Legion - Season 2

Hero, right?

So… what in the hells can I say about most of a season of Legion in a single blog post?

So, Season 2 follows the shifting alliances in the hunt for the Shadow King’s body. David struggles to follow future Sid’s directions without leading his allies into harm’s way. At the same time, Lenny – or the part of her mind that exists within the Shadow King since her death – begins to show her independence from the primary consciousness of Ahmal Farouk, asking to be given a body and a new life in return for her service.

Weirdness abounds.

Farouk is able to get to his body first, while David – enraged by the discovery that Farouk has restored Lenny by overwriting his sister’s soul and warping her body into a facsimile of Lenny’s – sets up an elaborate gambit, planting subconscious prompts in various allies in order to set up a situation in which Farouk’s powers can be nullified. This gambit does pay off, enabling him to defeat the Shadow King in a bravura clash of swirling chalk figures – seriously, this series is hella stylish – but at the same time Farouk reveals to Sid that he has also managed to contact future Sid, and that the danger that she wants Farouk alive to face in the future is David, because David is, at his core, broken in such a way that he can only ever pretend to connect to other humans, all the while seeing them as lesser beings and his to do with as he pleases. Consequently, Sid tries to shoot him. He erases her memory of the event and her motives in order to restore their relationship which, once she discovers it, leaves Sid understandably pissed as hell.

Really, really stylish.

Division 3, backed by the Shadow King, confront David, who basically declares ‘screw the lot of you’ and swans off with Lenny to be bad guys or something.

Now, not wanting to dump on the Defenders line – or not on any part of it that isn’t Iron Fist, anyway – but this is some seriously tight storytelling. A lot happens in the course of ten episodes, and I would hold this up as another example of why the US standard of 20-23 episodes isn’t necessarily the best model for television drama. The standard was developed in a time when the idea of serialised fiction in an ongoing series was almost unheard of. Serial fiction was the purview of the mini-series – 3-6 episodes of ninety minutes or more – while ongoing series, like Star Trek or Bonanza, would have an anthology format. But then, Babylon 5 happened, pretty much. Arc plots became de rigeur, and while some series make it work, most end up with a mix of arc episodes and filler of indifferent quality, telling a story that ends up over-stretched. A shorter season maintains the quality and momentum of a series much better than a longer one.

On the other hand, presumably revenue is determined by how many episodes you can stick adverts in, so…

But yeah; Legion is very good. Love it.

Legion - 'Chapter 9' and 'Chapter 10'

Meet the new boss, substantially different from and way, way weirder than
the old boss (who talked to her coffee machine.)

I'm just going to say this now, and maybe we can assume it for the start of every other paragraph going forward in the second season of Legion: This is where things get weird.

We open with David, last seen being abducted by an orb, being recovered by Potonomy and Clarke from a nightclub full of catatonic people whose teeth chatter constantly. It has been a year since his disappearance, although he claims to remember nothing, and in that time Amahl Farouk, the Shadow King, has been travelling in Oliver Bird's body, leaving in his wake the psychic virus - known as the Catalyst - which leave people in this frankly unnerving state. David learns that the team from Summerlands are now working with Division 3 under the authority of Admiral Fukyama, a hybrid of human and machine who wears a komuso's basket-hat and speaks through a series of moustachioed gynoids, because of course he does. Their goal is to find Farouk's body and destroy it, thus robbing him of his powers.

Future Syd is more of a winter.

David reconnects with Syd, and Cary creates an isolation tank designed to help him locate the Shadow King. While searching for Farouk, David recalls the nightclub, a monk, and a three-way dance battle against Oliver and Lenny. David gives Syd - who is worried about losing him again - a compass that will always point to him, but although he promises no secrets he does not tell her that he does remember being taken, and that the orb was sent by a future version of Syd, still carrying the compass, who tells him to help Farouk find his original body.

David agrees to help Farouk, creating a distraction so that Farouk-in-Oliver can enter Division 3 in search of something. David insists that no-one get hurt, which Farouk disregards, disintegrating several guards and terrifying the children who are used as security because pre-pubescent individuals are immune to the Catalyst. He also does something to Kerry which initially prevents her reabsorption into Cary, then causes him to be partially absorbed into her. Admiral Fukyama and Clarke immediately become suspicious of David.

