Having now seen the first four episodes of Legion, I think I'm ready to go in-depth.
First off, I think it's very easy to forget Legion is based on a comic series. This is actually a little unfair, even if it's true, because as someone who has read far more Sandman books than any Superman title, I know that comics as a medium are hugely diverse in tone and subject matter. A History of Violence, for example, was based on a comic.
But Legion is not only based on a comic; it's based on a comic series that is directly tied to the X-Men. This is all in the same universe as Wolverine and Professor X (though unless Fox and Disney pull off some absurdly tricky deal, not the Avengers.) But aside, at this point, from the use of the term mutant (which actually shouldn't be something exclusive to the X-men series) you could very easily see this as a stand-alone, truly out-there and original show.
The show focuses primarily on David, a man who begins the show in a mental institution. Well, sort of.
The pilot at least plays a lot with time, and so while it's partially set in that hospital, it's also set in an interrogation room with an extraordinarily shady government or para-goverment conspiracy.
David has, for years, believed that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. He hears voices and sees things that aren't there. However, as he escapes from his captors, the leader of his new allies, Melanie, tells him that he's not mentally ill at all, and that instead he is the most powerful telepath/telekinetic in the world.
David's mental powers seem as if they might not have any upper limit. But because there is so much power flowing through his brain, the mundane physical world is shrouded by layers of mental environments.
There is this outer plot about the sinister Division Three trying to track everyone down and either recruit or kill them, but this all seems pretty minor compared to the vast conspiracy going on within David's own brain.
One of the allies at Melanie's Summerland sanctuary, named Ptonomy (you bet your ass I had to look up the spelling for that one,) has the ability to walk through a person's memory with them (and others he brings along.) Attempting to get David some control over his powers, they do a lot of delving into his memories, but there are serious problems.
For one, David has, maybe subconsciously, been editing his own memories, leaving gaps. And along with that, there is a figure (or maybe it's two figures?) that manifest as kind of monsters within his mind that threaten to do him terrible harm, or perhaps make him do terrible things.
And that's especially worrying as he has a girlfriend now, a fellow patient named Syd who has the unfortunate power of temporarily swapping bodies with anyone she physically touches. Like David, it's probable that her diagnosis was a misreading of her power (and quite rational aversion to touching people.)
The strange and barely-explained wild card in all of this is Lenny, David's friend apparently from both before and during the hospital. Played by Aubrey Plaza, who seems to be having a whole lot of fun with the part, Lenny is some kind of enabler whose true nature is mysterious.
The show is a total mindfuck in the best way (the kind that I've been a fan of since watching Fight Club in High School) and is also one of those shows that really does not let its nature as a TV show limit its ambition.
On top of editing and cinematography, the production design is also amazing, with costume design that suggests either the past or the future but definitely not the present (maybe taking queues from Spike Jonze's Her) and sets that have a bit of that 1960s space age feel.
This is definitely a show to follow, and I've got to say it hits just about all of my buttons, so you can bet I'll be talking about it in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment