There comes a time in a man's life when he must ask himself: "Who am I? What am I doing with my life? And what am I watching on Netflix?"
Such a moment recently occurred in my life, as I watched in panic and terror as "My List" on Netflix started to build up. It cast an ominous shadow over my pop-cultural wellbeing and there was only one possible cure: to buckle up, dig in and start crossing shows off the list.
A few weeks ago, with the release of DC Comics' "Wonder Woman" impending, I thought it might be a good idea to check out "DC's Legends of Tomorrow," which I'd had on My List for probably a year. A few days later, I got an email from Netflix telling me that Season 3 of "The Flash" had been added, as well, which couldn't have come at a better time for me and my binge-watching plans.
In the past three weeks or so, I knocked out Season 1 and 2 of "Legends of Tomorrow" (henceforth mainly referenced as "LoT" for purposes of so-called "brevity" in this blog), as well as the third season of "The Flash," and I figured I'd give you lovely readers a little recap and review with spoilers coming a little later on, so... you've been warned. I'll warn you again here in a second. First of all, let's bring you up to speed with the premise of these shows.
DC's Legends of Tomorrow
"Legends of Tomorrow" is a spin-off of the pre-existing "Arrowverse" on The CW, taking characters that were previously introduced on "Arrow," which I don't watch and don't really care for, and "The Flash," and creating a "Guardians of the Galaxy"-esque band of superheroes (and a couple villains). Disgraced 22nd Century "time master" Rip Hunter (played by Salt Lake Comic Con alum Arthur Darvill) rounds up a group of expendable B-list "metahumans" (DC's fancy word for people with super powers) to prevent an apocalyptic catastrophe in which a villain named Vandal Savage murders Hunter's family. The rag-tag band of misfits includes characters like The Atom (Brandon Routh), the pyrokinetic duo known as Firestorm (played by Victor Garber and Franz Drameh) and campy "Flash" villains Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller) and Heat Wave (Dominic Purcell). They're skeptical to join Hunter on his quest, but he tells them that they become "legends" in the future to convince them to come along.
The inaugural season follows the Legends as they hop across time and space to prevent time "aberrations" (unnatural changes to history) caused by Savage and his henchmen. The second season focuses on the search for the fabled "Spear of Destiny" in similar time-traveling scenarios.
The Flash, Season 3
Picking up, obviously, after Season 2, the most recent year of episodes deals with Barry Allen's decision to go back in time to prevent the murder of his mother. Barry quickly learns what I've discovered by watching so many movies and reading so many books - you don't mess with the past. The Scarlet Speedster's actions come back to haunt him, wrecking his relationships with his closest friends and associates, and the underlying theme of the season is the popular comics storyline known as the "Flashpoint Paradox."
Barry must contend with several powerful enemies this season, such as Doctor Alchemy and the mysterious, self-proclaimed "god of speed," Savitar, as well as a few familiar faces for those familiar with prior seasons of the show.
MAJOR SPOILERS FROM "DC'S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW" AND "THE FLASH" TO FOLLOW. BACK OUT NOW... OR ELSE!
As a whole, I quite enjoyed these shows, for the most part. I thought there were some really fun parts, some great characters and some exciting plot points. Of course, there were a few "swings and misses," so to speak, and not every punch landed, in my opinion, but let's break it all down.
LoT: The Good
- The characters
- I wasn't totally looking forward to watching this show because, with what little exposure I'd had to some of the characters (The Atom and Captain Cold, particularly), I didn't really care for what I knew about them. Routh's take on Ray Palmer came off as immature and annoying when he showed up in Central City in previous seasons of "The Flash" and Leonard Snart's Captain Cold character was, I thought, A) a really stupid name for a villain and B) absolutely obnoxious when he appeared as a nemesis for Barry Allen. Well... I stand corrected. The Atom and Snart ended up being two of my favorite characters in the whole series. I also got pretty attached to Mick Rory/Heat Wave, whose sarcasm and borderline stupidity really grew on me as the show went on.
