Guess I'm going X-men heavy these two weeks, which is actually pretty good. The X-men are huge, in comics at least, but they've never been my main thing. Sure, I like them, I've read some, but keeping up with the X-men is damn near impossible. There's at least 20 different titles, a convoluted history of alternate timelines, future selves returning, past selves living with their current selves for awhile, constantly changing allegiances, a whole bunch of space stuff, and everybody returning from the dead. All of this, I think, is part of the make up of Legion. This brief history of how confusing the X-men are is necessary for understanding the show, anyway. This is going to be a weird review.
Lets start with the facts. Legion is a show about the X-man Legion, a character I'm not particularly familiar with. I'm not coming to this show as a fan of the character, truth be told I'd probably have skipped the whole thing if another site hadn't recommended it. As far as I know, in the comics, Legion is a powerful mutant that absorbs other powers and personalities, kinda like Rogue, except they stay in his mind and he's pretty much insane. Also, he can rewrite reality, or something. I think he's the son of Professor X. This brief history of Legion is completely unnecessary for understanding the show, anyway.
Adapting superheroes from comics has historically gone many ways, in both approach and quality. You have the "realistic" approach, where you accept that these powers exist and try to figure out how they work in the real world. Nolan's Batman movies fall in here, Marvel's Netflix stuff, that sort of thing. These works take the whole disconnect between dressing up in tights and dealing with real world crime head on, usually by addressing with some sort of "logic" (I dress like a bat to scare people). Often times, the consequences of the fact that somebody is acting like a superhero becomes a main focus of the plot. This approach tends to be called "gritty", though the other approaches can be gritty as well. Legion is a show that definitely takes this approach.
The opposed approach to superheroes is to just sort of ignore that the fantastical is fantastical, and instead just make a world where these things exist. This is where the good X-men movies lie, I'd argue most of the Marvel movies, and most superhero comics. The way it deals with all the logical inconsistencies of the superhero show is by ignoring it. The viewer is relied on to acknowledge the genre and accept that Captain America is not going to get Iron Man armor, despite the fact that Steve Rogers would objectively be a better Iron Man than Tony. It allows for Spider-man to enjoy being Spider-man. Legion is a show that definitely takes this approach.
My point is Legion is a superhero show that is at once very original and also been done before. A show that draws upon knowledge of the X-men and also is completely it's own thing. A gritty superhero drama and also a wild ride of action. If that makes the show sound unfocused, it isn't. The show is schizophrenic because Legion, the character I'll call David Haller from now on, is schizophrenic.
The central conflict, set up early in the show, is that Haller is a powerful telepath who may or may not be schizophrenic. Of course someone who can hear the thoughts of those around him would be considered schizophrenic by most people, but those familiar with mutants know better. He's just psychic. Except, maybe he's psychic and schizophrenic. This is hardly an original storyline for the X-Men. But the exact nature of his mental state is pretty unique, in my opinion, and the strange way it is explored/diagnosed was absolutely fascinating.
The whole show is told through Haller's eyes. When he's happy, the world is very 1960s and mod, even though there are cell phones and modern cars. When he's upset, the set design suddenly becomes a brutalist, future dystopia. It creates weird dissonance running behind the scenes. Imagine if Wes Anderson and David Lynch teamed up to make a superhero show and you're pretty close to what Legion is about.
I was thrilled and scared by the show. It was disturbing and utterly fascinating. The acting is excellent, especially Aubrey Plaza, who really went all out in an amazing performance. But everyone does a great job with characters that are very complex. This isn't the core X-men, this is people with truly strange and horrific powers trying to get by in life.
Legion is a very strange and haunting show. I highly recommend it.
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