Commentary by: George@GenXGrownUp
Man, these premieres just keep coming. We’ve now had four new offerings in as many nights and the only thing I know for sure is that it’s good to be a GenXGrownUp geek! This time, our battle of the small screen pits DC’s Legends of Tomorrow against Arrow. Just as before, I’ve watched each show back-to-back, and only once so you get my true, unbiased first impression. Let’s get to the fun!
The Legends are back, and so are the dinosaurs!? Maybe going back to the same place in time wasn’t such a good idea but that’s OK because faster than a T-Rex can run its Rip
The Legends are back, and so are the… dinosaurs?!
Hunter to the rescue. Apparently in the fifteen minutes, since we last saw him, Rip has spent the past 5 years creating a new Time Bureau; you’ve gotta love that space/time continuum stuff! After Rip finishes his best Trump impression (“You’re fired!”), we find ourselves five months in the future where the team is… working at Bed, Bath & Beyond? The Legends are no more, Ray is working on a dating app, Nate is the second most popular hero in Central City, and Rory is on a beach with Julius Caesar.
As the episode jumps along we get stolen ships, broken relationships, and a pretty bad rip off of The Men In Black all in the course of bringing most of the group back together.
I wanted to enjoy this episode more, but it just felt like it fell flat. I’ll continue to watch the show but at this point, it may be more out of loyalty to geekiness than to the Legends themselves. Sorry, team, but you did not “screw things up for the better” this time. I am interested to find out about Mallus and I’ve heard through the inter-nets that Constantine is on tap for this season which means I’ll be back for more next week.
Arrow is back with more comic book drama
When last we saw Oliver Queen, he was holding his son while watching his loved ones being blown to bits. Five months later and he’s back, or wait, maybe that’s Aqualad. Nope, that’s Arrow firing from under the sea. Quickly we learn that most of team Arrow survived the explosion but not all. Speedy is gone and so is Oliver’s baby-momma. Someone call Maury Povich!
Between flashbacks to Lian Yu and present-day attacks we discover Black Siren isn’t dead (again), Slade is still a good guy looking for his son, William is scared of the bad man, and Star City police officers have the shortest life expectancy in the Arrowverse. At least in that great comic book tradition, Speedy isn’t dead, she’s just in a coma.
There are some moments when I was drawn in but this first episode felt rushed to me. Hopefully, with the promise of Oliver’s unmasking, mysterious helicopter man, Diggle’s shooting skills, and Wild Dog’s custody battle, we’ll get more feels later in the season.
This was close but I have to give the edge to Arrow. Both episodes had high and low points but in the end, they did give me a little hope for the future and that’s enough for now.
All-in-all I would say that over the four premieres, the Arrowverse is still going strong. We have some great shows to look forward to (Supergirl & The Flash), and a hopeful optimism for the rest (Arrow & Legends of Tomorrow). See you next week, bye for now!
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