User Reviews

"Legends of Tomorrow" is half-way through its first season, and it is still trying to find its footing, all fits and starts, with all episodes till now having had very different styles and feelings. In this one, the show decides to take the horror-homage route, and it actually does a great job at it. It should be noted that it has been directed by legendary Joe Dante, and you can feel his touch all the way through.

After Heat Wave was "left behind" at the end of the last episode, the team travels to the 50s, following the new information they got about Savage. Some killings are happening in a little town and our bad guy is related to them. The team just doesn't know exactly what is happening, so they will split into different teams (Dr. Stein and Sara working at the hospital, Rip and Snart as FBI agents...) and start to investigate.

The change of pace is great from previous episodes, and it does a great job of making the episode a very entertaining one, and at the same time pay homage at horror movies from the past. The show is shameless in referencing other shows and movies, and in taking as much advantage as possible of situations for tongue-in- cheek moments, and the better for it. The mixture of action and comedy is improving, with also some space for more serious situations, and character development. For example, Lotz's Sara has some great moments. The plot, at this time, is a little bit out of the window, though.

It also tries to touch on some issues (women's situation at job and society, for example), making the team realize that what nowadays is not accepted was probably fine just half a century ago, or how difficult can be for change to happen. It does it in a very nice, kind of naive but thoughtful way, making it more about empowering the characters, and choice and consequences, than violence.

The best episode so far.

This series is a pleasantly mind numbing. I don't mean that as an attack. I mean this term as a compliment in that I know many watch series such as "Legends" to escape the everyday (e.g. the never-ending saga of Trumpism being touted through every possible media system). This episode is kind of cute and at least eased the pain I felt toward "Rip" in the previous one ("Marooned.")

So what can I say about this episode: we learn about the sexual repression and liberation of "Sara" (Caity Lance); we learn that there are cheesy effects; we learn that there can be some action (I don't want to ruin anything); we learn that "Savage (don't you love the pun of his name)" (Casper Crump) is slippery than s---well you know how he is; and lastly we learn the writers do not do their research since "ninja" was not used in American English until 1964--6 years after the time of this episode (at least according to Merriam-Webster).

For mindless escape, join in the fun!

For a rough start to the show, I thought Legends has recovered well in the last few episodes. It relied heavily on fun action sequences for a bit but once the character depth kicked in, I found myself enjoying episodes 5, 6, and 7. The same cannot be said for this supposed "mid-season finale" of the show. I like the actors and their attempts tonight, but I just don't think the execution was there on many levels.

Of course, with every episode of Legends that takes us to a different era, we get nods to pop culture references during that time and also plenty of 'witty' plot points that should come off as fun but rather come off as cheesy most of the time. Take for example the relationship between Jax and Betty which exploited the racial stereotypes that the 50's suffered from. Sure, that's an accurate portrayal of the time period, but the execution wasn't there. Were those 'bullies' just stalking them? How did they find them on Lovers Lane? How does Betty fall for him after a few lines of dialogue? And my god how convenient is it that the one diner Jax, Sara, and Stein eat at is the one that she was in? Come on.

On the other hand, you have the beautiful and budding romance between Ray and Kendra. Nope. If you did get past the brutal scenes between them then perhaps we can try to comprehend the exact dynamic between Savage and Kendra. Hasn't Savage been trying to kill Kendra for months now? Was that not his plan during the Flash and Arrow crossover? And I don't really understand why the team was "okay" with her going to fight Savage on her own if it was those same people who denied her company a few episodes back when they said she wasn't ready for combat yet. Then all of a sudden she lands quite a few blows on Savage as she has learned the ability to fight in a matter of minutes against an immortal mastermind? Have consistency here guys, come on.

The credibility of Savage is continuously being undermined by the writing. Remember that 3rd or 4th episode when we had that cool Eyes Wide Shut moment with him in the creepy red-ish room when he was doing whatever the heck he was doing with Hawkman's body? Well, we haven't gotten anything close to that in weeks. Plus, this 'Boba Fett' like villain the team is consistently up against has done far more damage to the team.

The setting of the 50's ended up being pretty stupid. The actresses portraying 50's humans felt very soap opera ish at first but they grew on me. The only redeemable thing about this episode was really Sara's dynamic with the fellow nurse. When Sara wasn't being Nurse Ratched, she swooned a nurse named Carlisle. The chemistry itself was fine, nothing special. But I'm glad that it had an impact on Sara's arc in that she is starting to feel again. Her and Cold are the two characters that seem to have real arcs in this show. Really, they are the two watchable characters.

So as Savage took on the role of Dr. Curtis Knox and locked up seemingly creatures from Teen Wolf in Hall H, we got a rather uneventful and unnecessary episode. The fact that it occurred in Hall H (the hall at San Diego Comic Con when all of the crazy panels go down) was a nice touch, but this whole side arc was incredibly weak. It honestly felt like a Teen Wolf episode, and that's not okay. I was glad to see Jax at least mention Rory's absence but I was disappointed we didn't get any clarification on what exactly happened between him and Snart. I don't know why I made the review this long, this episode didn't deserve that much attention.

+Sara is starting to feel again

-Is this Teen Wolf?

-Kendra inconsistencies

-More unwanted romantic subplots

-Actors from the 50's were brutal

-Kronos > Savage

5.0/10