LEGENDS OF TOMORROW SEASON FOUR REVIEW ... SPOILERS

I dropped weekly viewing of nearly all of the Arrowverse series (except the Flash) in the fall of 2018 because I was not the most satisfied with the ending of last season. But, I really wish I did not drop Legends of Tomorrow season four, because it is amazing.

Legends of Tomorrow is arguably the only Arrowverse series that manages to maintain a consistent tone, an interesting and compelling plot, with lovable characters throughout a single season, which is why it has lasted as long as it has. 

I want to get into all the reasons why season four of Legends of Tomorrow worked, and why it deserves more credit.

Plot

The way that the first part of the season was constructed is that it took an episodic approach into constructing conflict, with a villain from the underworld each week being spit out into a part of the timeline where they do not belong, and it is up to the Legends to stop them. However, moving into the last few episodes of the season, everything came together into a really wonderful manner thanks to the villain of Neron being revealed, who in the comics is a notable Constantine villain. The expansion of the Constatine mythos was a really neat payoff to an underrated character.

The end goal of Neron was really interesting, to say the least. I loved the insane idea that Neron wanted to make Earth literal hell. I felt like the stakes were established well enough, however, I felt like in the finale, most of the main Legends team weren’t clued in enough about Neron and the stakes of the mission.

Tone

Season two of Legends of Tomorrow established the tone of the series to be a light-hearted series with dire moments. Season four continues that same tonal balance while adding heartfelt moments into the mix. The use of having magical creatures in an episodic format at the beginning of the season established this season of the series to feel light in tone, playful in ways as a lot of the threats that the Legends had to fight were ridiculous in nature (and in performance- which was great). Going into the back half of the season, the season did not do a complete 180-degree turn in terms of tone, it managed to find one moment to dwell on to create the more dire moments and build the stakes of the season finale on that. 

That moment in the season was the death of Hank Heywood. The death came at the expense at the reveal of the main villain of the season, Neron. This moment in the season also helped provide the turning point in Nate’s dynamic as he had a more cleared up outlook on life which almost acted as the narrative throughline going into the season finale, with the season concluding at Hey-World.

This tonal consistency is something which is lacking from most of the other CW DC series, and has bought some of the more recent seasons down in quality, as there is an odd, inconsistent feeling to everything, and character development suffers as a result of that. 

Characters

With the characters of this season, I really want to focus on the new characters. Although every got a meaningful arch in the season, such as Sara learning to compromise, Mick learning to embrace his art of writing, Ray overcoming his tendency to class individuals in absolutes (such as Nora), Nate overcoming his cold relationship with his father Hank, and Zari learned to become more confident in involving herself in conflicts which she did not have to be a part of. 

   Charlie

I was really down at the end of season three seeing Vixen leave the team. She was my favorite character in the series, as she bought a more calm and grounded focus to the dynamic of the team. But, Maisie Richardson Williams had stuck around to be in the series, and she is now the mythical shapeshifter of Charlie, who did take the form of Vixen. I thought that this was an interesting approach to keeping Williams in the series, without it being too out of place. The character has not been fleshed out, as she has really just been a plot device, and I hope that changes going forward.

   Hank Heywood

There is not too much known about the life of Nate Heywood before he joined the Legends in 2016, however, thanks to the introduction of his father, Hank Heywood (Tom Wilson) in present-day, the character was really fleshed out as well as his father. Hank was a character that went down many twists and turns throughout the back half of the season and I really appreciated the direction that the character ended up in. Hank and Nate established a meaningful relationship and I really loved how Hank was not turned into a villain, however, a flawed hero, a flawed father.

   John Constantine

Although not new to the series, Matt Ryan reprised his role of John Constantine as a main character, and it was awesome. Ryan’s performance was really well done, managing to carry through the feel of Constantine through three series, over the past four years. In this season, Constatine was established in a surprisingly meaningful way. It seemed like Constatine’s inclusion in the series was going to be nothing more than a novelty, however, the character was fleshed out. We got closure over John’s decision in his own series, and how that has impacted his decisions. John interacting with Astra, was a really interesting conflict point to help develop the character and give him a sense of closure over the events of what happened at the end of his series. I am so excited to see John develop more in this expanded universe going forward and I hope that Matt Ryan does get promoted to the status of being a series regular.

What's to come in Season Five?

Well, next season, a lot is going down. First of all, the first episode of the season will be the Crisis on Infinite Earths finale. After that, we no that Ray Palmer (and presumably Nora) will leave the series, and then Ryan Choi will take over the mantle of the Atom and be on the team as a series regular.

In addition, the revelation that Zari’s place on the team being replaced by her brother, Behard will be revealed, and will definitely be a plot point.

On a side note, I really loved that twist in the finale, it was so absurd, but yet fitting for the series to have a character be replaced by another with the blink of an eye with the timeline changing. I am interested to see how this is resolved going forward and whether it will be the result of Barry possibly pointing out the absence of Zari in the crossover.

Also, the villains of the season will be all the coins that Astra collected in Neron’s vault. This is interesting as she stole some pretty controversial souls such as Stalin to name one. Now all of those souls are released from hell, and it seems like the Legends will have to fight history’s biggest villains (from the real world) in an episodic manner.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Legends of Tomorrow season for was a brilliant season. I really enjoyed more than seasons one and three, as the show really took a stride in bringing together a lighter tone, all the while managing to create dire stakes, and heartfelt moments and character developments which were worth watching. 

   Rating: 8.5 / 10

What did you think of this season of Legends of Tomorrow? Comment below your thoughts as I catch up on the rest of the Arrowverse before the coming crisis. As always, thanks for reading, take care.