Sean Bean is headed back to TV for TNT’s Legends, but this time he’ll be far away from the fantasy world of Winterfell. Legends finds him smack-dab in the real world playing DCO (Deep Cover Operations) agent Martin Odum, who goes so deep into character that he sometimes can’t draw the line between himself and the undercover identities, or “legends,” that he undertakes for a mission.
Odum is joined by Agent Crystal McGuire (Ali Larter) on certain missions as his partner, and Odum seems to have a sordid past with the leggy agent, but they work extremely well together in the field (and off?).
Backing them up on the tech side of things is Maggie Harris (played by Tina Majorino and her hair), who does most of her work in a 24 CTU-like command center while also acting as the relatable center to the show. Tony Rice (Morris Chestnut) manages to get swept into the growing vortex around Martin Odum and begins to believe there is something bigger going on with the veteran agent.
Legends relies heavily on Sean Bean carrying the show with his performances as different “legends,” to which he succeeds more often than not. There’s nothing groundbreaking or particularly interesting about the pilot, outside of Sean Bean giving it his all in one of his more versatile performances to date. Bean is no Tatiana Maslany as far as being an acting chameleon, but his ability to believably play multiple characters holds up, at least in the first two episodes.
The show is executive produced by Howard Gordon of 24 and Homeland fame, and you can definitely feel some of each show interspersed throughout the early episodes. I’ve only seen the first two episodes and while I was impressed that no character felt safe, I could already see a problem with things being dragged out too long by resting on the premise of Sean Bean playing a new character in every episode or two, instead of moving the overall plot forward. The show’s mythology around Odum’s identity is its most interesting part and the audience is given frustratingly few bits to keep them fully invested.
The supporting cast is pretty forgettable for a premiere episode, and despite being billed as a series regular, Morris Chestnut doesn’t even show up. Larter brings the sexy and Majorino brings the nerdy cuteness, but unfortunately aren’t given much development time in favor of the snooze-fest with Odum’s wife and son. They’re trying to establish Odum is a real person, but we end up just not caring and would rather watch a “legend.”
Sean Bean’s star power and gravitas-fueled performance should be enough to get people coming back for the next episode, but if the pace isn’t picked up quickly after the second episode, the show’s marketers may want to change their clever hashtag from #DontKillSeanBean to #DontKillLegends.