42 – SUMMER OF SUPERHEROES – Arrow S1 and S2!

This is Phil Lamar, and you are listening to

the GeekCast Radio Network. Thanks for tuning

in to your remote control here on the GeekCast

Radio Network. I'm your announcer, Optimus Solo.

And on today's episode, join TFG1 Mike and the

rest of the RC crew as they talk TV in the modern

era. That's right, for TV talk all the time,

stop channel surfing and let us take over your

remote control. The name of the island they found

me on is Leon Yu. It's Mandarin for purgatory.

I've been stranded here for five years. I've

dreamt of my rescue every cold black night since

then. For five years, I've had only one thought.

One goal. Survive. Survive and one day return

home. The island held many dangers. To live,

I had to make myself more than what I was. To

forge myself into a weapon. I am returning. Not

the boy who was shipwrecked, but the man who

will bring justice to those who have poisoned

my city. My name is Oliver Queen. Welcome to

Remote Control. I am, of course, TFG1 Mike. This

is episode 42. 42 is the magic number because

right now, folks, it is the summer of superheroes.

Well, we're starting this a little late. It's

almost, you know, the second or third week of

August or whatever it is. I don't even know anymore.

Joining me once again, as always for now, is

trying to be DJ V. It's DJ Valentine from the

Simplistic Reviews podcast. He is my Diggle at

this point. In the immortal words of my favorite

character on this show and maybe every CW show,

hey, kid. Oh, crap. So people might know what

I'm doing or know what we will be doing here.

I've mentioned this on the Remote Control Facebook

page, on the GCRN Facebook page. From episode

42 to 49. Of this podcast, we are going to go

through every single season, two seasons per

podcast, of all of the CW current shows. This

does not include Black Lightning. At this point,

it does not include Black Lightning, because

I have not had time to... Even watch Black Lightning.

So this episode will be season one and two of

Arrow. Next time, season three of Arrow with

Flash season one, because that's the continuity

order. Arrow season four, Flash season two, Legends

season one, Supergirl season one, Arrow season

five, Flash season three, Legends two, Supergirl

two. Wow. Supergirl and Legends. Legends, yes.

Supergirl, meh. arrow six already giving commentary

arrow six flash four and wow it's like a football

score arrow six flash four legends legends three

and supergirl three um yeah i i don't know i've

been wanting to do this for a while um originally

we had had a show called uh the legends of the

brave and the bold where steve megatron and i

were going to go through Not necessarily season

by season, episode by episode, but we were going

to do a whole CW Batman type of thing. Obviously,

Batman isn't in the CW television universe. Or

is he? Well, Batwoman will be, thank God. Finally,

something good on Supergirl. Oh, my God. You're

getting ahead of yourself. Yes, I know, I know.

All right, so how this is going to work, folks,

is we have four... uh categories we have stage

dressing casting couch uh to jump or not to jump

the shark and obviously exiting stage left so

that's kind of the closing uh when did like what

were you doing back in 2012 when this was kind

of announced or 2011 it was probably announced

in 2011 saying hey fall of 2012 the cw is starting

a new show and it isn't smallville Oh, man. I

mean, Arrow was a show that shouldn't have worked

for me. The previous attempt at Green Arrow on

the CW was the one on Smallville, which to me

was just cosplay Oliver Queen. So when I heard

they were giving him his own show with the guy

behind Ryan Reynolds' Green Lantern as showrunner,

I was severely skeptical would be the nice way

to say it other than... cursing, screaming at

the sky. I didn't know at the time who Stephen

Amell was. I didn't know why they didn't just

call the damn show Green Arrow. But I think what

this show did to subconsciously win me over,

at least the first two and a half seasons, was

to crib a lot, which we were joking about before,

crib a lot of elements from Batman, namely Batman

Begins with... Spoiler alert. Malcolm Merlin's

season one plan mirrored a lot of Ra's al Ghul's

plan from Batman Begins. So before I knew it,

I was in to Arrow. If you ever heard the earliest

episodes of our podcast, we were getting depth

and seasons. We would talk about episodes after

episodes from one and two, which again, I never

thought I'd be doing seeing the first ad for

it, which just seemed like some kind of... the

the hot kids on cw now messing with comic books

i was like uh well after the first i don't know

i guess after the first next snap i think uh

i was in i was like oh okay uh all right i think

there was one scene in particular in the first

episode of the pilot where Ali is, I guess, I'm

spoiling the show, I guess. It's six years old,

dude. You can spoil the show. I mean, come on.

Ali is kidnapped and tied to a chair. Right.

And guys are questioning him. And at this point

of the show, I'm like this. I'm watching the

show with my arms folded like, see, this show

is going to be one of those stupid shows, you

know. And he's getting tortured. And then he.

Pulls his hands out like his hands are bound

behind him. But then he tells the criminals,

I'm not bound to the charity, pulls his hands

out and tears them to pieces. I'm like, oh, OK,

let me see where this goes. And where it went

for was for me to really, really good season.

So. Two and a half. Yeah. Yeah. I will say right

now, as we go through this. Arrow Season 3, 4,

and to somewhat a lesser sort of extent, 5, I

did not care. When I was watching these as they

unfolded, Arrow Season 3, you might as well just

change his costume, give him a batarang, and

just call him fucking... They've even admitted

to this that he's Batman. Yeah, I mean, you might

as well just call him fucking Batman, because,

you know... Fuck Batman. I mean, come on. But

no, they've admitted you were correct. I mean,

I've already talked about the whole Malcolm Merwin,

the Glades, the Narrows mirror thing. I mean,

season three, I kind of thought season three

was going really, really well. Because they were

promising. I'm pretty sure that season three

would. Ra's al Ghul. when he, I guess, spoiler

alert again, gets kicked, fights Ra's al Ghul,

which I think that scene is probably one of the

greatest live -action comic book scenes of all

time, by the way, with Oliver versus Ra's al

Ghul on a mountainside. I love that scene. I

would put it up against any comic book scene

you got. It's awesome. But after he falls off

that cliff, the show kind of falls off that cliff

with him. Yeah. It kind of recovered in the last...

more recent season but it was a dark good but

yeah it seasons like you know how everyone says

oh it took star trek the next generation until

like season three or four to find its legs find

its legs right for me once season three of arrow

happened i was like okay it had its legs in season

one and two sort of it was building it was building

it was building and then rage comes in and basically

undercuts it and and the show became a double

pirate peg leg or something because it had to

find itself again. For the first half of season

three, I'm telling you, up until that fight,

I was all aboard. I was like, this is awesome.

First off, I don't know if you noticed about

me, I love Ra's al Ghul. He might be one of my

favorite. DC villains, if not my favorite DC

villain of all time. And I was, again, arms folded

when they started bringing him to the air. I'm

like, you're not going to beat Liam Neeson. There's

no way you're going to get close to Liam Neeson.

And this guy, I forget his name. He was in the

Riddick sequel. I forget his name. He does a

really good job of Ra's al Ghul, especially in

that fight scene. And what I thought was going

to happen, I know we're skipping way ahead to

season three, is that once he fell off that cliff,

we wouldn't see a Mel for the rest of the season.

That's what should have happened. Should have

been, it took them a long time to go from I fought

Ra's al Ghul and died to coming back. But they

waited, I think that CW didn't have the balls

to do that and they didn't bring him back in

the next episode. That's the problem with the

CW and with the network model. that six years

ago and even now today it has not changed they

have the the the winter finale they have the

summer they have these two points in a television

season's lifespan of whatever like like like

we said at the beginning of this so far season

one had 23 episodes at some point around say

11 12 i don't i i mean i just watched this whole

season for season one i don't even know where

like the winter finale thing like but that's

what happened yeah i don't know but that's what

happened in season three i remember that they

did the cliffhanger they did him falling off

the thing and then that was great Which is great.

It's great. Except that should have been the

full -on season finale, not the mid -season finale.

I completely agree with you. If they would have

made these, and we've been kicking this around

for years, even the Netflix model, we've been

kicking that around a bit too. If they make these

seasons more compact, like, again, I'm sorry,

British television, where they make... No episode

filler. Every episode is about the plot. You

make it 10 episodes, 11 episodes max, and that's

the season finale. Season three might have been

one of the best seasons ever because it's such

a good first half. But then the second half is

just like, ugh. It's never going to get better

than this. And all of these shows, these CW models,

these network television models, I guess out

of a fear of not having enough content for their

network, they give these shows 23 episodes. And

you get like five that are meaningful. The rest

of them are just like monster of the week as

it was the coin phrase in Buffy. Just filler.

You need to make these more... When you make

them slim and mean, lean and mean seasons, like

a Luther or a BBC show like that, you never...

You can really get a handle on this. You can

get a handle on these characters. And that's

what Netflix is dealing with now with the Marvel

stuff. Everybody's like, oh, you know, whether

it's Luke Cage or Jessica Jones or whatever.

These seasons are too long. Those are 13 episodes.

Arrow is 23. bloody episodes long so i have not

seen this in six years since it debuted 2012

2013 television season i have not gone back to

season one i still remember almost everything

there are certain things i forgot there's certain

things i've like as i was watching i would post

on social media saying oh hey i forgot about

this or i you know it's like you know there goes

that person or there goes that person or oh my

god like looking at the arrow title card from

season six to What it was in season one. The

Arrow title card in season one is basically your

basic black. And I forgot about that. Now, by

my rough estimate, you have not had sex in 1

,839 days. As your wingman, I highly recommend

Carmen Golden. Which one is she? The one who

looks like the chick from Twilight. What's Twilight?

