Legends (TV series)
Legends is an American crime drama television series which aired on TNT from August 13, 2014 to December 28, 2015. Developed by Howard Gordon, Jeffrey Nachmanoff, and Mark Bomback, the series is based on the 2005 book "Legends: A Novel of Dissimulation" written by Robert Littell. On December 4, 2014, TNT renewed "Legends" for a 10-episode second season, which premiered on November 2, 2015. On December 15, 2015, TNT canceled the series after two seasons and 20 episodes. Premise. Martin Odum (Bean) is an undercover FBI agent who changes himself into a different person for each  case. A "mysterious stranger" (played by Billy Brown) causes him to question his sanity. Production. Music. The score of season 2 concludes with "Until We Go Down" by Ruelle, played during the climax of "The Legend of Alexei Volkov". Prior to this, the song was introduced to television as the opening theme of The Shannara Chronicles. Broadcast. Internationally, the series premiered in Australia on 11 November 2015 on FX. Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Middle East & North Africa On the 4th of February 2016, BBC First HD started airing the first episode of the second season of the  series on OSN (Orbit Showtime Network). Critical reception. "Legends" scored 59 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 27 "mixed or average" reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 56% critics rating with an average rating of 6/10 based on 32 reviews. The website consensus reads: ""Legends" lacks originality, but derives watchability from Sean Bean's fine central performance". Development. With its second season, it was revealed "Legends" would be ‘’reimagined’’. The show would now focus on Bean's character's identity, with most of the original cast being replaced and the initial California setting was replaced for  London and continental Europe (Paris and Prague). British veteran TV-directors Jamie Payne ("Indian Summers, The White Queen, The Hour") and Alrick Riley ("Hustle, Spooks/MI-5, ") were added to the show. Ken Biller ("Legend of the Seeker, Perception") became the new showrunner/executive producer/lead writer, and developed a brand new nonlinear storyline taking place in different countries and flashbacks to Bean's character's childhood at a British boarding school and scenes from Prague in 2001. Promotion. To promote the series, TNT launched an intensive advertising campaign targeted at social media beginning at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con . Exploiting Sean Bean's reputation for varied and colorful on-screen deaths, the campaign centered around the hashtag #DontKillSeanBean, and included Bean's image on airport machinery and pillars, a poster covering multiple floors of a hotel adjoining the SDCC site, and widely distributed black T-shirts emblazoned with the hashtag in white. Producer Howard Gordon tweeted images of celebrities, including Kiefer Sutherland, "Game of Thrones" author George R. R. Martin and Bean himself wearing the T-shirt. The ad campaign quickly went viral on social media and became the central focus of publicity done by Bean, including a parody  by the website Funny or Die.