I wasn’t too sure of Season 5’s original premise though – the revived historical villains are dubbed “Encores”, which… felt like they were running out of ideas. I mean, the name for these guys is basically “a repeated performance” and there didn’t seem to be any comic-based villains appearing, so I was kinda meh. Later on, the Loom of the Fates felt like another Spear of Destiny, and that seemed to be the main point of the story – which made it a little better, but way too repetitive. But then Crisis on Infinite Earths had just ended so I guess they couldn’t really have any other all powerful megalomaniac as the Big Bad right?
Synopsis
Legends of Tomorrow is a superhero drama about a motley team of superheroes that repair disruptions to the timeline… even if some of those disruptions are sometimes caused by said superheroes. In Season 5, the Legends (the short form of their team name) have to deal with some of history’s most nefarious villains coming back to life and causing disruptions in the time line, even as they reassemble an incredibly powerful artifact that’s capable of changing all of space and time.
Directors: Gregory Smith, Kevin Mock, David Geddes, Alexandra La Roche, Avi Youabian, Caity Lotz, Ben Bray, Andi Armaganian, Nico Sachse, Andrew Kasch
Writers: Keto Shimizu, Ubah Mohamed, Grainne Godfree, James Eagan, Ray Utarnachitt, Matthew Maala, Tyron B. Carter, Morgan Faust, Mark Bruner, Jackie Canino, Leah Poulliot & Emily Cheever (teleplay)
Cast:
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Brandon Routh (Atom / Ray Palmer)
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Caity Lotz (White Canary / Sara Lance)
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Maisie Richardson‑Sellers (Charlie / Clotho)
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Tala Ashe (Zari Tomaz / Zari Tarazi)
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Jes Macallan (Ava Sharpe)
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Dominic Purcell (Heat Wave / Mick Rory)
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Matt Ryan (John Constantine)
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Amy Louise Pemberton (Gideon)
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Courtney Ford (Nora Darhk)
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Olivia Swann (Astra Logue)
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Nick Zano (Steel / Nate Heywood)
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Ramona Young (Mona Wu)
Constantine is impressive as ever
But Constantine (Matt Ryan) was as cool as ever (I went to watch the Constantine series because the character impressed me so much in the previous two seasons) in this series. I like that it focused very much on his backstory and really leveraged on the fact that he’s such an interesting character. Astra Logue was okay, but she’s got a cool name (I’m shallow like that) so it made up for quite a bit. However, giving Constantine a finite lifespan also implied that he was unkillable until his time was up, which took away a bit of the tension when he faced threats.
Religious representation
I was also really impressed with the Muslim representation on the show! I think Legends of Tomorrow won an award for that or some such. But when Zari (Tala Ashe), who’s explicitly Muslim (but doesn’t remind you of it in every episode) refused to drink the magical immortality wine because it was haram, I was like… wow that’s actually a plausible scenario, and similar to real-life situations (not the immortality part, the alcoholic part) that I’ve encountered. So props to that! It makes the world I live in much more real, seeing that sort of diversity on screen.
We’ve seen Zari’s arc before…
Unfortunately, Zari’s arc felt recycled. You see, they already did the whole “same actor but different character” shtick with Charlie/Amaya last season, so this whole “it’s Zari but a different version of her” thing felt like a reskinned version of the storyline. Plus, new Zari is irritating and an inferior version of old Zari, yet old Zari is the one who has to be stuffed back into the totem. To me, the only explanation is that they wanted to keep Behrad around, which is another problem.
Behrad is a pain
What’s the deal with Behrad? He appeared without context, without exposition, without warning. We’re supposed to warm up to him and like him as a character as if he’s always been there, but he hasn’t earned it. And because of that, because we literally have no stories about him (there isn’t even an episode which focuses on him), when he’s faced with his imminent demise at the end of the season… I don’t care. Really, Behrad could have been removed from the show and it wouldn’t have made a difference. So the fact that we lost old Zari (again) to save Behrad, a new character I don’t care about, was uncalled for.
Ava Sharpe, Mona Wu, wherefore art thou?
Then there’s the mysterious absence of any Ava Sharpe or Mona stories. I mean, I get that they don’t have any comic counterparts with which to draw stories from, but hey! They were some of the more interesting characters on the show, and I was shocked that they didn’t get anything. If the season had focused less on Charlie and more on these two, it would have made for some rather epic tales (plus, aren’t those Ava clones just begging for a Clone Wars storyline?).
The new opening is so try hard
I also didn’t know the new opening. It felt like it was trying way too hard. I know that Legends of Tomorrow has evolved from an epic that spans all of time and space to a wacky, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink kind of action comedy, but the opening certainly didn’t capture the “time travelling heroes” theme. I hope they change it for the next season.
Should you watch Legends of Tomorrow Season 5?
This season of Legends of Tomorrow felt like it recycled too many aspects and storylines from previous seasons, and felt less fresh than previous seasons did. The good thing was that it shone the spotlight on Constantine and sort of wrapped some storylines on that show. But there was less Ava and Mona, and more Behrad (why?) and new Zari, so… I think the direction really missed the point. But maybe next season will be better!
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