Arrow Star Stephen Amell: Sochi Olympics "Marred By Homophobia and Mediocre Levels of Public Interest"

Upset that many of your favorite TV series are going on a three-week hiatus to accommodate The Sochi Olympics? Well, so is Arrow star Stephen Amell, who responded to numerous fan inquiries about the delay between Wednesday's episode "Heir to the Demon" and the February 26 episode "Time of Death" with a straightforward and caustic assessment of the controversial Games. "For everyone asking, we're taking a mini hiatus so people can grit their teeth and suffer through an Olympic games marred by homophobia and mediocre levels of public interest," Amell wrote to Facebook. "Back February 26th." Shortly thereafter, he added, "Follow up point -- Good luck to all the athletes who have worked so hard for so many years and essentially geared their entire life around this opportunity. Hopefully, a lot of them will use their success and a public platform to remind everybody this isn't the stone age." That is, of course, one of the most troubling elements whenever something controversial happens at or around The Olympics: the nature of the Games is that athletes prepare for four solid years so that this three-week period can happen--and then when the public focus is on something unrelated to their actual performance, be it a political concern like the recently-passed Russian anti-gay laws or even something like performance-enhancing drugs or judging scandals we've seen in the past, there are always supporters who say, essentially, it's unfair to the athletes to boycott, or even shift focus too dramatically, because it's not as though they can control where and when their (often only) Olympic appearance is taking place. To his point on public interest: The Olympics are also one of those odd television events: while social media is often consumed by detractors insisting that they never watch the Games, year after year the ratings are so strong that networks move original programming out of the way so as not to be steamrolled by the weeks-long event.