We live in a golden era of weird TV. CBS’ dearly departed Zoo, the straight-faced campiness of Fox’s 9-1-1, and a whole host of other shows remind us that at this point, shows can get away with pretty much anything. Which is why the third season Legends Of Tomorrow, the CW’s DC universe show airing Mondays at 8 pm, currently features a time-traveling ninja and her band of superheroes fighting a wizard and a psychic gorilla. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Legends Of Tomorrow has always been the most deliberately like a comic book, beyond even Fox’s gloriously excessive Gotham, in the sense that you can do anything you can imagine in comics. The show’s willingness to dig into the crevasses of DC’s strange past with characters like B’Wana Beast, and its taste for playing fast and loose with its own concept, means the show is often the most fun. It’s hard to get mired down in a romantic plotline when the cast is fighting demons one week and pirates the next.
Shows based on superheroes often struggle to be realistic, and tend to fall into the gap between power fantasy and more realistic credible fantasy. It’s much harder to buy Oliver Queen’s political career than it is to believe he runs around in a leather hoodie maiming arms smugglers. So the team on the Waverider are a welcome reminder of the sheer creative riot comics can be. Now let’s get Codpiece in an episode, hmm?
This Week’s Geeky TV
The Flash, Tuesday, Feb. 27th, 8pm ET, The CW, Midseason Premiere: We return with a potential new powerful ally to stop DeVoe, who we still are calling Bell Biv DeVoe because come on, it’s still funny.
iZombie, Tuesday, Feb. 27th, 9pm ET, The CW, Season Premiere: Seattle now has a lot of zombies, and only so many brains. This will end well, right?
Black Lightning, Tuesday Feb 27th, The CW: After a strong set of opening episodes, this show is really opening up its plotlines more, particularly with Anissa, who could carry a series all by herself.
The X-Files, Thursday, Mar. 1st, 8pm ET, Fox: Mulder and Scully go up against an artificial intelligence that hopefully will be more realistic this time.
Gotham, Thursday, Mar. 1st, 9pm ET, Fox, Midseason Premiere: This season is increasingly all about Gotham’s slum the Narrows, which we guess is still nicer than Suicide Slum in Metropolis, at least in name.
Arrow, Thursday, Mar. 1st, 9pm ET, The CW, Midseason Premiere: Somebody has been using deepfakes to frame Ollie, which we guess is better than a forged sex tape.
Agents Of SHIELD, Friday, Mar. 2nd, 9pm ET, ABC, Midseason Premiere: The crew set out to pull a Quantum Leap on the present. No way this’ll go wrong, right?