Sarcasm Into Print

"...In most of the show so far, Felicity has spent her time on Team Arrow coordinating and hacking from the relative safety of the not-so-secret lair. When she does venture out into the field, the general result is either whacky hijinks or kidnapping. She has been a damsel in distress, a sleeper agent, and serial killer bait. She’s afraid of heights and doesn’t like guns. She wears glasses and high heels. She cries. She shamelessly ogles the hot guy and falls unabashedly in love with him. Her dresses frequently have so many cutouts that it’s difficult to imagine how she actually puts them on unassisted. 

"On October 24, the fourth of the DC inspired shows premiered. With Gotham surging forward over on Fox and The Flash breaking records on the more diminutive CW, NBC’s Constantine had some stiff competition. Although airing on one of the four major networks, Constantine’s unenviable timeslot of 10:00PM on Friday nights is about equivalent to airing on The CW, and the relative obscurity of the character in mainstream media far from guaranteed an audience. Of the four shows, Constantine was the one most likely to struggle for viewers, and an awful lot was riding on the pilot episode to lock in an audience.

What did we learn from this week's latest episode.

"...In “Sara,” Laurel is grieving and angry and vengeful. That’s fine. It’s even okay that Laurel wanted to go outside of the law to find and punish Sara’s killer. Her sister died, and she was irrational. Who wouldn’t be? There’s just no reason why she should be motivated into becoming a vigilante. Sara wasn’t murdered by a mugger.

Oliver wanted to right his family’s wrongs. Roy wanted to help people overlooked by the authorities. Diggle wanted to make a difference in civilian life after leaving the army. Even behind-the-scenes accomplice Felicity had her own reasons. Lawyer Laurel does not.

"...First, we had Oliver and Laurel. As the two who had known Sara longest and best, it was natural that these would be the two most deeply affected by her death. For once, we were shown rather than told that there was more to their bond than the bitterness and bad memories left over from their catastrophic romances. Determined to play his role, Oliver's interactions and affections with Laurel had a paint-by-numbers aura to them as he attempted to provide comfort without opening himself up to feeling any."

What did we learn from this week's latest episode.

Subjectively? Go ahead and watch that kiss again. There's no judgment here."

(from WhatCulture.com)

Oliver and Felicity. 

They weren't supposed to happen. Felicity was meant to be an Easter egg for comic fans, and Emily Bett Rickards a one-off guest star. Oliver was meant to sizzle with star-crossed soulmate Laurel, and Stephen Amell to sell an epic love affair opposite Katie Cassidy. 

Despite the best efforts of everyone involved, Plan A backfired as audiences failed to connect with Oliver and Laurel as a couple. Fortunately for the showrunners, Plan B fell into their laps as Rickards created a character out of a cameo and Amell lit up in their scenes together. Purely by accident, Olicity was born. After two seasons of lackluster Lauriver, "The Calm" seemed likely to be the turning point for the series' main romance.

Read the rest of how Oliver and Felicity got it right: