Things Fall Apart: Why I’m No Longer An Arrow Fangirl
So here’s what happened.
I started watching Arrow the first season and liked it, but it wasn’t appointment TV. Then a bit player connected with the lead and I started deconstructing it to see how that happened, and then I got hooked. Wonderful show, terrific cast, I’m a fan. And then everything shifted, and the hero changed, and there were all these people crowding up the Arrow cave, and I got bitchy about it, and then the next week, the story repeated things I already knew and I got bitchier, which helps nobody. Then this week I found myself disliking the lead character and his whiny super-girl-friend so much that I quit before the episode was over. I don’t think I’ve ever had this experience with a TV show before. I’ve gotten bored with shows over time, but I’ve never had one go from can’t-wait-for-the-next-episode to can’t-stand-to-finish-this-episode in a month.
So I have come to the decision that I’m not doing anybody any favors by talking about Arrow. The world is full of TV shows for me to watch that I really enjoy (The Blacklist, Person of Interest, Leverage). Clearly it’s time I stopped talking about this show and stick with stories that work for me.
So here’s what worked for me on Arrow:
1. Oliver Queen fighting crime, being a flawed but smart, good guy who doesn’t think he’s superior to anybody even though, hey, superhero.
2. Oliver, Diggle, and Felicity figuring out how to fight whatever is attacking the city, standing by each other through everything, a team founded in hard-earned trust.
3. Moira Queen, doing anything. Moira can do her nails for all I care; that woman and a sharp object will always make great story, especially if the sharp object is her tongue.
4. Great antagonists in full assault. Slade, the Clock King, China White, the Count, Merlyn, this story universe is full of good bad guys.
But the first two are gone, changed so much that what originally drew me to the show has been destroyed, and the last two aren’t enough to make up for the loss. In the words of Emma Stone, “It’s not you, it’s me; I don’t like you any more.” I really do wish you the best of luck in the future, Arrow. We had some really good times. Good-bye.
So how about you, Argh People? Have you ever fallen out of love with a show or a novel you were invested in? What happened? Or to put it another way, how do writers piss off readers/viewers so much they never come back?
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I'm a strong believer that television is for enjoyment. It's entertainment (all of those educational shows obviously don't apply to this discussion). If you change the show or turn off the TV angry, then you're doing the right thing in letting go of that program.
I will say that I have a show that I've been watching since season 1 (they're finishing up season 4 now), and this season has been trying, to say the least. I hadn't let go of it, but I would read a specific episode description before deciding whether or not I would watch it. It was like we'd broken up but were pretending that we could still just be friends and still hang out. I was resentful, but I couldn't just cut the ties.
And now I have news that makes me think that the program might be returning to the way I loved it in the first place. So there's hope that we might actually be dating again.
One of the things I learned years ago is that a company starts heading down the wrong road when it forgets its mission statement. I think the same thing applies to television shows. They need to remember the basics of the show. It's okay to add things around it as long as at the center is that mission statement. That's my theory, anyway.