What an introspective, ponderous season of a television show. In the superhero space, it is certainly odd to see a show likeJupiter’s Legacy.If it accomplished nothing else over the course of the season, it certainlycarved out a unique presence for itself against other shows of the same genre. That’s why the end of the season is a bittersweet one. On the one hand, the ending is very interesting, on the other, it feels that the show is finally gathering momentum just as it is permanently ending. The events that unfold here make the prospect of a second season highly exciting, even if the world won’t see how events play out until another season is released.
The entire season so far has served to grant the audience a deeper look into the minds and relationships of these heroes. It’s also served as an origin story for the original super-powered humans and the two timelines' juxtaposition with one another serves as a constant reminder of the ways in which these characters have formed their beliefs and why they’re struggling with them against modern-day problems. There are many parallels between the modern day world shown in the world and the real world, helping to make the decisions and types of challenges feel more real. The final episode of the season capitalizes on all of the events that lead up to it, providing an exciting conclusion with a surprise twist.
MORE:Josh Duhamel Reveals How Jupiter’s Legacy Differs From Marvel And DC
The heroes may have fantastical powers, but their world feels real enough to keep the story grounded enough to remain feeling believable. At its best,Jupiter’s Legacyfeelsmore convincing than Marvel or DCat being a story about heroes in a world with complicated problems and issues to sort through. At it’s worst, it feels plodding and tends to go over the same plot points repeatedly.
The ways in whichJupiter’s Legacyavoids the pitfall of becoming tedious with itsretreading of plot points is through its charactersand the way that they interact with each other. Seeing the ways in which these characters react to the world around them and the decisions made by others with differing world views from their own are the best bits of the show. This is definitely a choice, and indicates that the show had a long game in mind 9one that will no longer come to fruition).
The world has seen plenty of superhero movies, but this is a flavor that is far more introspective than what audiences are used to. This might be a deal-breaker for those that are looking for a high-action show, butJupiter’s Legacy wasalso clearly using the first season of the show toset up the many players on its super-powered chessboard. It’s likely that the second season would have seen an accelerated pacing now that the initial groundwork has been completed.
It’s also important to remember that the first seasonworks as both an origin storyfor the Utopian and the other heroes of the Union of Justice as well as the setup for the current day issues that face these heroes and their children. For the most part, the season does a good job balancing the two storylines. However, the last episode of the series ultimately shows the weakness of this approach, as the past storyline reaches its climax within the 7th episode of the show, creating a somewhat mismatched tone for the final episode. It would have probably been just as feasible to tell the entirety of the story in the past timeline within 3-4 dedicated, more focused episodes. Instead, the show opts to cut back and forth, sometimes throwing a wrench into its own pacing.
The last episode also has the unfair burden of carrying out a more action-packed final sequence. After seeing the quality of special effects in the fight that occurs against Blackstar in episode 1, it’s clear that the show spent a large chunk of its special effects budget on that scene. Everything in the last episode issubject to the use of heavy CGI, from the environment of Blackstar’s mind to the shots of Walter being stretched within. The effects are not bad, but it can feel like the show put its best foot forward in past episodes as a result and that can take away from the impact of the finale. The final reveal of the episode also adds to the feeling that the finale of this season is ultimately just a stepping stone to a season 2 that will never be seen by anyone.
The events of the finale feel a little rushed here, leaving the specifics of certain events feeling vague and confusing. For example, the ultimate twist of the first season is that Walter is the one who actually created the clone of Blackstar. He’s created this clone knowing that it would give the Union of Justice the most trouble and ultimately cause a rift between the different generations of heroes. It’s made clear that Walter believes that Sheldon has let the worldspiral out of controlby not taking an active enough role in the ruling of the world due to the code. It’s a pretty big revelation, as Walter has been a major source of support for the heroes as they continue to struggle with the code in a modern era. This was going to be a huge part of season 2 no doubt, but the revelation is doled out so quickly that it loses some of the resonance it would have had otherwise.
In one of the final scenes of the series, Walter confronts his daughter Raikou after she helps him get out of Blackstar’s mind. She reveals that she knows that Walter created the clone of Blackstar, placed the copy of his father’s watch inside of the corpse, and planted the fake George within his mind. Raikou just sort of knows this, there’s no big moment for the reveal, she just kind of casually tells her father she knows. Theythen have a psychic battlewith plenty of furrowing their brows and pointing their hands, after which Raikou is shown to have been killed by her father. The final shots of the episode indicated that Walter is now being confided in by Sheldon about his struggles with his son, but while the setup is interesting,Netflix will not be continuing the story of Jupiter’s Legacywith a second season.