You're so better off not knowing. It's just...

interesting going like i was hooked okay when

i was watching this it took me probably till

about season the season episode 12 episode 12

was my kind of like okay i kind of remember what

goes on from episode 12 to episode 23 because

episode 12 was vertigo And I was like, oh, God,

this. That's right. I remember this. But the

first 11 episodes, I was like, ooh, ooh, ooh.

Forgot about that. I forgot about the kidnapping.

I forgot about the dead shot. Yeah, forgot about

dead shot. Forgot about Huntress. I was like,

ooh, Huntress, she needs to come back now. She

needs to come back for season seven. Hidden love

child with Oliver Queen for season seven or something.

Have William have a brother or something. Like,

yeah. It's just crazy. Jumping on the casting

couch for this show, as you said, Stephen Amell,

I had never heard of this guy until this show.

Even if I had looked him up, I wouldn't, like,

this show and him as Casey Jones in the TMNT

Out of the Shadows movie. How dare you bring

that up? How dare you? What? Out of the Shadows

was better than the first film. Oh, come on.

It was better than the first one. this just you

can't you're comparing this Stephen Amell as

Casey Jones which the closest thing Stephen Amell

has to Casey Jones is that his name is Casey

Jones that's the only common to the Casey Jones

that was in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles movie or the any animated series but

yes but yeah I've never heard of him before I

think never I think the fact that Amell Going

in, especially if you're talking about the first

couple episodes that you almost forgot about,

because so did I. I think the fact that Amel

took the role and performed it super serious

really won me over on him. There is like literally

no tongue in cheek with him for the first season

and a half where he's just. Batman. He's essentially

Bruce Wayne, which works for the character and

makes him a standout in the DCCW universe. When

he's in a scene, a Mel's in a scene with, let's

say, Barry Allen, CDC, you can put a dark character

with a light character resulting in an effect

that is entertaining relationship -wise. But

I digress. It works because he is so good at

playing... I mean, he's pretty good at playing

Batman. If you're making a Batman show, he's

really good at Bruce Wayne because he's nailing

all the dual identity. I'm really serious in

my personal life and in my public life. I have

to play the drunken playboy. That's Batman. That's

all Batman is. And I thought he really nailed

that tone for this character. Yeah, I mean, looking

through his filmography before Arrow. Soap opera

stuff, I'm assuming. He was in two episodes of

New Girl. Oh, okay. He was in one episode of

CSI. He was in one episode of NCIS Los Angeles.

So was I. His television debut, according to

the information I have, he was in two episodes

as the spinning instructor on Queer as Folk.

Okay. Don't know. He was a doorman in Degrassi

The Next Generation. Oh, okay. That's a great

show. Yeah. Great, great show. Yeah. Okay, so

the coolest thing outside of him being this character.

He's being on a show with Drake. Okay, so while

Arrow has been going on in 2015, they did something

really cool. I will try to find the audio of

the video. I don't know. Stardust is a dangerous

man. How disrespectful is that? Oh my God. Oh

my God. Stephen Amell shouldn't have done that.

He shouldn't have done that as he takes out Stardust.

And here comes the security. One of the heroes,

Stardust. The hero's going to rearrange your

face. Yeah, but the problem is, Byron, is Stephen...

He teamed up with Neville and went against oh

god two other wwe people basically he was at

a wwe show oh you're talking about when he went

against goldust yeah it was yeah it was it was

yeah it was gold dust and cody rhodes that's

what it was right right right um yeah no that

i was like hey It's Arrow against the WWE. He's

jumping off of stuff. Oh my God. Like him jumping

off the thing and going this way and going, and

then him basically, you know, going, not necessarily

going up against. Cause I know it was, let's

face it folks. It's not, it's not fake, but it's

planned. You know, it's choreographed, but it

hurts, but it's, it's, it's planned. It's planned

hurting essentially. It's planned pain. Exactly.

Him basically saying to Triple H and Vince McMahon,

I don't care. I don't care. I'll sign whatever

you want. Just make it happen. Are you all right?

Yeah, I'm fine. All right, well, here's the thing.

I brought you here as a guest to be a spectator,

not a participant. Do you understand me? You're

lucky you walked out of that ring in one piece.

But Stardust was going to start all of this.

I will deal with Stardust. Hey, let us deal with

Stardust. Us? Us? Let me make one thing clear

to you. You are not now, nor will you ever be,

one of us. You're an actor. Yeah, yeah, I get

it. I get it. I'm an actor. I'm also a man. If

some guy's gonna put his hands on me, I'm gonna

fight back. So let the two of us... Let the two

of us take care of Barrett and Stardust at SummerSlam.

What was it going to be, the red arrow and the

green arrow, huh? Here's the thing. I'm done

talking about this. The parking lot is this way.

I am not asking anything for you. Tell you what.

Whatever your lawyers want me to sign, I'll sign.

Take full responsibility for what happens. Make...

the match! At that point in 2015, I had just

started Mayhem Mike's, our wrestling podcast

that we have here at Geek History Network and

over on This Week in Geek as well. I was like,

I just started that and I'm like, oh, this is

because by 2015, I had been watching WWE at that

time for about eight years. I started in 2007

again. Before 2007, I hadn't watched anything

WWE since, I don't know, 1991. So, Or 98, actually.

But, anyway. So, it's like, oh, okay. By the

time 2015 rolls around, wow, cool. I'm watching

that show. I'm watching this stuff. Cool. That's

interesting. But, yeah, no. He doesn't take himself.

The thing about, if you ever watch him at Comic

-Con or doing the WWE stuff, the thing about

Amel, which I really like him, is that he doesn't

take himself too seriously. And he's really.

But he's really serious about the character.

I think he understands that Arrow is essentially

the foundation of this whole CW DC universe.

So he takes that responsibility seriously. But

if you ever see him at a Comic Con or messing

around with John Berman at a convention or something

like that, he can laugh at himself. He doesn't

mind doing the playful thing. Oh, exactly. You

don't understand how... Rare that is when it

comes to these Hollywood characters. Especially

when they're digging actors doing superhero roles.

Some of them don't, you know, eh, whatever, it's

a show. I think he understands it's up to a lot

of people out there that this character has been

around before him. It'll be around after him.

He takes it seriously. He takes the network,

his responsibility on the network very seriously.

But he's not a prick, essentially, is what I'm

saying. Absolutely, yeah. And see, here's the

thing about him. You say Green Arrow will be

around. It was obviously around before him. It'll

be around after him, whatever. Here's the thing.

The only other person that I can remember that

I actively loved as Green Arrow was the guy that

voiced him in Justice League Unlimited. I forget

what his name is off the top of my head. I forget

what his name is off the top of my head. I go

to you for these things, man. I know, I know,

I know. I'll look it up and we'll have it for

the season three episode next week. So right

now for me, Amel is the definitive. Oh, yeah.

And Green Arrow. Like Hugh Jackman is right now

the definitive Wolverine and Logan, even though

Cal J. Dodd was the definitive for X -Men 92

as the voice. Right. You know. And the video

game. Yeah, and the video game. What surprised

me about, and I knew this because I've known

since I've been watching the whole thing, but.

Every time I see Willa Holland's name in this

show, I'm like, hey, what's Caitlyn from the

OC doing in this? That's what my first thought

was. That's what she's from. Thank you. Thank

you so much. What the hell is Marissa's little

sister? And I'm like, look, and I'm like, God,

I know you. What do I know you, Willa? What do

I know you? I watched the OC religiously. That's

another show you can talk about. Oh, yeah. I

love that show. So I'm like looking at her. I'm

always looking. I'm like, God. God, I know you.

I see your face. Thank you. It was bothering

me. And then another recurring guest star as

Robert Queen, Jamie Sheridan, was Deacons, Captain

Deacons on Law & Order Criminal Intent. Yeah,

he was Captain. The beard. It's the beard that

throws you off, but you hear the voice and you

know it's him. Absolutely. Like you mentioned,

John Barrowman. This is my first. time seeing

him I know he's done I have not seen any of that

stuff so I love him Manu Bennett as Slade Wilson

hold on hold on Manu Bennett needs to be spoken

to in reverence okay and that's fine I'm just

saying I swear before I knew what his name was

that the fact that he was Slade I looked at that

guy and I'm like I know I've seen him In other

stuff. I just did not know the guy's name at

the time. And I even looked him up and I'm like,

I don't remember anything that he's done. The

biggest thing he's done is probably the Hobbit,

which you never saw his face. He was the white

orc. I was fighting open shield or whatever,

but that was after this. But for a long time,

Ron Perlman was my death stroke. I mean, much

like Michael Ironside is still my dark side,

but Manu Bennett, oh man, he knocks my, he's

so good at Slade Wilson, so much so. When you

say Deathstroke to me, the first voice that pops

into my head is, hey, kid, with that little whisper

he does, that little whisper growl. Sorry, Joe

Manganiello. I mean, you're popular or whatever,

but you'll never be Deathstroke. You'll probably

never be Deathstroke, but you'll never be my

Deathstroke. You're going to have a tall mountain

to climb to overtake what Manu does here because

he and Oliver have this dual arc. That's so good

from season one to the apex that is season two

their friendship works the fact that Oliver learned

from The best I like that it's almost like a

Samurai Jack sort of thing where Oliver's is

picking up all these skills from different people

Just like Samurai Jack picked up. I'm gonna learn

from Robin Hood. I'm gonna learn from the gladiators

and whatever so he the fact he's being trained

by Deathstroke the Terminator so dope and uh

And not to jump a season ahead, but the love

triangle Between him and Shadow and Ollie. Works

for me. Unlike the one between Ollie. Laurel

and Tommy. That didn't really work for me that

well. But the fact that that love triangle worked.

