DC's Legends of Tomorrow

[Jeff of Earth-J]

[ClarkKent_DC]

Richard Willis said:

Of course they finally have a better story and it is continued three weeks later.

They made an attempt to show 1958 racial discrimination and came up with "racism-lite."

Buying or renting a house or apartment back then as a black or inter-racial couple wouldn't have resulted in an uncomfortable but compliant reaction from the agent. The agent would have looked you right in the eye and explained that the property deed or apartment rental agreement specifically stated racial restrictions. You were legally prohibited from living in many neighborhoods.

Going to a party or malt shop as an interracial couple in most parts of the U.S. likely would have resulted in being refused service and/or being shunned, not just being bullied by tough teenagers or Vandal Savage. Unless you were in Greenwich Village in 1958 you would be uncomfortable at best.

Not to mention, I found myself doing this --  -- at the thought they had Jax, the only Black guy at school, pick up the head cheerleader and homecoming queen! Worse, when each member of the team went off on their individual missions, he was the only one with no backup!   

[JD DeLuzio]

In "Progeny,", Legends heads to a grim future of corporate feudalism and really bad gray suits, and addresses those perennial favorites of time-travel questions: if you could go back in time and kill Hitler Per Degaton while he was still a boy, whould you do it? Should you do it?

The ep raises some other questions:

Now that the timeline has changed and Vandal Savage comes to power even sooner, shouldn't Rip's backstory be changed? Does his son even exist to be killed?

 Never mind, will we see Hawkman’s resurrection? Will Kendra ever run into her past and future reincarnated selves?

Doesn’t it seem that Palmercorp should have made more impressive advances in robot technology in so very many years? Or did corporate feudalism stall progress? (At the very least, I think they should have been represented by more impressive CGI).

Now that the writers remember that Jax and Stein can be Firestorm, shouldn’t his powers be more effective than what we see here?

Why didn’t the Time Masters send the Hunters in the first place? Perhaps they were busy elsewhen, though. I hope they make for worthwhile opponents.

[JD DeLuzio]

Less onerous, but still:

-the term "serial killer" did not exist in the 1950s, and wasn't really a part of law enforcement's thinking.

-Nurses did not then, any more than now, share an alcoholic drink in the break-room in full view of anyone.

Richard Willis said:

Going to a party or malt shop as an interracial couple in most parts of the U.S. likely would have resulted in being refused service and/or being shunned, not just being bullied by tough teenagers or Vandal Savage. Unless you were in Greenwich Village in 1958 you would be uncomfortable at best.

[Richard Willis]

Yeah, I thought the term "serial killer" was relatively new.

This episode had an exchange that made me laugh:

Ray to Kendra: "I didn't want you to think less of me."

Kendra to Ray: "Ray, I couldn't ever think less of you."

[JD DeLuzio]

           Richard Willis said:

          Yeah, I thought the term "serial killer" was relatively new.

If we want to pick nits, so is the use of "sucks" to express disapproval. It's an early 70s-ism, and was considered scandalous for some years after. Sara's use of it should have been an opportunity for a misunderstanding joke, like Marty's use of "heavy" in Back to the Future.

[Luke Blanchard]

If we went back in time to the 50s would people find our accents strange, do you think?

[Richard Willis]

JD DeLuzio said:

If we want to pick nits, so is the use of "sucks" to express disapproval. It's an early 70s-ism, and was considered scandalous for some years after. Sara's use of it should have been an opportunity for a misunderstanding joke, like Marty's use of "heavy" in Back to the Future.

I should have been taking notes. I thought "sucks" sounded wrong too.

[Richard Willis]

Luke Blanchard said:

If we went back in time to the 50s would people find our accents strange, do you think?

Which reminds me: If we went centuries into the past we would have a tough-to-understand culture and languages. Why do we never have this problem centuries into the future?

[Richard Willis]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

We've decided to watch until the end of the season no matter what. Then, if it's renewed, we'll make the decision to watch season two.

I understand it's already been renewed.

[JD DeLuzio]

I can't think of the language issue coming up too often, but in print SF (and in at least one ep of Star Trek: Next Gen the culture issue arises. It's a key aspect of The Forever War, for example.

But I don't expect to see it in Legends.

Richard Willis said:

Luke Blanchard said:

If we went back in time to the 50s would people find our accents strange, do you think?

Which reminds me: If we went centuries into the past we would have a tough-to-understand culture and languages. Why do we never have this problem centuries into the future?

[Jeff of Earth-J]

They're stealing jokes from Young Frankenstein now. ("What hump?")

"Kubert Barber Shop" was in shot several times. (You couldn't miss it.)

[Richard Willis]

I loved Jonah Hex. I DID miss the Kubert Barber Shop.

I don't get it. They can go into the past and kill people and this doesn't affect the timestream?

The town that was supposedly destroyed prior to the 1871 arrival of the "Legends" was referred to as being in Oklahoma. Oklahoma wasn't called Oklahoma (at least by non-natives) until the late 1880s and there were no non-native settlements there until 1889. Prior to that it was called The Indian Territory, where several tribes from other parts of the U.S. were forced to live.