Television 

Five Thoughts on Legends of Tomorrow‘s “Wet Hot American Bummer”

By | November 13th, 2018
Posted in Television | % Comments

On this week’s Legends of Tomorrow, Sara, Ava, Ray and Constantine headed to Camp Ogawa, Maine, in 1995 to stop a creature preying on the children spending their summer there. Meanwhile on the Waverider, Zari and Mick kept an eye on their new prisoner, Charlie.

1. Swamp Thaaaang

Things with a much more blatant Friday the 13th homage than anything else in the episode, with Sara and Ava cuddling up to watch a terrible old slasher film called Swamp Thaaaang (it’s explained the four ‘a’s were because it was the fourth in the series, but really, it’s a neat nod to the cartoon’s theme that was basically a “Wild Thing” cover). It was so cheeky having a Swamp Thing homage like that, without having him actually appear in the episode, but I guess you make do with what you can when you’re presumably not allowed by the upcoming DC Universe series. (At least Constantine did namedrop him – Maine is apparently just too far up north for him, is all.) What was interesting about the slasher film was that it had 20-something actors as the teen victims, much like real teen movies, whereas all the kids in this episode were played by actual kids, which helped increase the sense of jeopardy a little.

2. Prison Buddies

The dynamic established between Charlie and Mick has been great, with her playing on his greatest hatred, that he has become a jailer (or a pig as he puts it). I’m very keen to see how Charlie’s reawakening of Mick’s darker tendencies will play out this season. It was also refreshing to see Zari try to stick to the rules for once, keeping Charlie contained until she was deceived into letting her out, and that this time she could just point to Mick when Sara learned what happened while she was gone.

3. Too Predictable?

On the other end of the spectrum, the reveal that this week’s fugitive – a shtriga – was Chad, the friendly, good-looking counselor was simply too predictable. The name Chad has had a rough run of late, so just once, couldn’t the gross monster have turned out to be the mean, frightening head counselor Paula? It probably was a result of runtime limitations, but we really needed more counselors at the camp for more compelling suspects, because as it is, it is rather unlikely the only other counselors were the fill-ins from 2018. Similarly I thought the girls playing a prank on Ava went on too long, as it was clearly a deception and not a real legend they had her investigate.

4. “Kid Stuff”

In a slightly crowbarred subplot akin to the classic Justice League Unlimited episode, Sara and Ava take a potion from Constantine to become young again to infiltrate the girls’ inner circle, so they’ll give up what they know about the camp’s secrets. It also gives Ava the chance to have a bit of an actual childhood, as opposed to her implanted fake memories, which is sweet of Sara. I think the storyline paid off with mixed results: the child actors doubling in the roles were excellent, particularly the one who played Sara, who had Caity Lotz’s indignant attitude down pat. However, it must’ve caused the dodgy camera angles, dark lighting, and a lack of strong choreography in the final fight with the shtriga, which were clearly a result of covering the actors’ inexperience. It was also curious that they decided not to have them perform Sara and Ava’s “first kiss” at the end.

5. Ray’s Lameness Saves the Day

Ray and Constantine pair up to look after the boys at the camp, which leads to a lot of fun moments as the Atom’s optimism brushes up against Constantine’s prickly nature. Constantine warns Ray not to warm up to him or Nora, as it only results in people like him getting hurt. Still, Ray’s engaging nature gives him the last laugh at the end, as his committment to actually teaching the kids around him means they save his life, arriving with necessary supplies after Constantine gives up too much of his lifeforce to restore a boy drained by the shtriga. I imagine they’re gonna to keep clashing further when Ray goes to find Nora to help Constantine recover – and speaking of whom, didn’t Nora look like she was having the time of her life at the Ren Fair? (Not. That’s a ’90s joke. Jinx!)

Continued below

Bonus thoughts:
– I get this episode was set in the ’90s but jeez Ray’s hair style was ridiculous.
– Apparently this week’s fugitive seems to be a nod to the game Shtriga: Summer Camp, but I can’t tell you anything more than that.
– Huh, no Nate or Gary this week.
– Quote of the week: “He kept talking about making it to first base with a girl. But who plays baseball in the dark?”


//TAGS | Legends of Tomorrow

Christopher Chiu-Tabet

Chris is the news manager of Multiversity Comics. A writer from London on the autistic spectrum, he enjoys tweeting and blogging on Medium about his favourite films, TV shows, books, music, and games, plus history and religion. He is Lebanese/Chinese, although he can't speak Cantonese or Arabic.

EMAIL | ARTICLES



  • -->