Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Legends of Tomorrow: Season 3

 

+++Warning, this contains very minor season two spoilers, but no major spoilers from season three+++

Season three of Legends aired in the 2017-2018 TV season and is again a mix of a monster/demon/"weird thing"-of-the-week procedural and a serial with a Big Bad that the group has to deal with by the end of the season. This season, the big bad is a demon named Mallus (voiced by John Noble) who was released when the Legends tried to travel through time with two versions of themselves at the end of season two. This also created anomalies called anachronisms, which are basically people or objects displaced in history. Rip (Arthur Darvill) has created a Time Bureau to replace the time masters to hunt down the anachronisms and try to restore the timeline, forcing the Legends to retire. Of course, they do not stay retired, and the usual shenanigans of the show ensue. Eight episodes into the season we get the big crossover event, Crisis on Earth-X (which includes episodes of Supergirl, Flash, and Arrow), of which the Legends installment is the final one. The crossover has major implications for all of the shows, including Legends.

For those who get the Blu-Ray set, the release is pretty much on par with the prior season releases, both in terms of A/V quality and bonus features. The extras include all of the episodes of the crossovers from the other shows, so you can watch in total without having to get the discs from the other shows, deleted scenes, and a gag reel. Then there is a featurette specifically on the crossover event and a best of DC TV at Comic-Con, both of which were released on all of the DC show's DVD and Blu-Ray releases that year. 

Overall, the season is good, both in still developing the existing cast members and introducing new cast members, some of whom would eventually become series regulars. Those include Jess Macallan, who plays Ava Sharp, a member of the Time Bureau, who can't stand the Legends, Adam Tsekman, who plays Gary Green, a member of the Time Bureau who loves the Legends, Courtney Ford (Brandon Routh's wife), who plays Nora Dhark, the daughter of Damien Dhark, and Matt Ryan, who reprises his role as John Constantine, who was brought into the Arroverse during one of the flashback sequences on Arrow. The show continues to be the more offbeat of the Arrowverse shows and can get downright silly (especially in the season finale, when the silliest thing the show has ever done is pulled off). That said, it works for the show, and the actors seem to have a lot of fun with the material, and with each other. So, if you have liked the more offbeat nature of the show in the first couple of seasons (especially in season 2), this is definitely worth watching. 

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: DC's Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete Second Season

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from the first season, but no major season two spoilers+++

The second season of Legends picks up with the team dealing with the time aberrations that they released because of their actions during season one, especially toward the end of the season. And, they are still reeling from the loss of Snart after he sacrificed himself in the season one finale. The first episode of the season is basically a crossover with Arrow and introduces a new main character, Nate Heywood, played by Nick Zano, who is a historian trying to find the Waverider. The season premiere also introduces the Arrowverse's version of the Justice Society of America and introduces the character of Amaya Jiwe, played by Maisie Richardson-Sellers, who also becomes a series regular. In addition to the time aberrations storyline, the other main story arc of the season involves a team-up among former Flash and Arrow "Big Bads" Damien Darhk (played by Neil McDonough), Malcolm Merlyn (played by John Barrowman), and Reverse Flash (played by Matt Letscher). The team basically has to visit different time periods, to usually hilarious effect, and correct something that went wrong and/or thwart the plans of Darhk, Merlyn, and Thawne. Just before the halfway point of the season is Legends' installment of the big Arrowverse crossover event, Invasion, which includes characters from Supergirl, Flash, and Arrow. The season then ends on yet another cliffhanger with time being messed up and setting up the season three storylines.

For those who get the Blu-Ray set, it is pretty similar to the sets of all of the other Arrowverse shows in terms of A/V quality and extras. The extras include the crossover episodes of Flash and Arrow so you can watch the entire crossover event without getting discs from the other shows, then you get some deleted scenes (about 11 minutes between them all), a 6-minute gag reel, a 10-minute featurette on the Invasion crossover (that is the same as what is on the Flash, Arrow, and Supergirl sets if you have those), and an approximately 30-minute portion of the show's 2016 Comic-Con panel.

Overall, the show is good but different. It is much more quirky than the other Arrowverse shows, which they can play up a lot because of the time travel aspect. The cast seems to have good chemistry with each other, and while losing Wentworth Miller as a series regular did change the dynamic of the series a bit, I think the new additions to the cast fit in well. So, if you are a fan of the other Arrowverse shows, this is definitely worth watching as well, even though the storylines and to some extent the tone of the show are quite different from the first season.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: DC's Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1

 

Legends of Tomorrow is, along with the Flash, another show spun off from Arrow. It received a backdoor pilot in the Flash-Arrow crossover (in season 2 of The Flash and season 4 of Arrow). The pilot picks up with the Vandal Savage storyline, in which a "Time Master" named Rip Hunter (played by Arthur Darvill) recruits Sarah Lance (Caity Lotz), Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh), Martin Stein (Victor Garber), Jefferson Jackson (Franz Drameh) Captain Cold/Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller), and Mick Rory/Heatwave (Dominic Purcell) to help him stop Savage's rise to power in the hopes of saving his family whom Savage kills in the future.

The first season storyline involves the group, along with Hawkman and Hawkgirl traveling through time on a ship called The Waverider, trying to take Savage out before he can rise to power. This sees the characters in the recent past (the 1970s), the more distant past (the 1950s), back in the 1800s, and in the future. Of course, things do not always go as planned, and there are several twists along the way. The season ends on a couple of pretty big cliffhangers that have consequences going into the second season.

For those who get the blu-ray set, the A/V quality is on par with the other Arrowverse shows and looks as good as you would expect a show from 2015 shot on digital to look. The extras include a portion 2015 Comic-Con panel where host Geoff Johns talks with the cast about the show which runs about 20 minutes, a short gag reel, a nine-minute tour of the Waverider set, a look behind the scenes at the episode "The Magnificent Eight", and a look at how they created the different time periods.

Overall, the show is good. It is definitely more of a serial story than a procedural one, so you have to watch it from the beginning to really know what is going on. There are definitely plot points that don't make a whole lot of sense, and the show can get a bit cute with the twists. The ragtag band of misfits theme works well, and the show does a good job juggling the large ensemble cast that really does not have a traditional series lead. It is a good blend of action, dry humor, and drama. Even when the writing is uneven, it is very well-acted and a good addition to the slate of Arrowverse shows, which at the time this aired included Arrow, Flash, and more tangentially, Supergirl. While some Arrowverse characters make appearances in the first season, the show does not lean on existing shows and does tell its own story. I do think that having a smaller run of episodes (16 as opposed to the 22-24 that the other shows get) did help the series because it got in and out of the season one storyline without getting too stale.