What They Say:
Pilot – Set in the year 2166, the immortal Vandal Savage is on the verge of destroying humanity; Rip Hunter travels back in time to assemble a team of heroes and rogues to stop Vandal Savage.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
One of my more anticipated shows since it was announced, Legends of Tomorrow is here. And even before watching this first episode I already knew how it was going to play out. With the amount of advertising going into it and promotion in general, the general concept was laid bare early and regularly. That’s not a bad thing for a starting point because it becomes accessible for new audiences and those that watch Flash and Arrow, especially since it did some good music hooks and humor to work the general audience side. What I’m most excited about for this series is to see where it goes after this opening episode. It’s not that I went in with diminished expectations but rather I went in knowing what this pilot was looking to do and how it was going to do it. What’s going to make or break it is whether the combination of characters, once underway, can find the right rhythm as a group and then in various configurations as they get into other times and locations.
With a basic premise that has us seeing Vandal Savage close to finally conquering the world in 2166, a play is made by Captain Rip Hunter of the Time Masters. He’s intent on getting a special dispensation to alter history to try and stop Savage’s rise to power that will end humanity. There’s the natural fear among them that by doing so it’ll cause a worse despot to come to power, but the stakes are high enough to warrant the risk and run with it. The has Hunter coming back to 2016 to acquire the eight recruits that we know from the Flash and Arrow series. With a lot of groundwork setup in those shows to establish these characters to varying degrees, we go in knowing them fairly well, making it an easy thing when Hunter leaps about different places in 2016 to bring them all together. There’s the usual quips, a good look at their power, personality, and styles, which means we basically hit the ground running. Which works for me.
The downside is that it does throw a lot of stuff at viewers quickly and Rip pretty much plays it in a kind of loose fashion that may be off-putting. What the show doesn’t want to do is spending a lot of time on the will they or won’t they aspect of going on this journey. That can be a real drag in trying to get something off the ground so I’m more than fine with a few rough aspects in getting it moving like this. Rip’s approach of basically appealing to their humanity in a straightforward and honest way, showing them some of what’s to come in the future, certainly puts things in a perspective that you know will have the heroes at least taking it seriously – especially those familiar with the Flash, which helps a bit with at least Snart.
There’s a lot of working through various character bits to get us to the place where the adventure truly begins and, similar the opening sequence, gets us to know them all more. There’s a good costume change and name change put into motion for Sarah and we also get the nod as to why Snart is interested in doing all of this. The opportunity to thieve through time is highly appealing to him, though it takes a bit of work to get Rory on board. THe most amusing part is that Jackson doesn’t want to go on this trip as part of Firestorm and we get to see how far Stein will go to ensure that he’s going to be a part of it. It’s a bit underhanded, but it’s something that keeps him from being a squeaky clean type of hero.
The journey to 1975 is one that takes back to a familiar element from the recent crossover event as we get to see the professor that had some information on Vandal Savage that we saw through recordings. There’s some fun in seeing everyone’s reactions to the era and the way we get the team split into different configurations. Having Sarah hanging back with Snart and Rory simply means they’re not needed yet so they end up going off to get a drink while Rip and the others, sans Jackson, gain some of the necessary information about Vandal from Boardman. It’s simple establishing material that we got in the crossover that new viewers may not have gotten if they’re just now coming in. So it may be a little by the numbers, but it has some neat bits to it as we get more on Kendra and Carter’s past life, one that’s intricately linked to Boardman himself. It’s a fascinating little twist that I didn’t see coming and adds a really neat wrinkle to things.
As the show gets deeper into things we get to learn there are a few truths that aren’t quite so true depending on your point of view with what Rip is really doing. While the mission is truthful, it’s not actually sanctioned and they’re actually on the run from the Council as he stole the ship to do all of this. Even worse, in a way, is that he lied about the fact that they’d be legends one day. There’s a real dampening effect to it but you can see how it can be used to their advantage. The problem is that for just about all of them having this truth given to them that their lives and deaths have minimal impact on the timeline is pretty brutal when taken into context with what they have all been through recently. Seeing this mission originally as an opportunity to do even more, to be a bigger hero and do great things, only to have the end impact ripped away is definitely problematic for them. But it adds a layer that I didn’t quite expect and it changes the tone of the show in a way that I suspect will largely work for the better as they grow into their real roles.
In Summary:
Legends of Tomorrow is the kind of show that has a whole lot of potential to it and I can definitely see it coming together. Pilot episodes are always rough in a lot of ways as it has a lot to establish, even when you did a lot of it in the Flash and Arrow series. What they do here hits all kinds of sweet spots for me as it gets the concepts underway, plays with all the toys, and shows how the cast is going to interact. I generally like all of the characters here and it even made me like Rory, which was the weak spot for me in the lead-up to the show. Savage himself is the weak point right now, more talked about than truly shown for what he does, but as we get to see various aspects of him across time it’ll ramp it up in addition to events in 2166. I’m very enthused for this show overall and enjoyed this experience a whole lot.
Grade: B+