What The Reviews Have To Say About FX's New X-Men Show 'Legion'
Are you sick of TV shows based on comic books yet? No? Well, FX's Legion, which premieres on Wednesday February 8th at 10pm, is practically in a league of its own. It's the first X-Men film universe show (no ties to The Avengers and co.) and, appropriately, it looks like it's aiming to rewrite the typical superhero show DNA.
Legion focuses on David Haller (Dan Stevens, Downton Abbey), a particularly powerful psychic mutant diagnosed with schizophrenia. Creator Noah Hawley, who's already left a distinctive mark on FX with Fargo, wants to tell the story from Haller's unique perspective — so feast your eyes on the visuals, and don't trust everything you see. Rachel Keller (Fargo), Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation) and Jean Smart (24) round out the main cast. With all these gifted names attached to this show, is Legion comic book TV par excellence? Here's what the reviews say:
Yes, It's A Comic Book Story, But Cut From A Different Cloth
"Legion," a Marvel-inspired drama from "Fargo" creator Noah Hawley, is not timid. It offers a jittery take on many of the genre's familiar themes, and it hurls them together with such boldness that the entire concoction ends up carrying quite a kick. Like I said, it won't be for everyone, but those who are pulled into the surreal, jagged orbit of this distinctive drama are likely to stay there for the full eight-episode run. It is, literally and figuratively, a trip — and it's often an exhilarating one.
[Variety]
This first episode opens with a quite spectacular montage of David's early life, progressing through quick snippets from his infancy through childhood and all the way to adulthood while The Who's "Happy Jack" plays on the soundtrack. But those glimpses of the smiling baby and the little boy on his bike very quickly give way to scenes of pain, disaster, and madness as the world around David begins to engulf him. You see, David hears voices, a seemingly unending barrage of whispers and anarchy — but are they real, the telepathic and telekinetic impulses of a power uncontrolled, or is he simply insane? Even he's not sure at first. Either way, it's one of the most chilling depictions of emerging superpowers ever filmed.
[IGN]
Even Professor X Couldn't Have Assembled A Better Cast
Hawley again shows his skill at casting in "Legion," especially where Stevens is concerned. It's impossible not to empathize with David, because Stevens plays him with such sensitivity, moving from fear to violence to vulnerability with breathtaking fluidity. Stevens gives a beautiful, scary, heartbreaking performance.
The great Keller (like Smart, an import from Fargo season 2, where she played Jeffrey Donovan's rebellious daughter) offers a similarly complicated blend: Syd is a woman who wants to see the world through happy and innocent eyes (when we first meet her in the mental hospital, she's wearing her hair in pigtails), but there's a dark past underneath that she reveals in careful, controlled trickles that bring non-powered complications to the love story at the heart of Legion. Plaza plays Lenny with the kind of leering glee that suggests she gets to watch this show along with us whenever she's not on camera
[UPROXX]
The Look Of 'Legion' Is Jaw-Dropping
By framing David's mental freak-outs this way, stylized and absorbing, Hawley is able to essentially replace what might otherwise be rote action fight scenes. Keeping it away from preconceived comic book flourishes allows Legion to maintain a more grounded and intellectual storyline. It's a well-conceived and bold escape from X-Men or superhero conceits.
Imagine if Charlie Kaufman, Wes Anderson, and the Coen Brothers all swapped brains and started collaborating on a show that's maybe set in the '70s (except not really), and you have a rough idea of what to expect.
[Nerdist]
It dares to cut between hallucinatory dance routines and torture sequences as if the two normally work side by side. It is, to say the least, audacious.
It Seems Like Its Not Being Flippant About Mental Health
Legion plays a lot with themes of identity and memory and emotion, and if the key to visual storytelling is to show and not tell, well, Legion grasps onto that wholeheartedly. But above all, it's a deeply considered portrait of mental illness. Even if David's schizophrenia is actually part of a mutant power, it's also still literally angry voices in his head fighting to control him and his actions. Whatever you want to call it, it's a problem for his daily life, and something he has struggled with since he was a young boy.
[Collider]
Stevens, in particular, is asked to do a lot in this series and pulls it off convincingly. Not only is he using an American accent and sporting oddly cut short (and long, in flashbacks) hair, he has to nail the schizophrenia/mutant mind-bending stuff and never lets it get hokey or lose the well-earned harrowing part of it that Hawley instills. The audience gets its sympathy for David through all he's suffered as a child.
TL;DR
It seems like the only way Legion's premiere will leave you feeling disappointed is if you just want another show in the vein of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Daredevil. From its talented cast to the stylistic risks it takes, all signs point to Legion being the next step in the evolution of comic book TV.
Watch The Trailer
Hey, you! Still looking for a new show to try? Take a look at a Digg review roundup for Riverdale (based on Archie Comics) or The Young Pope (about a pope, who is young).
