Gosh dang it…I love Legends of Tomorrow. Because they’re not afraid to go crazy, have fun, and yet still make it an emotionally jarring episode about life as we know it. “The One Where We’re Trapped On TV” barely scratches the surface of the fun that is to be had in the episode itself.
To recap, the previous mission of the Legends had them dying at the hands of the Fates magic via zombies, and Charlie agreeing to work with her sisters to “save” the world, in exchange (apparently) for the Legends being kept alive and being trapped in various TV shows. Mainly name-brand versions of Friends, Downton Abbey and of course, Star Trek.
Seeing them in their various roles and playing to type was hilarious enough. But the use of characters old and new to get certain points across was great. Like Behrad being alive in the TV world, and the old-school version of Zari possessing the modern Zari in order to try and get the gang back together. If that wasn’t enough, Mona was back (via the new world order) and teamed up with Gary (meh) in order to help rewrite Fate.
A brief pause. One thing I truly appreciated was the idea of order versus chaos and how if Order wins…there’s no real life. People always subscribe to the fact that perfect order is…perfect. But it’s not, your very free will is chaos, and while it can be bad, it can also make the world more beautiful, and Legends of Tomorrow perfectly showed that off. Because with everything dictated by the Fates, life was…boring. Outside of TV of course, but that’s a given.
Anyway, seeing the characters in roles and acting in those roles throughout was hilarious. like John as a Butler, Astra as an aspiring female leader, and yes, Sara and Ava as Kirk and Spock. God bless this show.
What really sold it though was the emotional depth of it all. From Nate finally remembering Zari (the old Zari) and getting back with her, to Constantine willingly letting him and Astra be in the show they were assigned to so Astra could be with her mother, and Charlie honestly trying to do the right thing by keeping them alive at all costs, it was very well done. And of course, free will won in the end and set up a potentially very fun season finale.
Granted, some of the comedy may not be for everyone, and I’m not sure how the Fates didn’t kill Gary for rebelling (when they showed them killing another for just speaking about free will) but whatever.
In the end, “The One Where We’re Trapped On TV’ was a beautiful setup for a season finale, and I look forward to seeing where it goes next week!
4.5 out of 5 nerds
Todd Black
Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!
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