Really makes season 2 work. Because him coming

to town. Trying to get revenge. I'm like okay.

I know why he's doing this. This makes complete

sense. Just that amount of pain. That's that

man who kind of conveys because he's always just

tortured. He's always super serious. It does.

It just makes season two. That's why season two

is my favorite season is because it's mostly

menu. Yeah, he has worked with both John Cena

and Stone Cold. He was in The Marine and he was

in The Condemned. Oh, yeah, he was in The Condemned.

I remember. Yes, I remember that. That might

have been the first thing I've seen him in was

The Condemned, actually. Probably. Yeah, that's

most likely the first thing I saw him in. Katie

Cassidy as Laurel. Polarizing. Yeah. I love how

they've taken her, the actress. and reshaped

the Laurel character over the years. Like, obviously,

spoilers, not that I need to say that, because,

hello, the show's six years old. A few people

haven't seen the first five seasons, at least.

You know, our Laurel eventually does die, but

they've taken her and turned her into Black Siren,

alternate Earth Laurel kind of thing. I love

that they were able to do that with her. So what's

your favorite Laurel? Because my favorite Laurel,

I think the Laurel that works for this show is...

It's going to be hard to say. Lawyer Laurel.

Yeah. There's Lawyer Laurel. There's Drunk Laurel.

Then there's Black Canary Laurel. Then there's

Black Siren Laurel. I think Lawyer and Black

Siren work the best. I think you're right. Because

Black Canary Laurel. Not so much. Not so much.

So much so that they, going to another character,

Felicity Smoak, kind of took her spot. Because

in the comic books, Black Canary and Green Arrow,

that's the Superman -Lois Lince relationship.

Or Batman -Catwoman relationship. And they're

like, well, Emile kind of has more chemistry

with Emily Beth. So we're going to go that way,

if you don't mind. Yeah. The crazy thing is,

when they turned her into Black Canary, I'm like,

I don't care what anyone says. I do not care.

I understand it's a quote -unquote bad show,

but there was one shining moment in Birds of

Prey. It's when Lori friggin' Laughlin from Full

House comes in as Black Canary. That's Black

Canary to me. That's your Black Canary? Oh, yeah.

Forget Rebecca Donaldson. Birds of Prey was a

TV show. How many seasons was that on? One. Just

one. Thirteen episodes. It's all I've got. YouTube

it, folks. Don't trust me. It'll be there. It'll

be there. Yep. Since you mentioned her earlier,

Emily Bet... Richardson or Rickerson. I always

want to say Emily Beth Richardson, but it's Emily

Beth Rickards. Rickards, that's what it is. She

has not been in a lot of stuff other than the

DC TV stuff. Films, her debut was a short film

called Bacon and Eggs in 2012. She was in a Flicka

movie, Cowgirls and Angels, Dakota's Summer.

These sound like you're just making shows up.

I'm not. These are actual films, sadly. And most

of her television stuff is Arrow, Flash, Legends,

Supergirl. I give the showrunners credit because

if you watch her first scene on this show, which

I just recently got to watch. I think it's episode

4 or episode 3. She, from the first scene, you're

like, oh, you can't just have, because I think

she was supposed to be one episode, and this

character is from a comic book, but it's such

a throwaway character in a comic book, so it

seemed like it was a name drop, but she is so

good. as this quirky kind of you know playing

off of oliver stoic again contrasting a comic

character a comical you know bright character

with a dark brooding character works dc uh but

when there's the first thing i think oliver's

dropping off like a laptop he wants her to decode

it or whatever yeah and she's just so like bumbly

nervous it's like i could watch a whole this

could be a show just them felicity is in season

one she is the uber hot nerd girl right right

but she has charisma like she has charisma oh

yeah she does and her as the show goes on her

backstory is actually really interesting with

uh with her father and her mom i mean she has

a lot i mean thinking about where they could

have gone if they would have you know, followed

the comic book and I'm more of a stickler to

following the source material. But again, I get

the bad rap of, I just want it to be just like

the comic books. I want it to be like the comic

books in terms of nailing a character. But if

there's some change that makes it better and

making physicality smoke the main love interest

to Ali. Is making it better. Because the chemistry

between those two. You can see it in the first

scene. I'm like you can't deny this. If you want

to make her. Be on the show all the time. At

first I was like okay she can be. When they brought

her back eventually. And she was kind of like

their cue. Or you know. Customer support or whatever.

I was fine with that. But when they made the

level. I was like yeah I'm fine with that too.

Because she has every scene she's in. She's great

in. Season one. I think my favorite line from

her, I'm so glad to have you inside. Like, oh,

my God. The running gag where she kept saying

lines that sounded like innuendo. Oh, yeah. It's

innuendo and don't. But, yeah. Yeah. It's so

fun. Six armed guards, two pit bosses, and four

men. You know slot machines mean how you call

yourself a casino without any lucky sevens. Stay

focused, please. I'll be with you the entire

time. Thanks. It's really good having you inside

me. And by you, I mean your voice. And by me,

I mean my ear. I'm going to stop talking right

now. That would be my preference. Absolutely,

I love her. Other cast members, like we mentioned,

John Barrowman, surprised me to find... Kelly,

who is China White? Yeah, I think I knew that

going in from the commercial. I think she's in

the commercial when they were first promoting

it. And I saw Kelly, who's an arrow. And I was

like, all right. I knew more about Kelly, who

I knew about, you know, Stephen Amell or anybody

on the show. Like she is actually the one in

season out of season one, probably the one name.

That I recognize the most outside of, like I

said before, Jamie Sheridan. When was Michael

Jai White on there? Because he was Bronze Tiger,

I think. But I can't remember if that's two or

one. I always get those seasons things. Probably

two, because he was not in this one, I don't

think. Right. But no, yeah, Kelly was like the

big... The big guest star. Yeah, she's the big

recurring guest star. But, I mean, her started

off with Friday the 13th, Jason Takes Manhattan

for a film debut. Wow. And then she was in Surf

Ninjas in 1993. I mean, I can't blame her for

that. No. Obviously, X2 is Lady Deathstrike in

2003. Great role. She doesn't have to. I mean,

does she really have to? Well, that's like such

a, again, I'm going to go into the comics. She's

such an interesting character and they kind of

give her nothing to say. But she looked the part

in her fight scene with Hugh Jackman is awesome.

That's like one of the highlights of that movie.

She was, let's see, what else? She was in Inspector

Michelle Chan in one of my favorite TV shows,

Nash Bridges from 97 and 98. Good old Nash Bridges.

She was in Sammo Hung's Martial Law from 98 to

2000. I think I watched that show. It's so funny.

I'm just a network we have here called H &I Heroes

and Icons. They're running this day shift where

they run like Nash Bridges on Monday, Early Edition

on Tuesdays, NYPD Blue on Wednesdays or whatever.

And I'm watching Early Edition, which I have

not watched that show in forever. Kyle Chandler's

Early Edition. Yeah, exactly. And I'm like. There

was an episode at the end of the third season,

because that's where I'm picking it up on this

network, is the end of the third season going

into the fourth, where it was a crossover and

Sammo from Martial Law was in. Get out of here.

I'm not kidding. Get out of here. It was hilarious.

I'll give you the episode name later. Oh, I loved

it. I gotta see this. I thought it was hilarious.

Kelly also, she's the voice of Stacey Harano

on Phineas and Ferb. She was in Numbers for an

episode, NCIS Los Angeles. Again, everybody has

been on that show. Yeah, exactly. Obviously,

most recently this year, she's entangled the

series as Adria. So there's that. But yeah, no.

The cast in this show, I love them all pretty

much. There really isn't... How do you feel about

Tommy? He's dead at this point. How do you feel

about Tommy? He's dead. What a response. I like

him once he had his money taken away from him,

that he had to actually grow up. I hate his father

for doing that, but you see these rich kids and

you're like, okay, being the rich kid character

stereotype, that's great, whatever, but something's

got to change. And I do like how he stepped up.

I had forgotten that Oliver had told him. That

Oliver was the hood. And let's talk about this

folks. In the first season of this show. They

call the guy the hood. The vigilante. Forever.

They call him the hood forever. Call him anything

else. It took. I understand story wise. I get

it. But it took them. Until they were backdooring.

Oh god. Until they were backdooring Flash. Uh.

for them to number one, get him an actual mask

and get him the, the actually, I get it. It's

a story thing. They're going to build up to it,

but two and a half seasons of building to your

getting your arrow mask and your actual comic.

It's the vigilante or it's the hood or it's the,

you know, the, the, the guardian angel. I'm like,

dude, this any. We needed Cisco to give these

people names. Yeah, we needed Cisco. In Cisco,

we trust. Yes, he's the one that gave him the

mask, if I remember correctly. No, it was Barry.

