Endings Are Such Sweet Repetition When "The Doctor Falls"

The Good: Decent performances, Ties the season together well, Good effects, Good character moments
The Bad: Repetitive plot and character elements from other Steven Moffat works
The Basics: "The Doctor Falls" puts Bill in mortal peril and The Doctor, Missy, Nardole and The Master in a situation that might spell all their doom.


Steven Moffat's run as showrunner of Doctor Who has been an erratic one. While a lot of fangirls came to love him, I was not a fan of Matt Smith's tenure as The Doctor. I was actually super-excited by Peter Capaldi being cast as The Doctor, but his three season run as The Doctor, which was separated by (essentially) a year off while the production team tried to figure out its next direction, was marred by pretty terrible writing. So, there was something of a "fuck you" quality to Steven Moffat's final season as showrunner as the writing suddenly got good and the production team finally figured out how to write and develop Peter Capaldi's version of The Doctor. Moffat's penultimate episode writing and executive producing Doctor Who with Peter Capaldi as The Doctor is "The Doctor Falls."

"The Doctor Falls" follows immediately upon "World Enough And Time" (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss without some references to where the prior episode went. After all, "World Enough And Time" put The Doctor, Nardole, and Bill on a massive alien ship near a black hole and when Bill became separated from the others in a section of the ship moving at a radically-different rate of time, she falls prey to one of The Doctor's worst enemies.

"The Doctor Falls" opens with a tremendous burden upon it. "World Enough And Time" returned The Master, the John Simm version of The Master, to the Doctor Who narrative and because he came in so late in the prior episode, there was no burden in that episode to explain how The Master appeared. Missy has perfectly good reason not to recall being on the space ship in the form of The Master, as she has had more than a thousand years of being isolated wherein she has been able to dwell on many other things. But The Master in "World Enough And Time" defined himself as being the "former prime minister." How The Master ended up in deep space after being killed in "Last Of The Time Lords" (reviewed here!), but before being resurrected for "The End Of Time" (reviewed here!) bears an explanation and as "The Doctor Falls" opens, Doctor Who is stuck trying to make a satisfactory explanation for how that could occur. "The Doctor Falls" manages to remind viewers that The Master was not previously killed; he just went off with the Time Masters and his end was left vague before he popped back up as Missy. "The Doctor Falls" creates a new, weird, problem when it puts into play yet another TARDIS. The Master, after returning to Gallifrey, got his own TARDIS. So, despite there being a TARDIS graveyard in a prior episode, the implication that The Doctor's TARDIS was the last one, by the end of "The Doctor Falls" there are three in play in our universe - The Doctor's, Ashildr's, and The Master's. More satisfying than the explanation of how The Master got away from Gallifrey, "The Doctor Falls" closes the loop on The Master/Missy and the Cybermen. When Missy was first introduced, she was using Cyberman technology in her bid to take over Earth using the dead; how she got that technology makes perfect sense given where "The Doctor Falls" leaves The Master.

Picking up on level 507 of the ship, the humans on the colony ship are living in a holographic simulation of farmland on the solar farm level. They are using proto-Cybermen who have made it up to that level as scarecrows to keep the children from wandering. Back on the bottom level, The Doctor is confronted by The Master and Missy, having just learned that Bill has been transformed into a Cyberman. When The Master and Missy attack The Doctor, he has just enough time to reprogram the Cyberman computer to recognize Time Lords as eligible for Conversion. As the Cybermen converge upon the heroes, Nardole manages to get all of them away with Bill's help.

Reaching Level 507, Bill wakes up in a barn where she is alarmed by how the colonist children are terrified of her. She looks in the mirror and is confused by why she appears to be a Cyberman. Together, Bill, The Doctor, Nardole, Missy and The Master prepare Level 507 for a Cyberman siege as they skyrocket up to the level. But, as the Cybermen invade, The Master and Missy betray The Doctor and they have an escape plan on The Master's damaged TARDIS on the lower levels of the ship. In stopping the Cybermen, Nardole reprograms the holographic fields as weapons and evacuates the humans to a higher level. That leaves The Doctor and Bill to thwart the invading Cybermen, but The Doctor is wounded and his life hangs in the balance with no way out.

"The Doctor Falls" is quite good, especially as it winnows The Doctor's allies down. Ironically, as the episode began, I found myself rooting for Nardole and being surprisingly impressed over how vital the character managed to become. Matt Lucas rose to the occasion of being a full-fledged Companion and it was nice to see him become something more than a punchline.

The irksome aspect of "The Doctor Falls" is that Peter Capaldi's version of The Doctor suddenly becomes indispensable and incredible . . . right around his apparent end. The other disappointing aspect of "The Doctor Falls" is Steven Moffat's repetition for his own ideas. The moment Bill appears on Level 507 looking like Bill, it is hard for the seasoned Doctor Who viewer not to see exactly what is going on. Steven Moffat used the exact same reversal with (proto) Clara when she was introduced in the "Asylum Of The Daleks." It is tremendously disappointing and obvious to see Bill given the exact same arc with her new Cyberman body and The Master and Missy doing their usual betrayals of The Doctor.

In a similar way, Moffat wusses out on resolving Bill's character arc. Moffat seems terrified about giving a character a bad end . . . so he again recycles his own material. Fans who saw how Clara was ultimately written out in "Hell Bent" (reviewed here!) will instantly feel a sinking feeling the moment Bill sees her love interest from "The Pilot" (reviewed here!). Moffat's penchant for reusing material is disappointing in "The Doctor Falls."

That said, Pearl Mackie does incredibly well as Bill. Mackie might be working off a script that is familiar to Doctor Who fans, but she performs the material in a way that suddenly makes those who refused to invest in her character (Mackie was spoiled early on in the season as being a one-season Companion) completely care about her. Bill believed in The Doctor and she got screwed; her character was barely around long enough to learn about Regeneration - The Doctor never satisfactorily explained to her The Master. Bill's sense of hope is heartbreaking and Mackie lands the moment of epiphany.

Peter Capaldi's version of The Doctor is everything fans have wanted from him in "The Doctor Falls." Viewers are likely to wonder where the hell Moffat's talent was for giving Capaldi's character a unique voice up until this point.

All that said, "The Doctor Falls" is a powerful set-up for Peter Capaldi's final bow as The Doctor . . . and it is enough for fans to hope that Capaldi's leaving with the arrival of a new Executive Producer is a fake-out, much like the BBC did when announcing Jenna Coleman's departure an entire season in advance of her actual leaving.

For other Doctor Who season finales, please check out my reviews of:
"The Parting Of The Ways"
"The End Of Time, Part 2"
"The Big Bang"

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Doctor Who - The Complete Tenth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor here!
Thanks!]

8.5/10

For other Doctor Who episode and season reviews, please visit my Doctor Who Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Legends Of Tomorrow Season 2 Has Better Villains Than Its Story Warrants!

