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Author Topic: Legends reviews  (Read 16191 times)

Offline patch

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Legends reviews
« on: August 06, 2014, 09:40:06 AM »
Legends - Pilot - Advance Preview

Quote
The story, based on novels by Robert Littell, is set up nicely for the case(s) of the week (or longer stretches of time, as the second episode may suggest), in which Odum infiltrates the latest threat, whether that’s a group of domestic terrorists or Chechen mafia operating in the US. His character combines a charismatic cheekiness with a heroic selflessness that borrows from many similar protagonists of other spy dramas. He deflects in his job-mandated visits to the office therapist. His relationship with authority mirrors that of Jack Bauer (24) – meaning the respect is there as long as they don’t tell him to do something he doesn’t want to do. In the background, the mystery of what’s going on – what is truly real – slowly unfolds as Odum uses his spare time to pokes at clues.
 
While this show has many of the tropes from similar productions – the defensive spy, the sexual tension with the female superior/coworker, the hooded mysterious figure that lurks in shadows, the show is nicely done with quality filming

I’m a sucker for a good spy movie or TV series. I never seem to tire of rewatching the Bond or Borne movies, so this was an easy sell. But what really won me over is how phenomenal Bean is in the role – not just playing Odum, but how seamlessly he merges into whatever legend he is adopting. I’ve had the chance to preview the first two episodes, and have seen him playing several different characters with different accents, and I wouldn’t doubt for a second the authenticity of any of those characters. While the acting is always important in judging a show’s success, this is especially critical in a psychological thriller in which we need to believe that Odum actually starts to think he is that character. While the show raises doubts about Odum’s true identity, there’s a counter-theory given equal weight – and that is that Odum is merely losing his sanity. This leads to a complex character, always transforming into many other characters, and Bean pulls it off.
 
http://www.spoilertv.com/2014/08/legends-pilot-advance-preview.html



Review: TNT's 'Legends' Is Good, Could Be Better

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While many are looking at summer 2014 as a time drenched in box office disappoint for American film studios, things aren’t much better on the small screen.
There was hope that TNT’s new Sean Bean starer, Legends, from 24 executive producer Howard Gordon was going to change things, however, that’s not the case as, while good, Legends is far from memorable.
The new series follows the adventures of Martin Odum, a deep-cover operatuive for the F.B.I.. As his job title describes, Odum is an expert at turning himself into whatever cover – or legend as they’re called in the trade – he needs to, to get the job done, usually to fantastic results. However, things take a turn in Martin’s life when a mysterious man presents evidence that Odum might not be who he thinks he is. That Martin Odum is in fact a legend all its own.

While the macro arc of the series sounds intriguing, next to no time is spent on it, at least in the first two episodes. Martin doesn’t even get the bomb-dropping reveal until the final two minutes of the pilot episode, which would be fine if the next episode followed up on the idea in a meaningful way… but it doesn’t. Instead, once the second episode begins, we immediately begin a new case with next to no screen time devoted to the insane information Martin just received, and then in a bizarre twist, the series pulls an Alias and ends the second episode on a completely unrelated cliffhanger

The promise of a serialized drama is not the problem here; it’s the lack of follow-through. It’s understandable that the series wants to take its time with the reveal that Martin might not actually be Martin, but that doesn’t mean the entire arc should become a C storyline until it’s convenient. The macro arc of Martin’s identity should always remain the A storyline while the case-of-the-week element takes on the B and C roles

While Sean Bean delivers as one would expect, and while the actor convincingly pulls off all his different personas, it feels like the character lacks weight. This isn’t the Sean Bean of Game of Thrones, this is the Sean Bean of Missing. However, it’s not his fault, he’s working with what he’s being given. The real blame, it seems, falls on Howard Gordon who, after playing both extremes of realism in 24 and Homeland, just wanted to shoot down the middle. Unfortunately, the series suffers for it.

Legends isn’t a bad show, it’s just not a gripping one. There’s nothing about it, beyond being an excuse to watch Sean Bean act, that makes the audience want to tune in week after week to unravel the mystery of Matin’s identity. It’s a shame too because the series had a real chance to give summer 2014 a much needed kick in the rear as it closes out.
 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/merrillbarr/2014/08/06/review-tnts-legends-is-good-could-be-better/
« Last Edit: August 06, 2014, 01:21:31 PM by patch »

Offline moonflower

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2014, 05:47:37 PM »
One very good review, and one okay/good review.  I don't put too much stock in reviewers, but it's good that both of these are positive reviews for the most part.  Seems like I've been waiting a long time for this show to start, and it's only a week away now, so I'm excited.

Offline Sable899

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #2 on: August 06, 2014, 06:51:43 PM »
The problem with the second review is that the reviewer began with a preconceived idea of how good the series should be due to what the front-runner, Gordon, did before. 24 was an exceptional concept and well-executed idea that broke the mold for television drama. Homeland was a pay cable political thriller that had none of the restrictions involved with regular network shows. Legends has to find the line down the middle. It has no molds to break since 24 went before and it can't push the envelope as Homeland was able to do. Comparing Legends to 24 and Homeland does it a great disservice as it is like comparing apples to oranges to peaches. Therefore, I am completely discarding the entire second review.

Offline patch

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #3 on: August 07, 2014, 09:43:28 AM »
'Legends' is an underwhelming undercover cable drama

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Bean, who played Boromir in director Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, is well cast as Martin Odum, the master undercover agent working for the FBI's Deep Cover Operations (DCO). In fact, about the only reason to sample the loopy "Legends" is to watch Bean's Martin completely immerse himself in one assumed identity after another.

"Legends" gives us a skillful actor playing the FBI's most skillful actor. Or, as the DCO Task Force director, Nelson Gates (Steve Harris), says, Martin is the "most naturally gifted deep-cover operative that we've got ... maybe we've ever had."

But this is where the appeal of "Legends" begins and ends. Everything else in this clunky collection of cliches you've seen before -- many times before.
 
Bean is the right man for the difficult assignment, but he has no support team behind the cameras for this Mission: Improbable. And that's how the cookie-cutter show crumbles
http://www.cleveland.com/tv-blog/index.ssf/2014/08/legends_is_underwhelming_undercover_cable_drama.html

Offline Sable899

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #4 on: August 07, 2014, 04:59:52 PM »
As if some hack from some backwater print media is going to know the difference between good and bad telly. He probably thinks American Idol is the epitome of the television industry.

