Sean Bean, the scruffy British actor who was one of the biggest stars in Season One of “Game of Thrones” — until his character, Ned Stark, met his grisly end — has been away from TV for too long.
With his weathered charm and flinty blue eyes, Bean deserves to have a show of his own, especially after acquiring such legendary status on “GoT.”
That show is not “Legends.”
Developed by “24” and “Homeland” guru Howard Gordon, “Legends” is based on a series of novels by Robert Littell. The main character, Martin Odum, is an FBI operative who assumes various identities — referred to as “legends” — to get the job done and restore peace. The draw here is the prospect of seeing Bean — who’s been in everything from “Lord of the Rings” and the dopey James Bond movie “Goldeneye” to Derek Jarman’s ultra-gay “Caravaggio” — assume a series of disguises (and accents) to outwit standard Hollywood villains.
In the series premiere, Odum has assumed the persona of an unemployed construction in an undercover operation to infiltrate the Citizens Army of Virginia, an obviously insane group of right-wing Americans whose leader is an insane badass simply known as the Founding Father (played by go-to TV villain Zeljko Ivanek). Odum is being followed by an apparently homeless black man who has something urgent tell him: that the man he thinks he is — Martin Odum — is nothing but a disguise.
Several elements on “Legends” ring familiar. The man following Odum is reminiscent of Tom Walker, the military assassin who haunted Nicholas Brody on “Homeland.” A climactic scene in a DC metro station will remind you of another climactic DC subway scene on “House of Cards.” Crystal McGuire, the humorless team leader played by the one-dimensional Ali Larter, will remind you of the humorless Robin Tunney on “The Mentalist.”
The creators of “Legends” want you to believe that Odum and Crystal once shared a night of wild sexual abandon, but Crystal’s ironed hair has more bounce than any mattress she’s ever slept on.
Episode 2 offers a better case than the pilot, and Bean gets to unveil a better persona (a Liverpudlian weapons broker named Dante Auerbach). Also on hand is Morris Chestnut, playing a DCO agent who (naturally) won’t obey orders.
Maybe “Legends” will get better, but if TNT expects Bean to carry this show, they’re going to have to give him better villains and better back-up support.