These impressions contain spoilers for the first episode of Legion.

 

Hey, how about a live-action X-Men show? No, that hasn’t been made yet. Okay, what about a show just based on one X-Men character? Sold!  Legion for FX is based on an X-Men character, but one you might not have heard of; David Haller, or Legion. He’s Xavier’s son and has dissociative identity disorder (aka split personalities) along with super powers for each. The first of which is his ability to move things with his mind. It’s less Matilda and more Carrie. He doesn’t have much control over it yet and you can see that for yourself in the kitchen scene (image below).

Legion is from Noah Hawley, the same mind behind the TV adaptation of Fargo. I loved Hawley’s work on the first two seasons and it’s good to see in this first episode, his mark on Legion is a prominent one. You can tell straight away. Legion is beautiful. The framing, The lighting. It’s cinema pure and simple. It’s the little touches. David’s mum wears multiple tops that are Kermit the Frog green and just stand out in every scene she’s in. There’ a guy in the background of a ton of shots inside the psychiatric hospital just chilling out inside a tree.

From what I heard going in, I thought Legion would be more about David not able to trust his own mind (at least at first), and there’s a little of that in the pilot, but it’s quickly established that his powers are in fact real. There is some Mr. Robot here, in David seeing things that aren’t there. So we do have an unreliable narrator in which some things presented aren’t true, which may annoy you depending on you as a viewer. For me I’m mostly okay with being lied to, BUT ONLY IF THERE ARE SIGNS. I do not care for the Steven Moffat twisty turnyness for the sake of it. As long as Hawley and team don’t overdo it, it can be fun to be kept on your toes as a viewer.

 

 

There are scenes that take place in David’s memories, which can somehow be entered by others? I don’t know, I’m as lost as you are. But at least these scenes take place in letterbox format so we know they’re not real. This show has its own language and we’ll learn it over time.

David Haller (Dan Stevens) is at Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital. He’s sarcastic and generally likeable. The hospital on the other hand is totalitarian and sterile. It wouldn’t be amiss in the world of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, complete with a dribbling vegetable.

Audrey Plaza is at her most Plaziest with her devil-may-care attitude as Lenny Busker. Something happens to her character near the end of the episode that is shocking and seemingly just forgotten about, but she’ll be back in the episodes to come serving more of that deadpan Plaza comic relief.

 

 

Rachel Keller is Sydney Barrett – a knod to Pink Floyd, isn’t a character from the comics. She’s a withdrawn new patient and doesn’t like to be touched. At first glance I figured Rogue powers. I mean she is a mutant. But it turns out when she makes skin contact it’s a lot more interesting than simply draining the life out of you.

Legion is surreal. Like Twin Peaks weird. Weirder than it needs to be for a show about folks with powers. But I dig it. In the psychiatric hospital there’s a guy in a tree at multiple points that is never explained. You have this creepy bearded guy with yellow eyes that is haunting David. There’s even a choreographed dance scene that comes out of nowhere.

The episode really takes it’s time between the interrogation scene and flashing back to David’s time at the hospital and even flashbacks beyond that. There’s a lot to cover in an opening episode and the same is true here. Even so, Legion isn’t afraid of showing what it can do right off the bat. A nice long shot shows the interrogator leaving the interrogation room which is actually inside an empty swimming pool and reveals the full extent of the people working behind the scenes.

Now the final scene where David is rescued from a secret facility is another continuous shot, but the CG was like out of a student film. You have this guy who simply waves his hand and armed men are flicked away into the sky like ants. I want less of this from Legion. That’s what the big comic book movies are for. They have the budgets. Don’t go doing that Legion. Stick to your guns and do your cerebral stuff.

 

 

Questions I have from watching this episode

• Why is there a weird guy hiding in a tree in the background?
• What’s up with the creepy bearded dude with yellow eyes? Is he a little person or just missing limbs?
• Why is there a guy that can flick people away like God?
• How did David switch back bodies with Sydney?
• How come David’s power of moving objects (when used by Sydney)  can now summon human crushing walls at will?
• Why doesn’t Sydney like to be touched? Besides the whole switching bodies thing. Oh…
• Where are they off to on that boat?
• Does Sydney actually love David, or is this some part of her plan? I mean, they hardly knew each other, c’mon!

So that’s one way to get your audience coming back after the pilot. Introduce some what the hell’s!

 

Verdict: Whatever Noah Hawley’s up to here, I’m on board. And I do want to see how this story plays out, hopefully not all inside Legion’s head.