Tea Time Tangles

During our usual weekend tea time, Jen, Oni and I have usually been watching two shows. We watch an ep of Legends of Tomorrow and then a Wynonna Earp. You know we love Wynonna—what about Legends?

After seeing what doom the future holds, time-traveling rogue Rip Hunter realizes heroes alone are not enough to prevent the impending catastrophe that threatens the planet.
~~~
Although the team continually adds and loses members, their goal is always the same -- prevent supervillains from destroying time itself. (source)

A) Who needs supervillains when the world is already filled with power-mad, greedheaded embodiments of cruelty like…oh, say…Putin, Kim Jong-un, Alexander Lukashenko and, of course, are own recently kicked-to-the-curb dictator wannabe, Donny Dipshit.

B) Time-traveling rogue? C’mon, let’s have a look at that word. I don’t believe it means what the PR folk think it means.

rogue
noun
1 : vagrant, tramp
2 : a dishonest or worthless person : scoundrel
3 : a mischievous person : scamp
4 : a horse inclined to shirk or misbehave
5 : an individual exhibiting a chance and usually inferior biological variation

Firestorm

White Canary

It can be said that Rip Hunter has gone rogue (to behave erratically or dangerously, especially by disregarding the rules or the usual way of doing something) but that’s about it.

The essential story, in this first season, is that Rip goes back in time to recruit a team who will help him catch the utterly evil Vandal Savage before he can take over the world and kill Rip’s wife and kids.

On the face of it, this show’s right up my alley. It’s got space ships, time travel, heroes, lots of people with superpowers and, did I mention, TIME TRAVEL. Sounds GREAT but no, it’s not.

Warum?

Most of the actors are seriously subpar with the possible exceptions of Dominic Purcell (Heat Wave), Franz Drameh and Victor Garber who, together, are Firestorm and maybe Caity Lotz as White Canary.

c    

Brandon Routh's The Atom, is played as a RILLY nice, ultra smart, apple pie and mom, dull kind of a guy. He's a cardboard cutout of nice 1950s young man. Added on top though is this desperately naïve, whiny, I-am-SO-entitled, victim vibe.  Annoying!

Could this actor play Casablanca’s Rick Blaine with any level of believability? (No, Ilsa wouldn’t stop to give Routh’s Rick the time of day) Could he give us a Hamlet who was anything other than a petulant putz? Would Routh, as Bladerunner Rick Deckard, be thrown off the roof by Roy Batty? Yes and, hells bells, I’d do it for free.

Ciara Renée Harper who plays Hawkgirl should mebbe stick to her musical theater career and take on voice-over parts. Her vast repertoire of facial expressions include smiling, looking confused or pouty sad. Also, she has a serious overbite that drives me crazy (and not in a good way).

Casper Crump as the villain Vandal Savage, with his badly cut, oily, double+ black hair, seems to have just two facial expressions—OK, one and a half—a deep scowl and then a slightly more chasmal scowl. C’mon man, even arch fiends get to crack a wicked grin now and again.

Then there’s Wentworth Miller’s Captain Cold. His head is always tipped ever so slightly forward so he’s looking upward from under a pronounced brow. Yes, this looked interestingly moody (the first time) and highlights his beautiful, if tiny, eyes BUT this appears to be the full range of his acting technique.

I know that not everyone can be a Denzel Washington or a Meryl Streep but, really now, the cast of Buffy, with all their idiosyncrasies, make this crew look like nothing more than a rural high school talent show. Could the mostly abysmal performances be due to bad stage direction and less than stellar scripts or are these actors, talent-wise, just cookie sheet deep?

Each episode sets the heroes farther back from their goal of taking out the villain who will turn the world into a Putin/Lukashenko/MAGAt playground. We’re nearly through the first season and, fer fuck’s sake, I want to off these superhero manqués myself.

Ah, yeah—we are, in fact, looking into new distracting and amusing shows now. Thanks.