Contains only mild spoilers!

2021/08/19

Arrowverse is not something I was watching for a long time! I think I stopped watching Arrow in season 3 or  4. Flash I watched up to the musical episode! I was liking it less and less already but that musical episode killed it for me indefinitely. At that time I did watch one or two episodes of Legends of Tomorrow but decided not to go forward because at the time my main concern was Arthur Darvill, who plays Rip Hunter. Well of course we also know him from his role on Doctor Who where he plays Rory! Well I very much disliked this character, especially in the beginning. So I also “missed” the TV Shows like Supergirl, Stargirl, Superman and Lois and so on.

Still Legends always kept pulling because this show is, I think, the most SCI-FI of all! I mean, a (time)ship, that can also travel in space, time travel. I always knew that if I would start watching another CW show it would definitely be Legends of Tomorrow. As you might know I like to watch my SCI-FI shows on Blu-ray and Legends was also being released on Blu-ray and at one point, they were really cheap! I knew I could no longer stand my ground and I purchased the first 5 seasons. Let me say, the show (1^st season) looks great on Blu-ray and SCI-FI looks best on Blu-ray! 😊

I still had my reservations about the show and as I watched the first few episodes I really wasn’t impressed that much but I didn’t hate it either. I felt the urge to keep watching the first few episodes to give it a chance! After seeing the first season, I have to say I am still not entirely convinced but I find myself choosing a first watch of Legends above a rewatch of Battlestar Galactica (2003). Of course I already knew a few characters from The Arrow and The Flash, characters like Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), Dr. Martin Stein (Victor Garber), Jefferson Jackson (Franz Drameh), Mick Rory (Dominic Persell) and Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller). Perhaps also already Ray Palmer (Brandon South) but I am not sure of him anymore. Anyway, even though these characters already had a background, I still found them to be a bit stiff in the beginning, of course not everybody but a number of them.

I really disliked Mick Rory in the first batch of episodes, really annoyed me because he played such a dumb muscle man who only wanted to set things on fire. He becomes more likable at the end of the first season, he has some great one-liners which make me smile and I smirk when calls Ray “haircut”. I also not liked the character Snart in the beginning, especially the way he talks annoyed me at first with those drawn out words but you get used to it and I have to say he became one of the more interesting characters. Sara Lance was okay for me right from the start, liked her in Arrow and that didn’t change in Legends. I actually also like Ray Palmer, who is played by Brandon South, former Superman, but also former cast member of the TV show Chuck where I really hated his character! It was less hard to see through (his role on Chuck) than I imagined, he’s an interesting character.

Kendra (Ciara Renée) also turned out to be an interesting character, but I didn’t think that with the first few episodes. That was, I think, because she immediately started out as a couple with Carter Hall (Falk Hentschel) but she also became a more interesting character as the first season went on. I was not a fan of the relationship between her and Ray though. Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill), well you know what I thought of his character in Doctor Who so that was also a reason why I had reservations in the beginning and I have to say, although I don’t dislike the character, Rip Hunter is far from a favorite character. Jefferson Jackson (Franz Drameh), for me he is not the least favorite nor a favorite character of mine, don’t know how to judge this character. I don’t like his whining all the time. On the other hand Dr. Martin Stein (Victor Garber) is one of my favorite characters, I like his humor, his enthusiasm, his innocence in regarding these adventures despite his age and of course, Victor Garber is a brilliant actor, he brings a lot to this role, easily the most interesting character for me.

Then the villain, Vandal Savage (Casper Crump)….what to say about him! Well he just sucks! I really don’t like characters who are two dimensional (or perhaps even one!), and I have to say he is that! Only evil, as a viewer you really dislike this character. What I like to see is a villain that has some human side, is not just evil, a good villain doesn’t think of himself as a villain, he or she believe they aren’t evil. Examples of those characters, Londo Mollari from Babylon 5, or Gul Dukat from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Especially the last one, Dukat is a bad character but still he does things that make you doubt, you know he is not a good person but sometimes he shows an other side of him. He always believes he is doing this for his people. This Vandal Savage character was not interesting, not for a second, which is a shame really. Of course the ship, the Waverider is also a character of the show and I have to say it is a cool looking ship and the voice of the ship, Gideon (Amy Louise Pemberton), already is an important character in the show in season one. I understand there will be a transformation of sorts, perhaps in the same vein as Andromeda?

The first episodes started out okay, it was not especially great, it had it’s moment, the characters needed to grow and as I explained above, I had some preconceptions regarding some of these characters which I had to loose before I could really enjoy the show and the characters. Especially towards the end of the season, the episodes get better, when I watched episode 10 – “Progeny”, I thought this was the best episode yet! Snart becomes more interesting here and Mick Rory starts to change, to become more interesting. First 9 episodes are still mostly okay, don’t get me wrong but this one hit the 8 out of 10 rating for me. In episode 5 – “Fail Safe”, Snart made a fun reference to his former TV role! He said: This is not my first prison break! 😊

There probably dozens of references to DC comics and characters which I am unaware of because I am not into comics and I haven’t watched most shows. Of course I did see a number of characters which had cross-over guest spots like Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy), Quentin Lance (Paul Backthorne) and John Diggle (David Ramsey) from Arrow. Also Jonah Hex from the comics and the movie where Josh Brolin plays the character.

One episode, I believe, Savage did not show up, he is only mentioned, episode 12, and I found that to be refreshing because as I said, I find the character uninteresting, annoying, no depth at all. The last four episodes are really exciting, working towards an exciting season finale. In these last few episodes Mick Rory really evolves into a more interesting character, as also Snart. All characters are heavily involved, some great character moments and some exciting fighting scenes. The CGI is also more than okay. The last four episodes and episode 10 are my favorite episodes of this season. The venom is in the tale!

Blu-ray:

Well as I said, all seasons, up to season 5, have been released in UK as well as USA on Blu-ray. The prices in the UK as well as in the USA are very reasonable, all well below the £20 or $20. On Amazon.com you can also already pre-order season 6. Of course you also watch it via Netflix! But if you want to keep companies making physical media, the best option is to watch it on DVD or even better, Blu-ray!

Final Word:

For the whole 1^st season I think I would grade it 7/10. There is a graduate uptick in quality, character-wise and also in the stories. As I said, the last batch of episodes are certainly my favorite of the season. I am curious for the following seasons, hopefully it is getting better and hopefully not every villain will be so 1 or 2 dimensional as Savage is, because that’s a real shame. Let your audience have doubts, let them make up their own minds how much of a villain someone is. Not black or white but grey!

Screencaps taken from : Kiss Them Goodbye