When I first learned that a TV
series spin-off of the X-Men film franchise was on the way, I was excited, of course. But I admit that I was bummed a bit when it
turned out being a show about an obscure character like Legion. In addition, when the trailer for it came
out, I wasn’t impressed. I felt it
looked messy and disjointed.
But – as I thought about it after
a while – that was probably the whole point all along. In the comics, David Haller a.k.a. Legion is
Charles Xavier’s son with Gabrielle Haller.
David inherits his father’s vast telepathic powers, but is born with
other various abilities as well. He’s
one of the most powerful mutants in the Marvel Universe, but the most
interesting aspect of the character is the fact that he has severe DID (dissociative
identity disorder). Hence, this results
to multiple personalities, in which each personality manifests a unique
superpower. So if the character is known
for being bonkers, then the show is probably just reflecting the condition of
its eponymous character. That appeased
my dislike of its “messy” look. The overwhelming
critical praise it received also helped in drawing me as well as the fact that
it only has an easy-to-binge debut season (only has eight episodes).
Legion centers on David Haller (Dan Stevens), who has been
diagnosed of schizophrenia at a young age and has been in and out of psychiatric
treatment ever since. The series starts
off with David unaware that he’s a mutant and in his latest stint in a mental
hospital. There, he meets Syd Barrett
(Rachel Keller), and a romance blossoms between the two. But when the time comes that she has to
finally check out of the hospital, a disastrous incident ensues, leading David
to a journey of discovering who he really is and if illness is truly the reason
behind his persisting mental problems or something much more sinister.
Indeed, Legion is utterly bananas. But
in a good, entertaining way. Well, the storytelling
does get confusing. It gets weird. It goes full-on insane. Sometimes, it even gets sluggish and tedious. The chronology of events is confusing at
times. The tone shifts between goofy and
creepy without clear transitions. However,
all these bumps and incompatible juxtapositions are actually there on purpose,
creating a riveting sense of mystery all throughout and building up towards a
gratifying payoff when pieces taken from its chaotic narrative are finally put
together.
A large part of the show’s
relentless madness is because David’s mind and memories are as much of a
setting as the real world. Thus, the
story is affected by David being an unreliable narrator as well as the bizarre
settings that his troubled and frenzied mind creates. And since he also starts off without a complete
understanding of his powers and state of mind, he’s as much as at a loss of
what’s going on in the story as the viewers – making him a wonderful audience
surrogate on top of being a compelling central character.
The insane narrative also results
to some fantastic visuals. Seriously, Legion has some of the most fun,
well-edited, amazing mental scenes this side of Sherlock. The scenes occurring
in the real world are aesthetically-pleasing and well-shot as well. This is a very good-looking and visually-riveting
show with tons of brilliant, stylish sequences.
The characters are also generally
likable and interesting, and I really like the mutant abilities shown so far in
the first season. There’s one who trades
minds with anyone she touches for a limited time. There’s one who has cool “memory powers.” There’s a pair of mutant siblings who share a
body. There’s one who has vast command and
fondness of the Astral Plane that he has decided to live in it for two
decades. And then there’s David, who’s
as insanely powerful as his comic book counterpart. Aside from making the mutants – the “good
guys” of the story – likably kickass, the show also makes the effort of making the
“bad guys”/humans more sympathetic and well-layered.
The actors that portrayed these
characters all did a great job. But it’s
Aubrey Plaza who is the clear standout.
Starting off as David’s pal in the mental hospital and becoming a
malevolent manifestation residing in his mind, she stole every scene she’s in,
delivering undoubtedly the best performance of her career to date. She’s definitely one of the best things about
the show.
Legion is a part-superhero, part-horror, part-science fiction,
part-psychological thriller, part-comedy, part-romance, part-mystery TV show. It’s like a surreal mash-up of X-Men, Nightmare on Elm Street, Inception,
and Donnie Darko, and directed
collaboratively by Wes Anderson and David Lynch. As a result, it’s delightfully unconventional
and hypnotic. It’s probably hard to
follow, unapologetically demanding your full focus before it rewards you. But being an absolute eye candy makes the
effort easy. As a superhero show, it’s
refreshingly departs from its common tropes that it’s almost not right to
identify it as such (between this and Logan
and Deadpool, Fox is looking to have
figured out how to create something fresh when adapting its X-Men properties).
Legion is great TV.
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