User Reviews

Okay so the episode was crammed however I get why trying to setup a new show based on characters that don't really have a history but they worked well together. Hopefully the show if taken up explains how Dinah ended up 20 years in the future and Laurel can time travel although her sister has the waverider I doubt she dropped her off.

Now this right here is the not only Star City in the future but the Arrowverse in the future. This backdoor pilot to a potential Arrow spin-off could be the way that the Arrowverse moves forward not just in terms of chronological order but with the future of the Arrowverse shows in general. The whole idea was really interesting and the way that Mia has these memories from her old reality mixed with her new can have a lot of different possibilities for the future. We could see this with other characters who have become different people in this new reality. The episode itself is really solid and Katherine McNamara was good in some scenes along with Katie Cassidy and Juliana Harkavy also selling it. The episode does have some really cringy female songs that I couldn't understand the lyrics to. Not that I'm a sexist but it just became kind of distracting at first. But I guess that works with what the episode was trying to go for so I accepted it. The whole plot was kinda predictable but I also accepted it because at least it was engaging. Plus I think Mia wearing the Green Arrow costume looks absolutely badass. The episode was solid but the possibilities it presents is really exciting. And its an overall really solid edition to Arrow's final season. Plus that ending wtf?

Final rating: 8.6/10

Green Arrow and The Canaries has a weak start. I am against the idea of the series, though this wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. However, from the start of the episode I noticed how the premise of the show on its own is already problematic. To have gotten to this point the audience needs to know A LOT. First of all you should probably know about Dinah and Laurel, which requires at least having watched a significant amount of Arrow. Especially the storyline being rooted in Arrow's season 7 flash forwards, continued in season 8. Those flash forwards are now invalidated since Crisis On Infinite Earth's changed the entire timeline. For whatever reason Dinah wakes up in the future, and Laurel travels to the future to stop an event further in the future from happening. First of all, how does Laurel even know what's happening in the future? And why don't the heroes in the future stop it? There's so many more questions, like why Dinah happens to just wake up in the future. Regardless Dinah and Laurel team up and find Mia and the other flash forward characters living their new lives in the new timeline, but now Laurel, with a convenient memory ring device, reminds Mia about the previous timeline. Honestly... this is such a gigantic mess. I don't know how they expect non arrow viewers to hop on. Especially since by the end of the episode a character somehow has one of these rings, and returns JJ's memories as well. Which in it of itself brings up so many questions. What was the point of all this timeline lunacy?! Honestly I just decided to ignore the insanity of the set up, and just try to judge the episode itself.

Now as for the episode it self, fortunately it's pretty normal, but it isn't without it's fair share of blunders. The future star city looks pretty cool. I was surprised to see how well Mia was handled. Her reluctance to become a hero again makes real sense. She honestly wasn't annoying at all like she has previously been. In fact I'd even go as far as to say that I liked her this episode. Ironically, Laurel happens to be annoying in my opinion. She just seemed too overly sarcastic, and pushy towards Mia. She really didn't understand how to make this situation work, though it was resolved with a nice scene between her and Mia near the end of the episode with a nice callback to Oliver. Dinah is pretty good. She has some nice chemistry with the characters, but she doesn't feel much different from her appearances on Arrow. She's not a bad character at all, but she isn't particularly great either. The character dynamics were definitely one of the stronger parts of the episode. Seeing the different timeline version of each future character was pretty nice. Though again this brings up a lot of questions, and I think some moments were quite dumb.

The whole storyline revolves around Bianca Bertinelli. It's a nice callback to huntress earlier in Arrow. The events that lead to the fall of Star City begin with her, which is weird honestly. Suddnely Dinah knows how to hack, and they seemingly ignore most of the future characters. It leads them to a truck and they have a bad fight. Mia's memories coming back means she's as skilled as before apparently. She's able to block a punch from a massive dude with her arm even though she's tiny, and knock him out with a punch that comically pushes him. Honestly why make it so blatantly unrealistic. They could've easily put a smaller guy, and if the choreography was at least impressive it could've made a little more sense. It just was so badly choreographed and shot, it focused so heavily in that moment that it felt comical how easily Mia takes out a guy of that size. Then a bomb comes from somewhere. Turns out it's a new deathstroke! Honestly all they do is bring back a different Deathstroke at this point. That kinda sucks considering the real Deathstroke actually redeemed himself, but hey the suit is cool! By the way, the truck also had drugs, so I hope they just don't ignore that and is addressed in the future. If this series does get picked up it's going to need to do some better explaining, because a lot of things just happen for the sake of it. Moving along there was some nice drama between Mia and JJ. I thought it was handled fairly well and it was realistic. Though why did JJ encrypt honey moon photos?! Additionally the vacation image with Bianca being hacked and revealing she's kidnapped was one of the stupidest hacking moments in Arrow, and Arrow's hacking is notoriously ridiculous.

