March Makeovers: Can ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ become even more legendary?
Going into “Legends of Tomorrow” season 1, there was understandably a TON of anticipation. You had iconic characters from “Arrow” and “The Flash” coming on board, a menacing villain in Vandal Savage, and a premise that was really fun on the surface.
So what has happened since then? Well, the show has lost some viewers, and for the most part critically the series has struggled to get the same sort of reviews that “Arrow” or “The Flash” had. What’s going wrong, and is there a way to fix it? All this makes for a worthy discussion, and the latest chapter of our March Makeovers series.
What’s wrong – It’s not the acting, and it’s also not the special effects or the cool settings that the show has devised. Even time-travel as a premise is fun. The main issue “Legends of Tomorrow” has through eight episodes is its flimsy narrative. Every week or two, we journey to a new place to try and stop Vandal Savage from taking over the world. Yet, since the timeline is all over the place and Savage doesn’t always know who they are, there’s no real story progression. There’s no build. The episodes are at most two-parters that don’t really connect, and as a result of that there is very little that we get to see when it comes to hype. Also, the rules of time-travel are a little bit murky, given that there are times people are cautious to not do anything, and then on this past we had mini-romances between some of our characters and people from the past.
How to fix it – We’d argue that this show would almost be better as a six-to-eight episode anthology series where you take a band of heroes, go to a specific time period, and then stay there until the hero is thwarted. If you transfer yourself across different eras, at least do so in a linear fashion and with a purpose. You can air seasons a little more frequently, and it also makes crossovers a little more often. In telling this arc across so many eras and jumping from one thing to the next so quickly, you’re really not taking advantage of any world. You’re also rendering it almost impossible to judge Vandal as a villain since it has to be a different take so frequently.
If you’re interested in getting some more news when it comes to “Legends of Tomorrow,” be sure to head over here to see our most-recent episode review right now! Also, sign up over at this link in the event you want some other TV news on all we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: The CW.)