Legends of Tomorrow Season 3, ‘Aruba-Con’ Plot Summary:
After discovering the shocking consequences of their actions in the season two finale, the Legends encounter Rip (Arthur Darvill) and are introduced to his newly formed Time Bureau. Faced with the revelation, the team must come to terms with the possibility that the Rip and the timeline no longer need them. However, the sudden appearance of Julius Caesar (Simon Merrells) in Aruba quickly causes the Legends to re-think their retirement.
If you had told me two years ago that DC’s Legends of Tomorrow would be the CW’s funniest Arrowverse show, I would have laughed in your face. But Legends of Tomorrow is now making me laugh more than I ever thought possible for a show that started off a as quirky yet relatively dull look at time-traveling superheroes.
Long gone are the days of excruciatingly boring characters like the Hawk people, Vandal Savage, and original recipe Rip Hunter; instead, we have hilarious bromances, the comedic brilliance of Mick Rory (Dominic Purcell), and a team that openly admits to “screwing things up for the better.” The dramatic shift may seem like an aberration, but Legends of Tomorrow has become a legitimately funny show.
While the season three premiere does little to set up the season-long conflict, “Aruba-Con” did introduce promising new dynamics. While the tension between the Legends and the Time Lords rarely led to compelling conflicts, the rivalry between our heroes and Rip’s Time Bureau successfully hits the right balance of drama and comedy.
Unfortunately, the introduction of the Time Bureau and the six-month time jump doe somewhat undercut the previous season’s bonkers conclusion. The Legends will still undoubtedly address the anachronisms they caused, but the fact they won’t have to bear the weight of this burden alone is somewhat disappointing.
Likewise, while the prospects of expert assassin Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) working at a department store and tech genius Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) playing second banana to a millennial app-developer are undoubtedly humorous, these career changes feel rather out-of-character and included purely for the sake of laughs. Therein lies the major problem with the show’s shift in tone: while many of the episode’s jokes ring true to the characters’ personalities and the world they occupy, a significant amount of the humor feels shoehorned in.
As much as I appreciate and applaud the series going in a more light-hearted direction, gags and character development have to remain organic for the show to continue to resonate with fans.
For the time being, though, Legends looks to remain the best of CW’s Arrowverse shows. The team’s interactions are as enjoyable as ever, and the characters’ chemistry makes each scene come to life. As long as that formula remains, Legends should continue to deliver despite my concerns.
RATING: 8 OUT OF 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZdOpjFx2Q0
