Arrow @ Wikipedia
Arrow @ IMDb

Five years ago a yacht sank in the middle of the ocean. Aboard were billionaire Robert Queen and his son Oliver, the girl Oliver was sleeping with (who’s not his girlfriend) and at least one business partner of Robert’s. Only Oliver survived and he washed up on the shore of an island where he lived for the following years.

Now he’s back in his hometown but his life has changed. On the surface he’s still the same playboy that he was before the accident (if it was one) trying to get back into the life of the high society and to reconcile with his former girlfriend Laurel who lost her sister on that yacht.

Beneath the surface Oliver has come back with a mission: To free the city of the corrupt and powerful who are destroying it. He becomes the Green Arrow, a mysterious vigilante who hunts down the people on his list until they’re either properly prosecuted by the law or dead.

Both his lives aren’t made any easier by the fact that his mother is somehow involved in the accident but also hired a trained bodyguard for her son (which makes it harder to slip away) but also the fact that his former girlfriend Dinah “Laurel” Lance is a district attorney and her father (who lost a daughter that fateful day) is a police detective who holds a serious grudge against both Oliver and the Green Arrow.

This Green Arrow is much more dark than his Smallville counterpart. He’s not above killing his enemies albeit they’ve already turned it down from the Pilot. Anyone familiar with the comic book series (which basically portrays a modern-day Robin Hood) will already have notices some familiar names: Dinah Lance, the future Black Canary and future (ex-)wife of Oliver’s, Deadshot and Tommy Merlyn.

But even without that knowledge the show works very well. It’s dark in tone and style and similar to Nolan’s interpretation of Batman.

It doesn’t feel much like a comic book adaptation except for the fact that in modern days a bow wouldn’t be the weapon of choice for anyone, especially for short-distance shoot-outs.