Offline patch

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2014, 03:06:42 AM »
Legends on TNT TV Show Review – Just Seen It

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOj1HEbV3Cs


http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20841219,00.html
Quote

Sean Bean is making a killing out of losing his head. Of course there was that business on Game of Thrones when his Eddard Stark was (three-year-old spoiler alert!) brutally dispatched by decapitation. And now the ruggedly squinty actor returns in a star vehicle that has him checking his noggin in a whole different way: He's Martin Odum, an undercover agent with a myriad of guises — ''legends'' in CIA parlance — struggling to keep things straight. Where do his fake selves end and his real self begin?

The first legend we see — a stuttering Everyman created to take down a militant group — feels like a sly homage to Breaking Bad's Walter White. By the third episode, he's impersonating a James Bond-esque arms dealer. (You get the sense that this is Bean's way of playing better parts he never got.) And there's the intriguing possibility that Odum might be a legend himself — making Legends a bit Bourne Identity, too.

There are worse ways to spend your time than watching Bean work hard and cheerfully to make this premise fly, but the series just isn't worthy of its star, or its influences, or the quality supporting cast that includes Ali Larter and Morris Chestnut. The high concept is poorly served by a conventional, lazily executed case-of-the-week structure. The show is exec-produced by Howard Gordon of 24 and Homeland fame, and if only he had brought his A game the way his star brought his, Legends could be more memorable. B-
 
« Last Edit: August 08, 2014, 11:00:45 AM by patch »

Offline Sable899

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2014, 07:17:35 PM »
Just finished previewing the first episode. What I have to say about it has already been said, so I'll just quote an earlier review that mirrors my sentiments about it. I will say that I have no intention of missing any episodes simply because of the underlying plot about Martin's true identity. Serious undertones of the Bourne films which I absolutely love.

Quote
The story, based on novels by Robert Littell, is set up nicely for the case(s) of the week (or longer stretches of time, as the second episode may suggest), in which Odum infiltrates the latest threat, whether that’s a group of domestic terrorists or Chechen mafia operating in the US. His character combines a charismatic cheekiness with a heroic selflessness that borrows from many similar protagonists of other spy dramas. He deflects in his job-mandated visits to the office therapist. His relationship with authority mirrors that of Jack Bauer (24) – meaning the respect is there as long as they don’t tell him to do something he doesn’t want to do. In the background, the mystery of what’s going on – what is truly real – slowly unfolds as Odum uses his spare time to pokes at clues.
 
While this show has many of the tropes from similar productions – the defensive spy, the sexual tension with the female superior/coworker, the hooded mysterious figure that lurks in shadows, the show is nicely done with quality filming

I’m a sucker for a good spy movie or TV series. I never seem to tire of rewatching the Bond or Borne movies, so this was an easy sell. But what really won me over is how phenomenal Bean is in the role – not just playing Odum, but how seamlessly he merges into whatever legend he is adopting. I’ve had the chance to preview the first two episodes, and have seen him playing several different characters with different accents, and I wouldn’t doubt for a second the authenticity of any of those characters. While the acting is always important in judging a show’s success, this is especially critical in a psychological thriller in which we need to believe that Odum actually starts to think he is that character. While the show raises doubts about Odum’s true identity, there’s a counter-theory given equal weight – and that is that Odum is merely losing his sanity. This leads to a complex character, always transforming into many other characters, and Bean pulls it off.

Offline patch

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #7 on: August 09, 2014, 01:00:00 AM »
'Legends': Sean Bean's soulful performance makes TNT spy drama worth watching (review)

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The creative team behind "Legends," the new TNT spy drama, seem to know that Bean is the best thing about their show, which is built to give him room to show his skills.

In the first two episodes made available for screening, Bean instantly grabs your attention. He plays Martin Odum, who does undercover work for yet another government agency, this one the FBI's Deep Cover Operations division.
 While we certainly enjoy watching Bean shift between "legends" – as his made-up identity personas are known – Odum's maverick devotion to his work is a pain in the neck to the DCO team leader Crystal Maguire (Ali Larter), and Odum's ex-wife, Sonya (Amber Valletta) who can't help but notice that Martin keeps canceling plans to see his pre-teen son because his work takes precedence.

All that is standard TV stuff, which you can find all over the dial. But "Legends," which is based on a novel by Robert Littell and produced by a team that includes "Homeland" veterans Howard Gordon and Alexander Cary, has an unusual sense of melancholy, which seems to emanate from Bean's soulful performance.

The rest of the cast, which includes Steve Harris as the DCO Task Force boss, Tina Majorino as a super-capable member of the staff, and Morris Chestnut as a sharp-witted FBI/DCO agent, all give Bean solid support.

I hope future episodes don't turn into simple procedural–of-the-week outings, with Bean donning different outfits and accents just for the sake of variety. There's an overarching plotline – Martin is told that he's not who he thinks he is – to give us a larger mystery. Whether that will prove compelling or cornball remains to be seen
 
http://www.oregonlive.com/movies/index.ssf/2014/08/legends_sean_beans_soulful_per.html


The Bean Identity.

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"#DontKillSeanBean" jokes TNT's own in-house, promotional Twitter hashtag. A loving nod to the fact that the famed English actor has met a gruesome end more often than not in the TV and movie roles he's played over his nearly thirty-year career. It's also meant as a reverse assurance that Bean, being billed once again as the lead of a new series, isn't going to himself be the big twist come the end of the fist few episodes. And so rest easy, Bean-atics, TNT's Legends, debuting next Wednesday, is going to give you the Sean Bean you both want and deserve.

That doesn't mean the show itself is going to match Bean's presence, though the actor, who plays FBI Agent Martin Odum, just might be enough to carry us through the cliches and rudimentary elements of it all

  As the major identity arc plays out, I can see it all becoming a true test of Sean Bean's range, as he'll have to act out many facets of his own back-catalogue of covers - all while doubting his own sanity. Only a bit of that is at play here in the first episode as Odum's only given the first seeds of what will surely grow into a much larger issue.

Thus far though, Bean's the show. Everything else falls into place just fine, but Legends isn't designed to be all that challenging. There are familiar elements to the story for those who've seen enough spy game thrillers. Odum comes with a few layers (though most due to the fact that he goes by different names) but his support system is filled with characters you've seen before.
 
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/08/08/legends-pilot-review?utm_campaign=ign+main+twitter&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social


'Legends' review: Typical crime stuff, with a twist

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What makes "Legends" different? Not a lot, but it does have Bean ("Game of Thrones") as an FBI undercover op whose real name is Martin Odum. But to the unscrubbed gaggle of home-grown antigovernment terrorists he's infiltrated, Odum is a mad-at-the-world misfit named Lincoln Dittmann.

