C+Season 6Arrow ends a frustrating season with a frustrating, but affecting, finaleAllison Shoemaker5/18/18 2:53amSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkOn the whole, this isn’t a great season of Arrow. There are too many detours, too many balls dropped, more than the…
CSeason 6Attention, Arrow villains: Find a new angle, you're embarrassing yourselvesAllison Shoemaker5/10/18 10:59pmSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkAn Arrow villain has had it, well and truly had it. He is done. He loathes Oliver Queen and wants to scorch the earth…
BSeason 6Arrow tries to bounce back from a pretty bad storyline in a pretty solid episodeAllison Shoemaker5/04/18 1:29amSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkLet us say this of “Docket No. 11-19-41-73”: the people in it behave like people, the story has an arc, and I mostly …
C+Season 6Arrow hides one decent story underneath a pile of, well, other storiesAllison Shoemaker4/27/18 12:15amSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkEarly in “Shifting Allegiances,” there’s a sequence that works. It feels self-assured, carefully planned, and like the…
BSeason 6Arrow continues to course-correct with some Diaz dragon dramaAllison Shoemaker4/20/18 1:25amSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkThe 20th episode of Arrow’s fifth season, “Underneath,” did something a little unusual. Adrian Chase detonated an EMP,…
C+Season 6Arrow confronts Oliver Queen with the ghosts of baggage past Allison Shoemaker4/13/18 1:02amSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkThere’s no shortage of things to appreciate about “Fundamentals.” Like last week’s Diggle/Queen showdown, this is an …
BSeason 6Diggle goes out to get some air, and with it, some clarity for ArrowAllison Shoemaker4/06/18 1:52amSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkThe “why does everyone around you die” trope, which sometimes takes the form of “why does everyone I love die,” is…
CSeason 6Arrow, you have failed this SpeedyAllison Shoemaker3/30/18 1:02amSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkLet’s begin with some caveats.
B-Season 6Roy Harper returns in a perfectly acceptable ArrowAllison Shoemaker3/08/18 11:16pmSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkOn a show with a life this long you’re sometimes going to lose track of things. Who’s mad at who now, and why, and…
D+Season 6A frustrating Arrow attempts to fix a bad story by doubling downAllison Shoemaker3/01/18 9:50pmSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkWhy does Dinah crush the bug that Rene planted on Oliver? Those are reusable. It’s not like she plucked it off of…
C+Season 6Michael Emerson's great performance isn't lost in a middling ArrowAllison Shoemaker2/08/18 9:44pmSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkWhen Michael Emerson says “Mr. Queen,” it sounds nefarious. When he says “your son,” it’s terrifying. When he says…
C-Season 6A bleak Arrow is also blunt and kind of boringAllison Shoemaker2/02/18 12:30amSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkThis week, Arrow would like to remind you that it’s the dark one. In that, mission accomplished. This is an hour that…
B-Season 6One great sequence does not a perfect Arrow make—but it is a great sequenceAllison Shoemaker1/26/18 12:25amSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkThe longer a show runs, the less likely it is to well and truly surprise you. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, and it…
B+Season 6Arrow and its heroes shake it all off in a solid episodeAllison Shoemaker1/18/18 11:28pmSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalink“You guys don’t look like a Chechnyan death squad!”
B-Season 6Once again, Arrow pretends to burn it all downAllison Shoemaker12/08/17 12:08amSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkHere’s the short and vaguely irritated version of the review that follows below: Oh great, Oliver’s trust and emotional…
BSeason 6The crisis continues in Arrow's piece of The CW's Earth-X crossoverAllison Shoemaker11/28/17 10:26amSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkThere’s television, and then there’s “event” television. It’s the kind of thing you’re supposed to watch right when it…
B-Season 6A crowded Arrow will make you thankful for good actorsAllison Shoemaker11/23/17 8:01pmSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalink“Thanksgiving” sure has plenty of stuffing. (I’m sorry.) Here, if you’ll allow it, is a brief list of some of the…
B-Season 6A muted Arrow is light on almost everything but baggage Allison Shoemaker11/17/17 1:36amSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkVigilantes: they’re just like us.
B-Season 6Well, crap: Arrow’s flashbacks are backAllison Shoemaker11/10/17 2:06amSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkFlashbacks have been a part of Arrow’s DNA from the very beginning. At times they’ve been vital, at others,…
BSeason 6This is not a drill: Michael Emerson is now on ArrowAllison Shoemaker11/03/17 1:48amSaveEditEmbiggenSend to EditorsPromoteGo to permalinkArrow doesn’t have a stellar track record when it comes to villains. There have been high points, for sure—Manu…