- The pop culture references
- One of my favorite scenes was when Professor Stein was forced to sing for a group of Nazis in a night club and quoted Marty McFly ("Watch me for the changes and try to keep up") before singing "Edelweiss," a la "The Sound of Music," and subsequently getting in a bar room brawl when Dr. Palmer refused to salute Hitler.
- My favorite episode was "Raiders of the Lost Art," where the Legends found Rip living in the '70s as a film student, contemporary to a young George Lucas. I loved all the "Indiana Jones" and "Star Wars" references, and it also made me think about how much Lucas' work has influenced my own life. Thankfully the Legends were able to ensure that "Star Wars" became a reality after their trash compactor incident with the future Hollywood icon.
- Another classic moment involved Sir Raymond of the Palms bringing a "saber made of light" to Camelot. That was awesome.
- The short seasons
- I sometimes struggle with TV shows like "Gotham," which I've stopped watching, partially due to its year-long, month-long-break-here/month-long-break-there schedule. There are 16 episodes in Season 1 and 17 episodes in Season 2, and I never felt overwhelmed by the storylines.
- Continuity
- I watched Season 1 straight, with no interruptions. At that point, when I realized that Season 3 of "The Flash" was also on Netflix, I got worried. I didn't want to watch anything out of order, so I did a quick Google search to see how I'd need to incorporate Season 2 into my "Flash" viewing. It took a little work, but here's how I watched these shows simultaneously, if you'll pardon my shorthand:
- Flash 3, 1-5
- LoT 2, 1-5
- Flash 3, 6-7
- LoT 2, 6
- Flash 3, 7
- Flash 3, 8 / Arrow 5, 8 / LoT 2, 7
["Invasion!" crossover event, including "Supergirl"] - LoT 2, 8-10
- Flash 3, 9
- LoT 2, 11
- Flash 3, 10-14
- LoT 2, 12
- Flash 3, 15-16
- LoT 2, 13-14
- Flash 3, 17
- LoT 2, 15-17
- Flash 3, 18-23
- I liked the Arrowverse crossover, although it did remind me how lame "Arrow" is in comparison to the other shows... More on that later.
- Now that I'm caught up, I imagine that watching these shows together will be much less of a hassle, which is nice. And it's not that it was even that bad, but it just took a little bit of effort to make sure I was keeping my timeline straight. (Unlike Barry.) (Too soon.)
- Stein steals the show
- My favorite scene in any of these three seasons came when Professor Stein yet again showed off his pipes by distracting the control room at NASA while Palmer crash landed on the moon. I literally almost choked on my drink. Behold the majesty:
LoT: The Bad
- Tale as old as time
- It didn't take me long to realize that "LoT" is basically a rip off of "Doctor Who," NBC's "Timeless" and the aforementioned "Guardians of the Galaxy." That didn't bother me too badly, but you pretty much have to accept this show for what it is. Especially after watching "Timeless" within the past few months, a lot of the "let's use a name like Robert DeNiro that these mobsters from 1920 won't recognize" jokes fell flat for me. I mean, they were kind of funny, but not that original.
LoT: The Ugly
- White Canary and her "preferences"
- The only thing that truly bothered me about "LoT" was the incessant need to throw in moments where Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) could showcase her bisexuality. I get it. I know that's a popular lifestyle and a "hot topic" in the world we live in today, but it added absolutely nothing to the development of the plot or any of the characters, so I thought that making a point of her kissing so many women was a pointless liberal agenda and a total waste of airtime. But hey, what do I know, right?
Flash: The Good
- Anything involving Tom Cavanagh
- First and foremost, H.R. Wells is amazing. Cavanagh is terrific in all of his roles (and he plays many of them in one scene, might we recall?), but H.R. is the greatest. His confusion about differences between this Earth and his Earth had me busting up, especially when he insisted that the gag with Charlie Brown was that he was terrible at playing the piano. Good stuff.
