Legacies - We're Not Worthy

 

Discussing Ep. 3.1 

Ya know, I thought that with this pandemic and all the time off that folks had, that perhaps the creative juices of the team would have had time to ferment and they could have come up with some really good stuff.

I was wrong.

As I have said before, I get it that with all the stress and what not of the pandemic and especially all the political nonsense that might have taken it's toll on people, especially in the US this past year, that perhaps that's why people are not churning out their best in terms of quality. But how long will that excuse last?

This was a very weak episode to come back on. It did little to get me excited and onboard to see more of what's going to happen, that's for sure. If anything else, it really seemed like the same old, same old and they have to change the formula somehow.

Let's start with the so-called "main" character, shall we? I mean, it must have been the easiest shooting day of Danielle's career at this point, spending most of it sleeping on a bed and having all of 2 minutes of dialogue, if even that. Her revival was so fucking stupid, as though she were Sleeping Beauty or something like that. No one knew how to wake her up. The way they built up her coma-like state last season, you'd have thought she went somewhere ethereal or something and that perhaps Landon and  Raf would have to go there to get her. But nope! It was the kiss of true love that woke her up! Fuck off! 

The question is, does anything change with her character now? I've said this before, how the characters will pay lip service and say they need Hope as though she's the main character....but she's clearly not! I mean, Raf came to save the day, not her (more on Raf later). She was sleeping the entire episode, so how important is she really?!? Last season, other than the initial four episodes or so, she felt completely irrelevant. It felt like whatever scenes she was in, they did it because they HAD TO, not because they wanted to. They clearly were putting the Wonder Twins (and I like how the show adopted my nickname for them) front and centre and kept Hope as an afterthought. Will it change this season? 

I mean, does any character change this season? I don't get what was up with returning Alyssa into her bitch self again. I get that's her character but given the fact that she turned on a dime last season and she actually died, I would have thought that she'd be a bit more introspective about things. And also, I don't get how they dropped her whole childhood issue. Lizzie brings it up (and rightfully puts hypocritical Alyssa in her place....seriously, that was just too easy) asking about her parents, but the issue was never clarified. We never found out what she did and what her problem was. Not that it matters at this point considering she's probably going to be an acolyte to NecroTed, but it would have been nice had her background been more fleshed out and figure out why she's even there at all.

Then we have the Wonder Twins. I sort of agree with the direction they went with Josie at least. I thought it was rather ironic when Lizzie said that the focus has to be on Josie now considering the focus last season was all on Josie! I do wonder how long her absence will be and if that will create room for Hope to be the focus of the show for a change. Since Josie had a nice little arc and thought it came to a rather disappointing end last season, I'm hoping they can at least build off of it. I also wonder what they're going to do with Lizzie. She's sort of in a rut right now too, spinning her wheels in trying to change. Which, to be fair, is a realistic development. Like someone trying to break a bad habit, you don't accomplish it in one day. You fall of the wagon constantly so I'm not upset that Lizzie goes back and forth between being who she was and who she is trying to be. But I don't know where she goes from here without Josie there as a motivation. I'm not confident about her direction either.

Nor am I confident about Landon's direction. I don't like how his motivation revolves around Hope and vice versa. That's pretty damn weak. He was fully willing to stay dead as a way to protect his friends. But Raf shows him a sleeping Hope and he just abandons his principles and says "fuck it" and goes and does what he said he wouldn't do. While I suppose there is some additional motivation for him to be there since Malivore is still around, again it feels like there's very little to work with in terms of character progression. I'm more confident in Raf, who apparently descends from King Arthur (I'm curious how that even works considering King Arthur was a fictional character and of Anglo-Saxon descent, and Raf clearly is not!). But I think Raf has a better future on the show and I hope they focus on him a bit more.

Which brings me to the subplot of this episode, with the Lady of the Lake and Excalibur and the Green Knight. Anyone who has ever read Sir Gawain and The Green Knight in high school or university knows that this portrayal of the Green Knight and the Arthurian legend was just bullshit. Now, I'll give them some leeway since we are dealing with fairy tales and so they can manipulate things in whatever way they want. But this subplot just felt really lazy to me, as though it was something they came up with as a means to get characters to reach a certain point by the end of the episode. And I worry that every episode will be like that. Need to get Landon to show his courageous side? We'll get him to save the Three Little Pigs from the Big Bad Wolf! Need to show MG his leadership skills? We'll get him to lead the Three Billy Goats Gruff across the bridge and fight against the Troll. Need to show Lizzie her compassionate side? We'll get her to help Goldilocks appease the Three Bears. While I appreciate the show's take on the various fairy tales, I don't like that they're bringing in each one in merely as a plot device and there is no unifying reason for it all. It's more like a story-of-the-week and it doesn't really tie into what the TVD/TO universe was all about.

I suppose the only consistent baddie is NecroTed, and even he feels like more of a caricature than anything else. I think that's what been missing in Legacies that was around more in TVD and in TO.....an element of seriousness and danger. The early seasons of TVD, you felt that element of danger, whether it was from Damon or Katherine or Klaus. Same thing in TO, with Mikael or Lucien or Dahlia providing that menacing touch. Here, it's all a joke. NecroTed is played more for laughs. There's no real sense of danger or that anything is at stake. And though I don't know how many episodes they have this season due to the virus, I'm not convinced they can pull of anything meaningful. Seeing as how they have a musical episode coming up, it's clear they're playing all of this up like Riverdale and not in the tradition of TVD/TO. The tone is completely different and I'm not a fan of it at all!

Riverdale sucks, and that is not the kind of show any producer should want to emulate!