Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s07e03 – wvrdr_error_100 oest-of-th3-gs.gid30n not found

It’s the one-hundredth episode spectacular, which makes sense given the litany of guest stars, but it’s also the episode where Amy Louise Pemberton becomes a proper Legend. Since the pilot, she’s been on the show, but just her voice; she’s the AI running the time-traveling spaceship. She’s appeared a few times over the years in physical form, and this episode handles transforming her from a “voice credit” to a regular one.

The episode starts with Pemberton, Olivia Swann, and Lisseth Chavez traveling 1925 Texas trying to get to New York before the rest of the team to save them. It’s unclear what will happen when they get there, but it’d be nice if they got a move on. Even though the season’s only three episodes in, they spent the end of last season in 1920s Texas, so it feels like forever. Luckily the reunion spectacular is a worthwhile stopover.

Pemberton—who might be human but still has a supercomputer’s brain and all her memories of the timeline—has a mental crash, and Swann and Chavez need to magic themselves into her brain to figure out what’s wrong. When they get there, they find themselves back on the spaceship, only it’s Pemberton’s subconscious and Franz Drameh’s running it. Drameh left in season three, so it’s been a while. He’s probably the most welcome return because he gets the most to do.

There’s also Victor Garber, Wentworth Miller, Brandon Routh, Courtney Ford, and then Arthur Darvill. Darvill, of course, was the original “lead” and hasn’t been back for years; they hinted at him last episode, but I wasn’t counting episodes, so I didn’t think they’d bring him back the very next one.

Pemberton’s journey to human-hood involves a bunch of memories of the show at various points in its run. Oh, wait, they also bring back Hawkman Falk Hentschel, who hasn’t been back since the first season and hasn’t been mentioned since because they were probably going to use Hawkman in a movie and were scared to confuse viewers back then with multiple versions of the same characters. But he’s back for a funny enough cameo.

It’s a good trip down memory lane; a clip show, but obviously better because the scenes are geared towards being memorable without having to do any work. Dominic Purcell is conspicuously absent, of course, and the eventual drama is… well, it’s not a rip-off of “WandaVision,” but they’ve definitely seen “WandaVision.”

We also get some more information on the season’s big bad—the last episode revealed they’d be robots; in this episode, we get hints at who might be building them.

Caity Lotz directs and does a fine job. She leans into the fun and silly.

It’s far from the best “Legends”—it’s like a very soft sci-fi take from hard sci-fi aficionados–but it’s a bunch of fun. Though most of the charm is going to require having seen the last seventy hours of the show.

Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s07e02 – The Need for Speed

This episode is really Season Premiere, Part Two, with the season villain getting a reveal in the cliffhanger. They tease the reveal earlier, with Tala Ashe spending her time in the episode getting stoned, mooning over departed Matt Ryan, and trying to figure out what friend, foe, or category of either is the big bad this season. It’s a little forced and a waste of time for Ashe, but it references “Rip Hunter” for the first time in ages, so it’s occasionally engaging.

Plus, Ashe gets the punchline at the reveal later on, and it works out.

The main plot is Nick Zano pretending to be J. Edgar Hoover (Giacomo Baessato), so no one finds out Baessato’s dead. The show breaks its back complimenting the historical Hoover while “acknowledging” the problems, ending with Zano getting a pass for all the racism he easily commits while in the part. It’s messed up. For a while, they seem like they’re going to try with the Zano “when you look into the abyss” stuff, but then they rush the conclusion, and so it was all just pointlessly gross.

Jes Macallan and Caity Lotz spend the episode honeymooning and occasionally checking in with Ashe to move the C-plot along. Macallan’s got some funny scenes. It’s probably the least forced thing in the episode.

The B-plot is Olivia Swann and Lisseth Chavez discovering a human version of the ship’s computer, played again by Amy Louise Pemberton. Pemberton’s had physical appearances in the part on the show before, and they worked? I think they worked. Like the show never really leveraged it but could have.

