10 TV Shows That Were Right To Deviate From The Source Material

10. Arrow

Adaptation of the lesser-known Green Arrow property from DC Comics to television wasn€™t simply a matter of cherry-picking characters and storylines from the near seventy-five years of the hero€™s history in the comics medium. This would be a show for The CW, a network notorious for pursuing an 18-34 demographic, and that had until recently made its bread and butter on a predominantly female audience. That meant that the new DC show would need to feature pretty young things in formulaic weekly relationship conflicts held together by an arc-plot that would define each season. It also meant that the Green Arrow character€™s tangled continuity and supporting cast would need to be condensed to a manageable level in order to introduce Oliver Queen and his Star City setting to a wider audience that might never have heard of him before. Yes, Arrow marks a significant departure from the character set-ups and storylines depicted in the source comics. However, the reason that Arrow succeeds is precisely because that adaptation was taken so seriously in development. The story of how Queen has come to be the vigilante he is from the dilettante he was are narrated in flashback, as he struggles in the present day to become the hero he wants to be. In that sense, Arrow to date has represented a long, involved origin story for the superhero it€™s based upon. In the first season, Queen had no codename, simply being referred to by police and the media as €˜the vigilante€™ or €˜the Hood€™. In the second season, having given up using lethal force in tribute to the memory of his best friend, Queen adopts the name the Arrow. It€™s only in the fourth season, returning to the rebranded Star City after months in semi-retirement, that a considerably looser and less grim Queen takes on the Green Arrow monicker, having finally become a man that more closely resembled his comic book alter ego€ and so, finally deserving of the name Green Arrow. Producers Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti may have completely re-envisioned the source material, but it€™s been done while remaining more or less true to the core tenets of the character, and in taking the long view in crafting that character for television.