- Also, can I just say... SPOILER that the worst possible thing that could have happened in Season 3 did happen in Season 3 when it was revealed that H.R. sacrificed himself for Iris?!? Ugh. They got me good with that one. I mean, I knew Iris wouldn't die because there's no way they'd kill off Iris... but H.R.?? Really??
- Grant Gustin
- I like Gustin as The Flash. I was bummed that they chose a different actor (Ezra Miller) to play Barry Allen in the DCEU on the big screen because I think Gustin is a great actor and does really well in this role. I think he has great chemistry with the other actors on the show and it seems like he genuinely enjoys the role. Another great season of acting for the young man.
- Kid Flash, I guess
- "Kid Flash" is yet another stupid name for a character - and yes, I know that they are just taking these names straight from the comics, so it's not The CW's fault - but I will say that Wally West getting powers in Season 3 didn't turn out to be as dumb as I thought it would be.
- Tom Felton!
- I was a little skeptical when I hear that Mr. Malfoy was cast for Season 3, but I thought he was great and I hope they bring him back for Season 4 in October. I loved his line, "Are you going to the Planet of the Apes?" Nice Easter egg. I dig it. Also, by the way, if you're in the middle of watching this season, A) stop reading and B) don't look up "Doctor Alchemy" on Wikipedia. Speaking of which...
Flash: The Bad
- Freaking spoilers!
- You can't pay too close attention to the Internet these days because spoilers are everywhere. I knew that SPOILER Emo Barry was Savitar because, obviously, people want to talk about the show - and they have a right to - in the days following the live airing of episodes, so I knew that was coming. I tried to avoid most current spoilers, and I did a pretty good job of it, I think, but I also found out the hard way the true identity of Doctor Alchemy (Wikipedia says "Tom Felton portrays Julian Albert Desmond / Doctor Alchemy in season three of The Flash" - THANKS) and the "fate" of Iris West by Googling "Speed Force Bazooka" (#4 result: "The Flash 3x22 Speed Force Bazooka Fails, Iris Dies - YouTube" - THANKS). All I wanted to do was to see if these characters and concepts existed in the actual "Flash" comics or if they were created for the show. That's all! And what do I get? Ugh!!
- The musical episode
- I knew it was going to be painful. And, five minutes into Episode 12, I knew I was right. It was a throw-away episode that really didn't move the storyline forward, other than Barry re-proposing to Iris in the final five minutes. Like, what was the purpose of this episode?
- Predictable resurrections
- Major deaths in superhero movies and TV shows are about as temporary as my relationships with girls. We all know they won't last. Such was the case with... how many characters? Barry "died" in Gorilla City. Caitlin "died" a couple times, I think. Wally was sucked through a breach. Who am I forgetting? Somebody, surely. I was surprised to see the spoiler that Iris was actually going to die, so it didn't surprise me when she popped back to life (if only to reveal that it was H.R., gosh dang it, that bit the big one, and not Iris). Lo and behold, Iris is now alive and well with nary a nightmare to speak of. That was disappointing. Like, is it horrible that I sometimes just want major character deaths?
- Killer Frost, killer of dreams
- Regarding characters that I thought should have died, Caitlin Snow, AKA Killer Frost, deserved to die. Her character sucked this season. The only reason I (somewhat) wanted her to live was because I wanted Julian Malfoy to be happy. But alas, she lives and she broke Julian's heart. I hope they kill her off in Season 4. I really hope they do.
Flash: The Ugly
- Emo Barry
- That wig was so, so bad. SO bad.
Future Emo Barry Allen's hair is to #TheFlash what JackBeard was to #LOST. pic.twitter.com/jx7WsDmRaR— 0bFuSc8 (@0bFuSc8) April 26, 2017
- The real question is: who would win in a fight - Emo Barry or Emo Peter Parker? The world may never know... but at least we will always have this:
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