The Good: Moments of character, Interesting villains, Some fun episodes
The Bad: Macguffin is not satisfactorily explained, Some poor moments of character, Lack of big emotional moments
The Basics: Legends Of Tomorrow improves in its second season, but still has serious issues with telling a solid story over the course of the seventeen episodes that pit the Legends against Eobard Thawne and his allies.


Legends Of Tomorrow is a show I was very excited about when it aired. The series, which is essentially a "best of" team-up show for the DC Comics Television Universe had an unfortunately rocky first season (reviewed here!). The first season was established with a fundamentally problematic premise that made it hard to buy into its own concept after the pilot episode. But, with the show seeing an end to its primary villain at the climax of the first season episode "Legendary" (reviewed here!), Legends Of Tomorrow was threatened with an essential existential crisis at the outset of the second season. Fortunately, "Legendary" included a final scene that was otherwise unattached to the events of the rest of the narrative and it set up the second season surprisingly well.

The second season of Legends Of Tomorrow opens already dealing with the effects of Hour Man from the Justice Society Of America crashing in an alternate Waverider near the Waverider and its current crew. The season develops fairly organically from being a series of vaguely connected episodes that find the Waverider crew struggling to take up the mantle of the now-gone Time Masters to a heavily serialized adventure where the Waverider crew desperately works to stop the machinations of Eobard Thawne.

Following the warning by Hour Man from the Justice Society Of America, the Waverider crew takes up the task of protecting Earth from temporal aberrations. But in 1942, the Waverider is nearly destroyed and left abandoned on the ocean floor. Found by Dr. Nate Heywood, the Waverider is powered back up by Heywood and Mick Rory. Rory tells his rescuers the story of how the Waverider became damaged and its crew scattered: the Legends found themselves in 1942 where the Nazis gained nuclear weapons technology needed to destroy New York City. While Dr. Stein tries to stop Albert Einstein from helping the Nazis, Sara Lance tracks down Damien Darhk in 1942 on her quest to prevent her sister's death. While the Legends are successful in stopping the Nazis in 1942, one of the members of the Justice Society Of America is killed by a time traveler and Rip Hunter remains lost in time. And Damien Darhk is working with Eobard Thawne to create time aberrations.

With the Waverider crew - plus Heywood and Vixen from the Justice Society Of America - under Sara Lance's command, the crew starts investigating who killed Hour Man and their investigation soon ties the time aberrations to Eobard Thawne. Thawne, Darhk, and Malcolm Merlyn are working together to recover and assemble the Spear Of Destiny, a mythical mystical artifact which will allow the trio to rewrite reality. But stopping the Speedster while maintaining their loyalties tests every member of the Waverider crew . . . especially when Mick Rory finds himself tempted by another villain who he misses more than anyone else!

Vandal Savage was a decent villain for the first season of Legends Of Tomorrow, arguably because he could be used in all sorts of time periods given that he was an immortal. The second season of Legends Of Tomorrow takes some time for the Waverider crew to actually identify their adversaries, which is a nice twist on the formula and the fact that one of them is a time traveler himself makes his adventures far more plausible. Eobard Thawne is an incredibly good villain and he is able to be back in play because the temporal remnant of Eobard Thawne was left in play following The Flash episode "Flashpoint" (reviewed here!). Thawne in the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow has dual motivations: to stay alive by outrunning the Black Flash (who is chasing him through time and space) and to rewrite existence so that he can actually exist once again.

Thwane allies himself with Malcolm Merlyn and Damien Darhk as a matter of pragmatism. Thawne cannot stay in one place and time long enough to lay the framework for all of his plans. So, he relies upon Darhk and Merlyn to execute many of his wishes. Those two villains from Arrow are good choices because both have things they want that rewriting existence can provide. Legends Of Tomorrow makes a lot of allusions to Merlyn and Darhk's arcs on Arrow, but the context clues are sufficient so those who are not fans of Arrow will be able to understand their motivations and abilities quite well.

Despite the hugely problematic macguffin in the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow - the Spear Of Destiny is a mystical artifact and Amaya's totem is never scientifically explained in the season - the character work in the season is mostly very good. Having Sara Lance take over as captain of the Waverider is a great way to give the abrasive tactician a better position in the narrative. Lance makes a compelling and occasionally flawed captain, but she is able to explore more than simply being a recurring sexuality joke or a somewhat monolithic assassin.

Amaya is an awesome addition to the cast and the budding relationship between Jiwe and Heywood in the course of the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow is surprisingly well-executed. The heroes from two different eras actually have a very organic arc whereby they grow to have genuine feelings for one another.

The other truly intriguing relationship in the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow is a relationship between Mick Rory and Dr. Stein. Rory attempts to enlist Dr. Palmer into being his sidekick or partner, but quickly comes to recognize that Palmer's talents are in his intelligence and trying to change him diminishes him. Rory and Stein, however, start to develop a truly unlikely camaraderie. Rory turns to Stein for help when he starts to see Leonard Snart in different times and places; Stein works to help Rory, despite being generally afraid of him. As their relationship becomes deeper, Rory's influence rubs off on Stein and he is willing to do things like steal technology from the future!

The character relationships in Legends Of Tomorrow Season 2 develop well, in addition to some of the fun plots that the show creates. The essential characters in the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow are:

Sara Lance - Following the disappearance of Rip Hunter after the Waverider is crashed, she is promoted to captain of the Waverider. Despite the sexism of the JSA's leaders, Stein quickly sees that she is the rightful leader of the Legends. She allows Amaya to join the crew to hunt the Speedster. She quickly proves to be an able tactician who is willing to use extreme measures to save time and space, thwart the Speedster and protect her crew,

Dr. Martin Stein - Ceding command of the Waverider after others assume he should be the Captain, he works hard to identify and stop the time aberrations. He is appalled at how his younger self treats his wife and, in the process, he convinces his younger self to pay more attention to her. As a result, Stein ends up with a daughter and he wrestles with accepting his time aberration daughter. He identifies Eobard Thawne as their adversary, aids Mick Rory in determining the cause of his hallucinations, and steals technology from the future that allows the crew to save the knights of Camelot,

Ray Palmer - Early in the adventures, Palmer loses his Atom suit. After a brief struggle to find a new sense of identity, which involves partnering with Mick Rory and attempting to access his dark side. When he comes into possession of more dwarf star alloy, he is able to rebuild his suit and he gets the chance to save George Lucas, become a Knight of Camelot and revisit the home he build in the Cretaceous Period. He works to safeguard time by advising Heywood to avoid getting emotionally entangled with Jiwe, given that he knows the future Vixen,

Jefferson Jackson - Groomed to be the Chief Engineer of the Waverider, he is able to keep the ship up and running once Rip Hunter is lost. He experiences the most harsh version of racism when the Waverider ends up fighting zombies during the Civil War. He quickly identifies that Stein is hiding something when Stein starts having flashes of his daughter. He becomes determined to stop the brainwashed Rip Hunter and save Sara Lance. When Rip is recovered, he teams up with Lance to enter the lost captain's mind to try to find the location of the final piece of the Spear Of Destiny,

