Critic Reviews

Legendary feels completely immersive. Everywhere you look, it’s a ball. And when Legendary gets into the competition gig, it slays. The performances in the first episode are, well, legendary. ... The show’s called Legendary for a reason.

The kind of show that moves a person to fork over the fee for entry. ... "Legendary" is a thrill from start to finish, the type of soul-reviving celebration the world sorely needs.

“Ballroom taught me how to be me,” one of the competitors says, and Legendary works by being both a celebration of that self-expression and a formalized exercise in the defiant competitiveness that emboldens it.

Could we, in the two episodes sent for review, have heard more on that topic from the participants themselves? Absolutely. The thing is, the performances are spectacular, each house gets ample opportunities to tell its unique story and, however you feel about her, Jamil maintains a pretty low-key presence. Thanks more to the contestants than to the celebs (though Tyson Beckford is a fun guest judge), Legendary might live up to its name.

While the parameters are a little thin so far; the dancing is — shall we say — everything. The looks, the moves, the face, the music; these are things you didn’t know the human body could do, much less five of them in sync.

What is moving about “Pose” and “Paris” remains moving here: self-expression as healing and the House, something more than a team, as elective family. “Legendary” feels like a celebration, just by existing. Given ballroom’s historical use-what-you-have, gold-from-straw invention, it is a little disappointing to find the Houses working with designers and stylists and choreographers.

Take away the fun and silliness of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” add more robust production values and dim the lights and you’ve got this self-serious bore.

By the end of its first two episodes, a newcomer might not have a better idea of what ballroom is, exactly, but they should be sufficiently wowed by the talent on display. ... Where “Legendary” falters is with its contestants. ... With so much rich history to draw from, and with so many viewers likely coming into this world cold, “Legendary” would have benefitted from devoting more time to the brilliant people and innovations that make it possible.

The similarities between the teams — and the announcement at the beginning of the pilot that there will be no elimination in the first episode — makes that hour a particularly repetitive slog. But Legendary's real Achilles heel is its judging. ... There's little coherence about what Legendary's version of vogueing is — let alone what it should be.