Legion - FX Network/Marvel (1 Viewer)

[Sean Bryan]

Legion is a collaboration between Marvel Entertainment and Fox. Separate from film rights, Fox didn't have the rights to make any TV shows featuring Marvel's "Mutants". But Marvel and Fox came to some sort of arrangement.

The show is being run by Fargo's Noah Hawley, and will air early 2017

"Legion follows David Haller, a troubled young man who may be more than human. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, David has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years. But after a strange encounter with a fellow patient, he’s confronted with the possibility that the voices he hears and visions might be real."

 

[TravisR]

The show is being run by Fargo's Noah Hawley...

That's more than enough to get me to watch. I'm assuming he will probably go with a fairly different take on the X-Men/mutants than the movies.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

First Look: Inside "Legion" Season 1:


Premieres a week from Wednesday. Currently 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

 

[TonyD]

Is this guy a character from the comics?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Is this guy a character from the comics?

Spoiler

In the comics, he is Professor X's son and one of the most powerful mutants in the Marvel Universe. The conceit for this particular character is that he is mentally ill with a form of dissociative identity disorder, which may or may not be a result of his mutant abilities. Each of his personalities has a different mutant ability. His core, original personality has the ability to warp reality itself.

 

[Josh Dial]

Tremendous first episode. Flawless, maybe. Easily the best pilot I've seen since Mr. Robot. 11/10.

The costume, hair, makeup, and set design perfectly captured the "look" of Marvel in the 60s and early 70s, which is to say the way comics were drawn during that period.

The brief battle sequence at the end was awesome in every sense of the word. The characters had power that seemed real--exactly how they would work in "the real world."

 

[Sean Bryan]

I enjoyed it and thought it was quite interesting.

However, making things looks like the 60's/70's while also being modern pulls me out of it somewhat.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

So who is Jean Smart playing a female Prof x ?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Tremendous first episode. Flawless, maybe. Easily the best pilot I've seen since Mr. Robot. 11/10.

Best pilot I've seen in years, too. And I was dreadfully ill with norovirus when I watched it, so the fact that it held up with my personal misery working against it really speaks volumes to the quality.

However, making things looks like the 60's/70's while also being modern pulls me out of it somewhat.

It's worth noting that a) we're seeing the world from David's subjective perspective, so what we're seeing might not reflect the world as it actually is. The scenes in the interrogation room inside the swimming pool seemed more objective, and also more modern; and b) this is clearly a world alternate to both the real world and the cinematic X-Men universe. Stylistic trends would have transpired differently there. It's sort of like Earth-2 on the "Arrowverse" shows or the world of "Gotham".

 

[Sam Favate]

Visually, it is stunning, really impressive work.

I'm intrigued enough to see where it all goes.

 

[TravisR]

Fantastic opening episode. I'm guessing that rather than any kind of adaptation of specific comic books, this show is just using the characters as a springboard to do their own thing.

 

[NeilO]

Just watched the premiere today. I have no solid idea of what was "real" and what was in his mind (or what he his captors were lying about), but it was definitely engrossing and looked great.

I think this will be loosely based on the comics borrowing as need be but going in its own direction.

 

[spshultz]

With all the buzz on this show I think I'm going to give it a watch. I've got it recorded just haven't had any quiet time to sit down and see what it's all about.

 

[DaveF]

Legion's premiere was utterly amazing.

 

[antmumford]

Have to agree with you guys, that first episode was a phenomenal piece of TV work.
The acting, cinematography and direction were superb so I'm psyched for Thursday to watch the next one

 

[spshultz]

I just finished the pilot episode and well, I'm completely blown away. That was Spectacular!

 

[gadgtfreek]

Just watched it too, was great. That guy pimp slapping folks and debris at the end was great.

 

[Josh Dial]

Episode 2 was fantastic.

Theory: David seeing and hearing "stars" was actually him inside Cerebro, seeing and hearing other mutants. David's father, Charles, isn't an astronomer, he's an "astronomer."

 

[Steve Christou]

First two episodes were good, the series has potential.

Just found out the lead actor is British and playing the Beast in the upcoming Disney movie Beauty and the Beast.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Two episodes in, and this has already become the show I'm most excited about each week. From a production standpoint, it's more sophisticated than most motion pictures despite having a much smaller budget. The cast is uniformly great. After the Bryan Singer films did a great job of using mutants as a metaphor for being an "invisible" minority (ie. religion, sexual orientation), it's nice to get a fresh take on the material with David's abilities serving as mechanism to explore mental illness and the unreliability of memory.

And while the audience is kept in the dark about many things, the show isn't being willfully opaque. There are certain tricks the show uses to help place us: for instance, for the living breathing Lenny, Aubrey Plaza has messy, out-of-control hair. For the Lenny in David's head, Aubrey Plaza has well-groomed hair.

Theory: David seeing and hearing "stars" was actually him inside Cerebro, seeing and hearing other mutants. David's father, Charles, isn't an astronomer, he's an "astronomer."

I love that theory. The fact that David's father is impossible for David (and therefore the audience) to see, even in memories, certainly seems to hint that they're not going to shy away from the David's father = Professor X backstory. On the other hand, what we can see of David's father hints toward a man with a full head of hair. It's possible that the memories took placed before Xavier lost his hair and founded the X-Men, it's possible that David's memories have been deliberately distorted (as seems to be the case), and it's possible that the man who David believes to be his father is not in fact his biological father.