I think Barry said something about here, Cisco

whipped this up for you. Right, right, right.

But it was Barry that actually gave him the mask.

Okay, okay. Or something. Or perhaps it's because

the vigilante's activities have had a chilling

effect on the city's criminals. What are your

thoughts, Oliver? I think the vigilante needs

a better code name than the hood or the hood

guy. I agree. How about green arrow? Lame. Yeah.

Um, yes. Pain on his eyes. Like every time I'd

watch the show, I'm like, Hey, I'm just waiting

for someone to go. Hey, Hey Oliver, because I

can clearly see it's you. It's just, you know,

Oliver would, the first, the first episode with

Huntress when I'm like, okay. Like, before he

and the Huntress actually even mixed it up together,

as soon as I saw her and I'm like, okay, and

I saw the Frank Bertinelli, I'm like, okay, well,

it's clearly Helena. It's clearly a woman on

that motorcycle. Like, I mean, you know, and

then obviously he... They're in that fight, and

he basically punches through her helmet and rips

it off her. I'm like, are you really that shocked,

Oliver? Come on. Come on, man. Come on, man.

Use your brain. What are some of your notes and

thoughts overall for the season? Did you have

specific moments that you remember as you watched

some of this stuff? I guess we've got to talk

about Diggle. Diggle was... He's the Harley Quinn

of this series for the simple fact that he's

such a great character, they retroactively transitioned

him into the comic books. And even got people

hoping for him to be a Green Lantern. I mean,

Diggle, again, what this show is like, I think

they stumbled into chemistry and these characters.

I don't think Diggle, again, was supposed to

be more than, oh, it's a bodyguard motif. Because

they had Oliver narrating their first couple

of episodes. Other than the opening thing. That's

the interesting thing about this show, about

going back to this. I forgot there was no clear...

There was no clear... There is an opening beat

with the title card, but I forgot how it opened.

That the narration was... Because they don't

do that. Very rarely do they do that now. Right,

because I think what happened was when they were

first doing the, they were kind of feeling their

way around the pilot in the first couple episodes

is that Oliver's going to be by himself, so we

need to get into his mind, so we'll have him

narrate. But as we've learned, we've learned

and I've heard interviews of the showrunners

hated the secret identity stuff because it limited

them storytelling wise, which explains that all

of these shows, all of the CW shows go on as

they go on. Oliver, Barry, Kara went from no

one knowing their secret to entire buildings

filled with people knowing their secret. So you

don't really need narration when Oliver can say

what he's thinking to Diggle or Felicity. Or,

well, who else knows? Lance. Or Sarah. Or, you

know, Mr. Terrific. You don't really need narration

anymore. But I think they intended, or at least

when they pitched the show, it was going to be

like secret identity. You know, never tell anybody

your secret. So the only way we get to know what

Green Arrow is thinking is him talking to the

audience. But it is weird and striking. oh, wait,

he's still talking to us. This is episode three.

He's talking about what he's going to do. That's

weird. Because now in the newer seasons, I don't

think they ever do that because he's just, everything

he thinks, he says it to Diggle or he says it

to, you know, Mad Dog or Wild Dog, whatever the

heck his name is. Wild Dog. Yeah, so. But yeah,

it was fine. But I think Diggle, like I said,

they backed into this stuff because the first

episode where he shows up, he just feels like

another throwaway character. And this guy, I

forget. I always forget Diggle's real name. Oh,

David Ramsey. David Ramsey, yeah. He wasn't a

big deal actor -wise either. So you're just thinking

he's just a day player and then you realize he

really has a chemistry with Stephen Amell and

as they go into it. Now, you watch the first

episode and you realize where Diggle has gone

to, to where he is now. It's like... Wow. He's

essentially the Alfred of this. I don't mean

that in a demeaning way, because Alfred is super

important to Batman. And Diggle is super important

to Oliver Queen, which is crazy. Yeah, it is

so crazy. And it's so fun. Like I said, I forgot

about half this stuff. Once they got to the Vertigo

episodes, a couple episodes, I'm like, okay,

here we go. The Vertigo stuff, Count Vertigo.

Which one is your favorite? Is it the Peter Stromare

Count Vertigo, or is it the young, who cares

what the heck his name is? I don't even know.

Arrow in the beginning, he's just going to go

after people on the list, and then they convince

Diggle and others, convince him to go after all

crime. It doesn't matter what it is. Help the

helpless and all this and all that. Don't make

it personal. That's great. Don't make it personal,

yada, yada, yada. I think by the time episode

20 rolled around, I was tired of the flashbacks

and going forward. That early, huh? Oh, yeah.

like done he was like I'm out I'm out like I

love Deathstroke I love Shadow and all that and

everything else but like I'm what I liked about

them is in the beginning how they taught like

When Oliver first comes back, it ties into the

first couple episodes. There was one episode

where he woke up out of a nightmare, and that's

how they went into the flashback. They came out

of it by him waking up out of the nightmare.

So it felt natural that the flashback was actually

him having the nightmare of what had happened

to him. But by the time everybody that is important

to him knows kind of like what... sort of what

happened on the island and whatever else. And

I already knew at this point re -watching this,

and even though I remember this happening when

I first watched it, Like, five years on the island,

he wasn't always on that damn island. You'd have

to wait until season two or season three to find

that out. Hell, he went home and killed the drug

dealer. Oh, my God. I like the fact, even though

Tommy kind of hints at it, that he makes reference

to Lost. So this show is kind of Lost in reverse,

where instead of... being on an island and flashing

back to your life in the city. They're in the

city and flashing back to their life on the island.

But yeah, I think after... I can't say I didn't

like the flashbacks because, again, it gave me

Deathstroke. It gave me Wintergreen. It gave

me Fires. I love the Bratva stuff, which they've

been doing. I liked them, but by the time...

Like I said, by the time the season was almost

over, I was over. I don't dislike them, but I'm

just kind of over the whole flashback thing.

Couple of things that I noticed in this season,

and this didn't actually happen until season

three, but like the whole thing with Laurel and

her mom and her dad and Sarah and all of that,

like. Oh, they were in the repasting of Sarah

with a cake. Yes. As soon as I re -watched the

first, as soon as I watched the pilot again.

Who the hell is that? That's not Katie. That's

not Hot Canary. What's going on? I mean, the

girl's hot, but that's not the same act. It's

like, I'm just waiting for the voiceover guy.

The part of Sarah Lance is now being played.

The part of Sarah Lance will be played by another

actress. Exactly. I'm waiting for that. The episode

where it's Laurel and her parents. Her mom comes

back. Right, right. And at the end of that episode,

the mom's like, okay, fine. Sarah's blah, blah.

I'll let it go for now. Blah, blah, blah. I guess

I'm just going to go back to Central City. I'll

be there in a flash. She actually says, I will

be there in a flash. And it hasn't even happened.

They do that all the time. They do that all the

time. Greg Berlanti and I can't remember. Guggenheim

and Kreisberg. Deadshot's in room 52, which is

a clear shout -out to the new 52 for DC. They

do all these little nods to DC throughout the

show, and if you catch them, I'll be there in

a flash. They do it all the time. Yeah, I caught

Coast City. I caught Bloodhaven, obviously. Hello.

I caught the Central City in a flash bit when

I first saw it, but going back and re -watching

it and now knowing that... The Flash is obviously

here come later. It's like, oh, they really were

planting the seeds for all of this to happen.

Hell, they even mention Ferris Air, so I'm just

waiting. It had Green Lantern in one season,

but you didn't see. It was when Barry and Flash,

Barry and Flash, Barry and Ollie were in a bar.

And I think it was at the end of one of the crossover

events. And, like, walking out was, like, Captain

Jordan or something like that. And it was supposed

to be Hal Jordan, Green Lantern. They do these

little – I give them credit for that. They don't

– and they never, like, here is a new – they

don't really, like, hit you over the head with

it. It's always kind of like, you know, if you're

paying attention and you know combos, you go,

hey! If not, you're like, all right. I think

he mentioned Bruce Wayne this previous season,

which is the first time they mentioned Bruce

Wayne, where he was, like, doing a press conference.

And he goes, I don't know. I was at a party.

I think Bruce Wayne was there or something like

that. I think, oh, okay. It's never coming off

like, you know, they're forcing it down your

throat. I think they try and do little nods to

their credit anyway. Yeah. I think my, outside

of the other episodes that set up the end part

of the story with the undertaking and all of

that, my two favorite characters that are just

guest stars and three favorite episodes are the

two Huntress episodes. Oddly enough, the Firefly

episode, because I thought they did that really

well. I don't necessarily like him, but I've

seen him in other media in the last five or six

years, and I like how they did it here. I don't

know how much of the Garfield -Lynne story, because

I'm not a huge Firefly fan, but I like how they

were able to do that story within the scope of

this show without Amel having to put on a...

A bat cape. He's right there, folks. He's got

a cave. He's got a butler. He's got an arrow

cave. He's got an arrow. He's right there, man.

He's fought Ra's al Ghul. He's been Ra's al Ghul.

He's banged one of Ra's al Ghul's daughters.

He's right there. He's right there. Speaking

of other cast members and things that I remember

from this, I forgot about Colin Salmon. He's

great, man. You know, I remember this like it

was yesterday. When I first saw this season back

when it premiered, I'm like, what the hell is

Robinson from Goldeneye in Tomorrow Never Dies?

