HVFF Atlanta - An opinion shared with David Ramsey
Every HVFF brings its lot of hope and disillusion. This past edition in Atlanta was no different. We hoped for good news, we asked… and happened what happened. (I’m not gonna comment on that - we heard enough about it).
However, there’s always a silver lining in every situation. After a less than smooth SA panel, we decided to cheer us up with a hug from David Ramsey… What’s better than a hug from David himself? Answer – Not much!
Here’s the silver lining of HVFF. Some actors care. A lot. David Ramsey is one of them. They care about what we think, how we perceive the show, what has changed for us and how our experience has been impacted. They care enough to ask about it. I ignore what they do with that information, how they gather it and how they distribute it. This is up to them, not to us.
A lot of you have asked me what the content of the discussion with David was. I’m gonna write what has been said, not what has been asked. I won’t write about David’s reaction, only our words. mine and @kalichica12′s. David has expressed in the past his opinion about this season – if you’re looking for it, the articles are online. The fandom has become too prompt to come to conclusions for me to even start being his messenger here. The only thing I will say is that David started this discussion by asking for our “honest opinion”. I did ask how honest. He answered by “very honest”. So here’s what we told him about the new season.
- The entitlement of the new crew, especially Rene and Evelyn, is highly irritating
- We like Rory – because he is humble - and want him to stay
- We are aware that the writers create nice scenes between the recruits and Original Team Arrow to make us like them more (ie the scene with Rene organizing JJ’s birthday) but only to appear inorganic and sometimes a proof of lazy writing
- It would have been easier to accept the new recruits in a season where Original Team Arrow and Olicity were not broken up – Too many changes, too quickly.
- We do understand that adding new characters makes killing off characters easier (eh, it is Arrow at the end of the day) but it’s not enough to justify alienating the show
- We’ve seen a significant shift in Felicity’s and Curtis’ writing between S4 & S5 and not for the best
- We are annoyed by Rene calling Felicity Blondie
- We miss John and Felicity’s scenes together.
- John and Felicity have been sidelined and we miss Original Team Arrow together.
- We do not believe Arrow 100 will be a love letter to the fans. Not our type of fans anyway. If it was so, we would have much more OTA together during that episode. (David’s body language at that moment didn’t really help me feel better about this episode – but here, personal interpretation).
- The show should spend less time filming with superhero type aesthetics – when they all stand together before/after a fight scene - and focus more on the writing of the characters.
- It is a shame the writers felt like they had to send Curtis on the field straight away. Also, why do they have to send everyone on the field? The Green Arrow and Spartan now have backups but Felicity doesn’t. It doesn’t take to be on the field to be a hero and the writers have forgotten this once more.
Here you are. This is pretty much the content what has been said to David. Nothing that I haven’t already expressed here or on Twitter. It’s quite a long list (and we didn’t even talk about Olicity…) but we’ve been asked for it.
Bottom line - David is a precious gem that we should all be grateful for. He is very aware of the general feeling around Season 5 and very eager to understand the rationale behind it. Not everyone is willing to hear this side of the experience. For this only, David proved once more he deserves his status of MVP.