Creepy smile!

Unnerved by the loss of life, David has the Loudermilks - who are considerably thrown as, even when they manage to separate again, find themselves unable to recombine, leaving Kerry stuck living through the boring bits and apparently aging fast - enhance the tank to let him move outside of time, ostensibly to predict where Farouk will be, but actually to contact future Syd and ask for confirmation that he should really be helping Farouk. She confirms that he must, because what comes after Farouk, a plague, is worse, and they need the Shadow King to fight it. David finally comes face to face with what may be the true face of Farouk, who agrees to not kill anyone else if David will help him find the monk from his vision, the last survivor of the Migo Order, who were involved in hiding the Shadow King's body. David confides in Syd, who suggests that he do as her future self suggests.

In addition, each episode has a narrative essay on a psychological and philosophical topic. In 'Chapter 9', this considers the birth of delusions as an irrational idea that thrives in place of more rational ones to become a psychosis, considering the story of Zhuang Zhou and the butterfly and an allegory of ideas as chicks hatching from eggs. The delusion is a black, tarry mutant chick, which survives because Lenny crushes a healthy chick, visually suggesting that others can foster delusions by quashing rational ideas, although I don't know if Lenny represents Farouk in this instance, or the fact that Benny and Lenny both represented a deleterious influence on David in their own way. The tar chick also makes an appearance in the background of one scene, which is disturbing AF.

The show notes say 'to be read by Peter Jones, or nearest living equivalent.

'Chapter 10' talks about how ticks and dogs perceive the world, and how the human need to interpret the world creates umwelt, the individual perception of the world. This makes humans the only creatures able to go mad, and can be manipulated, for example by teaching a child that red is green and vice versa, then letting them loose on a pelican crossing. I don't know how current and accurate these sections are, but they certainly add to the uniqueness of the series, making it feel like a particularly grim reinterpretation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Also, did I mention there was a goddamn dance off? And the cyber-brained komuso with the moustachioed gynoids?

So, yeah, Legion continues to be the weirdest thing on television by a matter not of degree, but of kind. It remains compelling, although the new status quo - working for Division 13, Melanie Bird turned insular nihilist - takes a little getting used to. I think the most interesting thing about introducing the 'real' Shadow King - I'm not actually convinced yet that this is what his body looks like - is that we see him interacting with Lenny. This is the first confirmation that Lenny is really real, and also indicates that Farouk not only steals bodies and co-opts their images psychically, but retains entire personalities inside himself, including Lenny who wants to be free and - if at all possible - not dead anymore.

Legion - Chapter 8

Levitating badass.

And so it ends, as it began, in weirdness.

David literally brushes aside the threat of Division 3, opting to negotiate with his former interrogator Clark – who gets a moving montage at the top of the episode detailing his recovery from the attack on the pool, and showing us his relationship with his husband and adopted son – as he calmly assumes a near-unassailable leadership position at Summerland. Kerry is still mad as hell at Cary, Oliver doesn't remember who Melanie is, and Division 3 are watching through an implant in Clark's destroyed right eye.

Melanie explains to Clark that David is a world-breaker; he changes the rules and makes the Divisions and their paramilitary forces irrelevant. However, Syd reveals the existence of the Shadow King when David suffers an attack. Cary tries to expunge the King, but it proves resistant, threatening to kill David even as it is destroyed and contacting Syd telepathically to offer a deal. Syd uses her power to take the King out of David, then transfers it to Kerry when the latter tries to stop her. Kerry/the Shadow King kicks the crap out of pretty much everyone, until David confronts them and ejects the King. Unfortunately, in the aftermath of the fight, with pretty much everyone unconscious, the King gets into Oliver's mind and takes off.

We end with Clark recognising that perhaps the Shadow King is a unifying mutual enemy and Oliver and 'Lenny' heading south in search of something or someone. Then in a stinger, Division 3 sends a drone which teleports David into some sort of pocket space inside itself, which is pretty messed up.

Legion has been the other superhero show, a unique entity, and even in its big action finale it doesn't let up on that front. The battle is uniquely twisty. Cary and Kerry's reconciliation after she gets possessed and beats the snot out of him is touching, and very little outside of the opening ten minutes of Up is as heartbreaking as the semi-amnesiac Oliver remembering who his wife is moments before being possessed by the King. This is the show that we need in the face of the utter drabness of Iron Fist and the continuing sine wave of quality that is Agents of SHIELD to remind us that Marvel is still in the game, TV-wise. If there is a weakness in the series it is that David essentially became less interesting as he became more in control, but in that respect the stinger turns that on its head and leaves us with the prospect of a Season 2 not entirely overshadowed by David's awesomeness, but with the same balance of power and vulnerability as we've seen this year.

Legion - Chapter 7

Tim Burton's Revenge!

Okay, so I watched this after the musical crossover episode of The Flash and Supergirl, and this is where my evening got weird.

We begin by flashing back to Cary being pulled out of the 'hospital' by Oliver. They make a plan to rescue the others and we go forward to Cary contacting Syd and then Melanie, making sure to keep hidden from the parasite, which they identify as Farouk, the Shadow King. With the help of pairs of reality filtering glasses, Syd finds the catatonic telekinetic and Kerry, while Cary, Melanie and Oliver try to alter the real world so that Syd and David aren't immediately shot when they break out. Melanie also finds the mortally wounded telekinetic, revealing that the shooter is in fact the Eye.

'Lenny' questions Amy about the man who brought David to the family and we catch a glimpse of a familiar wheelchair.

David's fightin' chalk drawings are boss.

Elsewhere in his brain, David receives the assistance of his rational, British(1) mind, which talks him through his situation. He realises through the medium of imaginary moving chalk drawings that his real father must be a telepath who confronted the parasite and defeated it, but it survived and attached itself to him in revenge, seeking to grow strong on his power and, dare he say it, rule the world as a kind of telepathic god. His connection with Syd, however, broke the creature's spell and allowed him to perceive it.

In a bravura sequence, Oliver begins conducting an elaborate psychic construct around an electronic remix of Ravel's Bolero, while Kerry and Syd navigate a black and white asylum and David breaks out of his coffin into a labyrinth of endlessly recursive doors. The Eye attacks Kerry and Syd attacks the Eye, only for the Shadow King to appear, fold the Eye up like a ventriloquist's dummy (in both astral and physical forms,) threaten Kerry and Syd, nip off to blast Oliver and then come back. David unleashes his power to tear the Shadow King's labyrinth apart and Cary drops the device which imprisons the Shadow King onto David's head. Throughout this sequence, everyone speaks in silent movie title cards, and at the end of it, David catches some bullets while the Eye keeps on folding.

"Are you British?"
"I said, I'm your rational mind."

They take the telekinetic back to Summerland, where Oliver is awake. All seems well, but Kerry is angry that Cary left her when she needed him, the Shadow King starts breaking free, and Division 3 show up to take David back and kill everyone else. Not sure how that's going to work out for them, if I'm honest.

I suspect that the fact that Legion is able to spend a good chunk of the penultimate episode of its freshman year in a silent movie sequence mashing together disparate cinematographic styles and get away with it is a solid indication of how strong an opening it has made. Witty, daring and more than a little disturbing, it may not be definitively the best superhero show on television (although it's definitely up there,) but it is utterly unique, and not just within its genre. The look and feel of the show, from the film grain to the costume to the music, are like nothing else I've ever seen, and after a wobbly start it has fully embraced the oft ignored possibility that one could – in a world where superpowers and psychic possession are real – be a superhuman, and possessed, and mentally ill.

(1) Bonus meta points for having David assay a British accent for his father, only to have his attempt scorned by his rational mind in Dan Stevens actual British accent.

Legion - Chapter 6

Pie abuse.

After last week's turn to the bizarre, Chapter 6 of Legion... gets weirder.

All of the characters - including the Eye - are apparently trapped in David's head space, which now resembles the Clockwork, having their personalities deconstructed by tough-love shrink Dr Lenny. As Miranda sought to convince David that what he took for insanity was the manifestation of his powers, Dr Lenny now leads her 'patients' to the realisation that what they thought were powers are in fact manifestations of mental illness. Yes, it's the asylum episode, but this being Legion we're going to weirder and darker places even than is usual for the trope. Syd is the first to see the door back to reality, but Davi urges her to keep quiet in case the doctors connect this to her diagnosis: Apparently she is the delusional scizophrenic in this world.