In federal undercover-speak, a "legend" is an agent's invented personality, and Odum has fine-tuned his Dittmann legend so precisely, he can slip back into his skin just by donning his '80s-style wire-rim glasses. His voice changes, he begins to stutter, and he becomes an entirely different person. Of course, an actor of Bean's caliber can pull this off without breaking a sweat, and that elevates the show above some of its predecessors.

Much of the episodic material is recycled and predictable - Odum and Larter's character are always at odds and have, of course, had a fling; there's a smooth FBI agent (Morris Chestnut) who doesn't trust Odum and is out to undermine him; Sonya probably still loves Odum but resents his self-focus.

This kind of thing could get old fast, but there is something else going on here that piques our interest: Odum is stalked by a mysterious figure who eventually plants an explosive piece of information in his psyche, suggesting that even the identity of Martin Odum may be as much a "legend" as that of Lincoln Dittmann.

The potential of that longer story arc, as well as having Bean back on screen with his head reattached to his torso, may be enough to make "Legends" work despite the familiarity of that crime-solving-team template.
 
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/tv/article/Legends-review-Typical-crime-stuff-with-a-5677589.php


Game of Thrones’ Sean Bean Reveals Multiple Personalities in ‘Legends’Culture

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Actor Sean Bean (Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings) plays a FBI agent with the ability to transform himself into a different person for each job in the new TV serialized drama, Legends. Based on the novel by master spy novelist Robert Littell, Legends will premiere on August 13, on TNT.

Although Merrill Barr at Forbes says Bean “convincingly pulls off all his different personas,” Barr also says Legends is “far from memorable.” Jeanne Jakle at MySanAntonio agrees: “I would be much less interested if it weren’t for the show’s leading man. The rugged Bean, one of the most magnetic and engaging actors around, makes the show. Period.”
 
http://2paragraphs.com/2014/08/game-of-thrones-sean-bean-reveals-multiple-personalities-in-legends/?se_id=


« Last Edit: August 09, 2014, 01:23:17 AM by patch »

Offline Waverunner

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #8 on: August 09, 2014, 05:15:16 AM »
The problem with the second review is that the reviewer began with a preconceived idea of how good the series should be due to what the front-runner, Gordon, did before. 24 was an exceptional concept and well-executed idea that broke the mold for television drama. Homeland was a pay cable political thriller that had none of the restrictions involved with regular network shows. Legends has to find the line down the middle. It has no molds to break since 24 went before and it can't push the envelope as Homeland was able to do. Comparing Legends to 24 and Homeland does it a great disservice as it is like comparing apples to oranges to peaches. Therefore, I am completely discarding the entire second review.


I agree -seems to me that the perspective of this review is one of a bored and jaded reviewer.

Plus critics all too often think they have to pan everything they see, so people will think they are clever and have some kind of power over what shows will succeed and what will fail.

Offline patch

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #9 on: August 09, 2014, 02:51:53 PM »
TV review: ‘Legends’ lets Sean Bean shine as lots of bad guys inside one good guy

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Sean Bean has spent his career making other actors into heroes, cowards and afterthoughts. It’s a good thing, then, that all the best roles in Bean’s new TV show are played by Sean Bean.

Harrison Ford felt tougher after staring him down in “Patriot Games.” Watching Bean’s Boromir die in “The Fellowship of the Ring” made Viggo Mortenson braver.

Even James Bond looked weak next to Sean Bean. Squaring off against Bean’s scarred, surly Agent 006 in “Goldeneye” ensured that Pierce Brosnan’s 007 never shed his Remington Steele pretty-boy baggage.

Three years and three “Game of Thrones” seasons after his character’s departure, Bean’s confident performance as honorable warrior Ned Stark still grounds the sprawling HBO epic. (The show’s creators had declared before casting began that they’d make the show with Sean Bean as Ned Stark or not at all.) Evil Prince Joffrey, conniving Queen Cersei, shifty pimp Littlefinger — they all came into focus while face to face with Stark in that first season.


Expect a similar, Bean-based approach in “Legends,” which kicks off Wednesday on TNT. A spy thriller developed by Howard Gordon, one of the brains behind “24” and “Homeland,” “Legends” is another character-driven, action-packed love letter to America’s intelligence community, set in that comforting version of reality where everyone’s good-looking and motives are more or less pure.

Like Jack Bauer and Nicholas Brody, Martin Odum tap dances along the line between rule-breaking hero and self-serving vigilante. But it goes deeper with Martin, who’s so good at disappearing into his undercover personas that he forgets himself. And that might be just as well, because Odum might not be Sean Bean’s real self, either. Think Jason Bourne, with more stubble.

It’s a pleasure to watch Bean fall into his “legends,” or fake identities, even as the show pushes the boundaries of what TV audiences might accept when it comes to instantaneous computer heroics. Watching actors type furiously — even likable actors like Tina Majorino — is no substitute for watching Bean slam a bad guy’s head into a wall, even if he is given some slightly hokey dialogue to work with.

“If you were going to do it,” he hisses at a bad guy holding a detonator, “you would have done it already. Go ahead.”

“Legends” is another small-screen reminder that Bean is one of those increasingly rare actors, like Daniel Craig, whom you don’t have to feel silly for liking, an anti-James Franco who brings masculinity to roles without throwing public tantrums.

Clint Eastwood is talking to chairs. Johnny Depp is a Disney cartoon. Harrison Ford is on a macrobiotic diet. Now, more than ever, the world needs Sean Bean, even if he is lost deep inside the mind of an unemployed construction worker, then a playboy arms dealer, then a corrupt Chicago cop, then a cowboy poet …

 
http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/article1165719.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #10 on: August 09, 2014, 06:22:59 PM »
Quote
I agree -seems to me that the perspective of this review is one of a bored and jaded reviewer.

Plus critics all too often think they have to pan everything they see, so people will think they are clever and have some kind of power over what shows will succeed and what will fail.


They do it to get attention by provoking a reaction from fans, thinking it will make a name for themselves. Usually sad, negative people.
« Last Edit: August 09, 2014, 11:22:31 PM by Sable899 »

Offline patch

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #11 on: August 10, 2014, 12:00:11 AM »
HeldenFiles: Sean Bean is back, sharks amok, more ‘Candid’

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The actor Sean Bean has long been able to move between roles as heroes and villains, making the villains compelling and the heroes a little scary. He was one of the most engaging personalities in the early going on Game of Thrones, where he played Ned Stark, and there were howls at his sudden departure from that HBO series.