Mick Rory - Still reeling from the loss of Snart, he is wounded during the Waverider's final mission under Hunter. Kept in suspended animation, he is woken by Heywood and tries to take Ray Palmer under his wing when Palmer loses his Atom suit. He starts to hallucinate seeing Snart and turns to Stein for help. His more criminal methods are required at times to save the team and his feelings for Snart make him susceptible to the endgame that Eobard ultimately comes up with to recover the Spear Of Destiny,

Rip Hunter - Lost in time, he has his neural landscape completely rewritten to keep the fragments of the Spear Of Destiny safe. But when the Waverider crew finds him working as a filmmaker in the 1970s, the Legion Of Doom captures him to torture him for information. Brainwashed by Eobard Thawne, he becomes a tool for the villains, nearly killing Sara Lance in the process. After a trip into his mind is used to recover the location of the final Spear fragment, he and Lance disagree about how best to proceed . . . and who is in command of the Waverider,

Dr. Nate Heywood - A time detective, he follows the clues to the wreckage of the Waverider. There, he and Oliver Queen find Mick Rory and he works to recover the rest of the crew. Smart and resourceful, he is a hemophiliac until - in trying to rescue his JSA grandfather from the Nazis - he has to use a superserum being used by Thawne. Altered to have the ability to transform into steel, he is testing his abilities when he is thrown back into feudal Japan. Rescued, he is sympathetic to Amaya and her quest to get justice for Hour Man. He carries his grandfather's dog tags and has a dislike of visiting the future. He and Amaya begin to develop a romantic relationship, in spite of Palmer's warnings to him,

Amaya Jiwe (Vixen) - A member of the Justice Society Of America in 1942, she is with Hour Man when he dies and follows his accusation that a time traveler killed him to the Waverider. Using her ancient totem, she is able to channel the powers and special abilities of various animals. She is initially annoyed by the quarrelsome nature of the Waverider crew, but comes to admire their resourcefulness and some of their methods. She and Heywood begin to bond, especially after they are put in peril during the Revolutionary War,

and Eobard Thawne - Having been kept alive following the Flashpoint Tangent, he finds himself hunted by the Black Flash. He recruits Damien Darhk because of Darhk's desire to avoid his own death and Malcolm Meryln because Meryln wants to prevent his own downfall, in order to aid his quest to rewrite reality itself. Rewriting existence itself, he seeks to become remade and end the hunt for him. He is forced to ally himself with villains from throughout time to do his dirty work. Stranded on the moon with Ray Palmer, he is forced to make an unlikely alliance before executing his end game.

The performances in the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow are almost all good. Victor Garber has the chance to explore some of his more comedic abilities and Dominic Purcell has an incredible season where he is able to play more than a simple thug. Mick Rory might have one of the season's most frustrating arcs (mostly because the writers refuse to acknowledge that the character has had a substantive change when he makes a late-season reversal), but Dominic Purcell makes the moody former-villain compelling to watch with his ability to make subtle emotional performance moments resonate.

Matt Letscher makes Thawne into a compelling villain in the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow. Letscher plays the complexities of Thawne incredibly well in the key scenes he is in in the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow. Letscher's ability to play desperate in "Legion Of Doom" and coolly smart and emotionally connected in "Moonshot" help elevate Eobard Thawne into something beyond a simple comic book villain.

While Caity Lotz rises to the occasion of making Sara Lance into a commanding presence, it is Maisie Richardson-Sellers who explodes into the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow. Richardson-Sellers uses every opportunity to play Amaya Jiwe with both emotional line deliveries and subtle physical performances. She has great on-screen chemistry with co-star Nick Zano (Heywood) and her ability to convey emotions with a look or minimal motion is uncommonly great.

Legends Of Tomorrow Season 2 is a little more erratic upon rewatching than one might wish, but it makes a more sensible time travel adventure by having a time-traveling speedster as its adversary. While the season builds to a climax and contains so many unfixed historical aberrations that it seems to telegraph its own eventual undoing, Legends Of Tomorrow Season 2 is consistently entertaining and fun to watch.

For a better understanding of exactly what is in this season, please visit my reviews of each of the episodes at:
"Out Of Time"
"The Justice Society Of America"
"Shogun"
"Abominations"
"Compromised"
"Outlaw Country"
"Invasion!"
"The Chicago Way"
"Raiders Of The Lost Art"
"The Legion Of Doom"
"Turncoat"
"Camelot/3000"
"Land Of The Lost"
"Moonshot"
"Fellowship Of The Spear"
"Doomworld"
"Aruba"

For other works from the 2016 – 2017 television season, please check out my reviews of:
"The Return Part 1" - Twin Peaks
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - Season 3
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 4
Sense8 - Season 2
Dear White People - Season 1
"Thin Ice" - Doctor Who
The Walking Dead - Season 7
Thirteen Reasons Why - Season 1
Grace And Frankie - Season 3
Iron Fist - Season 1
Love - Season 2
Santa Clarita Diet - Season 1
A Series Of Unfortunate Events - Season 1
One Day At A Time - Season 1
Travelers - Season 1
The OA - Season 1
Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life
"Invasion!" - Arrow
"I Know Who You Are" - The Flash
"Alex" - Supergirl
Luke Cage - Season 1
Stranger Things - Season 1

5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Enchant The Paradox: "Aruba" Ends The Second Season Of Legends Of Tomorrow Well!

The Good: Engaging plot, Decent performances, Cool effects
The Bad: Repetitive gags,
The Basics: Legends Of Tomorrow climaxes its Spear Of Destiny plotline with "Aruba."


The second season of Legends Of Tomorrow has developed into something that has the potential to be very unfortunate. The season has rocketed into territory where the entire season has to be undone. The big question for fans of Legends Of Tomorrow is "how much of the season's events will evaporate in the resolution to the season's conflict?" "Aruba" answers that question as the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow comes to a head.

"Arbuba" opens up in the alternate universe created in "Doomworld" (reviewed here!) and rushes toward figuring out how to resolve the world created by the Legion Of Doom using the Spear Of Destiny after Thawne destroyed the Spear. The answer hinted at in the climax of "Doomworld" was that the Waverider might have to go to the future in order to rewrite history.

Opening with Rip Hunter, sober now, in the repaired but miniaturized Waverider, the Legends deal with the loss of Amaya while trying to figure out a way to communicate with the Waverider. Hunter brings the Waverider to the lab where the Legends have taken up and begin searching S.T.A.R. Labs for Palmer's Atom suit, believing that it is the key to restoring the Waverider to its proper size. After they find the suit, the team is able to restore the Waverider and the head back to France, 1916 and they prepare to create a paradox within the events of "Fellowship Of The Spear" (reviewed here!). Unfortunately, no sooner has Palmer recovered the Blood of Christ than Eobard Thawne arrives from the future and kills him.

While the Legion of Doom regroups to try to stop the Legends, the future Legends works to avoid their younger selves. Unfortunately, they soon find themselves face to face with their other selves and forced to confess everything. When the Waverider makes an unsuccessful time jump, the aberration Legends prepare to sacrifice themselves so their younger selves can get the Spear Of Destiny back to the other Waverider.

