team in Felicity's role and then going home and be like "that ain't for me". !!!! WTH show, stahp.
posted by numaner at 4:25 PM on March 31, 2016