The whole episode leads up to Mia suiting up, in a way that while rushed, it didn't feel entirely unearned, and the Canaries joining up to fight a new Deathstroke! So they get Bianca, and have a disappointing fight. Honestly it was just a below average fight on Arrow. I was hoping they'd actually try harder for this episode, especially since this season of Arrow has had some great fights, but this just felt serviceable, nothing special. Deathstroke is revealed to be this guy we saw from the party, who nobody cared for and laughable motives, only to kill himself and blow up a building, but not before he shows off his tattoo to the viewer! Aha it seems like this show is following Arrow's tropes they took from other shows! Anyways this all ends when it's revealed that the tattoo is actually from the rock that was passed down from Oliver, and the secret evil villain has the weird memory ring and reminds JJ of the old timeline. Honestly I have no idea how they're going to make that work, but I can't complain about it now till it's actually done.

Overall Green Arrow and The Canaries' backdoor pilot just felt like a subpar episode of Arrow. Everything just isn't as good as it was on Arrow. The entire premise of the series is absolute insanity and borderline nonsensical. There's some pretty good moments, and the characters mostly work, but it's plainly dumb moments undermine that to give us what is a fine premiere, but with some hope for a fairly decent show. That is assuming it gets picked up. I'm not sure if I want this series to happen or not. I definitely want to see more of the characters on Arrow, but if this episode will show the quality that is to come, then I'd rather not. However if you get past some of those problems I mentioned, I think there's a chance for a decent show.

The final penultimate episode of Arrow fittingly titled "Green Arrow and the Canaries" is fast paced, exhilarating, invigorating and entertaining from start to finish. It served as a back door pilot to a possible Arrow spinoff. I loved every moment of this episode and cannot wait for this spinoff to hopefully be green lit. The three leads Katherine McNamara, Katie Cassidy and Juliana Harkavy are without a doubt amazing in this episode. Those three women could really hold their own series.

This episode is set in a future version of Star City, where Mia Smoak-Queen does not become the Green Arrow and the city is safe thanks to Oliver's sacrifice. Seeing the Future Team Arrow members again was purely a joyous moment for me. However, I was a little disappointed by how much screen time Connor and Zoe got. J.J. being the fiancé of Mia is not something I enjoyed in this episode. Mia and Connor will always be my OTP.

The fight choreography was amazing in this episode. The trio finally freeing Bianca Bertinelli and the final fight sequence was awesome. I am quite intrigued to find out who the mystery woman behind this clandestine organization is. Could it be Lady Shiva? Is the spinoff going to introduce her?

The ending alludes that J.J. may become Deathstroke again and possibly face off against Mia. The ending only showed J.J. and William getting their memories back, but I hope Connor and Zoe will get them back as well. This ending was mind boggling and insane for me. It just ties everything together and makes the possible spinoff far more interesting.

To conclude, Green Arrow and the Canaries did not disappoint and leaves me wanting more content. Dinah Drake, Laurel Lance and Mia Smoak-Queen are the perfect trio and the perfect fit for this spinoff. To be candid, I was quite ambivalent regarding this episode, but it proved to be a success. It is not a carbon copy of Arrow. Instead it is unique in its own way. I am quite enthused to see how the series finale of Arrow will play out now that the back door pilot has aired.

I liked this episode, but it could have been better.

The thing I hate the most about this episode was the mysteries. How did Dinah get to the future? The Kidnapper hinted at someone bigger and badder is out there. Who took William? Who unlocked J.J.'s memories? There are pros and cons to doing that. Pro, this is a backdoor pilot and they wanted to give us something that could possibly help turn this in to a series. Con, if this isn't turned in to a series, we now have questions that won't be answered. One thing I hate is when a season ends with a cliffhanger before knowing if they are going to get a season 2, because a lot of the time they don't get a second season.

I liked Mia in this season, and in this episode. Even when she got her old memories back, she didn't feel completely like the old Mia. And I liked that her name was Mia Queen, not Mia Smoak on this new earth. Loved that she and William grew up together. It looks like a lot changed for the Queen family and I would like find out what else was changed. Evan though I did not like the Dinah mystery, I did like seeing both Dinah and Laurel. They are two good teachers to help Mia become the new hero of the city.

Another thing I don't like was how Laurel was able to give Mia her memories back. It just felt a little to convenient. And if Cisco created the tech, how did the person who unlocked J.J.'s memories get what looks like the same tech?

I felt like I was watching the first couple of episodes of Batwoman when I watched this episode. Some people may think that is a bad thing, but I think it is a good thing because like Batwoman has gotten better, or at least I think it got better, so there is a chance this could get better if it becomes a series. This is just some of the stuff I liked and did not like about this episode.

I don't know about everyone else but, I do hope this will be a series. And if anyone asked me why I think this should be a series? There is only one answer to that question.

Because there is no Arrowverse without a Green Arrow, and this would be a good way to keep a Green Arrow in the Arrowverse.

And so painful to watch. CW now means Chicks Wherever. The two fights were laughably inept. It looked like the old Batman series. I was waiting for the POW and WHAM to highlight the punches. Mia's takedown of the big dude made me laugh for 5 minutes. Surprisingly the only watchable thing was Laurel. She was actually fun. Diana looked like a fright most of the ep. what an embarrassing episode. Who champions this utter trash? If this goes to series I certainly won't be watching and neither will many others. How low can the ratings on the CW get? Much I suspect.