I’m not a fan of time travel, but I am a completist. After disliking the first season of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, discovering the television apocalypse that Hulu and CW no longer have an agreement and failing to get the CW app to work on my Kindle, I was finally able to catch up with the second season on Netflix. The show has definitely improved and while at times it was too sci-fi for me, it still showed a sense of joy and fun that is missing in its other CW DC Comics show counterparts.
Introducing Nate Heywood, whom I nick named Prof Steel, and Amaya Jiwe, Vixen’s grandmother, was a great move. Whoever decided that having a history expert on a time ship would be an asset was right then making him a hemophiliac who would be psyched to have powers as opposed to being another maudlin, tortured hero was a great choice. Prof Steel’s enthusiasm and knowledge at every ridiculous turn got me into the show. DC’s Legends of Tomorrow needed an adult and a moral center without being a fuddy duddy, and Amaya provided an encouraging kick in the butt to a team that needed adult supervision. Dear DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, please give us more Lance Heriksen.
Teaming up Malcolm Merlyn and Damien Darhk was brilliant. I want the CW universe to find a way to make these two a team forever or a couple. They were credibly evil, marvelously snarky and had great chemistry. They brought a sense of style missing to the titanic opposition that Savage provided. Also because of Merlyn and Darhk’s shared past with the heroes and lack of a moral compass, their lack of ethics in time travel created a suitable foil with the legends.
I am glad that some characters from first season played more central roles than they did last year. Mick and Sarah really took central stage and grew as the season unfolded. Their character arcs were satisfying. I always thought of Gideon as a character with feelings though most of the crew treated her as a machine, but this season confirmed my suspicions and made me resent Rip less, who thankfully was no longer at the helm of the time ship and apparently I prefer as a villain (he was a homicidal child). While I did want more Firestorm and felt like Victor Garber was sidelined more as the season unfolded, I am glad that DC’s Legends of Tomorrow gave Jefferson more to do, but Franz Dremeh is not the strongest actor. He is still young, but who knows, it could be the writing. At least he is not Ray, who is always annoying on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, but in crossovers with other shows isn’t. I suspect that writers on different shows interpret Ray’s role in groups differently depending on who is in the group.
Writers for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow really must have had fun in the pitch room by imagining different anachronistic pairings. Because I’m not a fan of time travel, a lot of it didn’t work for me, but I’m not really the intended audience. Feudal Japan with tech or lasers and swordfights don’t automatically thrill me. I always appreciate zombies. No one could ever accuse them of lacking imagination or recycling old ideas. There is an episode devoted to the power and importance of movies to change lives that left me teary eyed. To be fair, I watch too much TV and juggle a lot of TV shows, so may mean that I have forgotten or missed something entirely, but what happened to the Thanagarians? Are they ever going to become a threat? Minor criticism: the spear that pierced the side of Christ is in the Bible, but I don’t think that Bible studies include legends about the Spear of Destiny. Also Snart was never this homicidal, which is why he had daddy issues.
Eobard Thwane did not work for me. Because he was disguised as Wells when he initially appeared on The Flash, we never got a sense of what kind of person he was, and other than being a sadistic scientist, his extended appearance as the Big Bad on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow did not help. He likes black leather or yellow when he is on the run, but when things are stable, suits. He does not really have a strong, recognizable personality like Darhk and Merlyn.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow really found its voice. It showed in nice details like having different characters doing the voice over introduction and changing the words to reflect the character’s personality. I need the villains or Mick to do every voice over. While it is far from my favorite show, and I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone not already invested in CW DC Comic TV show universe, in comparison to its colleagues, it improved with age.