DC's Legends of Tomorrow DC's Legends of Tomorrow S01E06: "Star City 2046" Our expectations for anything can be weird, and, of course, idiosyncratic. Watching (and reviewing) three shows that take place in the same narrative universe really makes that abundantly clear. Because it's a more serious show, I expect Arrow to be better at personal dramas and character arcs. Because The Flash leans in a bit more on its comic book roots, I expect it be a more balanced show that has fun while keepings its characters grounded in their relationships with one another. There are my own pet desires for each show, too, like my apparently never-going-to-be-satisfied desire for Arrow to actually engage in urban renewal, let alone treat Star City as a place. But that's more on me than the show, because the show's not super interested in that idea. As for Legends, well, I'm not 100 percent sure what sort of experience I want from it yet, even after six episodes. I know I want them to stop discussing whether or not they can be a team, and thank goodness "Star City 2046" at least played down this tic to a certain degree.

I know I like it when the team works together because the characters motivate plenty of drama and the performers are, for the most part, really solid. I think, more than even what I expect from Flash, I want Legends to be fun. And "Star City 2046" was mostly pretty fun. And it was fun in a weird way because so much of the main plot about Connor Hawke (née John Diggle, Jr.), aged Oliver Queen, and Grant Wilson was really just an exercise. Yes, Sara obviously keyed into something very personal given her connection to Star City as not only her home but the home of her loved ones, but as Rip kept pointing out, this wasn't real. It was just one possible timeline that could exist, and that lightened the dramatic load of the the A-plot in a pretty considerable way. There was no need to really flesh out Grant or Connor, or even aged Oliver for that matter. Would all of that have been interesting? Probably, but it wasn't necessary for a Sara-centric story about giving aged Oliver the necessary kick in the pants to save his beloved Star City when this timeline may not come to pass.

Some time travel weirdness, a few fight scenes, some not-so-great aging makeup, and we're done. And I'm mostly entertained by it all. Another factor in the overall success of "Star City 2046" may have also exposed the show's biggest flaw, though. This was the first episode where stopping Vandal Savage from doing something was not the end goal for an episode. The show was better for it, really. Stopping Vandal puts a lot of weight on the show in that it needs to tell a rollicking adventure yarn in a way that still ends in complete failure because we're not even halfway through the season yet. That can get (and has gotten) frustrating, so while blowing up Vandal Savage in 1986 last week had some amount of catharsis, it didn't stop Savage; it just delayed him. If Legends of Tomorrow was basically Quantum Leap, and this team of misfits were stuck time-hopping around, putting right what once went wrong and unable to get back to 2016, then I imagine my expectations would be different.

However, since Savage is the crew's goal and the more Savage-concerned episodes have struggled to fully work, I'm troubled about its long-term plot prospects while hoping for more of these sort of standalone episodes. Now I'm willing to bet a lot of you have scrolled and read and have said to yourself, "Ah, but now we get to the part were Noel complains about the fact that while Sara and Rip were off doing Star City stuff, everyone else was doing their own little subplots! mens hoodies matalanI'm going to skip to the comments." team hoyt hoodiesAnd you would be correct! utm hoodiesI would normally put that section of the review of Legends here... except that neither of the subplots were terrible this week, and I was actually entertained by one of them and appreciated the dramatic stuff in the other one? pre order hoodie kaskus

I know, bizarro world.The whole "Jax was into Kendra and then Stein accidentally made Ray interested in Kendra" could've been a small disaster but a couple of things saved it. The first is that I'd much rather see Stein and Jax bicker like this than fight about working together, so that was a nice change of pace, and, for once, I felt like Stein's advice-giving wasn't coming from a selfish place, and that was also a nice change. kansas city royals nike 1/4 zip pulloverThe second was that Kendra was allowed to shut down romantic entanglements (for now), and I was relieved by that. north face oso hoodie ladiesIt's not that I'm opposed to relationship stuff on Legends, but given that it only has two female characters, I don't know that I have the patience for competing between the boys or will-they-won't-they stuff, and I'm glad the show is putting a pin in that, or at least until Sara (who is bi, remember) ends up paired off with Rip or Cold.

The Cold and Heat Wave subplot was solid as well, probably the best subplot the show's presented so far, actually, since it addressed the lingering elephant in the room that stealing stuff while time-traveling wasn't really Cold's plan. I'm not even sure I buy the idea of killing an immortal warlord as a reputation maker, either, since, well, who the hell would know or believe you, Lenny? No, this is a genuine conflict between Heat Wave being pretty firmly a bad guy and the idea that Cold himself is changing a bit. While I doubt a criminal dystopia would be his speed anyway, he seemed super-bored by everything in "Star City 2046." Even if he being a criminal were his ultimate goal (and I'm not sure it is any longer), being that kind of criminal wasn't ever in the cards for him. Like I said in an earlier review, my milage on these subplots was always going to vary based on my investment in the characters. Ray, Jax, Stein, and Kendra are probably middle and bottom tier, but the execution of their plot this week was solid.