Episode 1: “Pilot, Part 1”
On January 21, 2016, DC’s “Legends of Tomorrow” television show premiered on The CW, and the first episode made quite an impression to say the least.
Created as a spin-off from other popular shows on The CW, “Arrow” and “The Flash”, “Legends of Tomorrow” is developed by the same people who brought these shows to TV. "Legends of Tomorrow" takes place after the events that have been laid out so far in either show and features characters that served as supporting and reoccurring characters on the shows.
These characters include Professor Martin Stein/Firestorm (played by Victor Garber), and his Firestorm counterpart, Jefferson Jackson (Franz Drameh), Ray Palmer/Atom (Brandon Routh), Sara Lance/White Canary (Caity Lotz), Leonard Snart/Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller), Mick Rory/Heat Wave (Dominic Purcell), Kendra Saunders/Chay-Ara/Hawkgirl (Ciara Renee), Carter Hall/Khufu/Hawkman (Falk Hentschel), and a new character, Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill), a rogue time traveler.
When Rip Hunter discovers a plot to end the world in 2166 by a madman and immortal named Vandal Savage (Casper Crump), he travels back in time to present day to bring together a mixed band of heroes and villains to help stop him. After some reluctance, the group joins Hunter on his unique plane/ship to travel through time to track down Savage, with their first stop being 1975.
It may make it easier to understand and appreciate, but you don’t necessarily have to have seen “Arrow” and “The Flash” to be able to follow “Legends of Tomorrow”. It sure makes it more exciting to watch though, already knowing the characters and their history. You don’t have to be a comic book reader either, but obviously the characters are based off of DC Comics.
After the success of “Arrow” and “The Flash”, and during the current trend of comic book superhero adaptations, the creators decided to make a spin-off show, which they described as a superhero team-up show, one that had potential for additional “Arrow”/”The Flash” cross over events, and that they would be casting “three major DC Comics characters who have never appeared in a TV series”.
In regards to the purpose of the new series, one of the developers mentioned that it was designed to be “most similar to our crossover episodes, where you feel that ‘event-iness’, but all the time”. He went on further to reveal the producers were focusing on “making sure that the villain that we have on [the] show is distinct too… another big character who hasn’t been used yet”.
“Legends of Tomorrow” has a similar look as “Arrow” and “The Flash” and appears to use the same style of fighting, type of storytelling, specific brand of acting, etc. I’ve always been impressed with how well the special effects can be made to look on TV, specifically with the backgrounds and action sequences in these types of shows. It’s obvious that they make much use of green screen work and that a majority of the content is computer-generated, but comparably it looks great for what the show is trying to do. This pilot is no different, it is quite enjoyable as the plot is revealed and what looks to be a promising show sets up its rookie season.
For anyone that’s seen “Arrow”, “The Flash”, or other superhero shows/movies, you know that there is usually a level of corniness and cheesy material, and the story usually features some sort of sentiment or depth to it, whether genuine, properly executed or not. There’s often romance, cheap to decent levels of comedy, and usually a motivation or serious reason to explain a given character’s actions and choices.
The first season of “Legends of Tomorrow” currently plans to have sixteen episodes. If you’re a fan of The CW's “Arrow”, “The Flash”, or even other superhero, comic book adaptations like Netflix’s original series, “Daredevil” and “Jessica Jones”, ABC’s “Marvel’s Agents of Shield”, movies like “The Avengers”, “Iron Man”, etc., then you should definitely check out this show (and others mentioned if not seen). These shows are some of the best of this genre on TV right now in my opinion, some more than others.
Catch “Legends of Tomorrow” on Thursday nights on The CW. “Pilot, Part 2” will air on January 28th. You can see the first episode online at http://www.cwtv.com/shows/dcs-legends-of-tomorrow/.
By: Hayden Pittman