Anyway. Swann resurrected and incorporated A.I. Pemberton instead of rebuilding the actual spaceship. Only Pemberton can’t talk, so it pisses Swann off. I’m not sure if it’s the script or the direction, but something’s not connecting with Swann’s performance here. Maybe because it’s shoving the character development back a few steps so there can be another life lesson from Alexandra Castillo. And Castillo’s life lessons are good and all, but it’s redundant. And derails Swann’s performance.

But it seems like it’s resolved by the finish, and we can get on with the actual show now.

What’s funny is “Legends” always sets up the next season in the finale but didn’t last season, and now they’ve spent two episodes getting it done instead of two to four minutes.

The episode’s fine. It’s just a low fine.

Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s07e01 – The Bullet Blondes

So this season of “Legends” is kind of the Back to the Future III season? I mean, they’re not stuck in the Old West, but they’re stuck in the 1920s, and they’re becoming bank robbers, so the action set pieces are all somewhat familiar—not sure if targeting “Legends of Tomorrow” fans who also love Thieves Like Us is a broad enough demographic, but it works for me. And there’s also room for some excellent character development.

Plus, the two cliffhangers are absolutely fantastic and promise at least one spectacular timey-wimey knot to untangle. While the other one has all sorts of character potential. It’s a very good season setup from a somewhat low-key, artificially subdued beginning. The team is still in Texas, having shed both Matt Ryan and Dominic Purcell from the cast, and find themselves time travelers without a time machine. Worse, the locals noticed their giant battle against the space aliens and are asking questions.

Luckily, Jes Macallan comes up with a solution for the latter, but it only works as long as someone on the team doesn’t screw it up. So, of course, someone screws it up, putting Lisseth Chavez’s mom in danger. The mom, played by Alexandra Castillo, isn’t in the episode to start (they sent her away somewhere undefined so she’d miss the alien battle). When she gets back, she becomes den mother to Olivia Swann, who’s feeling lacking as the team’s magician. So Swann’s trying to impress, and it’s not a good idea to mess with magic.

Most of the character work is for Swann and Chavez, who aren’t the best actors on the show, but their friendship is the most genuine. Because everyone on “Legends” is now basically paired off—Macallan and Caity Lotz are now married and stranded in time, no honeymoon in sight; Shayan Sobhian is trying to be a good brother to Tala Ashe as she works through her breakup with Ryan. Then Nick Zano and Adam Tsekhman become the utility men, filling in whenever a scene needs a third. Zano’s got quite a bit to do—and gets one of the two big cliffhangers—but he doesn’t have any subplots brewing, just A-plot stuff.

Ditto Tsekhman, who mostly just punctuates punchlines.

Good direction from Kevin Mock and a decent script (James Eagan and Ray Utarnachitt get the credit).

The episode drags a little in the first fifteen minutes, but it sets up the season well. Plus, Castillo’s really good when doing the den mother stuff, and she elevates her costars, making the extraordinary reasonable.

Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s06e14 – There Will Be Brood

It’s a very, very busy episode. Even though nothing really fulfills its potential, director (and former series regular—who doesn’t cameo) Maisie Richardson-Sellers keeps things moving at a satisfactory pace. It’s not until the end of the episode you realize how little the main team has been in it. Instead, in addition to resolving evil Matt Ryan’s team-up with season villain Raffi Barsoumian (sort of), the episode does a deep, and thorough reveal on Lisseth Chavez’s origin.

Ryan and Barsoumian steal the time machine spaceship to go get Ryan his magic back—also, the special effects on the magical “Fountain of Imperium” are outstanding—with Chavez and Olivia Swann tagging along. They just happened to be on the ship at the time while everyone else isn’t. Once they get to the past—1920s Texas—Chavez is pretty sure local healer Alexandra Castillo is her mom and doesn’t want bad oil guy Steve Bacic messing with her.

