Legends (TV Show)

Starring: Sean Bean, Ali Larter, Morris Chesnutt, Tina Majorino, Steve Harris, Amber Valletta, & Mason Cook

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Based on the terrific novel by Robert Littell, and brought to television by the same team that gave us 24 and Homeland, two summers ago, TNT treated us to the show, Legends. The show featured spectacular action, edge of your seat drama, and some of the best writing on television, but it was gone after just twenty episodes. Some viewers had a problem with the casting of Sean Bean, as the lead character, but the real issue was with a network that just couldn't leave well enough alone.

Martin Odum (Sean Bean) is a man who is told that he doesn't exist. Odum the best CIA undercover agent in the game is approached on the street one day, told that there has been an accident, and ever since that day, he has bought his own cover or legend and now believes he is this man Martin Odum, but who is he really? It's a slippery slope for Odum, as he tries to continue doing his job, while at the same time trying to figure out who he is and why he's posing as a CIA agent.

With this series, TNT wasn't only getting a show that was created by arguably one of America's best espionage writers, but they also got the team that single-handedly changed the face of television drama, with nine seasons of the innovative show, 24, and the continuing drama of Homeland. These people know what they're doing, but even after a successful first season, the network wanted more, and decided to drop the current storyline and replace almost the entire cast for season two. Fans were expecting to continue where they left off and instead, were trust into the middle of what amounted to a brand new show. A brand new show that was hardly advertised and was cancelled immediately after the end of season 2.

Sean Bean stars and while he fits the character of Odum, as a forty-something British guy, fans of Bean know that he always plays the bad guy, most notable in the film, National Treasure. Seeing Bean as one of the good guys does take an adjustment, but a lot of time he's undercover as one of the bad guys, so it's really not as strange as his fans make it out to be.

...and what was the purpose for replacing the original cast? It's not as if they were all inexperienced newcomers. Ali Larter is beautiful and a network veteran of shows like Heroes, Steve Harris has seemingly been in everything, and Morris Chesnutt was a revelation on the re-launch of the show V a few years back. 

Legends had all the makings of a terrific show, with outstanding writers, directors, producers, and an experienced cast, but the network it was on wanted huge ratings from the show and when they didn't happen immediately, TNT threw in the towel. I enjoyed the undercover angles, the humor, the action, and of course the drama, of Legends, and Sean Bean in particular gives some of the best performances of his career, but it was all for not as the plug was pulled before things even got started. If you want to know the real truth behind Martin Odum, you're just going to have to suck it up and read the book.