Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Small Screen Reviews: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow
These guys are legen — wait for it … … — dary. Sorta.
If you’re as nerdy like me – and I know I am – you’ll have been watching DC’s offerings on the television. Though DC’s big screen offerings have been mixed, their small screen shows have remained strong. I’m including Constantine in this mix because I think it was a great show, but its premise was fresher back when it was released and, nowadays, it’s nothing new. So with Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and yes I’m including Gotham, things have remained strong. Well, until now.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow is a direct spin-off of the CW’s two hits Arrow and The Flash. In this story, Time Lord Master Rip Hunter, in an attempt to save the world from the immortal Vandal Savage, recruits people from Green Arrow’s and Flash’s present day. So Atom, Firestorm, Sarah Lance, Captain Cold, Heat Wave, and new heroes Hawkman and Hawkgirl are convinced to join him as companions fellow heroes and save the future from a man from the past. And you should be worried for the future because the show just isn’t working.
Let me digress from plot exposition. In any ensemble cast show, success depends not just on the storyline, but also on the cast and how well they mesh together. A good example of how this works well is Brooklyn 99. Andy Samberg may be the lead, but the ensemble cast work together so well that even when he’s off the screen, you’re having a good time. The cast meshes well, the audience is happy. On Legends of Tomorrow … well, it’s just not working. It’s like the early days of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but not as good and so far not improving.
I mean, let me put it this way: on The Flash, I used to cheer inside when I saw it was a Captain Cold episode. He’s one of Flash’s best adversaries, and the back and forth where they alternate between success and failure make for a great dynamic. On this show, he just seems to under-perform. I’m not menaced by him. I don’t feel he’s as competent as he is in The Flash. It’s just a disappointment. When you take one of my favorite characters and make me go “Meh,” you’re not doing a service to your show.
It doesn’t help that no one trusts anyone on Legends of Tomorrow. No one trusts time-traveling Rip, who frequently lies about the mission. No one trusts each other because they are a mix of heroes and criminals, each with his own apparent psychological problem with no counselor to help them work it out. They have to stumble from mistrust to trust and their progress is very clumsy.
Their adversary at least could pick up the slack, though the actor seems to chew enough scenery that he’s belching drywall after each line. A recent episode heroes and villains attempted to blend into a 50’s Oregon town, except Savage almost seemed to have that overdone villain grin even when he’s just giving his neighbors a casserole. I mean, it might work for the Joker Trickster, but Savage is a brilliant immortal mastermind who takes over the world. He should be able to do better than this.
I’m still watching it because, as I’ve noted often, I’m a sucker for superheroes. This was an ambitious offering the DC’s television universe; sometimes, however, ambition doesn’t pan out. In this case, it was stymied by weak writing and an inexperienced cast. It may pick up like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. did later in the season, but Legends seems to be the kind of slow burn that never gets off the ground.
Published in Entertainment
I am still recording it, and watch it pretty much last.
BTW where’s your review of Daredevil season 2? IOW am I the only one that binge watched the weekend it came out?
Taking care of a pregnant wife and one-year old toddler, I haven’t been able to binge as much. I plan to review as soon as I can.
Wait, that doesn’t sound badass superhero enough. Um … er … ninja. Ninja made it impossible for me to binge watch it last weekend. Wizard ninja.
DC Legends of Tomorrow. Sounds like a Democratic Party recruiting poster.
And the results are about as promising!
Isn’t captain cold a bad guy?
N.B. Oregon was apparently the most racist place in America in the 1950.
Not really. He just had a really bad dad.
Remember, according modern television, the 50’s were all about racism. With a steaming hot undercurrent of lesbianism.
Yes. Which is part of the problem of the show. We have a mix of heroes and villains and people with skills but are kind of neutral. It doesn’t work. In comic books, team-ups were done by side — hero team-ups and villain team-ups. In the occasions that heroes do team up with villains, it’s approached with caution, caution that’s lacking here and the writing pays the price.
These kinds of shows never work.
The necessary level of narrative is never reached because of the limitations inherent to television: length/amount of episodes, so characters are nerfed and story arcs abandoned.
It invariably leads to a giant waste of time for everyone involved (viewer included) because the production tried to do what the nature of their format made impossible.
I knew this was gonna be a sad affair when I first heard about it.
“Noo..”, my wife said.
“You’re jumping the gun.”
Smh poor Brandon Routh.