What the hell is James Bond's Butler doing in...

Have you ever seen him on Limitless? No. The

TV show or the movie? The TV show. I have not

seen the TV show yet. He's like a freaking badass.

I love that guy. Every time Colin Sammons shows

up, I'm like, oh, cool. Colin Sammons is here.

He's in Resident Evil. He's awesome in that.

Yeah. But yeah, he's great. I love that guy.

When Oliver first gets back from the island,

he's very like, you're banging my mom. But I

think in the middle of it, and I don't... think

they ever make explicit mention of this you can

see oliver realizing i'm being a dick to this

guy but this guy's really good guy he's not a

dick my mom is the dick i think he was coming

when he was coming back from the island he he

was it was almost like set up where he's digging

his mom as you know just a doting mother and

uh what the heck is his name in the show um Robert

is like the dick. But as you watch the show.

It's Walter. Oliver slowly starts to realize.

Oh wait. My mom is evil. And the guy she's marrying.

Is actually a genuinely good. Decent human being.

Which Felicity Smoke finds out. He's a nice guy.

And he's played by Colin Salmon. Who's awesome

at everything. Yeah exactly. I think the best

moment. for ollie and walter was when uh the

hood guy saved walter at the end of it he said

you know something he basically called ollie's

son right he didn't call him stepson he didn't

call him you know moira's child like he called

him son like like before this show the only three

things i i knew this guy from Goldeneye, Tomorrow

Never Dies. I don't remember if he was in Worlds

Not Enough. I don't think he was as Charles Robinson.

But that and the first Resident Evil is the only...

The first Resident Evil movie. First Resident

Evil movie is the only Resident Evil movie I've

seen out of that franchise. And I barely remember

it except for him. Him and Mila Jovovich, Miss

Lilo Dallas Multipass Girl. Lilo Dallas Multipass

Girl, yes. And the thing about him in the show

is, like, you almost forget that Oliver's dad

was a son of a bitch. Admittedly, he shot himself

because, I guess, he was a son of a bitch. At

least he... He had the clarity to realize it

and tell Oliver to fix what he had. So out of

everybody in Oliver's life, the one decent parent

was Walter. That's it. His mom was a piece of

shit. His father was a piece of shit. Walter

was actually a decent human being. That's right.

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. We didn't even really talk

about in this season about Roy Harper, Red Arrow,

whatever. Arsenal, whatever. I liked him. I thought

it was cool. He was very – I don't have anything

against the actor personally. In every media,

I've never been a big Roy Harper fan and his

storyline kind of – I mean I think I liked him

the most on Young Justice. It was just kind of

– yeah, okay. I can deal with you now, Roy Harper.

But in comic books and in other stuff, he's always

a dick. He's always kind of like – I don't –

go to the next person. Go back to Oliver. Oh,

man. What would you rate 0 -5 for Season 1? What

do you think Season 1 deserves? Going by your

GCRN scale, I'm going to probably give it a 3

.5. It's good. It's good. I think the apex, like

we've talked about, is Season 2. I think that's

when... For the show to be good... from where

my expectations were is phenomenal because I

was like this is gonna suck I was like there's

no way there's no way and the people behind it

they make Green Lantern have you seen that movie

at all so I'm just like there's no way it's gonna

be entertaining I'm gonna quit after three episodes

it's gonna get cancelled and it's still on the

air it's the foundation of the CW DC universe

so I say it's good. It's very good. If you've

never seen any of the shows, I say watch the

first two seasons. Maybe skip to season five.

What would you recommend? I'm going to give season

one about, I'll give it a four and a half. I

really do dig going in. The only thing I'm taking

a half point off for is because... The Merlin

stuff. You don't like the Merlin stuff? I like,

no, no, no, no. I like him. I like him. I like

the Dark Archer stuff. I just don't necessarily

like, hey, we're going to, you know, put an earthquake

under part of the city and destroy it just because

my wife got shot, so I have to kill everybody.

Did you like the Ra's al Ghul fear toxin in the

narrows because we've got to make the world balance?

It's the same plot. It's the same thing. No,

not really. I like him as a character. I love

him. John Berman is a great actor. He gets better

every season, by the way. He gets better every

season. Like I said, folks, this is the summer

of superheroes on remote control, and we've jumped

around, and we're going to continue to jump around.

The best part of Merlin is when he eventually

teams up with Damien Tark. I don't know. I think

the best part of Merlin is when he just inexplicably

shows up in the arrow cave, and they can't figure

out how he keeps finding a way in there. It's

like, it's me. I'm Malcolm Merlin. I'm a badass.

I'm the magician. I was the dark archer. I think

when him and Oliver, because Barrowman and Oliver

work so well off of each other, when their goals

kind of align, I like that a lot. Just for some

reason. Sometimes I like when the bad guys and

the good guys are on the same team. It's kind

of cool. I think that's when they were dealing

with Rache, which I think is in season three.

Yeah, season three. When we get there. Yeah,

so four and a half for me. What else did you

just ask me something else before I rated it?

I don't remember. I don't know. Overall, very

much enjoyed it. We're going to take a quick

break here, folks, because as I said earlier,

two seasons, one podcast. So we're going to take

a quick break, come back with season two after

this. On the Simplistic Reviews Podcast, we talk

movies. We talk TV. We talk... Hello, Julie,

what the heck are you doing? Trying to make our

spot sound more exciting by adding explosions.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you could have got the

point across with sound effects, not the real

thing. Download the show on iTunes or at simplisticreviews

.blogspot .com. I'm sure your insurance company

will cover that. No, they won't. No, they probably

won't. We are back here on Remote Control, episode

42. This is the summer of superheroes here on

Remote Control on the Geekcast Radio Network.

TF2 and Mike, trying to be DJV. God, I can't

even talk now. Wow. It's just DJ. It's just DJ.

It's just that. It's my new show on. It's just

me, DJ. It's just me, DJV. now i'm like you need

a third or fourth verse to that eminem song jesus

so we are continuing on here in episode 42 talking

about arrow season two with uh the summer of

superheroes here on the geekcast radio network

on remote control wow i forgot like i haven't

like i said in the season one part of this episode.

I have not watched this since it aired. It's

been on Netflix forever, of course, with the

announcement and finally the pricing available

for DC Universe. Of course, all the CW shows

will be moving over to DC Universe app. Let me

ask you really quickly. I know we're supposed

to be in the middle of this podcast or whatever

else, but since whatever. DC Universe pricing

for the app has come out for the subscription

service. It's either $7 .99 a month or $75 a

year. You're asking me which one I pick? What

are your thoughts? Yes. I probably pick the $7

.99 a month so I can cancel. Okay. I have a feeling

that I don't want to be locked in for a year.

crap, I'm never going to get that $75 back. But

$7 .99 a month, I'm like, okay. Because if I

watch one episode of Titans, I'm like, yeah,

I'm good. I'm straight. I don't need this network

anymore. You'll be like, fuck Batman. I'm like,

wait a minute. I mean, not enough episodes, reruns

of Arrow and Flash can keep me on this network.

I'm going to watch CW live. Yeah. So $7 .99 a

month. But here's the thing about the DC Universe

app. It's going to have everything. It's going

to have Lois and Clark. It's going to have the

old Superman serial, supposedly. It's going to

have all the movies. It's going to have all the

animation over the last X number of whatever

years. How's that CBS network app doing? That

other one that's streaming CBS? I assume it's

doing well. I mean, I don't know. We assume because

what he has. I don't know. The way I look at

it now is I'd rather pay the $75 a year than

end up paying close to, let's just say, after

taxes or whatever, wherever you're living, whatever

state. Let's say the $7 .99 a month ends up being

$8 .06 or $8 .10 a month. But can you cancel,

like, let's say I'm in the third. Yeah, see,

that's the thing. I don't know. I need options

to leave. I can't be locked in a sentence. I'm

not going to be on that island. Like, $75 a year

is Lee and you. Oh my god. I'm stuck on this

island, kid. I can't get off. I gotta get off

this island, man. Wow. Alrighty then. So, Arrow

Season 2. Wow. Oh man. I had forgotten half of

the stuff that happened. As I said earlier in

the episode about how early Flash was hinted

at in Season 1. I mean, it's all here. Like,

I forgot that episode eight of season two, The

Scientist, was the backdoor pilot for Flash.

Right, right, right, right. Like, I thought that

was season three. I thought that was season three

of Arrow. I'm like, I don't know. I told you,

we had the Dark Knight first season of Arrow,

and now we've come to the best season, in my

opinion. The Dark Knight Rises second season

of Arrow, where I think this is when the show

kind of hit its... groove and really knew what

it was doing like where era moved from a vendetta

show which is the first season starring a superhero

to an actual superhero show where you got like

dr ivo and amazo references there's barry allen

over there you know a whole bunch of another

room 52 reference when it comes to one of these

so that was always keep an eye out when they

find a person living in an apartment guaranteed

nine times out of ten it's room 52 it always

happens well that and the fact The fact that

Lance's call sign is DC 52. Yeah, yeah. They

keep dropping it. 52, 52, 52. Delta Charlie 52.

