Legends

Good re-start and better than the real start last season.

In the early going, the series works best as sort of a modern-day “Mission: Impossible,” and could actually use more of that show’s caper elements.

It's all a fairly standard spy-thriller template, but the cast and crew give Legends an edge. Trust Howard Gordon ("Homeland," "24") and company to devise a well-plotted mystery.

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.

To its credit, Legends goes a bit beyond the expected stings, as a shadowy figure prompts Martin to doubt everything he knows and question whom he can trust. For the most part, though, almost everything here feels culled from earlier variations on this theme.

The story sort of has a “Bourne Identity” element to it. The pilot is an eye-roller, with the main storyline featuring Bean infiltrating a survivalist camp.

Obvious similarities to the Jason Bourne films and other espionage stories are only part of the derivative drama's problems. The lurching plot turns are preposterous. The supporting characters are thinly drawn. The structure is terribly disjointed. And the dialogue ranges from ham-fisted to stilted.