He got the Poisonous Golden Ticket with Superman Returns and he just can’t recover.
I feel bad for him.
Oh, I think it can be done, but you have to be very mindful of all the pitfalls of which there are many. If it started with Rip Hunter and maybe one more person an episode or two, we could add in the others step by step, maybe bring them in briefly. The trick is to build up the foundation.
The problem is that all these characters were built up in other shows and sometimes not even knowing each other within the same setting (Ray Palmer and Sarah Lance are in Arrow but never really met).
Of course, you need to be consistent, too. In Arrow they talk about how Sarah Lance was cured thanks to Constantine, and then in LoT, Sarah talks about how she still struggles with bloodlust — and this WAS THE SAME WEEK. It’s not helping them at all.
It definitely could be done but I think you may be underestimating the time it will take to build up an engaging and believable foundation for such a diverse cast of characters (or perhaps I’m overestimating).
A 34 episode season on Netflix perhaps.
If Marvel allows it.
Yeah, I’ve never been into these TV live adaptations. It’s pretty much impossible to stay true to the comics (though sometimes that’s a good thing) and the acting is always terrible.
DC has been putting out some great cartoons, lately, and I stick to those. My wife makes fun of me for watching cartoons, but it doesn’t strike me as any more ridiculous than everything else people watch. If TV is entertainment, an escape, then let it actually do that. What better way than with cartoons that aren’t limited by having to use real people, sets, and the laws of physics?
Two seasons, really. At best. Marvel still stumbles with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. mostly because they had a few too many core characters and then added more as time went on, and they’re in season 3. Even adding a new character is perilous. My good ensemble example, Brooklyn 99, added a character recently and he’s just not working nearly as well as the rest of the cast.
Legends seems to assume that a lot of that groundwork was done in the previous two shows: Arrow and The Flash and so tries to skip a few steps.
I don’t mind the live action. It’s been done right.
However, bringing up cartoons, let me compare apples to apples. In the 90’s, WB had the very successful Batman cartoon (some of which is downright brilliant). They followed up with Superman, then they had Justice League which was largely successful.
They did a lot right. The show didn’t depend on all the characters — sometimes you’d have them all, sometimes two or three or in between. They took the two solidly developed characters and added more. Once they developed the team more, they went a step further and added more heroes. Overall, this is how it can be done.
That’s a good analogy.
I never really appreciated how DC progressed with Batman – Batman/Robin (loved as a kid when pretending to study) – Superman and all the way into Justice League and branching into other stuff; teen titans, static shock, batman beyond.
Unfortunately, it would appear (as my 10 second glances at my cousin’s cartoons would suggest) the DC has given the reins of their Tv series cartoon franchises….. to a crazy person.
But even following this format, it would make for a very unorthodox series; if you wanted to have a series with an ultimately ensemble cast.
That’s why I feel it can’t really be done right now.
My suspicions for LoT were proven correct, I receive no joy from this, as I truly await a family friendly action series I can watch without my wife boiling with rage at the endless stream of scantily clad women prancing around.
One season of Game of Thrones was all I could muster so I had to pop in the Hercules Legendary Journeys.
For what it was, Hercules was a great show.
Embrace the B movie.
Huh. I haven’t seen that episode. I thought that Captain Cold was a bad guy because he killed a cop and he endangered a train full of civilians. But if his dad was a bad man I guess he can’t be blamed for what he does.
Yeah. One of the less well done episodes there … save that he ices said abusive dad in the end. Cold is bad, don’t listen to what the Flash says. But to emphasize what a remarkably bad idea this show is …
Rip: Here’s the plan to stop Vandal Savage’s plan.
Cold & Heat: *mid-plan* Screw the plan. Let’s rob this place.
*plan fails spectacularly*
Rip: Who would have thought criminals would have done criminal things?!
Stop being stupid, Rip Hunter. Just … just stop.
My lovely wife Amanda notes that watching LoT actually made her enjoy Arrow less.
When your new show does damage to your successful shows, you have a problem.
Oh, another comment from my lovely wife Amanda:
So true, and an excellent example.
On paper, Brooklyn 99 shouldn’t work; but the cast and crew are so good that it’s consistently funny and ridiculous.
Also, Andre Braugher’s performance as Captain Holt is one of the most consistently funny things on television. Well, that and anything involving Rogelio from Jane the Virgin.
Here’s the problem with Legends of Tomorrow:
Is he also not able to find a job?