Arrow: Green Arrow and the Canaries

January 21, 2020 6:36 PM - Season 8, Episode 9

In the year 2040 - Mia Queen has everything she could have ever wanted - until Laurel and Dinah suddenly show up in her life again and things take a shocking turn; Laurel and Dinah track a kidnapping victim who has direct ties to Mia.

TV Fanatic recap: "There was a lot on the line for this episode as it is intended to be the backdoor pilot for the new spinoff show, Green Arrow & the Canaries. Did it succeed in planting the curiousity to check out the latest addition to the Arrowverse should it get a full series order? Or did Arrow Season 8 Episode 9 fall flat with the high expectations set in place by its predecessor?"

TV Line Recap: Thanks for the Memories? — Grade the Planted Spinoff Pilot

posted by oh yeah! (12 comments total)

Darn. They've got me.

I was perfectly fine not expecting to watch the Star City Kiddies show. As I've posted before dystopian futures really aren't my cup of tea, but this was actually fun. I'm actually looking forward to the bickering Canaries being roommates in Barbara Gordon's transplanted clock tower.

I'm also have fun watching Mia's fashions. I'm sure it's a challenge to predict what people will be realistically wearing 20 years in the future, especially fashion-forward socialites, but they've got her swinging from 1970s styles (I swear my Barbie doll had some pink pants like Mia's) to mature society matron.

I am a bit stumped as to how suddenly everybody has the magical J'onn J'onzz mind-restoring tech, but I assume they're address that at some point.

I didn't get to watch these in real time, and I haven't seen this week's Legends yet, but I really hope we weren't cheated out of a Laurel-and-Sara-talk-about-the-future scene (although I suspect we were).
posted by sardonyx at 4:31 PM on January 22, 2020

Oh, forgot to mention how much I enjoyed watching the action scenes. It was obvious the stunt crew was going at things full blast and having a grand old time about it.
posted by sardonyx at 5:25 PM on January 22, 2020

Wait, is this spinning off into the Canaries? I couldn't determine anything from the Arrow wikipedia article, so I wasn't sure if this was an actual soft pilot or if it was just a weird way of tying up the series.

(I mean, I don't think I've really watched since maybe 4th season? Like, the 3rd time they blew up the city?)
posted by Kyol at 6:14 PM on January 22, 2020

I keep reading phrases like "soft pilot" and "backdoor pilot."

IMDB news keeps covering it if you're looking for a fairly authoritative source.
posted by sardonyx at 6:18 PM on January 22, 2020

Ah, an actual legitimate soft / backdoor pilot, not a *wink* and a *nudge* and a *we already have 12 episodes of the new series in the can, we're just introducing you to the characters and plot* pilot. Huh.
posted by Kyol at 7:27 AM on January 23, 2020

yeah this was really enjoyable. I don't mind a show where the anchors are !Laurel and Dinah. Ever since !Laurel started turning good a couple of seasons ago I could see a good dynamic between them. Felicity too would work well in this new set up, but alas.

I wanna know what this means for Rene and Diggle though, since those two didn't show up at all in this backdoor pilot. Rene is still mayor in 2040 so he'll be around, and maybe in this new future Diggle is alive too?

And I guess Curtis is really gone now?
posted by numaner at 1:15 PM on January 23, 2020

I like it better than actual Arrow. I really like New Socialite Mia much better. So I'd watch this.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:40 PM on January 23, 2020

So much change to see. Where is Sara Diggle, who exists again in this universe? Is Nightwatch a thing or did A.R.G.U.S. get reformed from the inside? Will Connor choose to be his old self or is his new reality more appealing? And of course who is, "she," and why is she using the character on the Arrowloom?

I would watch a season of this show.
posted by Ignorantsavage at 12:45 AM on January 24, 2020

!Laurel is That Bitch and I am HERE FOR IT. I will basically watch this show just for Laurel for an entire season if it's like this.

Did anyone else notice that JJ was also in Russian Doll?
posted by rednikki at 2:01 AM on January 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

Heads up for tomorrow - there’s an interview special “Arrow: Hitting the Bullseye” at 8pm before the finale. My season pass didn’t catch it to record since it’s not an Arrow episode, so I had to set a manual recording for it. (Not sure yet if I’m going to watch it live, will probably save it until after I watch the finale.)
posted by oh yeah! at 8:37 AM on January 27, 2020

This episode was fun, very nicely paced and the characters sparkled well off each other. I loved the mirror image of Oliver Queens' life; now it's Mia who's the socialite with a hidden talent for murder and saving cities.

As a comedown from Crisis it was absolutely awful. As I said in the previous episode I'm very late watching these, and I'm an Arrow-only fan and didn't manage to watch the other Crisis episodes. So WTF happened to Oliver? Damned if I know. I read online that he died again, a second time, and there was an emotional scene of him passing the mantle of the Green Arrow on to Mia. And there was a funeral? And then the time reset wiped it all or something. Damned if I know. All I know watching Arrow is that he's gone forever and folks are sad. I guess it's on me for not watching all the other Arrowverse shows, but they really should have figured out a way to bring the most important things about Oliver Queen into the Oliver Queen show. The funeral, at least. Harumpf.
posted by Nelson at 8:51 PM on February 8, 2020

Old news, but the back door pilot didn't make it. The CW Arrow’s future-set ‘Green Arrow & the Canaries’ spinoff officially axed at The CW
posted by Nelson at 9:03 AM on June 14, 2021