"Aruba" is a pretty constant refrain for Mick Rory, who wants to abandon the mission and just go to Aruba to get drunk. The episode has a predictably high body count as alternate Legends are executed and the only joke that fails to play effectively is the one where various Legends talk over themselves because, of course, they think alike.

The second season finale of Legends Of Tomorrow closes well the arc of Sara Lance as the leader of the Legends. For the entire season, Sara Lance has been the captain of the Waverider and that has meant that she has been both in command and faced repeatedly with her worst enemy. Lance has had to interact with Damien Darhk, the man who killed her sister, and she is given the chance to get revenge on him. Fortunately, "Aruba" resolves Lance's uncertainty and bloodlust incredibly well.

The episode has a plot-heavy first half, but "Aruba" climaxes with a decent amount of character. Dr. Heywood's story aboard the Waverider becomes vital, especially in the face of him being reunited with Amaya Jiwe. Jiwe makes an interesting choice in "Aruba" and it will be interesting to see how that develops in the third season.

On the villain front, Eobard Thawne is unfortunately erratic in "Aruba." While well-played by Matt Letscher, the role of the Reverse-Flash is written with an unfortunate inconsistency. Thawne shows his intelligence when he shuts up and kills Ray Palmer. And he is clever in his tactic to try to stop the Legends. But then, he turns into Generic Expository Gloating Super-Villain and at a key moment his character falls flat.

As with the first season, "Aruba" climaxes with a set-up for the next season and the current crew of the Waverider seems unlike it could credibly add new characters . . . or it might get some new characters whose stories would inherently be undone by the plot conceit of the episode's climax. While the journey there is pleasant, the end of "Aruba" leaves the Legends Of Tomorrow in much the same circumstances as where the episode - and the season - began. Reality has become filled with paradoxes and some form of reset is going to have to be done at some point. Can Legends Of Tomorrow reset its own universe better than The Flash has? One can only hope. With "Aruba," the sense is that the Legends will just keep digging themselves deeper into their own pit and if the writers and producers can credibly bring them out of it without destroying the entire DC Comics Television Universe, it will be a miracle.

For other season finales, please visit my reviews of:
"Legendary" - Legends Of Tomorrow
"Fast Enough" - The Flash
"The Race Of His Life" - The Flash

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Legends Of Tomorrow - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season of the time traveling hero team here!
Thanks!]

7/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Everyone Punches Mick Rory In "Doomworld!"

The Good: Good performances, Well-paced plot, Decent special effects, Good mood
The Bad: Fairly light on character
The Basics: "Doomworld" brings the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow to a pretty powerful climax (even before the season finale)!


In the week since the Legends Of Tomorrow episode "The Fellowship Of The Spear" (reviewed here!), I have given the episode and Legends Of Tomorrow remarkably little thought. The truth is, given the cataclysmic nature of Mick Rory's character shift in "The Fellowship Of The Spear," I was tremendously disappointed in Legends Of Tomorrow. As a result, I went into "Doomworld" less enthusiastic than I usually would as, truth be told, I truly enjoy Legends Of Tomorrow.

Fortunately, "Doomworld" is enough to justify any fan's faith in Legends Of Tomorrow!

It is impossible to discuss "Doomworld" without some allusions to where "The Fellowship Of The Spear" ended. After all, "The Fellowship Of The Spear" saw Mick Rory reunited with a temporally-displaced Leonard Snart and betraying the Waverider crew. The Legion Of Doom found itself in possession of both the Spear Of Destiny and the "owner's manual" which would tell them how to use the artifact, putting all of existence in jeopardy. "Doomworld" follows very closely on the effects of the climax of the prior episode. In fact, "Doomworld" leaps right into the altered universe created by the Legion Of Doom using the Spear Of Destiny.

Opening in Star City, 2017, a villainous Black Canary and Vixen capture the vigilante Felicity Smoak for Damian Darhk, who is the mayor of the city. In Central City, Eobard Thawne is visited by Malcolm Merlyn, who wants to use the Spear Of Destiny more. Thawne denies him the favor and asks Jefferson Jackson to speed up his work in his lab. Elsewhere in Central City, Mick Rory is jaded over how he and Snart essentially run the streets without the police impeding them. When Nate Heywood appears at Thawne's lab, Thawne tasks Snart and Rory with killing Heywood, who seems aware of the changes to reality.

When the bored Rory opts to save Heywood's life, the pair flees to Ray Palmer's makeshift lab in Star City. There, they discover that Palmer (a janitor in this reality) has manufactured a prototype for a gun that restores the memories of those who were scarred by the changes in time and space. The Legends are slowly reunited using the prototype weapon, with Jackson revealing that Dr. Stein has been building a reactor for Thawne . . . one that might be capable of incinerating the Spear Of Destiny and cementing the new, horrible, reality.

"Doomworld" has all of the potential to be a pretty basic "alternate reality" episode much like Star Trek's "Mirror, Mirror" (reviewed here!). And "Doomworld" gets off to that type of start. There is a lot of novelty to seeing the actors portraying the Legends playing altered versions of their characters. Jefferson Jackson is a complete dick of a boss, Dr. Stein is browbeaten and at his mercy, Rip Hunter is a drunken cake-maker, and Felicity Smoak is an ill-fated vigilante; all of the performers play their altered selves well and there is still a freshness to it considering that only Arthur Darvill's Rip Hunter has been played as an alternate version before now.

The thing about "Doomworld" is that it does not dwell too much on the alternate version of each character. Instead, the episode is a bit plot-heavy, but it quickly pushes toward a showdown and another big moment for Mick Rory. Dominic Purcell again lives up to his potential by taking a somewhat obvious character moment and absolutely rocking it. Purcell - after Mick Rory is punched repeatedly in the face - performs silently opposite Maisie Richardson-Sellers for a very compelling moment of character.

As a reviewer, there are a wide array of media works that I take in that are easy to watch and review. Arguably one of the best compliments I can give an episode of television is that it was so engaging that I found myself more captivated by the work than analytical of it. "Doomworld" is that. It takes a pretty overdone in genre film and television premise and makes it feel fresh again. "Doomworld" manages to illustrate the world Eobard Thawne would make given unlimited power and plays with the premise in a delightful way.

For other works from the DC Television Universe, please visit my reviews of:
"Invasion!" - Arrow
The Flash - Season 2
"Distant Sun" - Supergirl

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Legends Of Tomorrow - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season of the time traveling hero team here!
Thanks!]

8.5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Tread Again Toward The Snappy: "The Fellowship Of The Spear" Repeats An Earlier Episode!

The Good: Performances, The return of Leonard Snart, Direction
The Bad: Entirely derivative plot, Painfully obvious references,
The Basics: "The Fellowship Of The Spear" reworks a more successful Legends Of Tomorrow episode poorly and undermines a developed character in the process.


