DC's Legends of Tomorrow – “Pilot” Advance Review. Time Bandits.

Season 1, Episodes 1 & 2

Air Dates: Thursday, January 21 and 28, 2016, 8/7c on The CW

Rating: ★★★★★

“Grant me the authority to change history before Vandal Savage puts an end to it.” – Rip Hunter

Is Rip Hunter everything he says he is?

In the year 2166, Vandal Savage (Casper Crump), an evil immortal dictator, does what no man has done before—conquer the entire planet. In a desperate move to save humanity, Time Master Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) travels to 2016 to enlist eight unlikely people to help him change history and stop Savage. Will Hunter’s team of heroes and villains be able to prevent Savage’s evil reign once and for all, or will their infighting spell doom for the world?

Growing up, one of my favorite shows was the time travel series Voyagers staring Jon-Erik Hexum and Meeno Peluce. Each week, Phineas Bogg (Hexum) and Jeffery (Peluce) traveled through time to fix something in the timeline that was throwing history as we know it out of whack. The idea of taking characters from the DC Comic universe and having them travel through time gets the child in me excited for the endless possibilities. Recently, the producers of Legends of Tomorrow announced a Wild West episode was in the works where the team of legends meet legendary DC antihero Jonah Hex.

Series creator Greg Berlanti is no stranger to the superhero genre having created The CW series The Flash and Arrow, as well as CBS’ Supergirl. Legends of Tomorrow is both a spinoff and a crossover as Berlanti takes various secondary characters from both of The CW’s shows to create this new series.

From Arrow, there’s Ray Palmer/Atom (Brandon Routh) and Sara/White Canary (Caity Lotz). From The Flash, you have Jefferson “Jax” Jackson/Firestorm (Franz Drameh), Professor Martin Stein/Firestorm (Victor Garber), Mick Rory/Heat Wave (Dominic Purcell), Leonard Snart/Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller), and Kendra Saunders/Hawkgirl (Ciara Renee). Rounding out the future legends is Carter Hall/Hawkman (Falk Hentschel), who was introduced during the Arrow/Flash crossover this past December.

Given Savage’s death during the crossover, one of the biggest questions on fans’ minds is how can he be the main antagonist in Legends of Tomorrow? The answer is addressed in a satisfactory manner but it sets up a ‘haven’t-we-seen-and-done-this-before’ feel to the second half of the pilot.

Heroes and villains.

Part of what makes Legends of Tomorrow work is the main characters are already well established, with the exception of Hunter. This allows the pilot to briefly introduce each character and hit the ground running. Fans of Arrow and The Flash will enjoy some cameos that further connect the series to its predecessors and the expanding DC Universe.

Like Berlanti’s other superhero series, the special effects on Legends of Tomorrow are some of the highest quality on television. While it’s amazing to see this level of CGI, it does have some drawbacks. With so much fire, freeze rays, heat rays, lasers, flying, fighting, and shooting taking place, at times it’s overwhelming to grasp everything going on in a scene.

Marc Guggenheim, Phil Klemmer, Andrew Kreisberg, and Greg Berlanti, who wrote the pilot episodes, do an admirable job of finding the right balance of screen time for the characters but they haven’t quite succeeded yet. Hunter’s hodgepodge assembly of a team is fascinating but with each character having their own agenda, there are too many sub-plots going in too many directions.

Savage is an admirable foe, and I’m curious to see how the writers will keep the story line fresh. Having seen the future, we know there is an urgency to stopping Savage. Focus too much on Savage though, and the audience might grow tired of the repetitiveness. Stray too far into subplots, and the seriousness of what brought the group together is diminished. Overall, the pilot does a good job of mixing things up; hopefully, the writers can will keep up this pace up week after week.

Will everyone see eye to eye?

The dialogue causes several eye-rolling moments, especially when the eight travel back to the ‘70s and find things to be “groovy.” In particular, Purcell’s dialogue is so atrocious, it becomes hilariously entertaining to watch him chew the scene. Not to mention as a huge fan of Prison Break, it’s great seeing Purcell and Miller together on a regular basis.

Pulling several characters from Arrow and The Flash should have minimal impact on both those shows, yet that doesn’t mean they won’t be missed. I really enjoyed the dynamic between Barry/Flash (Grant Gustin) and Snart/Captain Cold on The Flash and would have enjoyed seeing more scenes between them.

Legends of Tomorrow is an action packed ride but what’s missing from the pilot is a sense of heart. Some of my favorite scenes on The Flash don’t always involve the Flash; they’re when Barry and Joe (Jesse L. Martin) are simply talking. Scenes like those are what make us care about the superhero moments. Hopefully, as the series progresses, the writers will find a way to inject more humanity into the scenes.

While the Legends of Tomorrow pilot is far from perfect, there are glimpses of potential. With DC Comics having such a rich history that spans decades, the possibilities are endless. I, for one, look forward to where the series takes us and when.

Tune in to Legends of Tomorrow Thursdays 8/7c only on The CW.

For more information on Legends of Tomorrow, visit the official website.

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Greg Staffa

I provide testosterone to the site. You won’t be reading about how nice a actress looks in a dress or how much of a hunk Matt Bomer is in my reviews. I describe colors using words like brown, not taupe. My twitter name is @staffaroadtrip because I love road trips and have done two different 48-state road trips since 2008. My favorite show is White Collar.