"I'm sensing a lack of professionalism here, Doctor."

Syd is numbed by music therapy after she asks too many questions, while the Eye is given license to pursue a disempowered Kerry. Miranda is contacted by the figure in the diving suit, who leads her into the world where David is about to be shot. David begins to shake the certainty of the illusion and Lenny turns aggressive, openly revealing herself as an aspect of the parasite personality and claiming to have known his real father, who tried to hide him from the parasite. As David struggles not to be overcome, the figure in the diving suit releases Syd from the sound of crickets and opens the mask to reveal, not Oliver Bird, but Cary.

Chapter 6 brings home just how dangerous and destructive David's parasite mind actually is, using his own powers to entrap the entire group, including memory expert Ptonomy. At the same time, it reveals weaknesses as well, with aspects of the illusion slipping out of control and the entity's impatience belying its claims of implacability. My main gripe is the declawing of Kerry, and I really hope we get to see her - as well as Syd and David - fight back next week.

Legion - 'Chapter 5'

"For identification purposes, I am not Iron Man."

I'm starting to think that, when it comes to Legion, the phrase 'and this is where it gets really weird' is going to rapidly lose all meaning.

David and the field team return to Summerland with the injured, but not dead, Kerry, who needs some time to heal before Cary can reabsorb her and so take most of her injuries on himself. Meanwhile, David insists that he's going to go to Division 3 and get his sister back, and Syd that she's going with him. Melanie cautions that he's not ready, but it is apparent that really she wants him to bring her husband back from the astral plane before risking his life. David, however, is a changed man, determined and in control, able to communicate telepathically at will and to create a full-sensory environment in which he and Syd can consummate their relationship.

Influenced by Lenny, David goes to D3 without any backup, even abandoning Syd, despite a promise that if he gets lost, they will get lost together. Melanie leads her troops, such as they are, to support him, fearing what D3 might do with David in their power, only to find that he has torn the building apart, fused the D3 commandos with the ground, taken his sister and left. Syd realises that he would head for his childhood home, and they arrive as David – driven by Lenny – is questioning Amy to learn that he was adopted(1). As the team travel, Cary contacts them to say that he believes that David is schizophrenic, and that the break in his mind is the result of another personality existing alongside his own; a malevolent, parasitical entity using David's own powers to alter his memories and mask its existence.

"Clearly some people got hurt."

As David spirals out of control and one of Melanie's agents opens fire on him, Syd has him move with her to his artificial space. The respite is short lived, however, as the Yellow Eyed Devil manifests, and Syd finds herself back in group therapy at Clockwork, along with David and all of the other members of the Summerlands group, and it is her turn to talk.

There's a scene in 'Chapter 5' that encapsulates a lot of how the series as a whole rolls. David and Syd are in a lift; they exchange suggestive asides and the lift doors open on a close-up of Syd's face, screaming in ecstasy, which is a disconcerting way to introduce your fan service (and I don't think that's an accident.) David asks if this is her first time and she says no, and begins to tell a story. He was one of her mother's boyfriends. She was sixteen. Too much was drunk. The show takes us by the hand and leads us towards a narrative that is grimly familiar, but this is another bait and switch; there is no tale of abuse. Syd, young and curious, switched into her drunk mother's body to experiment, only for them to switch back during the act.

Okay, more pinstripe than Reservoir Dogs, but still, apparently the hair is not
a sign of evil; brain Lenny is just bad news.

"Who teaches us to be normal when we're one of a kind?" Syd asks rhetorically. Their world is weirder than we think and creepy in whole new ways, but also Syd retains her agency in a way she would not if she were a victim; especially not given that her powers give her a contact aversion which we culturally perceive as most likely a result of trauma. Legion plays with our minds, and it doesn't need David's godlike power to do it, but for all that it fucks with its characters, so far it hasn't done it by making an otherwise powerful woman helpless(2).

Legion is dark and weird, and given to performing the kind of 360-degree spin we see here, with the formerly nervous and disoriented David becoming suave and confident, only to end the episode more lost than ever.