We get it. We get it. We get it. All right? We

get it. Some guys are just going to walk in the

middle of the frame and go, DC, and then keep

walking away. They're going to get less subtle

as the season's going on. It's going to be Will

Arnett. I'm Batman. I'm Batman. First try. No,

but I mean, going into this show, I know we briefly

spoke about it. I never knew the relationship

between Green Arrow and Deathstroke the Terminator

is something I needed until this season where

I was like, this is one of maybe the greatest

relationships of two comic book characters in

a medium that I've seen. Because Conan is like...

Deathstroke really has no connection to Green

Arrow. He's a Batman guy or, you know, a Slug

Robin person, as we talked about. But he's, it's

so good. The stuff that happens here in this

season is what put this show and I think this

network on the map. Season one was good. Season

two was like, okay, we got to start paying attention.

And that's when they backdoored. Bury out into

the flash and stuff like that. And that led to

essentially a DC network that before the DC streaming

service app happened. Yeah, but like, you know,

you've got basically the beginnings of all the

League of Assassins stuff. Oh, they said League

of Assassins. Guys, guys, you can go through

my Twitter posts. You probably will find a lot

of swearing. But if you go back far enough, you'll

find me geeking out about the same episode when

they said League of Assassins. Because in the

Dark Knight, or sorry, Batman Begins, it's League

of Shadows. And it's never, I was like, League

of Shadows? What? Even Batman the Animator said

League of Assassins. Why are we saying League

of Shadows? So they said League of Assassins.

And I said, Ra's al Ghul? They're just dropping

everything. And if it wasn't clear that it's

a Batman show, it was clear then. What I've noticed

going back, and I will mention this in the episodes

going further. I already mentioned it in this

episode. The logo for Arrow, the title card.

The Arrow, whatever. Subtly changes. Season one,

yeah. Throughout this... upcoming seventh season

thing throughout the six seasons that have aired

currently the logo gets lighter and lighter and

at times as we go get into like season four five

and six it's obviously greener and greener and

whatever sometimes the arrow tip changes i think

the last season that this happened it changed

to um one episode of changed to um what's the

stupid name the the the main villain in season

six it changed to his tattoo the the dragon oh

yeah yeah They have a little, I forget his name,

Ricardo Diaz. Yeah, Diaz. They do a lot of logo

changes. There's one episode, I think it's in

season three, where the Cupid chick comes in.

Oh, it's the Cupid arrow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And

it's the Cupid arrow for the logo. And they do

this with all of the shows, kind of. Flash, not

so much. I mean, Flash has done it a little bit.

Legends pretty much does it all the time. Right.

And obviously, like I said, Arrow is essentially

a... Legends does that cool thing where they

keep changing narrators, which I like. Yeah.

And they say a different, because, you know,

the whole gimmick is they say, like, who they

are. And when the Legends does it, they switch

from, like, you know, somebody saying it nicely.

And then it goes to, like, Mick, and he's like,

hey, we're Legends. I hate this job, you know.

That part is cool. Yeah. But the Legends logo

changed, like, a few times when it's been villains.

It's changed from blue to red or something like

that. With Arrow's logo changing from season

one to season six, it's obviously, it's, making

fact of how the show has changed and how the

character of green arrow, Oliver queen has changed.

Like you look at that season one logo, it's a

black arrow. I mean, it's, it's not budget, not

a lot of style. No budget. It's a triangle on

a black screen essentially. Yeah. When I first

watched this for season one, as we mentioned,

I'm like, wow, that's like, When did Batman become

Arrow Man or something? Like, you know, like,

I don't know. It's crazy. But I like it. Even

with the crossover, this show and the way Flash

works, the relationship, and I'm jumping way

ahead, but the relationship between Arrow and

Barry is what Batman and Superman should be.

Their relationship, sometimes they're at odds,

sometimes they're on the same side, or most times

they're on the same side. But just the way where

Arrow is stoic and Barry's optimistic and happy

and the way they work off each other every time

they're in scenes together, it's enjoyable because

that dynamic works so well when you have an...

When you have a straight man and a, you know,

the comic relief, it works. When you have two

straight men, it's just boring. You know, so

I want to watch, I think this was, I think when

their crossover event kind of happened was around

the time, I don't know, did they announce Batman

v Superman at that point? I cannot remember.

I don't think. It was 2012 when they announced

BTS. No, no, no. 2012, damn, when the hell did

it... But for some reason, when I first heard

BVS, I was like, man, I hope it's kind of got

the same kind of dynamic where the Justice League

anime series, that's the pinnacle of how you

do Batman and Superman in the same scenes together.

But the way Ollie and Barry work off of each

other in this season and in future seasons, and

one of my favorite moments, which I don't remember,

I think it's in a Flash episode, we'll talk about

that later, but it works so well. And I think...

Ali's development in this show, Ali's development

is this show. How Ali starts, like you just brought

up, with the arrow changing and how the character

changes. That is the show, really, is how he

starts. When we first see him, he's just a cold

-blooded, just murderer. He doesn't give a damn

about anybody. And I watched all the – I finally

finished season six, and he's got a team, and

he's talking about, you know, we got to – I watched

the season two, a couple episodes of season two.

He's like, we can't have vigilantes running around

the city. And season six, there's vigilantes

all over the city that you're endorsing. It's

all about how Oliver changes throughout this

show. Yeah, and that's the cool thing about it.

Look at a one -shot movie or something that has

a beginning, middle, and end. Obviously, most

everything does. Some things wrap up really quickly.

Some things put on a bow on it, and some things

leave you cliffhanger -y or whatever. But you

look at something that's just like a one -shot,

and you don't get enough. character development

and this is the cool thing about between movies

and tv movies there's not like yes you know there's

a lot of character development throughout um

let's say the first two batman films that are

originally there right because i know As soon

as I bring up the other two, everybody's going

to jump down my throat, including you. But at

least the first two, because it was the same

actor. And I've said this before, Michael Keaton,

one of, if not the best Batman, I will still

defend Batman Forever as being a Bruce Wayne

movie over a Batman film. But the thing of it

is, is you only have a finite amount of time.

The CW, WB, UPN, the CW doesn't cancel. anything

so it's not like like i'm sure certain things

go away but in this dc warner brothers cw television

universe these shows aren't going away anytime

soon i mean it's more logical that supernatural

will end before any of these things will so supernatural

is never going to end yes i'm gonna i'm gonna

have a long wispy beard and supernatural will

still be on the air god um but the point is you

have more time in television to develop the character

and that's what i love about this is each of

these shows each of the main character like arrow

flash and supergirl supergirl still needs work

supergirl to me is like how people describe Star

Trek The Next Generation it didn't really gain

ground until like the third or fourth season

or didn't really you know come into its own until

the third or fourth season kind of thing because

they have the whole stigma of you know Star Trek

TOS and whatever even though they said whatever

point is single character shows you have X number

of episodes X number of seasons to build that

character and they've done as much as I dislike

Arrow's season 3, 4, and 5, because it just kind

of went off the rails a little bit too much for

me, and we'll get into that as we do these episodes.

They've really worked on the character, and because

Stephen Amell is so gung -ho about everything

to do with this stuff. Yeah, he's so committed

with it, and that's great. You don't want to

have an Ian Gruffudd, Mr. Fantastic, or something

in a show like this where you don't care. You

don't want to have Chris Rock show up and say,

I should be the best voice actor ever. You don't

want that. You want someone like Stephen Amell

who is so committed and so dedicated to the role

and where the direction of the show, the direction

of the character is going. And season two, like

you said, is pretty much the peak at this point.

Obviously, there's only two seasons at this point

when this came out. I loved almost every minute

of this. I kind of get tired. Like I said earlier

in the episode, I was kind of through with the

flashbacks. I didn't mind them in season two.

No, this is probably the best season with flashbacks,

I think. Absolutely. The first season is kind

of like, okay. I get the gimmick. But here you're

like, oh, man, you're learning about Slade. You're

learning about Ivo. You're learning about Sarah.

You're learning about Shadow. You're learning

about so much stuff. And then as the season ends,

skipping ahead, you left that awesome cliffhanger

with Amanda Waller. So you're just like, oh,

whoa, this is – and they're off the island. So

you're like, oh, crap, this is great. So, yeah,

I think in terms of flashback, and after a while

it started getting tired. I think they should

start doing something else with those. I don't

remember. I'm trying to remember in season six.

Do I remember flashbacks? I think they might

have got rid of them at that point. No, they

said, I believe the news story came out last

year. As of season six would be the last season

that they used flashbacks. So they're starting

to, or they've pretty much dropped them. Do some

flash forwards. How about that? I think they

kind of had a thing with that. was it legends

one of those shows kind of did like a flash forward

thing but it was only for an episode but yeah

yeah i mean you could essentially do um a flash

forward like okay you know how um take one of

the coolest shows ever law and order criminal

intent they'll do something like you know this

is what happened but here's eight hours previous

or eight hours from now. You can do that kind

of time jump, not just because you have legends

around, but you can do that kind of time jump

with Arrow at this point, at the current point

that they're at. And I have no idea. I know Ollie's

going to be in prison in season seven. Other

than that, I have no idea what to expect out

of season seven for Arrow. I'm keeping up with

all the news and all that, and it's just on overload.

October cannot get here any faster. I think the

way season six ended was really well. I know

we're talking about season two, but just as a

show, I think two is two. If you're looking at

a stock, if you look at the show as a stock,

it's going up. And when it hits to two, it starts

to kind of whittle down. And I think when it

hit six, it went up a little. It got an uptick

because you're right, around three, middle of

three. Again, I told you, first half of three

I was in, and then as three ended all the way

to five, I was kind of like, man, Arrow's in

the dumps. And I think they knew that. And then

I think season six, they tried to rectify a lot

of these problems, like you're saying, get rid

of the flashbacks, kind of do something fresh

with the show, and Oliver in prison. spoiler

alert, might be the thing to do that. Yeah, I

mean, it's just, it's crazy. Season 2, I absolutely

loved it. I thought it was super interesting.

I felt that All of the stuff that happened in

season one with the parents and with this and

with that was done, obviously. And we'll see

Jamie Sheridan at some point as Robert Queen

in flashes and things like that and whatever.

We might see Moira at some point or another.

Both their parents are dead now. Right. And this

basically drives Thea to not want to even be,

like, she wants to go off and do her own thing.

She wants to get out of Starling. And that's

the other thing, and I think we mentioned this

earlier, so sorry, folks, if I'm forgetting if

we did. I cannot wait until they get it to the

point where it's Star City and not Starling.

Ugh. God, I hate that. I think they say Star

City in Season 6. I think they might be starting

to at least move around. I know they did that

rebranding. Ray Palmer was trying to do the rebranding

of the city as Star City or whatnot, but yeah,

I agree. Oh, the thing about Thea is, and one

of the good things I can say about Season 3 is

I like where Thea goes after this season. It

sets her up very, very well for the next season.

you know, a couple seasons. It does, absolutely.

But for Oliver, it basically just turns into,

hey, I'm Batman. Fuck Arrow, I'm Batman. But

yeah, I think the standout, if we're not going

to talk about Manu, because Manu is slated. Oh

no, yeah, we will. He's the best. Katie Lotz,

recasting. This is where recasting is done right.

Where I think... I could give a damn about Sarah

Lance. And Katie Lotz made me think that Sarah

Lance is probably either one or one B, most interesting

female character in the Arrowverse. So interesting,

she got her own damn show. So yeah, Sarah Lance,

Black Canary, now she's White Canary. She's awesome.

And I like when they introduce the, when they

go through her flashback when she wakes up on

the boat. the door titanic style and you see

the little canary float next to her i was like

oh that's really well they do a lot of little

subtle things but that's kind of not subtle but

little things where i'm like ah that's that's

cool and just her performance katie talking about

character that's grown where she was kind of

like this ditzy girl and then she now she is

essentially captain jack sparrow on a time ship

yeah exactly who's a badass who can like i mean

she's the muscle essentially on that show so

yeah i i like it and uh katie lot she just brings

something to that character where unfortunately

for the actress that plays laurel i just laura

just starts to be outshined by every other female

character on the show if it's not thea it's felicity

if it's not felicity it's uh it's it's sarah

it's it's crazy yeah it if it's not felicity

it's sarah if it's not sarah it's it's nissa

if it's not this it's that if it's not whatever

it's like it's saying yeah exactly you know Moira.

Moira. Every female character's shadow. Every

female character just seemed more interesting

than her, so she keeps falling down the totem

pole. Amanda Waller, Lila, all of them are more

interesting. I'll say this for Katie Cassidy's

character of Laurel. It got better in season

two because they're giving her some sort of path.

They're giving her the path of... her finding

out like the moment when she went to Sarah and,

uh, Katie Lotz pulled off the, uh, the hourglass.

I forgot. No, I forgot. It was a wig. Seriously,

I thought that was still her. I forgot that that

was a wig on her. And I'm like, oh, okay, so

that's one way to disguise yourself. Use a giant

blonde wig. She's blonde anyway. If you're blonde

anyway, that woman has a red wig, but she doesn't

have red hair. She looks different. But if you're

Sarah Lange, you might want to try a wig that's

not the exact same color as your hair. I remember

when I first saw this show, I'm like, okay, so

they list the character as Laurel Lance, and

then they eventually come up to it and say, oh,

Laurel's her middle name, it's Dinah Laurel Lance.

I'm like, oh, so eventually she's going to be

Black Canary because, hello, Dinah Lance is Black

Canary kind of a thing. What I love about Arrow

is the twists and turns that they've taken throughout

the six seasons. to get to the point of where

the Black Canary character is. Because at first

I was like, Sarah Lance, that's not Black Canary's

real identity. Who the hell is it? I'm like,

what? They take you down a different path. Yeah,

and that's interesting. I think that's super

cool. And season two did it so well. You basically...

Between season 2 and season 3, you're going to

have Sarah eventually give up. Because I think

she dies at one point in season 3. Again. Third

time's the charm, right? You have that where

she passes the mantle on to Laurel. So Laurel's

character between season 2 and season 3, she

gets better. She doesn't just become this...

supposedly strong woman that fades into the background

that every other woman is stronger than she is

she actually right character wise grows into

even though she already was a strong woman the

producers writers staff kind of pay attention

to everybody else right now in season two i think

they didn't know what to do with her right you

can kind of tell from the first couple episodes

like uh she's a alcoholic guilty drug problem

it's like they didn't know what to do and then

she kind of Okay, we'll do this to get her. Well,

that's what I got. I guess this is why where

23, 22 episodes comes in handy because you can

kind of figure it out before. It kind of shows

they're shorter than they figured out ahead of

time. But I think in the middle of the season,

they kind of figured out, okay, this is what

we're going to do with Laurel. Because in the

beginning, I don't think I had any idea of what

they were going to do with her because they were

kind of more interested in Sarah's coming back.

How is it going to affect Laurel? Laurel and

Detective Quentin Lance. They weren't really

paying attention. What's Laurel doing this time?

We'll just give her something to keep her kind

of stagnant until we're ready to use it. Until

we figure out what the heck that is, which eventually

is Black Canary stuff. Yep, absolutely. What

else do we want to bring up about Season 2? Is

there anything you didn't like about Season 2?

I didn't like the drug problem with Laurel because,

again, it's pretty telegraph stuff. I do like

the fact that this season has one of my favorite

lines in all of Arrowverse, and it comes from

John Diggle where he says, My secret identity

is the black driver. It makes me laugh every

single time. Sebastian Blood. I mean, there have

been some unfortunate names in politics. Jeff

Flake, Donald Drumpf. But dude, honestly, are

you voting for any politician with the last name

Blood? No. That's like voting for Greg Evil or

like David Knife Wound or something. Not a huge

fan of the Blood storyline except for the parts

that are connected to Deathstroke. He's kind

of like a fake – we're talking about Batman stuff.

He's kind of like the Scarecrow in Batman Begins.

He's kind of like the mini boss before the boss.

Yeah, pretty much. And the actor who plays him

is – I guess he's okay. It's just like – Yeah.

That whole – everything when Blood shows up,

I'm like, oh, God. But when Deathstroke is introduced

and you see that he's – Deathstroke is just jepettoing

this whole situation. I was like, okay, okay.

I understand your purpose now, Blood. I was just

worried going into season two that as that stuff

happened that he was going to be the main person.

I didn't see the slayed villain thing really

coming. oh really yet yeah i mean until it starts

happening you're like oh this is great there's

more and more so you almost forget like my apprehension

to begin like don't make blood the main dude

don't make blood take out slade and then arrow

has to take out blood get rid of blood it's just

a mini boss yeah that's probably the things i

didn't i i didn't like the oh and um uh For the

fact that they cast a character actress, I really

like Summer Glau, who is River Tam from Firefly,

Serenity, who I like a lot. I do not like her

character in this show, where essentially she's

just, you know, mean lady, mean lady, mean lady,

who's also being, her strings are being pulled

by Slade, and she's essentially Slade, Slade

daughter 2 .3. I don't know what the hell she

is. That whole other thing, I think it should,

when is Mano y Mano? Ali and Slade, it's perfect.

It's literally perfect. A perfect show. All these

other people kind of get in the way of it. Blood

and I forget Summerglass character's name. That's

how much I don't really like her. Isabel Rochev.

Rochev, yes. When they get kind of in the middle,

it's like, even when it comes to the hero, even

on Ali's side, I just want Deathstroke and Ali.

And I think I do love the twist that this show

ends with kind of with how Oli defeats Slade

in the fact that they kind of play with the fans

a little bit where he says the line, I love you,

Felicity. But it was all so he wanted Slade to

get her so she could. I thought that was really

clever because, again, none of the fans saw it

coming because they've been eliciting this relationship

for the entire two seasons. And they kind of

took that and they made it a kind of a plot point,

which I thought was pretty interesting. Yeah.

That, again, season two changes all the plots.

It gets rid of Moira and all of her things. Brutally,

by the way. Oh, yes. Like, death by sword. Like,

she really did fall on her own sword. Not really

her sword, but... That was somebody else's own

sword. Exactly. We get this here, and they eventually

come back to it, but... Season two was where

we find out that young Ollie got some chick pregnant.

And that eventually comes back around, obviously.

You're dealing with the whirlwind of that. And

then I go away. No. It's still there, folks.

I mean, okay, so season two, let's say they're

in, okay, season two, they're what, maybe? five

six seven years after the island or something

or what i don't know i think i think it's six

years after the island okay so let's say by whatever

time that you know we come back to samantha and

her son um even though that like i don't even

think they said her name in in the episode here

in season two but i just know i remember that's

what her name was and obviously she has a boy

yada yada yada um I don't know how long $2 million

would make her last within the Arrowverse, especially

in Central City. I mean, Central City eventually

gets Big Billy Burger. They have, you know...