So while Barsoumian is boring Ryan with all the science behind how they’re going to get his magic back, Swann’s trying to convince Chavez they need to concentrate on stopping the team-up, not trying to figure out what’s so familiar with Castillo. Everything turns out to be intricately connected, which is a reasonably neat trick for the episode—Ray Utarnachitt and Marcelena Campos Mayhorn—until the third act when they rush the dramatics to get to the cliffhangers. Next episode’s the season finale, and there’s a lot left to resolve, including three potentially dying regulars (who may or may not be time anachronisms now). There’s actually so much I’m wondering if the show’s just going to hurry through it instead of trying to logic it out.

Unfortunately, Ryan’s still bad as the evil version of himself. Especially when he’s mean to his friends. Everyone’s forcing it: Ryan, his costars, Richardson-Sellers, the writers. It feels very undercooked, which is a bit of a fail as they’ve been working on the subplot since the first or second episode of the season. Maybe they’ll sort it out next episode; hopefully, they’ll sort it out next episode.

Chavez, Swann, and Castillo all have a lot of decent material in the episode. The script fails them towards the end, but the journey itself is solid. Chavez takes the biggest hit in terms of acting. It might be Swann’s best episode if only the material were a little stronger. The writing’s too pat on the showdowns with evil Ryan, and her character arc with Chavez is flimsy, likable, but flimsy.

Barsoumian’s fine. He brings some energy to the villain plot, even as Ryan sops up said energy. Meanwhile, the action with the stranded cast—Tala Ashe, Caity Lotz, Dominic Purcell—is bridging filler, very tense cliffhanger or not.

It’ll be fine as long as they end the season well, but it’s a disappointing episode. The first two-thirds is a lot better than the finish.

Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s06e05 – The Satanist’s Apprentice

This episode goes far in reminding how much better Olivia Swann is at being likable than villainous. It’s her episode—and sort of Matt Ryan’s—recapping what she’s been doing all season since she hasn’t been with the main cast. She’s been suffering in Ryan’s giant mansion, which is falling apart and doesn’t have internet and the neighbors are racist. Ryan promises to fix things with magic but he’s always too busy getting busy with girlfriend Tala Ashe (who are mostly just adorable together when onscreen).

Swann’s so frustrated she helps Aleister Crowley (voiced by Matt Lucas) escape into Ryan’s body and they plan on using magic to get Swann on her feet. All that story is set before the previous episode’s cliffhanger, which has the main cast needing to crash at Ryan and Swann’s.

Meanwhile, Caity Lotz finds out more about her mysterious captor (Raffi Barsoumian) while turning to convince some of the Jes Macallan clones—Barsoumian’s the creator of the clone line—to revolt and help her escape. To limited success. With a big “Wynonna Earp” reference in the narrative; so big it’s a surprise they’re not on the same network.

Loitz also directs the episode and does an outstanding job. Swann’s arc gets a little too easy in the narrative—and Lotz’s own arc is mostly padding—but when it’s time to get really weird, Loitz and the show handle it beautifully. Turns out getting help from Crowley (I’m not sure if Lucas voices over Ryan, but it seems likelier the more I think about it) isn’t going to go well for Swann, Ryan, or the rest of the team.

No one really gets much to do besides Swann, Lotz, Ryan, Macallan, and Lucas; Ashe gets a little, Shayan Sobhian gets a little (but mostly just in voice acting). Macallan’s okay with the clone stuff but they’ve done all they can do with it after an episode. There’s also a setup for another season story line, which just happens to coincide with the two already in progress. We also get to see Barsoumian’s master plan but it’s only theoretical at this point.

Barsoumian’s fine. The story’s going to make or break his big bad.

It’s a decent episode then an awesome episode once they get around to the cliffhanger resolution, with only a few missteps and thin scenes by the finish. I noticed Lotz’s name on the directing credit so I was a little more observant than usual maybe; she does a really good job. Like, Swann gets a great showcase episode here, starting with the opening Flashdance riff.