Legends of Tomorrow: One of TV's Best Shows
Yeah, I know, you saw Legends when it came out, read the title of this blog, and rolled your eyes so hard that now you can feel a migraine setting in. That’s on you bud, for one thing, don’t commit so hard to bits when there’s no one around to even see you do them. For another, the quality of the show has gone up tremendously since the start of season 3, and since we give Parks & Rec a free pass on its early stuff, Legends can have it too. Also, the eye-roll was undeserved, because I stand by that title: Legends of Tomorrow isn’t just one of the best superhero shows out there by a mile, it’s an excellent show judged against others of it’s genre. Now, the reason that might feel off to some folks is because Legends presents itself as an action show when it fundamentally isn’t.
Legends of Tomorrow is a sitcom.
Sitcom’s (Situation comedy) are shows structured around a cast of enjoyable characters, driven by the humorous situations we see those characters placed into. The ensemble aspect is one of the easiest distinctions to draw between other Arrowverse shows such as Flash or Supergirl, where every story revolves around the central character of those shows. Other characters certainly exist, and can even have stories of their own, but always in the periphery of the show’s protagonist. Legends not only changes cast on occasion, it rotates between seasons and episodes who is the narrative focus undergoing growth.
There are also a lot of other factors: tone, pacing, the way they manage arcs, but this is less about proving that Legends is a sitcom than discussing what makes it such an exceptional one. And really, with any sitcom that’s successful, the first talking point will almost always be the same.
The Characters
Legends of Tomorrow has a wide, somewhat shifting cast, although typically you can expect new characters to hang around for at least a season. They span the gamut in power and background, as you might expect for a superhero show, but more importantly, they have an array of different personality types. The joy of a sitcom comes from playing people who aren’t necessarily a good social fit off of one another in various settings, which they capture well.
However, there’s a level some programs can reach where they add genuine heart to their interactions, and when done properly that elevates the show as a whole. Legends doesn’t force us to be serious too often, however it does let it’s characters experience their feelings. Think of the most emotionally impactful scenes of The Office versus Seinfeld for an easy example. Now Legends might not hit those precise heights, but they are willing to let the comedy drop to give their characters real emotional beats. Love, loss, sacrifice, struggle, the characters get to feel more than some sitcoms might allow, and it makes for richer, fuller stories as a consequence.
There’s also the simple fact that after so many seasons of development, almost every character still around has grown enough to be distinct and interesting. Minor spoilers here: Sara Lance started the series as a mopey former assassin, by this point she’s the beloved captain of a time ship who loves kicking ass and having fun. Ava Sharpe was introduced as the stickiest stick in the mud to ever stick, and they haven’t really changed that through the years, but by shifting other little parts of her along with how that facet is presented, she’s become one of my absolute favorites. Hell, they took Damien Darhk, a character Arrow pretty thoroughly burned audiences out on, and not only made him interesting again, he actually became fun to watch.
More than anything though, it’s the kind of adventures the characters are put in that help made everything work. They’re given the freedom to have these fun and developments thanks to the excellent…
Tone
Like most of the Arrowverse, Legends started with a semi-serious, “oh my god we’re saving the world and everything is very high stakes” vibe. The first two seasons of the show are almost a different incarnation, whereas nowadays the team motto is “Sometimes we screw things up for the better” which is an all-time great. The tone of Legends is light, flippant, and utterly unwilling to take itself seriously, outside the aforementioned character moments.
You can see the shift happen on this one, starting in season 3, when ratings were very thin and they seemed to know this was their last shot. Suddenly, they were popping off Grounds Hog Day parody episodes and having a lot more enjoyment on their escapades. Freed from the expectations of wide-spread success, they allowed themselves to get weird, ridiculous, and specific… all of which worked! The show grew in popularity, and somehow wrangled a fourth season, which seemed to open with a declaration to absurdity.
At least, that’s how I interpret a team of time-traveling super powered misfits fighting a killer unicorn at Woodstock. Regardless, the shift seemed to set after season 3, and since then Legends has been a show about a found family of fuckups trying to get along with each other, scheme through their problems, and occasionally just get smashed and go mess with history. Hell, some episodes the “threat” is dealt with as an afterthought in the last five minutes, because that was never really the focus of the episode. It works to create an outstanding mix of heart and humor, but Legends still has one doozy of a trick up its sleeve in the…
Format
The trouble with even most good sitcoms is that they build excellent characters and then throw them in trite situations. Citing the trope is almost a trope itself by now, but I trust we’re all largely familiar with “Oh no, my boss is coming to dinner and I must impress them” as an episode concept. Shows are limited by their settings and the desire to be relatable. You can’t have Danny Tanner suddenly show up one day possessed by an ancient demon, no matter how many funny gags Bob Saget has in mind. Family Matters struggled so hard against their own mold they eventually broke the reality of the show, but that’s a blog for a past day. Any attempts at really shaking things up have to be couched in a non-canon episode, usually something for Halloween.
Originally, Legends of Tomorrow did little with their format except use it to create plot and set pieces, but when the new tone came, that changed substantially. Suddenly, rather than being an albatross, their ridiculous format was a blessing. They have done episodes against evil timelines of themselves, episodes stuck in TV shows, episodes with puppets, all easily in the setting as either time travel or magic.
Essentially, the show has built a scaffolding that can support almost any story. The outstanding cast of characters are fun to watch whether they’re battling demons or taking on a god in beer pong (both real plots), and the nature of the show means that virtually anything can happen, so whatever the writers can dream up is fair game.
That, to me, is part of what makes Legends such an incredible example of a sitcom. By moving away from what was seen as the most important part, being generic and relatable, they freed up their creators to focus on telling stories that were interesting, about characters who were entertaining to watch. And, funnily enough, by doing all that character focus, they ended up building people who felt real enough that we do relate to them. Maybe we don’t kick as much ass, but when they sit together with each other as friends, shooting the shit and tearing through snacks, there’s a sincerity to it that’s easy to connect with.
If you haven’t checked out Legends of Tomorrow and need a bright spot in the world right now, Seasons 1 – 4 are on Netflix as of this writing, with Season 5 joining them next week. You can skip the first two seasons, then strap in for one heck of a ride through space and time.