Legends of Tomorrow (Arrowverse TV, SPOILERS)

[Elheru Aran]

Cheers all,

So I finally finished a binge up through season 3 of this show (I think that's all thus far).

Thumbnail overview: Rip Hunter, Time Master, gathers a crew of B-list Arrowverse superheroes (and a couple of villains) to travel through time and engage in interesting (read: bumbling) adventures. Character development and amusing adventures ensue. Motto: "We screw up time for the better sometimes."

Unlike Arrow, and even a little more so than Flash and Supergirl, this show actually isn't all that serious... most of the time. There are nerds in the crew, references galore, in-jokes, absurdity, and even the occasional dad-joke. They do things that seem completely frivolous and yet happen to actually be fairly important. The time-ship's computer itself doesn't hesitate to sass back on occasion. Most of the episodes are reasonably self-contained but do maintain a relevance to the developing plot; there's an useful recap at the start of each episode if you missed anything in between.

Plot wise: The first season is unfortunately weak compared to the latter two. Not quite sure exactly why. The main plot of season 1 is Rip Hunter trying to prevent his wife and kid from being killed by Vandal Savage in the future. This somehow involves Hawkman and Hawkgirl... but Hawkman gets killed off early on, leaving Hawkgirl to work her way through *that*, and the whole gang has issues out the wazoo to deal with.

S2 and S3 are far more solid, and funny. Rip Hunter is actually out of the picture for much of these, so the intrepid crew has to work out their own issues, for the better mostly. S2 is about Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash from the future, wanting to alter reality in order to prevent his death in The Flash, and using Arrow villains Damien Dahrk and Malcolm Merlyn to give him a hand. Snark galore (god Neal McDonough is actually pretty funny, isn't he?). Rip Hunter reappears as a brainwashed bad guy, and does a pretty decent job of it to boot. S3 is a little less focused, but still pretty decent. The Legends know what they're doing at this point... which is being very good at making it up as they go. Actual plans include shrinking Ray Palmer, having him fly into another character's ear, and play recordings of John Noble reading lines. In an episode literally titled "Guest Starring John Noble".

Characters: Ray Palmer's Atom really grows (wow I didn't do that on purpose, but I'll go with that) throughout the series. So does Sara Lance (White Canary). Mick Rory/Heatwave, minor Flash bad guy, actually mellows and develops a lot, largely thanks to the growing relationship he builds with the other Legends. Captain Cold is kind of awesome; Leonard Snart is definitely one of the better Flash/Legends characters. Firestorm (the joined characters of Jefferson Jackson and Martin Stein) isn't that impressive, but both Jackson and Stein leave their mark, big time, particularly Stein. Nate Heywood, 'Steel' (a late JSA character they introduce to work along with the WWII incarnation of the JSA on-screen) is another big nerd alongside Ray, so we get a lot of great references between the two of them. Apparently Steel is more of an Indiana Jones fan, while Ray is Star Wars all the way... but both of them can agree that Howard the Duck was a mistake...

Hell, just go watch it. It's a pretty great show. I think it's probably my favorite Arrowverse show, actually (bearing in mind I haven't watched much of any Supergirl). The climax of S3 in particular is SO worth it. Utterly absurd, yet somehow appropriate.

[Batman]

It's 'sometimes we screw up things for the better' I'm pretty sure.

[Elheru Aran]

It's 'sometimes we screw up things for the better' I'm pretty sure.

Really, that's the extent of your commentary? Pedant :p come on, you can do better!

[Batman]

Me pedantically nitpicking irrelevant details. Yes, that's totally unheard of.

And yes I probably could comment more-but not at this hour, and I think there's a board rule about commenting while inebriated.

[Raw Shark]

Challenge accepted.

This is one of my top 5 super shows. It's had some laugh out loud moments for me, especially in the time scatter plotline ("This witch has corrupted the women!" "Do you wish to gaze into my magic mirror?" "I needed the protein!" every thing that happened to Hunter, etc - fucking classic) while still maintaining a serious tone sometimes (many characters have complex relationships. I tend to identify with Rory a little, for reasons that you can probably not need an explanation for [likes fire, hairless alcoholic criminal, carefully hidden morality, lost his best friend in a shit situation, etc]). Good show.

[Elheru Aran]

Yeah, the plots are a bit silly sometimes, but the thing that makes it all really work IMO is the chemistry between the characters. The producers obviously put some thought into having the actors work together. Notably, Kendra and Carter were sticking out like sore thumbs during season 1... because neither of them really fit in with the other actors, though Kendra did a little better than Carter.

Damien Dahrk and Malcolm Merlyn being bad guys in S2 also really helped-- both actors had a good deal of Arrowverse experience at this point, were used to the schedule, and their tendency to eat the scenery meshed nicely with the comic-book background of the show. It was a really major case of 'growing the beard', so to speak.

Honestly I think that's one of the best things about Legends-- it really seems to work hard to capture that comic-book spirit, where things aren't -super- serious, silliness has a major place, but when the poodoo hits the air recirculator the heroes get their shit together and start prodding arse.