USA TODAY International Edition
FX show features ‘ Legion’ of humor and jolts
Trippy series takes superhero tales to new place
If you think you’ve seen everything a superhero show has to offer, wait until you see Legion.
“Wait,” however, is the operative word. Written and directed by Fargo’s Noah Hawley in his latest effort for FX, Legion ( Wednesday, 10 ET/ PT, eeeg out of four) immediately immerses you in a psychedelic adventure before you can get your bearings ( which is the point of the immersion). The first, extended episode may initially seem confusing and frustrating, but if anyone has earned a little creative leeway, it’s Hawley.
And if any show deserves your patience, it’s Legion. Rewards await.
That’s true even if you’re tired of superhero stories, because while it’s based on a Marvel comic, Legion is unlike any comicbook series TV has ever offered. Oh, superpowers will appear: telepathy, telekinesis and dream travel among them. But Legion is more interested in the toll those powers take, and the result is a trippy, candy- colored, visually berserk psychological puzzle that makes you question what and who is real at all times. It’s a complex picture, and Hawley uses every color and tool at his disposal to paint it.
Our hero is David Haller, played by an almost unrecognizable Dan Stevens ( Downton Abbey), who expertly conveys every ounce of David’s confusion. ( You know how people said Stevens was ruining his career by leaving Downton? Apparently not.) David, a diagnosed schizophrenic who is kept heavily medicated to still the voices and visions racing through his head, has resigned himself to a life spent in an institution, apart from his sister Amy ( Katie Aselton) and shared with just one friend, Lenny ( Aubrey Plaza).
And then Syd ( Fargo’s luminous Rachel Keller) enters the institution, and everything changes. Suddenly David discovers both love and the idea that he might not be crazy after all — or that he might be crazy and something else, as well.
It’s a disorienting revelation for David and for us, because we see what’s happening, and maybe not happening, through his eyes. Frightening images share the screen with happy music and Bollywood dances, in a mind- boggling flash of bright colors and mod designs. But unlike HBO’s The Young Pope, where style substitutes for substance, Legion’s vi- sually spectacular style amplifies its substance.
Thanks to Syd, David ends up in the care of a team of parapsychology experts ( led by the always welcome Jean Smart), who try to protect him from some villains who are, for now, Legion’s weakest link. David’s powers and confusion grow, as does our connection to his budding romance with Syd — making this one of the few such series to have real emotional resonance.
There’s humor to be had here along with some genuinely scary jolts, all connected to a story that’s purposely hard to follow. Those who’ve read the comic books may feel a bit less off balance, but there’s something to be said for getting the benefit of every surprise the show has to offer. Either way, you can take comfort in knowing that, with Hawley in charge and Stevens, Smart and Keller on screen, you’re in very good hands.
Just wait and see.