One of the reasonable concerns genre fans had with the creation of Legends Of Tomorrow was that it might end up as a half-rate rip off of Doctor Who. In the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow, those fears have begun to come into very clear focus. Usually, at least once per season, there is an episode of Doctor Who where The Doctor and his Companion end up on Earth interacting with an important, recognizable, historic figure like Vincent Van Gogh in "Vincent And The Doctor" (reviewed here!). Legends Of Tomorrow has started to seem derivative of that style Doctor Who episode with figures like George Lucas popping up in "Raiders Of The Lost Art" (reviewed here!) and now J.R.R. Tolkien in "The Fellowship Of The Spear."

"The Fellowship Of The Spear" picks up after "Moonshot" (reviewed here!) and has the Waverider crew, restored, successfully holding on to the final fragment of the Spear Of Destiny. "The Fellowship Of The Spear" puts the Waverider crew back in World War I and the Vanishing Point in a cheap reworking of The Lord Of The Rings.

Opening in 1916 , Heywood, Jiwe and Lance are contemplating using the fragment of the Spear Of Destiny to track down blood. 72 hours earlier, the Waverider crew convenes to figure out how to keep the Spear Of Destiny away from the Legion Of Doom. Rip informs the crew that Thawne's team has been operating out of the Vanishing Point and the crew travels there to try to recover the other fragments of the Spear. The Waverider crew is actually able to get the last fragments of the Spear through Firestrom transmuting Thawne's vault into jellybeans! Putting the Spear fragments in proximity unifies the entire Spear and Mick Rory attempting to destroy it reveals a message on the Spear. Heywood believes that only the blood of Christ can destroy the Spear and the greatest expert on where that blood can be found is . . . J.R.R. Tolkien!

The Waverider crew journeys to 1916 France to find Tolkien to get information from him, while Thawne freaks out at the Vanishing Point. Damien Darhk suggests that Thawne change tactics and when Rory is in the past, he sees Leonard Snart. Snart encourages Rory to steal the Spear of Destiny for himself and remake time, including resurrecting Snart. Rory begins to become unhinged, especially after Dr. Stein confronts him. The Legends visit the church where the knight who might have Christ's blood is buried. Amaya and Rory become tempted to use the Spear to rewrite reality, but Lance argues for getting the blood of Christ to destroy the Spear.

"The Fellowship Of The Spear" is an unfortunate repeat of "Raiders Of The Lost Art." As such, there are in-jokes to the Lord Of The Rings and various Legends make comments that Tolkien might use in order to create his famed trilogy. Characters mirror those found in The Lord Of The Rings and putting much of the episode in a famous battle allows for even more parallels.

When it is not being derivative, "The Fellowship Of The Spear" is one of the best episodes for Dominic Purcell's Mick Rory. Rory thinks he is hallucinating when he tells Leonard Snart the full plan to destroy the Spear Of Destiny. Rory turns to Stein and Victor Garber delivers one of the most sensibly-written lines of all time in reaction to the menace his character faces. But when it becomes clear that Snart is real and resurrected by the Legion Of Doom, most of the crew turns on Rory, fearing that he will choose Snart over their mission.

Once the team turns on Rory, Dominic Purcell has the chance to shine. Purcell plays Rory as unsettled and intriguingly contemplative. Purcell has surprising range for his facial expressions and especially his eye motions to convey an incredible emotional range. Purcell makes Rory appear delightfully conflicted with very subtle expression changes.

"The Fellowship Of The Spear" is also a big episode for Amaya. Jiwe is shaken by the fact that her descendants will suffer, a fact she learned at the climax of the prior episode. Outside of acting as an archetype for the parallel story of The Lord Of The Rings, Jiwe is compelling in her sense of conflict and her objections to Lance's course of action. Maisie Richardson-Sellers does a decent job of playing that internal conflict.

"The Fellowship Of The Spear" has moments that are both over-complicated and disturbingly naive. While the episode goes for an obvious confrontation between Snart and Darhk and the Legends, by this point in the series, Ray Palmer knows that Eobard Thawne has some technological ability to change his appearance. It is hard for seasoned viewers to not watch "The Fellowship Of The Spear" with a sense of anticipatory dread for Tolkien to be revealed as an appearance-altered Thawne. On the over-complicated front, a cease-fire is engineered which allows things to go entirely south. It is unclear why Lance does not simply send the invulnerable Steel (Heywood) and the Spear into No Man's Land to recover the vial.

Unfortunately, "The Fellowship Of The Spear" lacks the charm factor of "Raiders Of The Lost Art." Instead of pushing in a new direction, the episode treads toward the familiar in a particularly obvious way. And the episode's resolution is troubling in and of itself. Mick Rory has grown over the course of Legends Of Tomorrow and "The Fellowship Of The Spear" tears all of that down. Rory has developed bonds with Ray Palmer and Dr. Stein and his late-episode return-to-form feels cheap when one considers the implied amount of time that Rory has been a Legend (at the beginning of the second season, there was a several month gap where the Legends actually worked as a team to stop time anomalies before the Waverider was almost destroyed).

As such, fans of Legends Of Tomorrow might well be thrilled that Leonard Snart is returned to action and existence in "The Fellowship Of The Spear," but it is a shame that it comes at the cost of all that Mick Rory has become in his absence.

For other works Ben Hernandez Bray has been involved with, please visit my reviews of:
American Hustle
Argo
Casa De Mi Padre

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Legends Of Tomorrow - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season of the time traveling hero team here!
Thanks!]

4.5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Glee Blends With Star Trek: Deep Space Nine For The Flash's "Duet"

The Good: Obviously good vocals, Decent performances
The Bad: Awful use of handheld cameras, Direction, Minimal original music, Painfully contrived plot and concept
The Basics: A contrived crossover for Supergirl and The Flash, "Duet" is more like an alternate universe episode than a genuine musical.


In modern genre television, the bar has been set pretty high by some of the recent pioneers in serialized television. Shows like Star Trek Deep Space Nine (reviewed here!) and Buffy The Vampire Slayer influenced a pretty wide variety of television writers and directors. Ever since Joss Whedon successfully executed a musical episode in the sixth season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer (reviewed here!), a lot of genre shows have attempted to replicate that success. The Flash is presenting its musical episode in the form of "Duet," which is essentially a Glee reunion as it reunites former Glee co-stars Grant Gustin, Melissa Benoist, and Darren Criss.

And "Duet" is far more contrived than "Once More With Feeling."

"Duet" follows on The Flash episode "Into The Speed Force" (reviewed here!), but it is more directly a sequel to the Supergirl episode "Star-Crossed" (reviewed here!). In the very last moments of "Star-Crossed," the alien or metahuman Music Meister made a random appearance and whammied Kara at the DEO. The thing is, "Duet" is so artificially-created that fans of The Flash are likely to feel very cheated by the sudden adversary who appears in the episode. "Duet" begins after a slight narrative gap from "Into The Speed Force," but directly after "Star-Crossed."

