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Legends of Tomorrow: Out of Time

"We are history's last line of defense."

I'm still not sure about this show. But I really enjoyed this premiere.

The opener with Oliver Queen and new cast member Dr. Nate Heywood, an historian and talented time detective, did a great job in reintroducing us to the series and catching us up with our Legends, who have spent the last six months busily tracking down and correcting time aberrations. (I am assuming Dr. Heywood was able to figure these things out because the changes hadn't altered the timeline in 2016 yet?) I particularly liked the lighthearted sex romp in seventeenth century France with the sword-fighting male cast in feathers and ruffles, and Sara "warming up" the Queen of France.

But the chief storyline was about the Nazis nuking New York City in 1942 and the war not ending until 1947, a pretty extreme change in history. So even though Rex Tyler told them not to go to New York in 1942 because they would all die, they had to go anyway and kidnap Einstein and save his female associate Mileva Maric, which somehow led to Nazi spies working for Damien Darhk (from Arrow) and Eobard Thawne (from The Flash). Seeing Damien Darhk again was like a pleasant encounter with an old friend who happens to be a horrible bad guy. How much do I love Damien Darhk as a Nazi? Very, very much.


Removing the Hawks and Vandal Savage allowed our remaining characters to shine. Yes, I absolutely missed Leonard Snart. But we had Sara, looking like a warrior princess during that fight on the Hoboken docks and fixated on changing history for Laurel; Ray, the billionaire boy scout, mostly looking out for her; Mick Rory making me laugh repeatedly; Martin Stein gobsmacked by getting to meet Einstein; and interestingly, Jax's brilliance and knowledge of the Waverider making him the logical one to take over for Rip.

Speaking of which, did they just write out Rip Hunter? Last season, I thought he was the weakest character after the Hawks, but I also thought he would be the most difficult one to write out because of the structure of the show. Untying the remaining Legends completely from Rip's control would be like throwing them into a sort of Wild West time travel situation. Unless they're now going to search time for Rip while also dealing with the Justice Society of America?

I don't have comic book knowledge, so I don't know who those five costumed people are. Feel free to enlighten me in the comments. Are they cool?

Everyone remember where we parked:

-- Timescatter! What a fun sequence of time periods: South Dakota seventy million years ago with a long-haired Ray in green sneakers running from a T-Rex (watch those butterflies, Ray); Tintangel, England in 821, with Jax and Stein as royal wizards to a young King Joffrey wannabe; 1693 Salem, with Sara about to be hung as a witch. And those were on top of 1637 France and 1942 New York City.

-- Firestorm came together when Jax jumped off a roof on top of Martin. Fun.

-- Mick thought Einstein was a pig. Einstein thought Mick was the smartest of the Legends.

-- The closed captioning gave us "Louis coutures" instead of "Louis Quatorze."

-- Jax created a library and upgraded the bridge, so we have new sets. Did they also upgrade the Atom costume? More importantly, is Ray's hair shorter?

Quotes, which were mostly Mick Rory:

Mick: "All I remember is being knocked out by that skinny little Englishman. Very embarrassing."

Mick: "I knew we were all in trouble when Rip made us put on blouses just to save the King of France."

Sara: "Nobody wants to address the fact that Cardinal Richlieu's men were armed with laser guns?"
Yeah. What's with that?

Mick: "I'd rather die than speak German."

Jax: "Wow. Someone just blew up New York."
Sara: "During World War Two. I think we can all guess who that someone is."
Mick: "Nazis. I hate Nazis."

Mick: "Never been to a nerd party before."
Martin: "You mean a physics symposium."
Mick: "Nerd party."

Martin: "Let me talk. I speak physicist."

Mick: "I love roasting Nazis."

Mick: "Guess I gotta play hero and find them."
Nate: "Do you even think this ship still flies?"
Mick: "I don't see why not. Fridge works."

Mick: "You're headed to Columbia University, right? For the symphony?"
Martin: "Symposium."
Mick: "Same thing."

I thought there were a lot of positive changes in this premiere, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season. Three out of four green sneakers,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

12 comments:

  1. The group at the end are the Justice Society of America, the precursors to the Justice League,

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  2. I got that it was the Justice Society of America, but I don't know who the individual superheroes are. Other than looking at a cast list on IMDb, which I did. My lack of comic book knowledge limits me with this show -- we really should have someone more familiar with the genre reviewing Legends.

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  3. I loved it! I really like that I can simply enjoy this show. It seems to fully embrace what it is. And that is freeing it to be crazy and over the top. But I get a kick out of every minute. I don't know the Justice Society of America superheroes either... but I laughed out loud when they appeared at the end. Our legends face all kinds of stuff from everywhere! Fantastic! This show is a trip (pun intended).

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  4. Flying woman was Star Girl who weilds some sort of cosmic rod that, besides letting her fly also shots power bolts and make force fields. The guy in black is Hour Man who created a pill that for, you guessed it, one hour gives him strength, speed and, I think, invulnerability equal to Superman. No flying or laser eyes though. Guy behind Hour Man is Dr. Midnite who's kind of like Daredevil. He can see in the dark but is blind in daylight which is why the goggles he's wearing. He's fond of smoke bombs and, in the comics at least, has a pet attack owl. The black woman is the grandmother of Vixen, also called vixen and with the same powers. The guy on the extreme right is Commander Steel, something of a ripoff of Captain America and

    Spoiler Warning!: the grandfather of whatisname, the crypto-historian.

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  5. tricksterson, thank you so much. You literally just saved me from doing a lot of research on the internet as I'm writing my review of episode two.

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  6. This was fun, and I'm excited to get to see this second season, since I've heard such good things. They're embracing the camp, which is delightful.

    Tricksterson, a pet attack owl? I want a pet attack owl.

    Watching this episode I realized how little attention I paid to the first season finale. In fact, I must have left the room to do laundry or something, because I'm not really clear on what happened to Snart. Is he dead?

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  7. Josie, it happened in the penultimate episode, "Destiny," not in the finale. Snart sacrificed himself to save everyone. It was lovely and infuriating.

    http://www.douxreviews.com/2016/05/legends-of-tomorrow-destiny.html

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  8. Aha! I think I skipped that one. I'll watch it before I continue with Season Two.

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  9. Why did they make Einstein a patent clerk in Vienna? He was a patent clerk in Bern. I mean, that's so easy to look up.



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  10. I love how this episode leaned into the cheese. It felt a lot less serious than Season 1, which felt a bit tonally divided, with to be honest slightly ridiculous heroes and stories, yet a somewhat serious tone (eg the romance between Kendra and Ray) and a boring villain. This episode was a lovely series of jaunts. Way less self-important. If Darkh ends up being a big bad, his style totally matches that tone.

    Darkh *and* the reverse Flash? Omg what a teamup. That's going to be so much better than Vandal.

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  11. I am loving re-experiencing this series through your eyes

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  12. Thanks Mikey that's so cool to read! Feels odd sometimes to write comments half a decade after episodes aired so it's good to hear that they're still finding an audience :-)

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