TNT Overhauls Spy Thriller ‘Legends’

By Michael Malone
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

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When TNT spy drama Legends returns for season 2 on Nov. 2, showrunner Ken Biller promises a less procedural and more “novelistic” approach, with parallel stories taking place in different time periods. Season 1 was filmed, and set, in Los Angeles; the new season was shot on location in Europe, primarily in Prague. “It’s fundamentally a different show,” says Biller, who notes that star Sean Bean is the one constant. “It looks very different, it feels very different, it’s tonally very different.”

Season 1 received tepid reviews. Biller, former showrunner on TNT drama Perception, was tapped by Howard Gordon to run the new season.

TNT made the season premiere available Oct. 23 on-demand, online and on mobile. A day after the premiere airs, TNT will offer episode 2 to subscribers. “It’s a pragmatic acknowledgement, and frankly a smart one, that viewing habits have changed,” says Biller. “Hopefully we can get people interested and engaged enough that they watch it when it airs.”

Michael Malone
Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.