Music Meister is not a villain from The Flash comic books. In fact, like Harley Quinn, Music Meister was created as a villain for a Batman animated series. The thing is, Music Meister in "Duet" cuts into the vast potential represented by one of the most impressive and important villains from The Flash comic books who has not been reasonably explored on The Flash: Mirror Master. Mirror Master is a villain who has the ability to imprison his victims in alternate dimensions and as he becomes more sophisticated at it, he can actually engineer and manipulate those mirror universes. Thus far, Mirror Master has only appeared briefly in the underwhelming episode "The New Rogues" (reviewed here!) and in "Duet," Music Meister's powers seem more akin to how Mirror Master ought to have appeared on The Flash.

Opening 18 years ago with Barry Allen and his mother watching Singin' In The Rain, Cisco walks in on Barry watching the movie again. H.R. calls the pair in to S.T.A.R. Labs, where Mon-El, Supergirl and J'onn J'onzz appear in the breach room. Supergirl is unconscious and J'onzz tells the S.T.A.R. Labs team that Kara was incapacitated by an alien visitor the DEO discovered rather suddenly. That visitor, the Music Meister, appears at S.T.A.R. Labs and incapacitates Barry Allen as well. When Barry wakes up, he finds himself in a night club with Kara.

The Music Meister appears and tells Barry and Kara the rules of the place he has stashed their consciousnesses. They are trapped in a musical, surrounded by familiar people with different identities - Malcolm Merlyn is the club's owner, Winn Schott is the piano player and Cisco is the club's bartender. While Music Meister vows to take control of Central City in the real world, Barry and Kara work their way through the musical drama in which they find themselves. Working at a gangster's nightclub, Allen and Danvers are tasked with finding the daughter of another gangster. Barry and Kara discover the relationship that Millie (the alternate version of Iris) has with Tommy Moran (alternate Mon-El), against their fathers' wishes. In the real world, Music Meister takes Barry and Supergirl's powers and begins committing crimes in Central City. With the threat against the powerless heroes inside the vision being very real, Barry and Kara try to complete the script for the musical while Iris and Mon-El make a desperate effort to rescue them.

"Duet" is more an episode with the occasional song than a musical episode of The Flash. Unlike "Once More With Feeling," "Duet" plays like an episode of Glee with the actors performing cover songs as opposed to new works by the episode's writer. The songlist for "Duet" includes "Moon River," "Put A Little Love In Your Heart," and "More I Cannot Wish You." There is a charming original song in "Duet," (which I assume is called) "Superfriend" and it is fun and appropriately campy. Unfortunately, the effect of the direction during the original number diminishes its impact. The camera is set so far back to capitalize on the dance portion of the song and dance that viewers cannot truly see the actors singing. That effect is contrasted by excellent direction during the second original song at the climax of the episode when Barry sings to Iris and captures Candice Patton's incredible reaction shots, as well as Grant Gustin's singing.

Genre fans will quickly discover that "Duet" is not The Flash's version of "Once More With Feeling," so much as it is The Flash's musical recreation of the Star Trek Deep Space Nine episode "Far Beyond The Stars" (reviewed here!). The thing is, having an episode where all the main parts are recast with alternate identities is not very new, but the derivative nature of "Duet" is fairly apparent. For sure, there is a lot of charm in seeing Joe West and Dr. Stein as a couple, much like seeing a make-up-less Michael Dorn playing an arrogant baseball player in "Far Beyond The Stars," but it is a tough sell on The Flash. Between multiple trips to Earth-2 and the Flashpoint Tangent universe, the novelty of the actors on The Flash playing alternate versions of their characters has very much been done on the show. "Duet" seems like a very minor variation on that now-familiar theme and the whole "musical thing" does not actually add much to it.

Ultimately, "Duet" is a weird course-correction episode for the parallel arcs running in The Flash and Supergirl and on the character front, it is hard not to see it at painfully simplistic. The experience that Kara and Barry share in "Duet" is hardly enough to undo the sense of betrayal Kara felt (literally) yesterday when Mon-El's nine month-old lie to her was exposed. And is the viewer truly supposed to believe that all Iris honestly needed was to recall that Barry Allen could be killed at any moment in the course of his super hero adventures and a song to make her come around?!

The acting, costumes, and musical direction in "Duet" are all fine, but the episode is a powerfully contrived mash-up of ideas that worked far better on the works from which they were taken.

For other works with Darren Criss, please visit my reviews of:
Glee - Season 2
Glee - Season 3

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into The Flash - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the third season here!
Thanks!]

4/10

For other television and movie reviews, please visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Essential Enemies, One Key Conflict Make "The Legion Of Doom" Pretty Impressive!

The Good: Some good performances, Moments of character, Special effects
The Bad: Incredibly basic plot
The Basics: The Legends Of Tomorrow confront "The Legion Of Doom" and the result is that the show manages to bring back the menace of the villains and the creativity and intellect of the heroes.


When it comes to time travel adventures and works based upon comic book source material, there is a balance to be found between fun and compelling. Legends Of Tomorrow has frequently been fun, especially with references to temporal misadventures and some of the flirtatious sidebars that get thrown in as a result. But Legends Of Tomorrow is now about a team that is self-tasked with stopping temporal manipulation that results in time aberrations and they are confronting one of the most compelling a-list villains in the form of Eobard Thawne's improbable temporal remnant (it is not yet clear how that is working!). As "The Legion Of Doom" begins, Legends Of Tomorrow is put in a position where "fun" is becoming less interesting than an exploration of the true menace the Reverse-Flash represents. "The Legion Of Doom" is put in a place where it must buck the momentum of the season and restore the true menace and villainy of Eobard Thawne and his associates.

And it succeeds on that front.

"The Legion Of Doom" continues the jokes begun in "Raiders Of The Lost Art" (reviewed here!) where Eobard Thawne's new assembly of villains was nicknamed by Dr. Heywood. Despite the origins of that nickname being referenced explicitly and opening up an unfortunate conceptual can of worms within the Berlanti-based DC Comics Television Universe, "The Legion Of Doom" is fairly good at exploring the villains of the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow.

Eight months ago, Damien Darhk was killed by the Green Arrow and Malcolm Merlyn watched footage of it on television - right before Darhk and Thawne appear to offer Merlyn a chance to join their enterprise. The trio comes together to hunt for the Spear Of Destiny, but in the present, they find that Rip Hunter is not apparently in possession of the knowledge they need in order to find the rest of the Spear fragments. Aboard the Waverider, the team tries to figure out what the amulet actually is and they start a scientific explanation of the artifact. As Rip is tortured by the villains, Damien discovers that Rip has a tooth with a map to a safe deposit box.

Dr. Stein turns to his daughter for help with discovering the nature of the artifact, while Merlyn and Darhk begin to turn on one another. The pair takes Rip to 2025 Zurich to access the safe deposit box, where they run into complications when Rip does not know the password he needs to access the vault. In the temporal zone, Lily and Dr. Palmer attempt to access the artifact. In the process, Lily learns her nature. At their lair, Darhk and Merlyn fight it out, while Hunter tries to save his own life. With the Waverider crew finally figuring out who the Speedster is, Thawne has to strike a new deal with Darhk and Merlyn when they make a power move against him.

"The Legion Of Doom" is a proper exploration of the triumvirate of villains for Legends Of Tomorrow. Opening with the recruiting of Malcolm Merlyn, those who are not fans of Arrow get the primer on the adversaries from Arrow who have now carried over into Legends Of Tomorrow. Those who are looking for a much broader Legion Of Doom are likely to be a little disappointed by "The Legion Of Doom." Thawne runs off at one moment for assistance and viewers might hope he is returning with Grodd in order to read Rip's thoughts, but that is not the case. Instead, "The Legion Of Doom" is limited to the three villains already established.

While Legends Of Tomorrow has generally done a good job of establishing and using villains, "The Legion Of Doom" falls into the exceptionally familiar pattern of not allowing villains to actually work effectively with one another. Thawne begins to speed off at regular intervals, hinting that Thawne is being hunted by the Time Wraiths from The Flash and he needs to avoid them. Legends Of Tomorrow continues to show a lack of creativity among the heroes in "The Legion Of Doom;" the villains struggle to understand Thawne's motivations, but none of the Legends seem to think to ask Barry Allen about the identity of the future Speedster.

"The Legion Of Doom" has a lot in it to flesh out Darhk and Merlyn for those who are not fans of Arrow. Essential details like Merlyn missing a hand and Darhk not having any specific knowledge of his relationship with Merlyn are played out well in "The Legion Of Doom." On the main character front, Mick Rory is wonderfully fleshed out in his brief scenes as he stupidly let slips that Lily is a temporal aberration. That leads to one of the few essential character scenes for the heroes of Legends Of Tomorrow and Victor Garber and Christina Brucato truly blow that scene out of the water!

Arthur Darvill continues to dominate his return to Legends Of Tomorrow with a pretty impressive American accent. Director Eric Laneuville opts for a surprisingly PG interpretation of torture when Rip Hunter has a tooth extracted, but no blood left on his mouth or clothes. Darvill still manage to dominate his scenes and his return to Legends Of Tomorrow continues to be welcome.

Matt Letscher does a decent job of getting through all of the exposition needed to explain exactly what Eobard Thawne is running from. In the process, a new villain is introduced and it is pretty cool that it comes into play in Legends Of Tomorrow and not The Flash.

Ultimately, "The Legion Of Doom" is a good episode for finally galvanizing the villains for the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow and the process makes for a solid episode. There are a few funny lines and the tension between the adversaries is somewhat bland, but for the most part, "The Legion Of Doom" manages to cleverly tie the disparate villains together while giving Dr. Stein a chance to explore the nature of his abrupt family. That makes for a solid episode of the show that brings the seriousness back to the time travel adventure well.

For other works with Dominic Purcell, please visit my reviews of:
Legends Of Tomorrow - Season 1
"Rogue Time" - The Flash
"Revenge Of The Rogues" - The Flash
"Going Rogue" - The Flash
Prison Break - Season 1
Blade: Trinity
Equilibrium
Mission: Impossible II

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Legends Of Tomorrow - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season of the time traveling hero team here!
Thanks!]

7/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Bringing The Fun Back To The DC Television Universe: "Raiders Of The Lost Art" Is Fun!

The Good: Awesome plot seeding, Good character development, Decent plot development
The Bad: Some strange character moments, Opts for fun for some moments that could have had real emotional resonance
The Basics: "Raiders Of The Lost Art" returns Rip Hunter and finally explains what might be happening with Mick Rory on Legends Of Tomorrow!


One of the pleasant surprises of the DC Television Universe has been Legends Of Tomorrow. While the dramatic nature of the temporal changes being done by Eobard Thawne and the Waverider crew in the second season all-but guarantees that the season will end up with either a nonsensical paradox or a season that is completely undone in the end, Legends Of Tomorrow has been pretty solidly entertaining. Returning from its winter hiatus, Legends Of Tomorrow delivers another pretty solid episode with "Raiders Of The Lost Art."

"Raiders Of The Lost Art" picks up after "The Chicago Way" (reviewed here!), which saw Eobard Thawne recruiting Malcolm Merlyn to his team of super-villains. "The Chicago Way" also hinted as to the location of Rip Hunter in time, which prepared the viewers for his return. "Raiders Of The Lost Art" is that return.

Six months ago, as the Waverider was going down, Rip Hunter had to escape in time and he grabs an artifact before abandoning ship. In the present, Stein walks in on Mick Rory talking to his hallucination of Snart and Rory begs him to help "fix" him. Dr. Heywood is awake, desperately trying to figure out what the amulets were that Thawne stole and Vixen puts together that they are a single artifact, which Heywood recognizes. In 1967, Hollywood, Malcolm Merlyn and Damien Darhk hunt for Rip Hunter, which causes an aberration that attracts the Waverider crew.

Tracking down Rip Hunter, who is working on a student thesis film, puts the Legends in direct conflict with Merlyn and Darhk. Hunter does not appear to recognize or remember the Legends and the conflict gets him arrested. Lance tasks Stein with impersonating a psychologist to spring Hunter from jail. Scanning Rip Hunter informs Lance that Hunter's brain has been temporally-altered. Shortly thereafter, the Waverider crew - notably Palmer and Heywood - start to lose their memories. Gideon realizes that when Darhk scared George Lucas, he left movie-making, which completely altered Palmer and Heywood's early influences! The Waverider crew works to inspire George Lucas, while unraveling the mysteries of Rip Hunter's altered memories and Mick Rory's hallucinations!

"Raiders Of The Lost Art" is a lot of fun both within the episode and outside it. References to the "Legion Of Doom" and the Super Friends do a convincing job of differentiating the DC Television Universe from any prior incarnation of it. That reference, however, opens an unfortunate can of worms; The Flash was in the Super Friends so how the Central City contingent of the DCTU never realized that is just terrible. That continuity problem is actually annoyingly significant when one steps outside the narrative.

At the other end of the spectrum, "Raiders Of The Lost Art" has a number of fun moments. Heywood's reference to Raiders Of The Lost Ark is fun, as is the fact that Rip Hunter is working with George Lucas in 1967! That completely sets up the plot and the idea of Lucas's films having such profound influences on two key members of the Legends team is pretty wonderful. Arthur Darvill's American accent is awesome and Doctor Who fans are likely to geek out at the mere sight of Darvill and Barrowman in the same scene!

Most fans of Legends Of Tomorrow will geek out at the preponderance of Star Wars references. It is only minimally disappointing that George Lucas (in the episode) actually uses the term "trash compactor," as opposed to allowing viewers to be thrilled by the influence the incident with the Legends had on his writing of A New Hope (reviewed here!). While the "Spear Of Destiny" macguffin is addressed within the narrative, it is tough to see how Legends Of Tomorrow will make the conceit work. That macguffin suddenly appeared to make Dr. Stein a believer in the supernatural and that undermines his character a little.

There are a few little character issues in "Raiders Of The Lost Art," the most notable of which is that Damien Darhk and Malcolm Merlyn get the drop on the Legends . . . with Vixen being unable to channel an animal before her amulet is taken from her?! That does not "read" as right.

