Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: arrow, cw, entertainment, Paul Blackthorne, Rick Gomez, stephen amell, television

Stephen Amell Brought His 'A' Game

This article contains spoilers for the Arrow episode – Specter of the Gun.

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I normally do one recap / review article per show, but last night's episode of Arrow deserved to have an article that focused on the gun issue it was addressing and how well they addressed it. But I wanted to comment on a couple other things that happened in the episode outside of  that main issue…

Other than for one quick scene, Oliver Queen was not in the Green Arrow suit for the majority of the episode and Stephen Amell brought one of his best performances of the series. Amell gets knocked by some online for his acting, but I think last night he showed a lot of the frustration that comes along with the issue. He was the perfect character to address the idea that not everyone problem can be solved by violence and putting on a mask.

The good acting didn't stop there. Rick Gonzalez continues to shine as Renee Ramirez / Wild Dog gets more and more screen time. The more we learn about the characters backstory and motivations, the more we can understand his attitude. But there is a generosity to the character that sneaks out through the hardened exterior.

Also it was really nice to see Paul Blackthorne bringing the reality and grounding that only Quentin Lance can. In a series about vigilantes, Lance has always been the voice of reason, the voice of the everyman. The show is better when his character is there and pushing Oliver to be better. That's one of the great things in the series is how the relationship between Quentin and Oliver has evolved from adversarial to almost mentor / pupil. Oliver has had many mentors to show him how t be a vigilante and a killer, Lance is showing him how to be a better man.

I'm a little surprised at how the writers are handling Dinah Drake joining the team. Everyone just seems okay with it and we're getting little bonding moments here and there… and it almost feels too neat and easy. I thought we'd see more friction. Maybe even Lance being upset that someone other than one of his daughters is going to be the Canary.

I'm a little worried about Wild Dog at this point though. He's the only real new recruit left. Artemis turned traitor and Ragman lost his powers… Diggle and Thea are back and now Dinah has joined. It's like they're putting the original Team Arrow back together again. Nothing better happen to Renee or I may riot.

Next week, it looks like things are going to go from bad to worse for Oliver as the police now want Green Arrow for shooting Billy Malone. Either Adrian Chase's cover up of Green Arrow's involvement got discovered… or Chase decided to take GA out of the Vigilante's way.

https://youtu.be/4NYfPpOlk0A

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