Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s07e12 – Too Legit to Quit

The network hasn’t renewed “Legends of Tomorrow” yet, so when Adam Tsekhman makes a meta-reference to the show’s weekly air time… it’s cute but isn’t a great landing. Especially since the episode’s all about the show ending.

There’s a real quick resolve to the cliffhanger. The evil robot version of Olivia Swann escaped Hell and stabbed Amy Louise Pemberton in the back, mortally wounding her. Unless they can get the spaceship’s med lab online, which requires plugging back in the evil AI running the ship (also Pemberton, in her “traditional” voice-only performance).

Luckily for the team, AI Pemberton can’t let anything happen to human Pemberton since the only plan for eliminating the humans is decompressing the ship while it’s in the (presumably atmosphere-free) time dimension.

So while Caity Lotz and Jes Macallan devise a plan to take back control of the ship (again), human Pemberton tries to make a deal with AI Pemberton to let her friends survive. The eventual solution is just the end of the show. They’ll all quit being “Legends” and stay in their timelines (it’s unclear if they can still superhero). While Lisseth Chavez goes into the Jefferies tubes to try to take back control of the ship, human Pemberton and boyfriend Tsekhman bring everyone in to see a glimpse at their future without the “Legends.”

The flash-forward reveals new careers as children’s TV hosts, politicians, parents, influencers, and so on. Except no one—outside Lotz and Macallan—has anyone from the “Legends” in their lives, and few of them can connect these future successes with their current ambitions. There’s some good acting—no surprise—from Tala Ashe, who’s particularly distraught, as well as Matt Ryan, who finds out he does not get to save his dude, which was the whole impetus for him joining the team this season. Well, rejoining as a different character.

It’s a downer of an episode, with the occasional future flash jokes not really enough to compensate for the sense of loss most people are feeling. Especially considering the show hasn’t been renewed, this outing could be the farewell voyage.

There are a couple big twists in the finale; one to get the show to next episode (the short season’s finale) and one to potentially be left unresolved if they don’t get renewed. I hate it when shows play chicken with the network… something “Legends,” usually renewed in January, hasn’t had to do for years.

But their time may be up.

Superman & Lois (2021) s01e06 – Broken Trust

A couple significant “Superman and Lois” details this episode. First, Metropolis seems to be in the Midwest. Smallville High School is in the same conference or whatever as Metropolis High School. Second, Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman might be as old as forty-eight; at least, if he spent eight years at the Fortress a la Superman: The Movie. The Midwest Metropolis thing is cooler. I’d love to see a U.S. map of the Arrowverse.

The episode itself is one of the strongest in the series so far, despite a few major problems. The first act is poorly written. It picks up at the football game, where Superboy Alex Garfin finds he can’t be super when he’s got a migraine, and his not-super twin Jordan Elsass gets to do some human-level (sports) heroics. Garfin’s got a whole arc about confronting his childhood bullies, but Elsass has actually got the meatier part. He’s up against his old team, including an ex-friend who poached his girlfriend, and he’s trying to control Garfin. Garfin’s migraines lead to uncontrollable heat vision, something he doesn’t want to tell Hoechlin. Lots of conflict for Elsass.

He’s giving the consistently best performance on the show. A few other actors do really well this episode; Hoechlin, Inde Navarrette, Emmanuelle Chriqui, guest star Wern Lee. Unfortunately, not Garfin. Some of his problems are script-related (Katie Aldrin gets the credit), but mostly not. He just doesn’t seem to have a handle on the part yet, and it’s getting late. They’re six episodes in. So everyone else—Elsass, Hoechlin, Navarrette, Elizabeth Tulloch—has to hold up his scenes.

So Garfin’s one of the hurdles. Ditto Sudz Sutherland’s direction, which is a combination of dull, repetitive, and off. Sutherland always uses the same over-the-shoulder shots, and they’re always poorly framed. And always in the same way. It’s initially really annoying, but once they become predictable, the episode can work past them. Especially since there’s lots of drama and lots of Superman action. Sutherland does all right with the Superman action, but mainly because the situations are so good.

There’s also a series-best performance from Wolé Parks, who has a subplot with Tulloch. It’s pretty good, though she’s not really active enough. Just like Garfin, she’s a little undefined. Unlike Garfin, Tulloch can cover.

Dylan Walsh is bad. He may turn it around, but he’s not doing a good job. This episode has him and Hoechlin bucking heads—Superman being a U.S. military asset is one of the show’s most exciting turns—and Hoechlin handily walks away with the scenes. He’s still got a bad muscle suit, but he’s getting very confident in the part.

Even if he doesn’t look forty-eight.

The show’s getting really, really close. I’m almost to the point of recommending it (with the usual non-“Legends” Arrowverse caveats).

Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s06e04 – Bay of Squids

Let me get it out of the way so it doesn’t come bubbling up later.

After some previous hints, it turns out alien abduction survivor and gun nut Lisseth Chavez is actually “Legends”’s outreach to the right leaning audiences. She loves guns—she and Tala Ashe have a painful “2nd vs. 1st amendment” banter—she hates Commies (the episode takes place during the Cuban Missile Crisis), and after talking shit about Dominic Purcell for an entire episode (last one, I think) behind his back to Jes Macallan, she’s now talking shit about Macallan behind her back to Purcell.

The season’s making a mess of Purcell, who’s out of sorts because Caity Lotz is kidnapped (so kidnapped she doesn’t appear this episode, which successfully splits up the cast so there can be three distinct arcs not requiring crossover for a while), and Macallan, who’s now captaining the team. They resolve it by the end of the episode here but through shenanigans not character development. It’s also troubling because Purcell, off camera, is upset with the handling of his character and leaving or not or yes.

But the episode would still have some major hurdles.

While the team is ostensibly in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis to find a rogue alien, they’re really there so Shayan Sobhian can get Fidel Castro (Tim Perez) really stoned on gummis and play him Peace Train, which is simultaneously politically and historically cringe and adorable because Sobhian’s charming. Then there’s also the JFK side of things, where Nick Zano—turns out all Zano needs for a story arc is for Matt Ryan not to appear; they even get the same sidekick in Tala Ashe–gets to bro out with Jack (Aaron Craven) and Bobby (Preston Vanderslice) while general Nic Bishop does a low rent riff on a Dr. Strangelove general. Craven and Vanderslice are doing broad impersonations, which is fine, but the Bishop part is a real part and he doesn’t have it. Especially since Zano, even running a subplot, is fairly passive. His character development arc this episode is crushing on Ashe, whose alternate universe version is his lady love, but now he’s crushing on her dimensional clone. Even though she’s with Ryan. Hopefully it’s better than a love triangle.

It’s an entirely amusing outing for “Legends,” but ends up just being a slightly worrisome (as opposed to troublesome or problematic) bridging episode. What’s next should be great, we promise….