Series premiere: Legacies
I got turned around somehow on the show Legacies. Not completely, just a little. I assumed it was more Buffy-ish i.e. lots of mortals trying to figure supernatural stuff out that was happening around them. I didn’t realize it was going to be following a triple threat — part witch, part vampire, part werewolf. Or, as one character calls her, a unicorn.
Here’s the premise. There’s a Hogwart’s-like school, or Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Children-like, if you prefer, where witches, vampires and werewolves learn to control their darker sides so they can blend in with the human population without killing them all. A budding werewolf is welcomed to the school, and when the school tries to mesmer his friend to forget everything, it doesn’t work. And the story begins.
I got turned around somewhere, as I said, as I thought it would be more Buffy-ish, but I also worried it was going to be like The Vampire Diaries (its original source material). I had watched a couple of episodes, but I had trouble dealing with the semi-permanent teen angst in the episodes I saw. So I was surprised to see that it was more immature angst, easily dismissed in the cast. I didn’t hate it to be honest. It’s hard to know which characters are going to be big, but there’s a bit of a hint, and so I’ll focus on them.
Danielle Rose Russell is the triple hybrid lead, Hope, and she’s pretty compelling. I didn’t see her in The Originals but she is both bright and cheery, despite her tortured soul role, and she’s fun to watch. Aria Shahghasemi plays the unmesmered “human”, Landon, and outside of his small part in the TV series Unforgettable, there’s nothing I’ve seen him in. Yet he seems eminently familiar as a young, almost tortured artist who knows too much. Again, compelling to watch, but I’d like to know his story pretty fast, otherwise it will get old. Kaylee Bryant sparkles as daughter #1 of the headmaster, and while I haven’t seen her in anything before, she does a decent job of playing the broken-hearted witch. Daughter #2, played by Jenny Boyd, is a bit all over the map, and it’s hard to tell if she’s intentionally that way or just bad acting. Peyton Smith plays the new werewolf, but it is TOTALLY confusing as he seems totally okay knowing that he’s a werewolf (of only a month?) and that there are witches and vampires too, oh my. They are friends with a vampire kid named M.G., played by Quincy Fouse of Logan-fame. All of them are watchable, but only the lead and Kaylee really shine.
The only really experienced player in the group is the headmaster, played by Matt Davis. He played the same character (Alaric) on The Originals as well as the Vampire Diaries. I don’t remember him that well from the few episodes that I have seen, but at least he’s not into the angst-love-fest. And with so many EPs under his belt, it was obvious he was comfortable with his character.
I originally predicted RENEWAL and I’ll stick with that prediction.
