DC’s Legends of Tomorrow Review: Hell No, Dolly! (Season 4 Episode 7)
Legends of Tomorrow Season 4 Episode 7, “Hell No, Dolly!” goes to New Orleans to hunt a killer doll.
At this point, Legends of Tomorrow has a kind of infamy for being the most off-kilter show that it can be. It’s almost as if it’s competing against itself to come up with wackier, weirder plots to come up with.
Given that, it should surprise no one that a natural place for the show to go to after already killer unicorns and a stuffed animal Voltron would be to go with nothing other than a killer doll. Ah yes, that old chestnut.
“Hell no, Dolly!” demonstrates very clearly, just with the execution of the conceit that we will always be in good hands with this show, because it realizes just how incredibly silly this idea is. It at no point attempts to shy away from this fact and, instead, embraces multiple times just how truly ridiculous this all is.
The episode makes no attempt to make it look good, and therein lies the charm. It could probably make it look better somehow, but that would take away from them being in on the joke. The show knows this is all nonsense and it’s completely willing to roll along with that.
Legends of Tomorrow knows exactly what kind of silly show it is and it is willing to fully commit to whatever hi-jinx is thrown its way. It would not have you believe for even the smallest of moments that this is being played at all straight (definitely not that) or serious.
Over in the land of subplots, this is a fairly good outing, but that is completely due to Constantine’s storyline of trying to redo his personal timeline to save the life of his lover, Dez. All of the credit goes to Matt Ryan who consistently turns in stellar performances as John Constantine and has, after many years, finally found the perfect pitch for that character.
However, after dealing with Mallus last season, it may not be the best for the series to be heading for faceless demon that needs to be defeated as the big bad of this season, which is what it’s clearly headed towards.
What bogs it down is Nora’s plot at the Time Bureau and her discovering that some of the monsters are being taken. This is no fault to the character or the performance, but this is just not a presence that ultimately clicks within the show.
It might be a personal thing, but I have no real interest or investment in that character, let alone with her plot going full A Shape of Water here. Perhaps take that with a grain of salt.
Overall, this is pretty vintage Legends of Tomorrow that is willing to go big on the goofier elements — such as turning a character into a cat at the end — but is also perfectly willing to hit the emotional beats that are necessary and do it quite well.
What did you think of this episode of Legends of Tomorrow? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Legends of Tomorrow airs Mondays at 9/8c on The CW.
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Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.