(1) She claims not to know who his real parents were, even while being tormented by reservoir Dogs Lenny/Benny/who the hell knows, so we're still open for Professor Xavier.

(2) Another reason to be glad that Kerry survived her brush with the refrigerator.

Legion - Chapter 4

"Welcome to the Twilight Jazz Zone. Nice.(1)"

Shit gets real this week, as the team leave the safety of Summerland in search of clues which could help them retrieve David, who has actually done what so many characters threaten to do and literally vanished up himself; mentally at least.

Intercut with flashes forward to the capture of the field team – Syd, Potonomy and Kerry – David falls into his mind and finds himself in a suspended crystal chamber along with a hepcat type who talks to the audience and may(2) be Miranda's 'late' husband Oliver trapped on the astral plane while his body is frozen in an old-fashioned diving suit because of course it is. David and Oliver discuss jazz, but David refuses to hang out with Oliver in the astral plane, waiting either for rescue or for two more lost souls to form a barbershop quartet.

Amy Haller, meanwhile, is being held by Division 3 in a cell adjoining that of Dr Kissinger, David's psychiatrist from Clockwork. Neither is entirely sure why they are there.

Syd and Potonomy visit the office of David's therapist, Poole, and scan its memories. Syd begins to suspect that David's immense power may have allowed him to remove and replace his own memories for reasons unknown. Potonomy suggests that David is unstable, the first allowance that he could be both an immensely powerful telepath and mentally ill. Next they talk to David's ex-girlfriend Philly, or rather Syd talks and Potonomy scans her memories to try to fill in the gaps in David's recollection. They discover that David's pre-institutional drug buddy was not Lenny, but a man named Benny. At the end of the interview, Syd reveals that she knows David and asks if Philly has any message for him. "Tell him they're watching," is the reply.

As they travel to visit Poole, Syd talks to Kerry about her existence. It turns out that she lives inside Cary, a fierce, combative and entirely independent persona, although she only emerges for 'action' and only ages when emerged. Cary admits to Miranda that he doesn't know what would happen to Kerry if he died of old age. Poole proves amenable to talk, but during the interview he suddenly reveals himself to be the creepy-looking Division 3 agent known in the credits as 'the Eye'. D3 commandos open fire, and the Eye – who in addition to being able to look like someone else is apparently bulletproof and can render someone unconscious with a touch – pursues the team upstairs.

Is it just the hair that I don't trust?

Kerry jumps out of a window and subdues the first wave of commandos, but is beaten down by a second as Cary feels every blow. The Eye incapacitates Potonomy, but Syd high fives him as he tries to use his power on her, and her own power trumps his, swapping their minds and allowing her to knock him out and take custody of all three prisoners. Unfortunately, slicked-back-hair Lenny-of-the-mind – who I'm pretty sure is not on David's side, even if regular Lenny-of-the-mind is, and who may specifically represent Benny, but I can't be certain – uses David's powers to show him what appears to be the Eye taking Syd away. This goads David into returning to his body and teleporting to rescue 'Syd'.

This is where things get really weird, as he pins Syd-in-the-Eye, only for Syd-in-the-Eye to turn into Syd, while the Eye-in-Syd turns back into the Eye; that is, instead of their minds switching back, their bodies swap to match the minds, which I don't think is what happened before, but means that the Eye ends up with a gun and shoots Kerry. As Cary falls to the ground in Summerland, we close the episode, and I'm left wondering if Syd wasn't right when, at the start of the episode, she asked Potonomy if they could still be in David's mind.

First blood? Well, apart from actual Lenny.

As much as a gritty series needs the threat of death, I'll admit that I hope that Kerry/Cary isn't and/or aren't dead yet, because that would suggest that characters are only as durable as their secret origin is secret, and that discussing one's mutant nature is the kiss of death, which is a terrible cliche. Regardless, Chapter 4 of Legion does a lot to remind us of the physical stakes after a couple of weeks of purely cerebral peril by taking some of the characters out of the safety of Summerland and into the world where Division 3 awaits them. The show continues to be fascinating, disturbing and disconcerting, not least because – if the field team are indeed operating in the real world – then Chapter 4 suggests that reality is almost as malleable and uncertain as David's memories. The cutaway transition of Poole into the Eye is much, much more unsettling than any CGI morphing effect, hinting more strongly that in some way bit was always the Eye sitting in that chair, we just didn't notice.