So Legends, a series premiering at 9 p.m. Wednesday on TNT, is worth watching because Bean is the star. And he has a meaty role, as Martin Odum, a top-shelf undercover agent for the FBI — someone who is so good at inhabiting his undercover, fake identities (known as legends) that, as the series begins, he sometimes confuses those personalities with his real one. Bean therefore has to navigate the real Odum, fake identities and moments when neither he, nor we in the audience, quite know where he is along the line between the real and the unreal.

But even as I plan to watch more of the series, I have to admit that there’s a 24-like absurdity to it at times, for example in a scene in the premiere where two agents are trying to trade information while one is giving the other a lap dance. And it has layered some skullduggery on top of Odum’s personal crises which seems unnecessary when Odum, and Bean’s performance, is exciting on its own. 
http://www.ohio.com/the330entertainment/heldenfels/heldenfiles-sean-bean-is-back-sharks-amok-more-candid-1.512209


‘The Knick’ and ‘Legends’ take the dogs out of TV’s Dog Days of Summer

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  Sean Bean has whipsawed back and forth between movies (“Lord of the Rings”) and television (“Game of Thrones”) and now arrives Wednesday in a part that offers even more exhibitionistic juice for a high-horsepower British actor than Dr. Thackery does for Clive Owen in “The Knick.”

The name of the new TNT show is “Legends.” When you first see Bean in “Legends,” he’s a dweeby-looking rural reject with a stutter who’s complaining because he can’t get any face time with the “Founding Father” of a White Supremacist “Citizens Army of Virginia.”

The show is pretty good, especially in its opportunity for Bean to do the kind of thespian exhibitionism that hammy British and American actors have been doing on TV since the early days of TV gave them “playhouse” formats in which to play all sorts of wildly divergent roles from week to week. (Or, by the same token, gave them premises that involved them getting into disguises and different roles every week a la “The Rogues” and “The Wild Wild West”).

What it means for a lot of us is that we just can’t count on TNT anymore for a certain level of audience-pleasing mediocrity (a la “Rizzoli and Isles” these days).

Quality can sneak in anyplace.
 
http://www.buffalonews.com/columns/jeff-simon/the-knick-and-legends-take-the-dogs-out-of-tvs-dog-days-of-summer-20140810


Sean Bean lives in "Legends," spy drama premiering Aug. 13 on TNT

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Legends," premiering Aug. 13, on TNT, showcases Bean's chameleon acting talent and facility with accents. Here, as undercover agent Martin Odum, Bean not only switches in and out of his native British accent to take on various American deep cover identities, he also adds a stutter.

Using several "legends," or fabricated identities, Odum (Bean) takes identities on and off with his wardrobe. One minute a meek jobless construction worker, the next a high-rolling international playboy. But he begins to question who he really is when a stranger contacts him in a subway station with alarming news: "There is no Martin Odum," the man says. "He's a legend."

Here comes another "trust no one" conundrum. Odum comes to understand that he doesn't know where his life ends and his legend begins. He's been warned: "They don't want you to know the truth!"

The agency tracks his moves via GPS. But are they offering "a leash or a lifeline?"

It's all a fairly standard spy-thriller template, but the cast and crew give "Legends" an edge. Trust Howard Gordon ("Homeland," "24") and company to devise a well-plotted mystery.
 
http://www.denverpost.com/television/ci_26295385/sean-bean-lives-legends-spy-drama-premiering-aug


Sean Bean goes deep for TNT's 'Legends'

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Sean Bean is a man of many faces in “Legends,” arriving Wednesday on TNT. He’s an FBI deep cover operative (DCO) who assumes fabricated identities to get close with very bad people (VBP?) and set them up for a fall.

This is a nice change of pace for Bean, cast too often as either the villain in crime dramas or the hero in costume epics (including “Lord of the Rings” and “Game of Thrones”).

But “Legends” doesn’t stray all that far from the mainstream of Bean’s resume. His Martin Odum is a rough-hewn hero, prone to defy authority and disappoint those who care about him. What he loves most is the job.

His troubles go deeper than that, though. In the premiere, Martin (and viewers) learn from a mystery man that he might not be who he thinks he is.

“You don’t know where your legend ends and your life begins,” the man tells him. “There is no Martin Odum.”

Stuff happens that makes Martin unable to dismiss this warning, especially when the mystery man tells him, “You were never supposed to remember.”

This underlying plot, which will drive “Legends,” could actually take away from the series rather than enhancing it. In the early going, the series works best as sort of a modern-day “Mission: Impossible,” and could actually use more of that show’s caper elements.

“Legends” would work well with mostly stand-alone episodes, but the first two hours suggest a lot of serialization, as Martin tries to solve his own mystery.

The mystery includes Martin’s accent, which (when he’s speaking as himself) makes him sound British, like Sean Bean. The pilot’s explanation for that “may be true. It may also not be true,” Wilcox said. (I think I’m speaking for Sean Bean fans when I say: We don’t care. The more he sounds like Sean Bean, the better.)

When you think the first episode of “Legends” is over, it’s not. By the end, we’ve learned to trust no one and that nobody in this show is safe.
The exception, most likely, is Martin, or whoever he is
No need to start a death watch here. TNT uses “starring Sean Bean” as a subhead for “Legends.” And although he’ll have close calls, Bean said, “I’m going to be in this for a while.”
http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/television/gail-pennington/sean-bean-goes-deep-for-tnt-s-legends/article_3c377804-7404-5453-9a05-d390a853f69b.html




« Last Edit: August 10, 2014, 05:36:31 AM by patch »

Offline Frances

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #12 on: August 10, 2014, 10:40:14 AM »
I'm curious to see this Tv show..

Offline patch

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #13 on: August 11, 2014, 12:43:58 AM »

Bean's cliched 'Legends' has promising premise

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For a split second, I actually thought Sean Bean was going to die in the very first scene of "Legends," TNT's new drama series.
 When we first meet him in Wednesday's premiere episode, Odum's undercover as a budding bomber named Lincoln Dittmann, and looks and acts not unlike the unsure, inexperienced Walter White of "Breaking Bad's" first few episodes.

Seeing Bean, a rough-hewed British rogue, play these "legends" will undoubtedly be the series' main attraction -- Dittmann is a disenfranchised American nerd, a far cry from a heroic swordsman of Middle-earth or James Bond's turncoat partner.

 Crystal needs to have a strategic conversation with Odum just out of earshot of the terrorists, so she gives him a private lap dance.

That's as shameless as it gets, and I hope it's not a harbinger of things to come. Much more promising is the long story arc set up in the pilot's second half, in which Odum confronts a hooded stranger who has been following him. Just before he's stabbed to death by a femme fatale, this stranger tells Odum that he may not be the man he thinks he is. Is "Martin Odum" just another legend?

That hook, and the opportunity to see Bean morph into different personas each week, will be what keeps me interested in "Legends." The cast, which adds Morris Chestnut ("Nurse Jackie") in the second episode, is likable and talented but saddled with eye-rolling dialogue. The first two hours of "Legends" feel a little too much like a CBS procedural for my taste, but this show's pedigree suggests there are great things ahead once we get past these awkward initial steps.
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20140811/entlife/140819998/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter



Nothing explosive about TNT’s ‘Legends’

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Sean Bean, the scruffy British actor who was one of the biggest stars in Season One of “Game of Thrones” — until his character, Ned Stark, met his grisly end — has been away from TV for too long.

With his weathered charm and flinty blue eyes, Bean deserves to have a show of his own, especially after acquiring such legendary status on “GoT.”

That show is not “Legends.”

Several elements on “Legends” ring familiar. The man following Odum is reminiscent of Tom Walker, the military assassin who haunted Nicholas Brody on “Homeland.” A climactic scene in a DC metro station will remind you of another climactic DC subway scene on “House of Cards.” Crystal McGuire, the humorless team leader played by the one-dimensional Ali Larter, will remind you of the humorless Robin Tunney on “The Mentalist.”

The creators of “Legends” want you to believe that Odum and Crystal once shared a night of wild sexual abandon, but Crystal’s ironed hair has more bounce than any mattress she’s ever slept on.

Episode 2 offers a better case than the pilot, and Bean gets to unveil a better persona (a Liverpudlian weapons broker named Dante Auerbach). Also on hand is Morris Chestnut, playing a DCO agent who (naturally) won’t obey orders.

Maybe “Legends” will get better, but if TNT expects Bean to carry this show, they’re going to have to give him better villains and better back-up support.
 
http://nypost.com/2014/08/10/nothing-explosive-about-tnts-legends/


TNT preps for ‘Legend-ary’ end of summer with top event dramas
http://hiddenremote.com/2014/08/11/tnt-preps-legend-ary-end-summer-top-event-dramas/2/



« Last Edit: August 11, 2014, 09:00:50 AM by patch »

Offline patch

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #14 on: August 12, 2014, 12:12:02 AM »
Tuned In: Sean Bean is believable in 'Legends'

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There’s a Kiefer Sutherland-like quality to British actor Sean Bean – he’s a rough-and-tumble, gruff-voiced performer and at times in the pilot for TNT’s “Legends” (9 p.m. Wednesday), you can almost smell a mix of cigarettes and alcohol wafting through the TV screen, lack of smell-o-vision be damned.


He’s absolutely believable as deep-cover FBI agent Martin Odum, who takes on a new character – or “legend” – for each assignment.

The show itself is action-packed but less legendary, feeling more like a series audiences have seen plenty of times before.

Mr. Bean’s Odum has a lived-in quality but those around him – nagging colleague Crystal (Ali Larter, “Heroes”), punky computer genius Maggie (Tina Majorino, “Big Love”) and boss man Nelson (Steve Harris, “The Practice”) – play more to TV types.

“Legends” does offer some unexpected plot twists, killing off characters who seem like series regulars in early episodes, and a serialized story thread about whether Odum has a true personality of his own or if “Martin Odum” is himself a legend.

In the series premiere, Odum goes undercover with a homegrown terrorist group for six months to try to prevent a new terrorist attack. In episode two, he’s up against Russian baddies and the episode ends with the promise of Odum resurrecting an old legend from his past.

Darker and less escapist than TNT’s other new summer entry, “The Last Ship,” “Legends” offers a down-and-dirty hero with rough edges but surrounds him with a cadre of cleaner, less sullied colleagues, making for somewhat of a tonal mish-mash.

 
http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/tv-radio/2014/08/12/Tuned-In-Sean-Bean-is-believable-in-Legends/stories/201408120014



Undercover, With a History and a Lot to Hide

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TNT is well aware that most television viewers confronted with “Legends,” a series beginning Wednesday night, aren’t going to be thinking, oh, a new show about an undercover F.B.I. agent. They’re going to be thinking, oh, Ned Stark’s back! To capitalize on the affection fans feel for Sean Bean, the star of “Legends,” TNT is even promoting the hashtag #DontKillSeanBean.

It might seem like a stretch to publicize your leading man’s history of meeting violent ends in his previous jobs, most famously as the noble Stark, beheaded in “Game of Thrones” on HBO. (Other notable Bean deaths: shot with arrows as Boromir in “The Lord of the Rings” and blown up as the I.R.A. terrorist in “Patriot Games.”)

But maybe TNT didn’t feel like it had a whole lot else to go with. “Legends,” whose title refers to the elaborate back stories created for undercover identities, is darker and more violent than the channel’s most successful shows, lightweight crime dramas like “Rizzoli & Isles” and “Major Crimes.” Presumably “Legends” is meant to seem more serious than those shows and skew more male in its viewership, but it succeeds only in being more mechanical, predictable and thin.

Mr. Bean is as capable and sympathetic as always in his portrayal of Martin Odum, a deep-undercover operative who, as the series begins, is emerging from a six-month stint with a far-right militia. Odum is a head case of a type now pretty firmly associated with the producer Howard Gordon, the biggest name attached to “Legends” — the character’s psychological issues make him the ultimate agent, like Jack Bauer in “24” and Carrie Mathison in “Homeland.”

While Odum and his team tackle the cases that come along — by the second episode the militia has been dealt with, but a new threat arises involving Russians and nerve gas — a long-arc conspiracy is set in motion, suggesting that Martin Odum itself is a legend and that Mr. Bean’s character doesn’t know who he really is.

If that kind of plot is like potato chips for you, then you might be willing to sit through the boilerplate dialogue (“Trust no one. NO ONE.”) and the superfluous flashbacks recapping events that took place 10 minutes ago. Here’s a test: If it seems perfectly natural that Ali Larter, who co-stars as Odum’s handler, appears as a stripper in the first episode and as a banker wearing a skintight red dress in the second, then “Legends” is probably for you.

 
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/arts/television/legends-a-new-drama-on-tnt-starring-sean-bean.html?_r=0
« Last Edit: August 12, 2014, 03:10:40 PM by patch »

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #15 on: August 13, 2014, 12:21:38 AM »
With subtlety & skill, Sean Bean stars in 'Legends'

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TONIGHT'S MUST-SEE: "Legends," 9 p.m., TNT. Big and booming, Sean Bean often plays epic figures. He's been Zeus and Odysseus; he's been killed in "Game of Thrones," "Lord of the Rings," "Henry VIII" and more. So viewers might be surprised tonight to see him playing a shy and stuttering killer. Stick around; this series about FBI undercover work provides real range. Steve Harris leads a team that includes Ali Larter, Tina Majorino and Bean … who shows us (as PBS viewers already knew) he has subtlety and skill
http://www.thecalifornian.com/story/life/2014/08/13/subtlety-skill-sean-bean-stars-legends/13908229/


Bean brings accent(s) to TNT's 'Legends'

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THERE'S a small moment in the premiere of TNT's "Legends" in which undercover FBI agent Martin Odum is introduced to a new colleague, who tells him they have something in common.
"I'm an Air Force brat, too," says the young analyst ( Tina Majorino, "Veronica Mars"). "Only my father was never stationed overseas, so I didn't get a cool accent out of the deal."
And just like that, Martin is free to spend at least part of every episode sounding like the man playing him, Yorkshire-born Sean Bean ("Game of Thrones," "Lord of the Rings") rather than someone from Anytown, USA.

I think people accept it," said "Legends" executive producer David Wilcox last month of the explanation for Bean's accent. "We don't belabor it."

Based on a novel by Robert Littell and developed for television by Howard Gordon ("24," "Homeland"), "Legends" - the title refers to a term for the elaborate backstories of undercover agents - may be playing a longer game, Wilcox hinted, raising issues about Odum's true identity for which "his accent may be a clue."

Martin's supervisor (played by Cherry Hill's Ali Larter) is certainly suspicious, complaining in next week's episode that she doesn't know "if that accent's even real."

There are practical advantages to giving Bean one fewer voice to manage.

"Sean really prides himself on doing an enormous amount of research and preparation, and obviously we try to accommodate that when we're coming up with these legends [for Odum]," Wilcox said. "So we really tried to take his accent, his persona, and play to his strengths."

Bean, who works with a voice coach, said that he'll be playing a Texan in a future episode, something that "was easier to learn than a 'regular' American accent. . . . It's very idiosyncratic."
 
http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20140813_Bean_brings_accent_s__to_TNT_s__Legends_.html


LEGENDS Review: Sean Bean Is Finally a Master of Survival in New TNT Drama

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Bean is cool and charismatic as Martin, or as any of the personas he takes on, and the idea that he gets too lost in them to come back fully is a decent one on which to build the series (which will run for 10 episodes in its first season).  A subplot involving a mysterious stranger and a growing pile of bodies even suggests that Martin may not even be his true persona — he may be some kind of sleeper agent.

legends-ali-larterAs Martin struggles to unravel this mystery in addition to his daily work, a co-worker begins spying on him, hoping to catch him doing something that will incriminate him.  In this way, Legends has set up plenty to work with in terms of short and full-season arcs, but none of them feel particularly fresh.  There’s nothing interesting or exceptional about the style or direction, or the way Legendschooses to tell its story.  And while it doesn’t mind keeping the stakes high as far as body counts go, it’s a difficult line to walk.  While some dramas like Dexter, or even The Following, appear daring at first by killing off those close to the protagonist, it’s not sustainable for long without devolving into farce.

Legends is fine, but it’s not great.  The disappointing thing is that it could be a lot better.  There’s not a lot of spark or life to it, or enough humor to make it even breezy, late-summer fun.  It’s a bog-standard operation: the story, setup, and presentation are all well within TNT’s wheelhouse, and that is also the problem.  The network could have — and should have — stretched itself to makeLegends more interesting.  A clever marketing campaign can only go so far.  One does not simply walk into a hit TV show.  How about #BeanDeservesBetter?
 
http://collider.com/legends-review-sean-bean/


TV review: 'Legends,' or The Bean Identity

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Despite Bean's amazing transformations and quality work from the strong supporting cast, the writing often feels lazy. I don't doubt Crystal's ability to go undercover as a men's club dancer, but I bet she doesn't just happen to pack stripper clothes in her purse every day.

Gordon and Co. also seem to be giving "Legends" a lame case-of-the-week structure over a much more intriguing long-term story about Martin's real identity.

"You don't know where your life begins and your legend ends," a mysterious stalker tells Martin in the premiere. "There is no Martin Odum."

Episode 2 picks up considerably by fleshing out that serialized plot and adding Morris Chestnut as nosy FBI Agent Tony Rice, who begins a rogue investigation of Martin.

These improvements suggest that, over time, "Legends" may grow a bit more legendary.
 
http://www.redeyechicago.com/entertainment/tv/redeye-legends-tv-review-bean-identity-20140812,0,4897932.story


Tube Talk: Journeyman actor Sean Bean leads cast of TNT’s ‘Legends’

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Full disclosure, the preview copy I saw of Legends is not exactly the same version of the pilot episode that will air this week. The pilot I watched was set in Chicago, but scenes were later re-shot to move Odum’s home base to Los Angeles. I’m sure producers had valid reasons for changing locales, but I’m not sure LA will provide the same sort of atmosphere Chicago would have.

Some of the supporting characters in the version I saw were a bit clichéd. For example, Tina Majorino is delightful in any role, but she already perfected geek chic as Mac on Veronica Mars 10 years ago. On Legends, she plays an FBI computer tech, leaving me wishing the tech were named Mac, not Maggie. Somehow, I doubt that detail will be changed by airtime.

Without spoiling anything, by the end of the first episode, a couple of curious events cause our favorite professional imposter to question his own identity. That might feel eerily similar to The Bourne Identity to some viewers, but I think Legends producers will have sense enough to take their story in a fresh direction. At least I hope they will.

Even if upcoming story lines don’t turn out to be all that original, at least with an actors’ actor like Bean heading up the solid cast, Legends is still worth watching.
 
http://rockrivertimes.com/2014/08/12/tube-talk-journeyman-actor-sean-bean-leads-cast-of-tnts-legends/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

« Last Edit: August 13, 2014, 02:56:51 AM by patch »

Offline patch

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #16 on: August 14, 2014, 12:48:09 AM »
Spoiler alert!!!!
Legends Season 1 Episode 1 - MARTIN ODUM - Review + Top Moments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ4ORtu1zuE


Legends Series Premiere Review: The Bean Identity

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One of the great things about television is the mix of comfort and excitement that comes with know that once a week, you get to spend time with actors you like. Their charm and skill can go such a long way, even in the most thankless or boring roles, that we as viewers probably take them for granted. The debut of TNT's new spy thriller Legends brought that feeling to the forefront of my mind even more than usual, because we never get to spend enough time with Sean Bean. You know, one does not simply get to watch a show where his character lives and all that.