Central. What's the name of the coffee shop?

It's not Central Perk. Don't you dare say that.

It's... Oh, God. It's... I should know this.

It's... We'll find out next week. We'll find

out when we get to The Flash Season 1. Arrow

Season 2, there wasn't much I didn't like about

it. No. It's the least flawed season, I think.

Yeah. I actually did not get tired. Like I said

earlier with Season 1, you know, by... Episode

11 or 12, I'm ready to tap out at this point.

The halfway point of the season, out of the 23

episodes, I'm like, okay. Ding, ding, ding. I'm

gone. Glass Joe just hit me in the face. I'm

out. Season 2 was not like that. I actually enjoyed

every bit of this. I didn't even see the Summer

Glow twist happening until it happened. Oh, wow.

did not even, and again, you know, some people

go off memory. Some people don't, I can't, I,

in order for me to discuss these things, I don't

care how old the TV show is. I have to rewatch

whatever it is that I have to rewatch to do it.

Cause I, unless it's Knight Rider, I don't remember.

Michael Knight. That's right. Um, but no, the,

uh, the, um, the, I think this, you can just

tell as this season's progressing, They're having

fun with it. And I mean that from behind and

in front of the camera. They know we're going

to drop a Suicide Squad episode here. Just because

we can. And then we're going to have kind of

a nod to Harley Quinn, but we can't use Harley

Quinn. They're just dropping all these little

things where it's like, oh, that's pretty cool.

The metamorpho lab is where the doll maker is

hanging out. It's stuff like that. You could

tell they were hitting their stride. And they

were like, okay, we've been picked up. We kind

of have a better budget now. We can just start

just dropping stuff. Hints to this. Maybe this

will be a show. Maybe this won't. Maybe this

is just so we get a little treat for the fans.

And every single episode seemed to have two or

three treats for the fans, whether it's the DC

52 or the Door 52 or the Amazo stuff. I just

like that. That personal stuff to me, this shows

to me they did their research. They're not just

using it as a name. They actually want to make

a good show, but they know what the hell they're

talking about. They've done more research on

Arrow than I've probably ever had or the DC universe

that I've ever done. If I'm picking out stuff,

and I'm not a huge knowledge person when it comes

to DC, I know Marvel a bit more. But I remember

I watched the Justice League cartoon backwards

and forwards. So when I saw Amazel the first

time, I was like, oh, shit. Yeah, exactly. I

was like, oh, shit, that's awesome. So, yeah,

I think this was the season where, I mean, you're

getting the groove. This is the groove season.

Yes, it very much is. And it's just, what is

so great about this is you have, I don't want

to say, you have your main storyline with Sebastian

Blood, Brother Blood, and Slade Wilson obviously

gets revealed as it goes along. Right. But you

also have, as you said, these little nods, these

little things, almost. almost vignette episodes

like huntress came back for an episode uh you've

made you happy of course hello hello you know

it's like uh that you know she came back for

an episode um you've got the kind of the whole

introduction of barry and star labs and cisco

and caitlin and all of that and and everything

else to set up the flash and and and that kind

of stuff um So that was cool. Caitlin Snow was

a drop as well at the time because when I first

saw it, I was like, wait, isn't that Killer Frost?

I was like, whatever. At the time, I was like,

they're just dropping these little things. And

then now we know that Caitlin does become, spoiler

alert, Killer Frost, one of the big, big, big

Flash characters. So, yeah. Yep. Yeah, absolutely.

And season two has just done so much. I mean,

you know, they've just done so much with it and

it is so cool. Just everything with it was great.

Like, there's nothing here. I don't remember.

That last seven episode run is probably worth

the price of admission anyway. Soon as Slade

kind of gets in there, man, and you're like,

okay, and you see that he's doing some – he's

essentially like doing Lex Luthor -y things,

but he's Deathstroke. So it's just like, okay,

he's got the physicality, but he's – the mind

game stuff I love. I mean it's kind of like the

best parts of Spider -Man 3 when Harry's messing

with Spider -Man or Peter. I love that stuff

where he's just – I'm going to tear your life

apart. When you're at your weakest, then I'm

going to kill you. That's why I got the Dark

Knight Rises thing because that's essentially

what Bane does because he just tears away Bruce

Wayne until he's just Batman and he just breaks

him. So, yeah, this season in terms of a great

arc, this is probably the strongest of the arcs.

I mean, the Glades arc. Though it's essentially

the same Ra's al Ghul, Batman Begins plot. It's

not as personal as this one. This was personal.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, it is. The one episode that I

thought they did really well to further Oliver's

character was episode 9, The Three Ghosts. Where

you have to see your three ghosts and figure

out what they're trying to tell you. And the

fact that they brought back... the actor that

plays Tommy to be that third ghost was really

friggin' cool. Like, for Ollie to get the closure,

I guess you could say, from, even though it's

a hallucination or whatever, like, but, you know.

He forgives himself, essentially, through a ghost

of Tommy. Yeah, exactly. That was really cool.

I just love going back and watching this stuff.

I think it's just super fun. What would you rate

season two? I think I would probably give it

a four and a half. I'll go four and a half. Because

I think this is the, like we've said many times,

this is the pinnacle. I think every other season's...

lower than I mean this is not perfect there are

some episodes that are I don't need it but I

mean this is as close to perfect as the Arrow

has ever been and probably will ever be though

I think as a character Arrow has consistently

or Green Arrow or Ollie or whatever he has been

perfect in all the crossovers like the way they

do Oliver in all these crossovers has been like

he's batting a thousand And, like, every time

there's a Flash -Arrow crossover or an Arrow

-Legend of Tomorrow crossover or Arrow -whatever,

perfect. But in terms of seasons, in terms of

your social seasons, I think this is the best,

and this is 4 out of 5. 4 .5 out of 5. Yeah.

I'm right there with you, four and a half. There

was nothing in this season that made me want

to turn the show off. There isn't anything that

they did to reference whatever. To say, oh, they

didn't do that right, or oh this, or oh that,

or whatever. Everything about the show as of

season two is coming into its own. It's giving

all of the characters that you follow certain

storylines and certain things that you could

follow each one of them in whatever ways that

you wanted. That whole switcheroo thing with

Felicity and Laurel, with having Felicity go

back to the mansion. The fact that the mother

is now dead, and the mansion is essentially empty.

It's been so long since I've seen these earlier

seasons. Like I said, I haven't seen them since

they actually aired half the time. I don't remember,

do they still have... No, I don't know if that

I'm trying to remember. It might have been five

or four to deal with that because he lives at

Felicity's place, doesn't he? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So, yeah, I don't know. Like seeing the mansion

empty was was cool and weird. Seeing Walter come

back was great. I thought that was super cool.

Seeing Colin Salmon come back. Yeah. Did we ever

mention that that mansion in the first season

is the same mansion from X -Men? It's the same

mansion. I'm like 95 % sure. You can look it

up, but I'm pretty sure that's the exact same

mansion. They just come in through the back way,

but I think it's the same castle that they use

for those movies. Cool, cool. Did you know that

Leanne Yu is in Canada? Isn't everything in Canada?

Well, probably, but I'm saying that... I've said

this before, and I'm sorry for repeating it,

folks. I pay attention to the fictional aspect

of things. Whatever's in front of my screen,

that's what I'm paying attention to. I'm not

paying attention to where it isn't real. Everybody's

like, oh, Metropolis is New York and Gotham City

is New Jersey. whatever anyway but it's you know

it's one of those things where i'm like i just

kind of got curious after i had watched the first

season and i watched part of the second season

like up to like the first eight episodes i'm

like huh i'm curious where it is so i just google

it and like oh it's the the scenes that they

use for lee and you are shot somewhere in in

canada it's cheaper and for the fact yeah The

forest looks very foresty, not jungly, which

an island would be. So it makes sense. Yeah,

true. I don't know. I just really dug it. I thought

it was super fun. All right. I think that's going

to do it for us. Where can the people find you

and your lovely show, Simplistic Reviews, online,

sir? You can find me on Twitter at TryingToBeDJV.

Our show Twitter is at SimpleTweeters, and you

can follow everything. The search YouTube, Spotify,

iTunes, the dark web, the search Simplistic Reviews,

you can find us. Guys are on the dark web? Wow,

you must charge for that. Oh, so much money.

So much money, kid. Hey, kid, so much money.

I'm at TFG1Mike on Twitter. You can find Remote

Control on Facebook. You can also find Geekcast

Radio on Facebook and Twitter at Geekcast Radio

on Twitter. Coming up next time, we've got episode

43 where DJ will be back with me to talk Batman

season... I'm sorry. Arrow season three and the

flash season one. Fuck arrow. I mean, Batman.

Fuck the league of shadows. All right, folks,

we're going to get the heck out of here. Keep

fighting over the remote control, and we will

catch you next time here in the Summer of Superheroes

on the Geekcast Radio Network's Remote Control.

You're going to run over there, you're going

to come back at me, and you're going to get hit

with an arrow. No, I'm not. Yes, you are. Okay,

fine. I will humor you. I heard you heal fast.

You've been tuned in to Remote Control, the Geekcast

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for a new modern TV topic. I'm your announcer

Optimus Solo, and remember... to think of us

the next time you pick up the remote controller.