(1) Also, holy shit, that's Jemaine Clements under that haircut.

(2) I say may because who know what is real in this series? Not Dan Stevens, apparently, who was given decidedly limited script access in order to maintain the appropriate air of complete bafflement.

Legion - 'Chapter 3'

The best part of waking up...

Things take a turn for the weird(er) in 'Chapter 3' of Legion.

With his sister in Division 3 custody, David is eager to move forward with his training, but we open with a slow montage of life in the retreat, over which an automated coffee machine tells the story of an old woodcutter and his wife who unknowingly adopt a crane as their daughter. we will later learn that the voice is that of Melanie's husband, who was killed in a disagreement with one of their early partners, a mutant who now works for Division 3. David and Syd see this former partner when they project to Amy's interrogation during another attempt to scan David's brain activity.

The definition of insanity is repeating the same action and expecting a
different result. Well... insanity or chaso theory.

Potonomy tries to work through the gaps in David's memory, but although they manage to see more, David realise that they are not seeing the same things that he is seeing; they are not seeing the yellow-eyed devil. Also, he periodically teleports them to a different room during the memory-work session, which is a thing.

It's noteworthy at this point that after they find themselves in the wrong room on waking, Potonomy asks David 'What are you?' suggesting that he is something more, or other, than a mutant.

With the pressure on to move forward with Amy's rescue, Syd accompanies the next memory session, with David sedated to reduce his resistance to the process. He is initially reluctant, fearing that she will feel differently about him if she sees him as he was when he was a junkie (including his sexual relationship with Lenny.) Sedated David appears in the memory world as a child, which is clearly confusing for Syd, since this is the one place she can touch him. She sees the devil, and the world shake and crack around them, which the others do not; although Melanie does get her hand bitten by the memory of the book The World's Angriest Boy in the World.  Syd and child-David are pursued through ducts by the boy from the book and the yellow-eyed devil, and David falls comatose.

Imaginary Lenny is trying on a new look.

As I suspected might happen, the show this week confronted Melanie's reductive approach to mental illness and superpowers. Imaginary Lenny showed up looking oddly sleek and casting doubts on whether he actually has powers at all. After that, David confides his fear to Syd that maybe just because he has superpowers doesn't mean he is definitely sane. This added nuance and the increasing sense of danger within the memory work, plus the threat to Amy, picks up some of the slack that 'Chapter 2' fell into. It's clear that far more action is going to take place within David's mind in this series than in the outer world, and I think I can live with that.

Legion - 'Chapter 2'

Less an institution, more of a retreat.

In the second episode of Fox's not-MCU yet not actually X-Men series, things have not improved much for David Haller. He's still largely confined to an institutional setting, having tests run on him by Melanie Bird and her specialists.

He does 'memory work' with Potonomy – one of the mutants who rescued him – to reconnect the fragments of his past which have become dissociated by years of medical and recreational drug use and abuse, mislabelling as schizophrenic breaks and deliberate repression. He recalls a children's book that his father read him called The World's Angriest Boy in the World, about a child who murders his mother, as well as sessions with his psychiatrist talking about a girlfriend who repeatedly leaves him and returns in a cycle of emotional manipulation. A man named Cary runs him through an MRI to study his brain activity, all in an attempt to discover the means by which he can control his own power.

He also gets to spend time with Syd, who reveals that she does have contact issues on top of the risk of her power swapping her mind with someone else. She explains that she was picked up by Melanie's people because they detected her use of his powers and thought that she was him, while he was taken by Division 3, one of a number of government divisions studying mutants. She also admits that she remembers killing Lenny while she was in his body. Melanie tells him that he is one of the most powerful they have ever come across, and assures him that any time he thought he was mad, that was his powers in action.

 

"Well... You're creepy."

While in the MRI, he has a vision of his sister trying to find out why he is no longer at the Clockworks, and being threatened with committal when she rejects the receptionist's assurance that no David Haller was ever admitted, nor did David's doctor ever work there. As she leaves, rattled by the suggestion that she might suffer paranoid delusions – or that she might be thought to suffer them – she is followed by the man from Division 3 who wasn't incinerated during the rescue. He tries to leave to rescue her, but Syd persuades him to stay, train, and then rescue Amy when he is more capable. Amy will be more or less safe, as she is the bait for him.

