Our merry band of colorful misfits are back in the true season premiere for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. If you’re a fan of the CW’s crop of superhero shows and you haven’t yet given this show a chance, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice.
Legends of Tomorrow is a show that has not only evolved and adapted with the rest of the superhero television landscape, but has also embraced its gloriously goofy and outlandish premise in a way that makes it easy to love and not take too seriously. With an ever changing cast and endless amount of time periods and historical events to fix, the show has kept itself fresh and exciting with a deft hand. It’s a show that toes the line between silly and heartfelt beautifully and is a treat to watch each week.
While other fellow superhero fare on the network including Arrow and The Flash have fluctuated in quality, Legends of Tomorrow, like a fine wine, has only gotten better with age.
Where Were We?
Following the events of Crisis On Infinite Earths, we catch up with the Legends as they are now viewed as celebrities in the public eye. A documentary crew follows the team on their latest mission, stopping a newly resurrected Rasputin (Michael Eklund) from disturbing the timeline. Meanwhile, Constantine (Matt Ryan) stumbles onto the reason why he has returned and what that means for the team going forward.
Something’s Not Right Here…
It’s been fascinating to see how the events of the aforementioned crossover event have affected each show in the Arrowverse. As for our Legends, everything seems to be mostly the same, aside from the fact a new team member has seemingly replaced Zari (Tala Ashe) and no one seems to remember her. This adds an exciting wrinkle to the new season as Nate (Nick Zano) seems to be the only one able to discern something is off.
Elsewhere, Sara (Caity Lotz) is reeling from the death of Oliver and is trying to pull herself together for the sake of the team and their latest mission. Sara has come a long way as a character, starting out as a one-note disappointment with very little utility and evolving into an emotionally mature and grounded leader. No one on the team seems to know how to properly comfort her and she feels incredibly alone as a result. Lotz nails the emotional aftermath here, showcasing a raw vulnerability that had yet to be seen up until this point.
The documentary aspect of this episode was a fun twist on the normal dynamic of the show. Watching each member of the team try to be “on” for the cameras was endlessly entertaining to watch, the highlight being Ray (Brandon Routh) trying and failing miserably to come up with an effective catchphrase for his superhero persona. The camera work was well suited to the documentary format particularly during the episode’s action scenes which gain an added boost of hilarity as the cameramen frantically try to capture footage of the team while trying to stay alive in the process.
Source: The CW
Speaking of the mission, watching the team try to sneakily take out Rasputin (Michael Eklund) with no luck proved extremely engrossing. Eklund plays the figure with a campy charm and is truly a blast to watch as he interacts with Nate (Nick Zano) and the camera crew as he demonstrates his dark abilities. It was an added bonus that Nate’s interaction with the man helped jumpstart his memory of Zari so that he could begin to unravel that mystery. Episodes where the team’s mission organically intertwines with one of the member’s personal storylines make for some of the most emotionally immersive entries and this was no exception.
Things Are About To Get Messy
As the team tries to defeat Rasputin, John Constantine (Matt Ryan) is able to discover why he has returned to the land of the living and that he won’t be the only one. Constantine’s presence on the show is always welcomed and pairing him with Gary (Adam Tsekhman) as a sidekick of sorts makes for a terrific combination. Ryan is so wonderfully dry and magnetic as this character, able to effortlessly remind the viewer why he deserved to live on past his failed show. However, though his storyline was relevant to the overall plot, his portions of the episode felt tonally dissimilar to the rest of the crew’s mission. It felt as though his B-plot could’ve made for an episode in and of itself and it was a shame to see it become rushed and truncated.
Also, an unspoken tradition the show tends to uphold with each new season is rotating out certain members of the crew to pave way for some fresh faces and personalities. It’s bittersweet but necessary when the show puts those wheels into motion, but the writing off of Mona (Ramona Young) feels sloppy and mishandled. Her character proved to be an integral member of the crew last season especially with her newly attained powers. It’s disappointing to see her shuffled off to travel the world so she can become a better writer and follow in Mick’s (Dominic Purcell) footsteps. It felt like a lazy way to take her out of the shuffle and it certainly rubbed me the wrong way.
Final Thoughts
The season premiere of Legends of Tomorrow doesn’t let fans down as it delivers another very entertaining installment. The aftershocks of the events of Crisis On Infinite Earths continue to be felt throughout the Arrowverse, providing our band of misfit toys with new surprises and developments. It looks as though we’re in for another light, breezy and highly addictive season populated with more well-known historical figures and vibrant time periods for the crew to experience. There’s absolutely no superhero show like Legends of Tomorrow and it continues to prove why. I know I can’t wait to see where these wonderful characters go next. How about you?
Have you tuned into Legends of Tomorrow yet? Are you still on the fence?
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs Tuesdays at 9pm on the CW.
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