Control: DC Arrowverse
I, Dalton Lewis, have watched most episodes of the Arrowverse, a series of television shows produced by Greg Berlanti on the CW. I watched these shows since their introduction about six or so years ago.
Arrow is the central show, an epic about a disenchanted rich guy who wants to fight corruption and crime in Star City, a major city in the DC universe. He wields a bow and arrow and tries to fight the most bad guys that he can.
I think that the central concept — a young man sorry for the failings of his rich family — is something American and relevant. The rich people in America run the country for everyone else. They make all the relevant decisions for America. Random middle-class people just vote for rich people and elect them.
Donald Trump, a billionaire, is our president. He runs the country. People with money run the country. They don’t have to answer except during elections, and they can convince poor people that they care for them. I’m not convinced that Donald Trump is the best candidate for poor people. Many of them decide that Republicans are great for the economy and therefore for them. They also believe that the right to bear arms is central to their lives. They believe in fighting bad guys. They believe that saving lives through violence is the central way to do good deeds. It is shameful that Dr. King’s nonviolent confrontation is so forgotten fifty years later in today’s America. He hated Vietnam and young people joining the military.
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Arrow is a show about fighting bad guys, but Oliver Queen decides during the second season that murder is wrong and that arresting bad guys is the answer. I very much approve of this. He begins to arrest bad guys who do something wrong. I approve of giving people a second chance. That is part of life — killing is permanent and terrifying to me. Arresting is something exceptional.
I might review episodes of the Arrowverse regularly. Would readers want that? Let me know if regular reviews is something that would be a good idea for a blog. I think that it would give me a chance to say something about today’s America. Greg Berlanti is an excellent gay writer who says something about the world around him. It seems to me that gay and bisexual characters in comic book properties are an important step forward in today’s America. I am proud of him for having characters like Captain Cold and Sarah Lance be gay or bisexual and proud.
I know that Arrow has a good group of characters. John Diggle is an ex-military bodyguard for Oliver Queen. Felicity Smoak is a proud Jewish woman who runs Oliver’s company and is one of the smartest people in the world. Thea Queen, Oliver’s little sister, is a businesswoman. She does overcome the party girl lifestyle to help people and stand up for herself. I think that the characters do fine. The villains, meanwhile, do a lot to reflect the rich corruption. Malcolm Merlyn, the show’s initial antagonist, wants to wreck Star City so that it can be rebuilt in his image. He fights so hard to wreck the city, and he wants to be a villain who runs everything.
The show wants to be an action show with big set pieces that reflect something the characters are dealing with. They want to save the world but make decisions that affect each other’s lives.
I want to watch all of the Arrowverse’s episodes this summer. I think that reviewing these episodes might help me to establish a theory of how to write effectively. That might help me to become a skilled writer of fiction. I know that I don’t want to write a screenplay, but I might get better at writing novels or graphic novels with the knowledge of how these stories come together.
Thanks, and take care, friends.
