Legends of Tomorrow Season 4 Premiere, ‘The Virgin Gary’ Plot Summary:
With Mallus defeated, the Legends return to 2018 as heroes. However, the team soon discovers that their actions have resulted in a new threat to the timeline: magical creatures. With assistance from John Constantine (Matt Ryan), the Legends must travel to Woodstock and prevent a mythical massacre.
As anyone who has ever gone from having a single slice of dessert to eating the whole cake can tell you, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Over-indulgence is always the danger behind “just another bite,” and the result is typically a sense of regret. Well, that and indigestion. The new season of Legends of Tomorrow won’t give you a stomach ache, but the premiere may leave you thinking the show has leaned too far into its most popular features.
Asides from its lackluster first season, Legends of Tomorrow has been incredibly comfortable embracing the zanier elements of its premise. The concept of heroes time traveling throughout history to fix anomalies is certainly bursting with comedic opportunities. Some of the show’s best episodes, like “Raiders of the Lost Art” and “Beebo the God of War,” took that potential and distilled it into something wonderfully absurd. “The Virgin Gary,” however, proves that building a foundation on that quirkiness is ill-advised.
The season four premiere has some promising character beats, but the show is evidently more interested in showing viewers how ridiculous it is willing to get. Characters, dramatic tension, and action all take a backseat to the shows love of its own antics. While Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) and Nate (Nick Zano) have emotional stakes in the episode, the show appears more interested in setting them up as comic relief. Like most of their allies, Ray and Nate have shifted from being characters to caricatures.
As is the case with many long-running series, the show has taken popular aspects of these characters’ personalities and expanded them into primary character traits. Most of the characters are thus shallow shadows of their former selves. And Legends appears to be perfectly okay with that devolution as long as the humor and absurdity shine as a result. But for many viewers, that cost might be too high.
If you’re coming to Legends wondering how far they are willing to go, you will likely enjoy this episode. But if you’re looking for more, you’ll like wonder if this series has finally gone too far.
RATING: 6 OUT OF 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqRZJgA_IqM
