How the Legends got their groove back.
This is a mostly spoiler-free review of Legends of Tomorrow: Season 2, which is available on Netflix as of Wednesday, April 12th, thanks to last year's CW/Netflix deal. I'll discuss basic plot details but avoid getting too much into specifics until the end of the review, where a spoiler warning will be provided.
DC's Legends of Tomorrow was a solid addition to The CW's superhero lineup in its first season. Sure , the show had problems, but the ensemble approach and time travel elements definitely set it apart from the likes of The Flash and Arrow. But in hindsight, Season 1 seems like a test-run for the show Legends would become in its second season. This year, the show trimmed most of what didn't work and replaced it with elements that did. As a result, Legends became not just the best superhero series on The CW, but quite possibly on any network.
A lot of what didn't work about Season 1 can be pinned squarely on the shoulders of Vandal Savage (Casper Crump) and his millennia-long feud with Hawkgirl (Ciara Renée) and Hawkman (Falk Hentschel). But with Savage being decisively killed off and the Hawks shuffled off the main stage in the Season 1 finale, the show was free to move forward in the Season 2 premiere, "Out of Time." And move forward it did.
Surprisingly, "Out of Time" didn't pick up directly from Season 1's cliffhanger and the introduction of Rex Tyler (Patrick J. Adams). Instead, the season opened with a weird but engaging detour that saw newcomer Nate Heywood (Nick Zano) turn to Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) for help in tracking down the time-displaced Legends. That served as a great introduction for Nate and a fun way of reconnecting with the old gang one by one. Nate almost immediately settled in as a valuable new addition to the team dynamic, what with his brotherly bond with Atom (Brandon Routh) and his seemingly doomed romance with Vixen (Maisie Richardson-Sellers).
Vixen proved to be another strong addition to the mix. Richardson-Sellers faced a bit of an uphill battle early on considering that Arrow had already introduced a different version of the character in live-action. But the writers worked in this "recasting" in a clever way, and it wasn't long before Amaya emerged as a character very distinct from her granddaughter in terms of personality and motivations.
The Hawks weren't the only characters to be pruned from the cast for Season 2. Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller) was also gone, though he served as much use in death as he did in life when it came to advancing Heat Wave's (Dominic Purcell) character arc. Rory's struggle to accept the Legends as his new family was easily one of the most compelling storylines of this season, and that arc became all the more crucial in the final few episodes.
Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) also played a drastically different role this season. He more or less sat out the first half of the season, with his whereabouts (or whenabouts) a mystery and his absence forcing White Canary (Caity Lotz) to step up as team captain. That was another inspired change, one that built on several years' of growth Sara has experienced on both this show and Arrow. And even when Rip did resurface in the latter half of the season, his role constantly shifted and defied expectations. He was an antagonist to the team this year as often as he was an ally.
If any character didn't quite receive the attention they deserved this year, it was Jax (Franz Drameh). While his partner Professor Stein (Victor Garber) dealt with some rather drastic time aberration problems, Jax never really seemed to have a overarching struggle this season. That's something the writers might want to focus on in Season 3.
The conflict in Season 1 was propelled mainly by Rip's efforts to stop Vandal Savage and prevent the deaths of his family. Season 2 took a little while to develop its own clear mission statement. The first couple episodes offered a fun crossover with the WWII-era Justice Society, but after that the show lost some momentum while the writers worked to establish the true conflict. That spawned a couple of relatively weaker episodes like "Shogun," where it seemed like the team was doing little more than ticking off boxes on their historical guidebooks. "Outlaw Country" was another relative disappointment, as it didn't quite justify the decision to send the team back to the Wild West and reunite with Jonah Hex (Johnathon Schaech).
However, the show was off to the races again once the Legion of Doom was introduced and the Spear of Destiny emerged as the major catalyst for Season 2. MacGuffin or not, the Spear was a compelling plot device, and one that reminded viewers once again that the Arrow-verse writers are willing to dig very deep when it comes to taking advantage of the rich tapestry that is the DC Universe. By the time the show reached the midseason finale point with "The Chicago Way" it built up a newfound momentum that carried it right along to the finish.