Despite a slower pace, Legion continues to be an intense, cerebral, slightly surreal examination of the superhero mythos. The X-Men has always used mutation as a stand in for any and every prejudice, but in its explicit connection of superpower and mental illness, Legion walks territory that is likely to be uncomfortable for a lot of viewers. For myself, I think the most uncomfortable thing is Melanie's blithe and reductive assurance that everything in David's life that he thought was mental illness was actually a sign of his powers; he is a telepath and probable telekinetic, so apparently he can't also be mentally ill. I strongly suspect – or perhaps fervently hope – that the show will confront this assumption, implicitly if not outright.

Legion - 'Chapter 1'

"Were you really in Downton?"

As the MCU's small screen cousins, the excellent New York stories and the somewhat meh Agents of SHIELD continue a pace, a new entry comes to the parallel universe of the X-Men and Deadpool, although apparently this is a parallel version of this parallel to the one with the films in, if that is indeed a singular universe in and of itself by now. If that seems complicated, just wait until we get going on Legion.

Legion comes in with a tough line to sell. David Haller is a patient in the Clockwork Mental Hospital (yes, that's what it's called,) who hears voices in his head and has occasionally believed that he has the power to control matter. A happy childhood is rapidly replaced with a troubled adolescence in one of the world's most tragic and uncomfortable montages. Diagnosed with and treated for paranoid schizophrenia and fearing a malign 'devil with the yellow eyes,' David nonetheless forges a relationship with contact-averse new patient Syd Barrett(1) alongside his friendship with slobbish long-time hospital crony Lenny, and seems to be doing fine until she is sent out into the world, their goodbye kiss somehow swaps their bodies and Lenny ends up fused into a wall and very, very dead. Could it be that David really does have powers, that Syd does as well, and that Lenny died when Syd found herself suddenly trying to control David's abilities?

This is super adorable. And then people die.

Such appears to be the assumption of the enigmatic and sinister government agents who are questioning David. Our protagonist, meanwhile, is off his meds and struggling to understand what is happening now and what is happening then, even before Syd turns up in his dreams and Lenny starts talking to him from beyond the grave. Ultimately he is rescued by Syd and a group of other powered individuals, and taken to meet Melanie, an older woman who may have the answers (although I'm skeptical that even if she does we'll get to them before 'Chapter 4'.)

Written by Noah Hawley, creator of the excellent Fargo TV series, Legion tackles one of Marvel's most difficult characters, one whose power is tied up with mental illness. It's not a topic that mainstream comics have traditionally tackled with a great deal of tact - especially not Legion's particular deal, dissociative personality disorder - so it is perhaps a good thing that this is not what you might call a mainstream comic book adaptation. It is frankly impressive that it has got through the first episode without being rampantly offensive, and that gives me some hope.

Saturated in a seventies colour palette and steeped in the music of the past, it is nonetheless hard to pin down the series to a particular time and place. Not the present day, probably. It mentions mutants, but this only hints at similarities to the X-Men, and only in the final scenes of this opening episode do we get any solid suggestion that David's powers, or those of his rescuers, might be real.

I want to believe Syd when she says this is real, but I could also believe this
scene as an artefact of David's mind.

In fact, the great strength and potentially greatest weakness of the series is that we don't know what, if any, of what we are seeing is real. We see things as David sees them; faces change, memories are flawed, and we can't know if he is talking to the ghost of his dead friend, or a memory, or a psychic construct or whatall else. Did his captors all burst into flames, or has he just slipped into unconsciousness and dreamed that bit? That there is no way to be sure is the USP of the series, although it is also an easy way to alienate the audience if not handled well. If nothing we see is real, after all, then we can't get any sort of handle on the fictional universe and we might as well not bother, so the series is going to have to at least convince us that it's giving us new information, even if it is lying to us sometimes.

Definitely different, certainly interesting, and boasting a strong, if not recognisable cast, Legion has defied the odds and made a powerful opening. Here's hoping it stays the course.

(1) Not that one.