The Apple TV+ series Time Bandits, created by Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, and Iain Morris, just finished its first season and there’s still no news about whether it will return for a second. The show, which is based on the 1981 film directed by Terry Gilliam, tells the story of Kevin Haddock, a kid who’s obsessed with history. His history nerd tendencies cause him to be isolated from the other kids at school and even his own family. Centering a show on a child actor is always a risk, but lead actor Kal-El Tuck is wonderful as Kevin. He can handle the deadpan humor very well and also gives Kevin a real underdog vulnerability. Kevin’s ordinary life becomes fantastical when he joins a group of time-traveling thieves led by Penelope, played by the always-great Lisa Kudrow. Kevin finds out that the Time Bandits stole a map from the Supreme Being (played by Waititi) which allows them to travel to points across history. Fans of Time Bandit’s goofy time travel antics should check out DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg, and Phil Klemmer.
Like Kevin in Time Bandits, the characters on Legends of Tomorrow are underdog outcasts. When Captain Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) recruits them, he claims it’s because they’re all legends in his time. But, by the end of the first episode, it’s revealed he picked them because they have no impact on the timeline whatsoever. The cast of Legends of Tomorrow even includes two characters who, like the group in Time Bandits, are only interested in time travel for the potential thievery. Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell, reunited after Prison Break, play Leonard Snart and Mick Rory. These characters were both villains on The Flash and only agree to join Rip Hunter’s team to try to steal valuable historical artifacts.
'Legends of Tomorrow' Features an Ensemble of Underdogs
The cast of Legends of Tomorrow changes each season, as new heroes join and others leave. The only two characters who are in every episode are Caity Lotz as Sara Lance and Amy Louise Pemberton as Gideon. Sara originally appeared on Arrow as the sister of Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy), the Black Canary, and her superhero persona is the White Canary. She has a wonderful arc, starting off as someone who’s not much of a team player, then eventually taking over the role of captain from Rip Hunter. Gideon is the ship’s computer; she isn’t always a notable presence on the show, but she’s a lot of fun and eventually even appears in the flesh. Sara and Gideon are joined by an ever-changing roster of crew members, but the common denominator is that they’re generally not considered heroes in their own time. The show focuses on characters who are losers, morally ambivalent, or both.
Legends of Tomorrow utilizes different period settings well, including some of the same historical settings as Time Bandits. The Legends explore the prohibition era in Season 7’s “Speakeasy Does It.” Just like in the Time Bandits episode “Prohibition,” they become bootleggers, meet up with jazz musicians, and deal with gangsters. In Season 4’s “Nip/Stuck,” they experience an avalanche in the Ice Age, just like the characters on Time Bandits do in Episode 7. Just like on Time Bandits, the historical periods of the week in Legends of Tomorrow make for great set pieces and nerdy quips. Like Kevin, the character of Nate Heywood (Nick Zano) is a history expert who’s excited about the chance to share his knowledge. But, both characters find that what they’ve read in history books isn’t always the truth, which leads to both humor and conflict. While it often fits the “time period of the week” format, Legends of Tomorrow also breaks away at times and explores other sci-fi/fantasy concepts. Because it has longer seasons than Time Bandits, it has room to explore many different things, from alien encounters to fairy tale creatures.
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'Time Bandits' Review: Apple TV+'s Reimagining Falls Short of the Original
The series revives the cult classic with mixed results.
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'Legends of Tomorrow' Is Different from Other DC Shows
New viewers may find Legends of Tomorrow to be a little too serious in its early episodes. The Arrowverse series started off as a more traditional superhero team up with a similar tone to Arrow. But, as it went on, Legends of Tomorrow embraced a broader comedic tone and the pathetic nature of the characters, rather than trying to make them traditional superheroes. Legends of Tomorrow starts to truly embrace farce in the excellent Season 2 finale “Aruba.” By the Season 3 episode “Legends of To-Meow-Meow,” the show is outright cartoonish — in an enjoyable way. In that episode, John Constantine (Matt Ryan) and Zari Tomaz (Tala Ashe) try to fix the timeline but keep causing goofy changes, like turning all of the Legends into puppets. The characters also break the fourth wall by saying the Flash and Supergirl called them about the annual crossover episode, and it was a hard pass. This episode marks Legends of Tomorrow's full transformation into a whacky comedy distinct from any other Arrowverse show. Once it embraces the more zany and irreverent tone, it starts to feel a lot like Time Bandits.
One major strength of Legends of Tomorrow is that it has more interesting and entertaining villains than Time Bandits. In Time Bandits, Waititi plays the Supreme Being like someone who’s bored of his Sims and wants to start over. It’s an interesting concept but is fairly flat. Meanwhile, Jemaine Clement is Pure Evil, who is fun but generic. Neither of them compares to Legends of Tomorrow's Damien Darkh, played by Neal McDonough. He’s often over-the-top and his villainous plan is often so complicated it’s silly. But, he’s always entertaining and has some real menace when he needs to. Additionally, Legends of Tomorrow Season 5 gave us the Fates, a group of Greek Gods who could bend reality.
With only 10 episodes of Time Bandits out and no news about Season 2, fans are already missing the whacky ensemble and time-travel adventures. Legends of Tomorrow has over 100 episodes, and they’re all available to stream on Netflix. Like most shows of that length, Legends of Tomorrow is uneven, but it has enough standout episodes and great characters that it’s ultimately a very enjoyable watch. It’s definitely worth checking out to fill the void if you miss Time Bandits already.
Legends of Tomorrow
Where to Watch
- stream
- rent
- buy
Not available
Not available
*Availability in US
- Release Date
- January 21, 2016
- Cast
- Caity Lotz , Nick Zano , Matt Ryan
- Main Genre
- Superhero
- Seasons
- 4
- Studio
- The CW
DC's Legends of Tomorrow is available to stream in the U.S. on Netflix.