The Legion themselves also provided the show with the compelling, enjoyable villain it lacked in Season 1. Sure, you could argue that the show played it safe by drawing on a handful of popular villains from The Flash and Arrow rather than introducing a new threat. But half the fun of serialized superhero universes is watching heroes and villains alike grow and evolve. Legends' take on the Legion built directly on the idea that all of these villains had failed on their own, and all sought the Spear of Destiny as a means of rewriting their own histories.
Plus, it was just plain fun to watch Reverse-Flash (Matt Letscher), Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough) and Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) interact. You can't throw three hotheaded, self-interested villains into one room and not expect tempers to flare and betrayal to flow like wine. Letscher was particularly engaging all season long, doing a lot to stand out in a role that had previously been dominated by Tom Cavanagh. Thawne worked as a villain because his goals were so simple and understandable. Thawne's role and the surprise return of another villain built very cleverly on the foundation laid in The Flash's first two seasons.
There was ample drama to go around over the course of these 17 episodes, whether that involved Rip's shifting motivations, Amaya confronting her inevitable destiny or Rory trying to find his purpose in a world without Snart. The final few episodes capitalized on that drama well, tying up a number of loose ends and further establishing the Legends as a close-knit but very dysfunctional family.
At the same time, the show developed a very terrific sense of humor this year, and that was probably its strongest asset. Legends became the much-needed antidote to the DC Extended Universe, a place where color doesn't exist and no one seems to remember how to crack a smile. And with Arrow and The Flash both moving in darker directions this year, Legends was frequently a welcome and much-needed source of levity each week. You can point to any number of standout moments where Legends allowed its writers and actors to revel in being silly. There was the hilarious and unexpected musical number in "Moonshot." There was the fact that the team found themselves trapped in a garbage compactor with a young George Lucas. There was Ray using Tyrannosaur urine as a means of creating a barrier around his prehistoric fort. Week after week, the cast and crew embraced the goofy side of the DCU and crafted a show that was as much about the thrill of adventure as it was costumed character drama and plot twists.
Warning: the following paragraphs contain major spoilers for Season 2! Slip to the Verdict if you want to avoid.
I do want to discuss a few specific plot details at this point. One of the most pleasant surprises this season was seeing Black Flash worked into the plot as the relentless enemy hunting Thawne across time. The Flash's Season 2 finale set up Zoom's transformation into Black Flash, but it was nice to see the character pop up in an unexpected place and with an unexpected purpose. If anything, Black Flash makes more sense as a villain on this show, given how integral time travel is to every episode.
It was a little disappointing that the Legion of Doom were effectively disbanded in the finale, with Black Flash finally catching up to Thawne and the rest of the team being returned to their respective time periods. I would have liked to see the Legion become a recurring threat in the Arrow-verse, even if the core lineup of the team might change from year to year. I suppose there's no reason why that couldn't still happen, but at this point all the members are either wiped from existence or stricken with amnesia. It is interesting to wonder, though, if characters like Darhk and Snart retained some shred of memory of their experiences, though. Perhaps the subconscious knowledge that Project Genesis is doomed to fail fueled Darhk's downfall in Arrow: Season 4. Similarly, maybe Snart's evolution from crook to hero was furthered by the fact that he was given a fleeting glimpse of his future self.
Ultimately, the Legion probably needed to be eliminated for the health of the timeline. It's fun to prolong the inevitable for a while, but the pieces have to be put in their proper places. It would open up a huge can of worms for Arrow if Darhk never returned to Star City, never compelled Oliver Queen to don the hood again and never killed Black Canary.
At the same time, it was nice to see the writers take the opposite approach with Vixen. Amaya knows the fate that awaits her when she finally returns to her own time, but for now she's choosing to simply ignore it and remain with her new family. Maybe she'll become the Han to this show's Fast & Furious, putting off that last, inevitable trip home as long as possible. Or maybe she'll find someway of cheating fate. Either way, it's good to see the show tackling that eternal question of whether it's possible to rewrite one's destiny.
The Verdict
Legends of Tomorrow was a good show in its first season, but it became truly great in Season 2. The series trimmed most of what didn't work about Season 1 and added several worthy new characters to the mix. This season was crammed full of compelling character arc s and plot twists, but the show also thrived simply by offering a sense of whimsical adventure and comedy that be frustratingly hard to find in other live-action DC projects.
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