Legends of a Hopefully Better Tomorrow

This article contains spoilers for Season 1 of "Legends of Tomorrow".

Legends of Tomorrow became somewhat of a breakout hit for CW when it premiered back in January, joining The Flash and Arrow in the weekly lineup as the two aforementioned shows returned from their winter hiatus. It was given 16 episodes for its first season, and did well enough that it has been given 22 episodes, a full season order, for its sophomore outing. This is especially surprising because there were initially reports that there might not BE a season 2. The first season was very expensive, in large part because the effects department had to shoulder the load of doing animation on 4(well 3 after Hawkman got axed(knifed) in the premier) VERY vfx heavy characters, The Hawks, The Atom, and Firestorm. Not to mention Captain Cold and Heatwave's respective ice and fire guns/throwers/don't to anything but punch from a distance-ers.

HOW are those people not dead                                                                                     source

To temper this, at the end of the season they killed Captain Cold, set the Hawks free...and then added a new Vixen, The Justice Society(Hourman, Stargirl, Obsidian, Commander Steel, Citizen Steel, Dr. Midnite and quite likely Jay Garrick aka Flash), and a returning Jonah Hex, along with revived Captain Cold(of courssse), Malcom Merlyn, revived Damien Darkh(Seriously??), and (again, sorry) revived Reverse Flash joining forces to form the Legion of Doom....

Too many crooks....                                                                                                          source

Call me crazy, but those don't look like budgetary cutbacks. They quite frankly look like potentially massive issues when it comes to being able to satisfactorily use all those new effects laden characters(Vixen, Justice Society & the Flashes) along with those already on board. Speaking of on board, how are all of these people going to fit in the Waverider? Where the hell will they even sit??

I'm sure Sara wouldn't mind if Stargirl sat in her lap                                               source

I'm not even getting into how they can possibly deliver on the promise of a more coherent story(something they already struggled with last season), after adding all these characters without sacrificing SOMETHING. And that something had better not be the writing quality. Again.

Look, I loved season one of LoT, but I had to let A LOT of dumb shit slide to be able to enjoy myself. The endless unnecessary scene filler of a love triangle between Ray, Kendra, and Carter was, and I'm not exaggerating, the most infuriating and painful experience I have ever had with a piece of media "entertainment". It became obvious quickly that without a premise which could truly sustain 16 episodes, the writers were going to use every sappy, inconceivable twist they could to continue this love triangle bullshit to help pad each episode run time out to a respectable 43-45 minutes. I wouldn't even have minded it so much if the writing didn't more closely resemble the text chain of an on again, off again middle school relationship than a television screenplay.

For example...

Keep in mind that I'm talking about a show I actually LIKE here.

I'm saying all this because I don't WANT this show to fail. For all it's faults and its hilarious, sometimes easily avoidable mistakes, Legends is a genuinely fun show to watch. The team fight sequences are usually a blast, and the teammates all really have great chemistry together, both as a whole, as well as when paired off in individual groups during missions and pow-wows. This is an asset many shows can only dream of having and Legends has it in spades.

Moments like this make up for a lot                                                    source

My fear is that by basically doubling the team, and QUADRUPLING the Villain count, even given 22 episodes the show might fall into the same trap that plagued season 1: An abundance of filler scenes. Only this time we'll have even MORE characters to get caught up in go-nowhere side plots that only end up confusing viewers and bring the story flow to a snails pace. Its going to take some skilled writing to make it all work and work well, and I do think that with the addition of new writers from the Arrow and Flash writing teams the series has a greater possibility of reaching its full potential. It would be truly amazing to see a long game story arc, something akin to season 1 of The Flash, a plot that is engaging and consistently building tension while moving things forward and resulting in some truly memorable television.

As a comic book fan, and as someone that is VERY much looking forward to seeing Hourman and Jay Garrick beating the hell out of some thugs alongside Stargirl and Dr. Midnite, that is my hope for what is to come from season 2 of Legends of Tomorrow. Truly memorable television

But if that doesn't pan out, I'll be sure to let you know.