At the other end of the spectrum, "Raiders Of The Lost Art" does a decent job of recalling that Mick Rory was Chronos and giving him some consequences to that. Victor Garber does a great deadpan when he reveals that Stein is doing brain surgery on Rory and the idea that the Time Masters truly messed with Rory's head is well-executed in "Raiders Of The Lost Art." Fortunately, the episode makes good use of Rory and the idea that he is suffering from real psychological effects for the loss of his best friend is compelling.

The villainy in "Raiders Of The Lost Art" is a bit over-the-top and it will truly only be justified if Darhk and Merlyn stop killing people during their temporal misadventures to stop creating Aberrations. That is to say that the two enforcers for Eobard Thawne (why isn't he doing his own work?!) now have a pretty clear pattern of altering time and drawing the attention of the Waverider crew. If they keep making that mistake, it is hard not to see them as ridiculous caricatures of villains.

But that is not a problem for "Raiders Of The Lost Art." "Raiders Of The Lost Art" finds a generally good balance between humor and developing the plot, seeding well the new elements into Thawne's evil machinations! It is enough to make viewers excited about the return of Legends Of Tomorrow!

For other mid-season premieres, please visit my reviews of:
"Supergirl Lives" - Supergirl
"Broken Promises" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Borrowing Problems From The Future" - The Flash

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Legends Of Tomorrow - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season of the time traveling hero team here!
Thanks!]

7/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

All The Favorites Return In "The Chicago Way!"

The Good: Decent performances, Good character moments
The Bad: Incredibly problematic plot, Neglects some key character traits for the sake of plot reversals
The Basics: Legends Of Tomorrow refocuses on its own main plot with "The Chicago Way" when Eobard Thawne's team makes an ally of Al Capone in 1927 to lay a trap for the Waverider crew!


Fans of Legends Of Tomorrow have a decent reason to be upset by the massive DC Television Universe crossover event that The CW produced. After all, because Legends Of Tomorrow is the final of the four shows in the CW's airing order each week, The CW chose to end the crossover event on the Legends Of Tomorrow episode "Invasion!" (reviewed here!), despite the Waverider crew having astonishingly little to do in their own episode. Indeed, the Legends Of Tomorrow episode "Invasion!" afforded Cisco Ramon and Felicity Smoak the chance to play around in the Waverider, but it's not like the Legends Of Tomorrow resolved the Dominator invasion or fixed Barry Allen's Flashpoint tangent.

Legends Of Tomorrow essentially picks up its own storyline after the events of "Outlaw Country" (reviewed here!) in "The Chicago Way." Despite "Outlaw Country" climaxing with the call back to Earth to deal with the Dominators, the main plot ended with Eobard Thawne taking Damian Darhk into the future. "The Chicago Way" returns the two antagonists to the narrative, along with other characters missing from the narrative and another key villain from the DC Television Universe!

In Chicago, 1927, Eobard Thawne and Damian Darhk approach Al Capone with an offer, with Malcolm Merlyn. Aboard the Waverider, Heywood and Palmer train, much to the chagrin of Lance and Jackson. Jackson visits Stein, who reveals that his memories are re-orienting to his new timeline (wherein he has a daughter, Lily). When Heywood's temporal seismograph goes off, the Waverider crew heads to October, 1927. When Palmer accidentally allows Elliot Ness to get picked up by the corrupt Chicago police officers, the team returns to the Waverider and learn that days later, Al Capone will become the mayor.

When the Waverider crew saves Ness from drowning, he suffers brain damage. While Gideon cures his brain damage, Heywood impersonates him and heads to the Chelsea Club, one of Capone's clubs. While Rory hallucinates Snart, the take-down of the Chelsea Club goes south when Damien Darhk and Thawne appear and abduct Stein and Lance. In the custody of Malcolm Merlyn, Lance is offered the nine years she lost when the Queen's Gambit was destroyed back, in exchange for the amulet Thawne is after. While Rory leads the Waverider team in a rescue attempt, Stein is tortured by Thawne. But Darhk's trap is revealed when Rory's rescue attempt appears successful and puts the Waverider crew at the mercy of their enemies.

"The Chicago Way" features a ridiculous narrative progression. Heywood has a temporal seismograph, which tells the crew where and when temporal anomalies occur. Why the Waverider crew doesn't research the nature of the anomaly before they arrive in 1927 is a mystery. Actually, it is just sloppy writing. Long before the crew actually sets foot in 1927, the crew should have found how and where time was altered. Far from being a surgical strike team, the Waverider crew has become a sloppy hammer and anvil.

In a similar fashion, there is something incredibly sloppy in the way Firestorm is handled in "The Chicago Way." Jackson and Stein have a psychic bond between them. When Stein is tortured, Jax shows no adverse effects. The whole reversal surrounding Stein and his torture is entirely weakened by the fact that Jackson and Stein's psychic bond is entirely neglected in "The Chicago Way."

Martin Stein is deepened in "The Chicago Way" as he is forced to confess his temporal transgression to Lance. Stein has memories of his daughter and one of the severe problems with the way "The Chicago Way" is structured is that it eliminates any credibility to any future plotlines that might force Stein to make a choice between his daughter and his wife. Right now, Stein has memories of both his wife and his daughter; if Lily exists because his wife died as a result of the temporal aberration he caused, he should know it now. Stein and Lance have some great scenes in "The Chicago Way" and they continue to be the viable heartbeat of Legends Of Tomorrow. Lance continues to step up credibly as the leader of the Waverider crew in "The Chicago Way" by recognizing how troubled Stein appears.

While it is hard to believe that an integral character like Malcolm Merlyn could ever be killed off in a non-Arrow episode (thus gutting Lance's key scene with Merlyn), "The Chicago Way" does a good job of balancing the heroes and villains, the humor and the action in the episode. Mick Rory's hallucinations of Snart come as Rory attempts to wrestle with how has moved on since Snart's death. Rory and Jiwe continue to credibly develop beyond their initial simplistic characterizations in "The Chicago Way."

Amid all of the action and revelatory character moments, Heywood and Palmer become an effective team. Palmer and Heywood act as comic relief for much of "The Chicago Way," but their interplay is well-delivered by Nick Zano and Brandon Routh. Their performances are par for the course in "The Chicago Way," where all of the performers manage to step up for their big moments well. Zano and Routh have great comic timing, while Caity Lotz and Victor Garber share some of the season's best dramatic scenes. Fans of the DC Television Universe are likely to geek out at the mere appearance of Wentworth Miller as (hallucination) Snart and getting more of Eobard Thawne (his mission finally becomes explicit), but the regulars carry the day in "The Chicago Way," despite how sloppy the episode's plot is.

For other works with John Barrowman, please visit my reviews of:
"Invasion" - Arrow
"Legends Of Today" - The Flash
Doctor Who - Season 4
Doctor Who - Season 3
Doctor Who - Season 1
The Untouchables

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Legends Of Tomorrow - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season of the time traveling hero team here!
Thanks!]

6.5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |