‘Legacies’: A Spin-Off of a Spin-Off That Fails to Gain Traction

Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell) is now the star in double spin-off "Legacies" on the CW By Courtesy of the CW

“The Twilight Saga” has long been dead and buried, but the CW’s new series “Legacies” attempts to resurrect the vampire-werewolf craze that the franchise made iconic. As a spin-off of “The Originals,” which itself is a spin-off of “The Vampire Diaries,” “Legacies” is an apt title for a show that rides on the coattails of its predecessors and desperately tries to inherit their lucrative formula of moody, unrealistically attractive supernatural beings plus familial issues, along with a heaping serving of convoluted romances.

“Legacies” centers around Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell), a 17-year-old “tribrid” – a unique being that possesses the powers of vampires, werewolves, and witches simultaneously – who attends a boarding school for supernatural children and seeks to protect the non-human identities of her classmates from the outside world. In the series premiere, “This is the Part Where You Run,” Landon (Aria Shahghasemi) appears to be an ordinary boy who gets dragged into the supernatural world when his foster brother Rafael (Peyton ‘Alex’ Smith) turns out to be a werewolf, and he crosses paths again with Hope, a former flame.

Unfortunately, “Legacies” cannot make up for its lackluster characters: By the end of the series premiere, the most prominent identifiers of each character are still their physical features, or at most, a stereotypical label such as “orphaned heroine” for Hope, “dumb blonde” for Lizzie Saltzman (Jenny Boyd), and “quiet pushover” for Josie Saltzman (Kaylee Bryant). Even when the script attempts to distinguish various characters by giving them trite, self-reflective lines — like Hope’s comment that “I try not to get close to anyone anymore” — the series is too obviously telling rather than showing their personalities.

Despite the abundance of tropes in character design, one thing that “Legacies” handles appropriately is the absence of the dated coming out plotline from the portrayal of its LGBTQ characters, namely Josie and her ex-girlfriend Penelope (Lulu Antariksa). The overemphasis on the struggles of coming out usually only allows a single (often negative) facet of LGBTQ experiences to be represented in popular media, and “Legacies” wisely skips the sexual identity crisis and tosses Josie and Penelope the same will-they-won’t-they storyline as the other romantic pairings in the show.

The plot’s focus on attraction and rivalries for love is disappointing and a bit counterintuitive considering the series’ magical premise of witches, werewolves, and vampires attending a supernatural boarding school. The fantasy elements are often relegated to the background, used to set the mood for romance (such as when Hope holds Landon’s hands and conjures up a canopy of stars to help him fall asleep) or as an excuse for gratuitous special effects (like the brief demonstration of the magical sport of “wickery,” an imitation of Quidditch).

Like Hope, “Legacies” has difficulty settling on a single identity — it aims to be an intersection of various popular genres — namely teenage drama, romance, fantasy, and horror — yet comes across as a haphazard collage rather than a smooth blend. The diverse mix of cinematic techniques tug the viewer’s perception of the show this way and that with every new scene. One moment, wide, high-exposure shots depict Hope wistfully staring out a window after the departing figure of Landon, her potential love interest. However, within the next few minutes, the episode turns towards horror, using dim lighting, zoom-ins on drips of blood, and trippy, abruptly alternating fast-forward and slow-motion clips.

Despite shortcomings in character and plot-building, “Legacies” offers flashy special effects and a flawlessly beautiful cast, giving it the potential to be a guilty pleasure show of eye candy indulgence. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that — not every piece of media needs to be a deep commentary on society. However, if “Legacies” ever learns to take itself less seriously — perhaps satirizing teenage angst or making fun of its premise as a mashup of all the most popular book-movie franchises (ahem, “Harry Potter” and “Twilight”) — it could become a lot more engaging without having to change its core elements.