The good news about the first episode of Legends is that it was fully aware of our society's need for a more stable, consistent Sean Bean fix. This was an opening hour defined almost exclusively by how cool it is to have Bean playing a highly intelligent, incredibly tough super-spy on TV every week.

To his credit, Bean was up to the task. Playing a character who is playing a character isn't as easy as he makes it look, but thankfully someone on the production staff made the truly great and rationale decision to permit Bean to use his natural accent for the character's baseline. Though the pilot had to include some dumb throwaway line about how he was raised abroad and thus "picked up" the accent, that choice helped Bean be more effective in the moments when Odum slipped into his broken down American hillbilly-ish "legend," Lincoln Dittmann. (Throwing glasses on him worked too, because WHAT A NERD, right?) I wouldn't necessarily call this an overly challenging role for a veteran with Bean's skills, but he brought the right amount of pathos and ethos to a man who has indeed spent too much time in the field and can't quite "manage" real life, despite the fact that he clearly loves his family. And though believability isn't a key issue for me when I'm watching shows like this, it certainly isn't that difficult to imagine Odum being as wonderful as everyone says he is in this first hour because in Bean's hands, the character looks both entirely competent and extremely worn down.

In some regard, there was purposefully not a lot on the page for Bean to work with.
The problem is that if the pilot is any indication of what Legends is going to look like each week, we might have to suffer through some pretty generic stuff to get to the Sean Bean of it all. Don't get me wrong, there's a fine cast here: Steve Harris (The Practice) is the man in charge; Ali Larter (Heroes)'s Crystal is also sort of in charge and has some sexual history with Odum; Tina Majorino (Veronica Mars) is playing the Tina Majorino tech girl part; and Morris Chestnut is supposed to show up sooner rather than later. That's a rock-solid crew of professionals, but they're all playing significantly generic types that, at least in this episode, were in service of Odum. Larter was given a couple of decent moments, one of which of course required her to strip down—almost literally, as she went undercover as a stripper—and she's frankly perfect for a role like this. Yet, while that kind of characterization is to be expected in episode one, this is also the kind of show (given its premise and its network) that you can safely assume that Legends is almost always going to follow this pattern: Bean first, case second, everyone else third and beyond. That's OK, but with these kind of performers? More please.
http://www.tv.com/news/legends-season-1-episode-1-pilot-series-premiere-review-140798372509/


The 6 Times Sean Bean Could've Died in TNT's 'Legends' Premiere

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Here are all the times that Bean could've died in Wednesday night's premiere of Legends, but ended up living for once.
Bean survived this pilot and lives to see another episode. Whether the show survives is in TNT's hands, so really, Bean, don't quit your day job.
http://mashable.com/2014/08/13/sean-bean-legends-recap-premiere-epsode-1i/


Review: Sean Bean goes undercover in TNT's 'Legends'

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I will say this for "Legends," the new TNT drama (it debuts tonight at 9) starring Sean Bean: it does not attempt to hide Bean's native accent behind some bland non-regional American dialect, at least not in his main identity as FBI agent Martin Odom. Because Odom is a master of assuming undercover identities (the "legends" of the title), Bean gets to try on various semi-convincing accents the rest of the time, but at least "Legends" doesn't waste time trying to convince us that Ned Stark doesn't sound like Ned Stark when he's not playacting. The explanation for how a man with this accent ended up working for the FBI is utterly ridiculous, but it's also one line of dialogue that never has to be dealt with again, and it's an approach that I wish many more shows would take when hiring actors from the UK, Australia or New Zealand.

The only one not cast to type in this way is Bean himself. Bean is not known as a chameleon of a performer. He's known as the sturdy guy who comes in, gives your project enormous gravitas, and then dies so that you can get to the actual story(*). He has a very distinct look that's hard to disguise, though he and the show's costume and makeup people do what they can with props, wardrobe and accent choices. He never disappears into any of his cover identities, but you can imagine a world in which he might be plausible as a recruit in a white supremacist militia, or as a successful arms merchant. And the pilot does have one strong scene where he explains the backstory of his latest legend to Larter and the team, as we see him slip on the character, layer by layer. It's a basic actor's exercise, filmed in tight close-up, but an effective way of demonstrating how Odom does what he does.
 
http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/review-sean-bean-goes-undercover-in-tnts-legends


Sean Bean stands out in 'Legends' pilot

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A “legend,” as a title credit in TNT’s Legends so helpfully informs us, is a fabricated identity within U.S. undercover government work. Martin Odum, played by Game of Thrones’ Sean Bean, has a few of these legends, but he is struggling to separate himself from these false identities and starting to question who he really is. That’s an intriguing premise, but it gets lost in the series’ pilot in favor of wannabe witty banter between Odum and his coworker-slash-crush and boring, undeveloped characters.
Though it’s slightly comforting to see a character resembling one we know so well, it’s also a bit of a cheat. None of the characters in Legends are anything remotely original and can all be stored into tiny, neat description boxes: There’s the computer whiz, the hard-ass (Ali Larter), the stony ex-wife (Amber Valletta). This is the pilot, so there’s plenty of time for these characters to grow, but it’s not reassuring to walk away from an episode of TV only (kind of) understanding one character.

Legends might not be a life-changing drama now—it might not (probably won’t) ever be—but, even despite its pilot’s flaws, the show has potential: Supporting cast members Larter, Morris Chestnut, Tina Majorino, and Steve Harris are promising actors who have the talent to do more with their characters if the writers give them more, and watching Bean transform from legend to legend, week to week sounds entertaining in itself. Keep the awkward flirtations to a minimum, make the action sequences more high-stakes, and Legends could be worth taking a break from your own identity crisis to watch.
http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/08/13/sean-bean-legends-tnt-pilot/


Review TNT's 'Legends' finds Sean Bean keeping his head as master spy

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The supporting players all circle Martin like so many magician's assistants while he makes his miraculous transformation; as time goes on, one hopes that some will emerge as more than transition providers and human scenery (with any luck, Majorino's Maggie will become Martin's Chloe à la "24"). Still, in this age of increasingly artsy-fartsy television, there is something refreshing about a show that is content with putting on a show. Although it dabbles in larger issues, "Legends" doesn't pretend to be more than it is: an undercover procedural. And with Bean as its self-doubting spy and master of disguise, that is more than enough.

As long as, you know, they don't kill him. Because I'm fairly sure a hashtag ad campaign constitutes a binding contract these days.
 
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-tnt-legends-review-20140812-column.html


TV Review: TNT's 'Legends'

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premieres Legends — starring Sean Bean and executive produced by Homeland cocreator Howard Gordon — on Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET. The drama is based on a novel of the same name by Robert Littell. The following are reviews from TV critics around the web, compiled by B&C.

"Developed by 24 and Homeland producer Howard Gordon, the series about a deep-cover operative is adapted from Robert Littell’s novel, but probably owes a more sizable debt in TV terms to Wiseguy, a late-’80s artifact that felt very much ahead of its time. Legends, by contrast, is rooted in its Blacklist-informed present, trying — and not fully succeeding – to infuse a cop procedural with a deeper mythological spine."
—Brian Lowry, Variety

"For a show that is about a man who is never who he appears to be, Legends winds up being exactly what it appears to be in every possible second: a generic crime procedural tricked up with a convoluted mystery meant to add intrigue to the various Undercover Assignments of the Week."
—Alan Sepinwall, HitFix

“Legends, whose title refers to the elaborate back stories created for undercover identities, is darker and more violent than the channel’s most successful shows, lightweight crime dramas like Rizzoli & Isles and Major Crimes. Presumably Legends is meant to seem more serious than those shows and skew more male in its viewership, but it succeeds only in being more mechanical, predictable and thin."
—Mike Hale, New York Times

"Much of the episodic material is recycled and predictable - Odum and Larter's character are always at odds and have, of course, had a fling, there's a smooth FBI agent (Morris Chestnut) who doesn't trust Odum and is out to undermine him, Sonya probably still loves Odum but resents his self-focus."
—David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle

"Bean is clearly the main reason to watch Legends, the third Howard Gordon-produced venture to hit the flat screen this year. The 10-episode series, based on a book by Robert Littell and premiering Wednesday, has been constructed as a wide and solid if somewhat workmanlike platform for the British actor's considerable talents."
 ​—Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times

 
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/blog/bc-review/tv-review-tnts-legends/133179
« Last Edit: August 14, 2014, 02:53:04 AM by patch »

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #17 on: August 15, 2014, 12:07:01 AM »
Legends After Show Season 1 Episode 1 "Pilot" | AfterBuzz TV

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AFTERBUZZ TV – Legends edition, is a weekly “after show” for fans of TNT’s Legends. In this show, hosts Dave Klein, JB Zimmerman and Carrie Long discuss episode 1. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN6p-LCXqwE



Legends - Pilot - Review

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Pilots are often among my least favorite episodes of a series. If I’ve missed it when it first premiered, I tend to not go back and watch it until I’ve caught up on everything else, and that’s because pilots are usually full of character and story set up, and a pale comparison to the layered story the show eventually grows into, if it survives. Pilots often feel a little bumpy. Everyone – the actors, writers, producers – are still getting a feel for who the characters are and what the show is, and sometimes seen in retrospect, those characters and the show feel a little off.

So how did the Legends pilot do? It had a lot of character and story set up, it was a little bumpy, but in some areas it was full of promise

 Bean’s performance as Odum stole the show for me. He plays the character with so much depth, and the right balance of deflection, confidence, and vulnerability to make him a very sympathetic character. We meet his ex-wife (Sonya) and son (Aiden) and see that he loves them and feels he failed them. His job prevents him from being the father his son needs, yet his son is still remarkably well-adjusted. Given what’s hinted at by the hooded man – that Odum is just a legend – I can’t stop from drawing connections to Jack Shephard’s imaginary and perfect teenage son David on LOST. If Aiden isn’t actually Martin’s son, I wonder how this revelation will affect the already unraveling mind of our hero.

 The standout moment of this episode for me is when Odum describing to his team his current legend, Lincoln Dittmann, an unemployed construction worker whose wife left him, and starts to subconsciously transform into this personality. The subtle changes in Bean’s demeanor, the introduction of a stutter (a Dittmann characteristic), and the stunned looks of the agency team as he makes this transformation make this a powerful scene.
 
http://www.spoilertv.com/2014/08/legends-pilot-review.html


« Last Edit: August 22, 2014, 01:16:21 PM by patch »

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #18 on: August 16, 2014, 03:24:10 AM »
Legends Review – TNT Puts Sean Bean Under The Spy Microscope

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It’s a show that hooks you quickly, mostly because Sean Bean is fantastic, in much the same way as the first series of 24 did (and this one is from some of the people who brought you that show), and also screams of similarities to the more recent The Blacklist. Sean Bean pulls you in, not just because his spin on diverse characters is enthralling, but because you are getting so much of the story from all around him. His response and nuance are key, and he nails every bit of it. As an example, it takes a multi-faceted sense of detail to deliver the response he does to someone telling him that Martin Odum is just a character he’s playing, and he’s become lost in it. He can’t just laugh it off, else no continuation of the plot, but he has to show us a character that we believe might wonder about the idea, and need to investigate further. That’s a character that is nearly impossible to show, and he manages it.

Put Bean’s abilities together with an espionage backdrop, and hints of the deeper mystery, and this one should be an instant hit. To a great extent, that’s what you get, and the action and fun are delivered in spades.

 The only other potential problem for viewers is that the marketing is somewhat confusing. It seems that we’re tuning in to the continuing drama of Martin and his quest to find out who he really is, much as is the case with other long-form shows of late (The Bridge, The Killing, etc.), but there is a lot more of the episodic investigation format here. That may throw some people, and for those who are easily turned off by series trickery, that may be a problem.

I hope it isn’t, because this is a show I want to watch for a while. I’m not even all that interested in the broader story, especially because that’s the sort of thing that might spin down a kind LOST path, hoping to add clever upon clever until the grand machinations become ludicrous. No, I’d rather the show put most of the effort into watching the character put on new “legends,” and showcase how the good guys basically run cons on a variety of criminals. That part of the show is potentially the most gripping thing to hit television in a while, and something that might easily be worthy of the marketing push TNT has put behind it. The big question of the show is one that stirs things up in a fun way, but the best thing about it is the openings it gives Bean to tear his character down in front of us.

This is one you absolutely want to catch, and if this sort of thing is at all your cup of tea, it’s likely to be your new favorite show.

Bottom Line

TNT's Legends is a must watch of the highest order. It has a few flaws, but they are the sort that are likely to sort themselves out. The big question mark is just how "out there" the big mystery will go, but it's worth giving the benefit of the doubt for now.
 
http://areyouscreening.com/2014/08/13/television/legends-review-tnt-puts-sean-bean-spy-microscope?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+feedburner%2Fareyouscreening+%28Are+You+Screening%3F%29

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Re: Legends reviews
« Reply #19 on: August 16, 2014, 07:56:57 AM »

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.. mostly because Sean Bean is fantastic..
 


We know this!! :thumbsup: