REVIEW: Legends of Tomorrow the Complete Third Season
To appreciate fully the CW’s Legends of Tomorrow, you just have to lean in with the crazy. An antidote to the overly grim Arrow, the spinoff show embraces its sloppiness. The “legends” wear their inefficiency as a badge of honor and each episode of the third season amplifies this while also tightening the bonds between them.
Legends of Tomorrow the Complete Third Season is a three-disc set out now from Warner Home Video, In addition to all 18 episodes, we get the complete “Crisis on Earth-X” crossover with Arrow, Flash, and Supergirl. Taken as a whole, the season introduces a major threat and deals with it, while also pausing to focus on the various characters while also setting up the fourth season, doing a better job than its peers do.
We open with time having been broken and the Legends racing about repairing the damage they caused while their former leader Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) has ordered his reconstituted Time Bureau to leave them alone. After some solo exploits, they recognize they need one another and sally forth into new escapades.
Bit by bit, though, we get a sense of the greater evil, first through Kausa (Tracy Ifeachor), a hydrokinetic assassin until we learn that a demon named Mallus (John Noble; there’s a brilliant destruction of the fourth wall in one episode) is trying to reach Earth and dominate it. By then, they have partnered or fought against good old Damien Darkh (Neil McDonough) and his daughter Nora (Courtney Ford), who becomes the object of Ray Palmer’s (Brandon Routh) affections.
Speaking of romance, Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) has not only settled into her role as their commander with a gravitas befitting her training, she’s allowed herself to fall in love with her rival Ava (Jess Macallan). This is balanced by the bittersweet and necessary breakup between Nate (Nick Zano) and Amaya (Maisie Richardson-Sellers).
By then, everyone and then some are back for the most satisfying season finale among the CW’s super-series.
It was also fun to see Helen of Troy (Bar Paly), Jonah Hex (Jonathan Schaech) and the real Gideon (Amy Pemberton) in return appearances. What was less enjoyable was seeing Victor Garber’s career mean the end of Firestorm (at least for now). The less said about Beebo the better.
Throughout the season, perhaps the character who got the least screen time and is woefully underdeveloped is Zari (Tala Ashe), something I hope gets fixed in the new season. With Matt Ryan’s John Constantine back in the fold (if played a bit broadly, even for this show), we can see how the dynamic may work.
The high def transfer to Blu-ray is fine for both audio and video. The disc comes with some of the same features from others discs: Inside the Crossover: Crisis on Earth-X and The Best of DC TV’s Comic-Con Panels San Diego 2017. Unique to this set is an interesting look at The Time Calibrators: Legends Assemble as produce Phil Klemmer walks us through his thinking for the new season. There’s also an interesting Post Production Theater where you see stand-is work with actors as placeholders before the special effects and CGI are added. It’s interesting but would have been more interesting to see the before and after aspects. Finally, there’s a well-edited Gag Reel.