'DC's Legends of Tomorrow' Season 5 Episode 3: 'Miss Me, Kiss Me, Love Me' leans hard into film noir
Spoiler alert for 'Miss Me, Kiss Me, Love Me' - Episode 3 of 'DC's Legends of Tomorrow'
It's 1947 and a darkly damned demonic dame has given a second chance to Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (Jonathan Sadowski). The Legends and their high-flying antics thought they could dive right into Los Angeles' sin-ridden city and soar out with their hands clean, but it's film noir in the 40s and nobody gets a happy ending.
She was dressed in green and meaner than a dirty cop whose bribe is a dollar short. Down in Hell, Astra Logue (Olivia Swann) reveals her plans to a smoke-soaked and stone-faced John Constantine (Matt Ryan) - every kill made by the villains she's given a second chance to fills her own infernal coffers with new human souls. The latest to be messing with history is American mobster "Bugsy" Siegel and the Legends are suiting up to the nines to fit the pulp fiction genre.
The show leans into the genre hard, straddling the thin line between parody and homage. There's a lot of admiration for the film noir genre, but the show's also never had more fun - which is saying a lot for 'DC's Legends of Tomorrow.' Even Constantine plays along, pulling a surprising passable LA accent out of his hat to maintain his cover. No one is having a better time on screen than Caity Lotz, though, as Sara Lance's cover as a fast-talking LA reporter has an accent so thick you could cut the cheese with a knife.
The episode is a whirlwind tale of crime, blackmail, corruption, romance and betrayal that's having such a great time you forget that there are no happy endings in film noir, and the death of the episode's femme fatale comes as quite a shock. It nearly sends Constantine right over the edge, but like Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh), he still believes there's a chance for this black magic bad guy to be saved.
The side-plot to this episode sees Nate (Nick Zano) and Behrad (Shayan Sobhian) go to Behrad's home, where they meet Zari (Tala Ashe) who, in this timeline, is a social media star. All props to Tala Ashe who manages to come off as almost entirely a completely different person in this timeline and now that she's back on the Waverider, she'll hopefully return as a series regular.
Notable in this episode is the performance of "That Girl is Poison" by Ava Sharpe (Jes Macallen) which encapsulates everything the show is - entertainment that aspires to be the shine of something much, much more glamorous and better produced. Neither 'DC's Legends of Tomorrow' nor Ava's actual performance are the high quality shows you expect them to be, but as Sarah can attest - they're a joy to watch.
The next episode of 'DC's Legends of Tomorrow' airs February 11 on the CW.