Is Arrow Technically Good?

Arrow is one of my favourite shows on television right now, but whenever I say that, I feel the need to emphasise that technically speaking, it's nothing great, yet every week I always look forward to it, I am such a big fan at this point, but I keep thinking to myself "boy this is stupid". I mean, we're currently in the best time for television dramas, what with Breaking Bad, Mad Men, True Detective, Game of Thrones, TV Drama has reached levels of excellence like never before. So when I think of Arrow, is it as good as Breaking Bad? Fuck no, not even close. I mean the story is nothing really all that special, I'm definitely invested in it but a lot of the time the stories are over-dramatic, non-sensicle and logic tends to take a back seat. And it's the same for the characters, they're simultaneously poorly casted yet very well casted at the same time, the cast is all unrealistically hot and the acting is very melodramatic, yet they really do fit the roles very well and they seem to have a genuine liking for the material they're working with, it's not just a job to them, they're genuinely having fun.

Though then again I do tend to be a little bit more lenient on the series because it is very comic booky, yet at the same time there is a lot of stuff in it that we are legitimately meant to take seriously and I can't always do that because...well it's just so silly! That's why I'm talking about Arrow and not The Flash, the spin-off of Arrow which I also love, but it embraces the comic book nature a whole lot more without been expected to be taken too seriously, so I'm a lot more accepting of the over the top nature.

But then again there are some things about Arrow that I genuinely really like, such as the costume designs I feel are great (Except for Roy's costume, the bright red mask looks ridiculous) and the fight scenes, while nothing mind-blowing are very well shot and choreographed. As the series has been going on it definitely embraces the comic book style more, I mean he already has trick arrows that tie people up even though that's physically impossible. And as melodramatic and illogical as the stories are, the emotions that the characters feel do come across as genuine, even if it is hard to take the set-ups seriously some times.

So in the end, is Arrow technically good? Well from a story stand point, probably not, it's silly, it's unrealistic and isn't very dynamic. But the characters are likeable, even if they're not all too complex, the action and set pieces are very nice, it's a lot of fun, especially in it's current season. Is it as well written or as well shot as something like True Detective? No, but it doesn't need to be. It's being it's own thing as a cheesy and fun comic book show, if you can't get into it, then i totally understand, the melodrama can be really distracting and the technical aspects are quite average. But personally, I really enjoy it, and i'm surprisingly invested in what's going to happen, so again, technically it's not that good, but personally, it's pretty damn awesome.

-Danny