FX's "Legion"

I've been loving the show but 10 minutes into this latest episode I was thinking, how long are they going to drag this on. A half hour in I was hoping for a huge payoff to compensate the viewer for sitting through that. Forty minutes in I was debating of hitting the fast forward button.
I felt like there was a payoff in the last minute of the show but it didn't come close to covering the cost of build up. That episode could have been condensed to 20 minutes, with commercials.

They really better step it up for me to come back for season two. Episodes 1-5 were mostly great, IMO, but if 6-8 are all as slow as 6 I'll be done. It was that painful. Heck if seven is as bad as six I might be done next week.

 

Yeah, I didn't know the song but recognized the voice right off.

 

Started to watch the latest episode last night. Turned it off halfway through. I'll watch the rest sometime over the weekend. Maybe. I know things are bad when I start thinking thoughts like; "I really want to like this show" and "Should I feel like it's work trying to like this show?". It's smart, well acted, and fun eye candy, but the pace....jeezoman.

 

I'm glad I'm not alone in my appreciation of this show. I'm sorry I erased the 1st few from my DVR, as I think a 2nd viewing after the original run will be very beneficial. I liked this from the go, but it seems to be getting better every episode from my perspective.

Many times during this past episode I had to rewind b/c thoughts provoked by the material had me off on a tangent and missing the next scene. So much really meaty stuff and I feel much clearer about levels of consciousness/fantasy shown.

Aubrey Plaza is stellar as the agent of chaos- a role brought into bright relief by David's choice of how she functions in his fantasy world. I LOVED the music video- rewound that part to re-watch.

So many archetypal figures in D's delusional fantasy; the sister is chilling as the family voice.

One thought revolved around how delusional psychopaths- who seemingly possess the highest capacity for creating a "real" alternate reality-always have aspects of the fantasy that morph it into a nightmare. This also spawned from just watching Psycho to aid in my appreciation of Bates Motel's final season. Sure, these guys are psychos, but don't we all create our own reality via our perception of what's "out there?" And just how much of our own drama is created by the demons in our psyches? We do all have our demons...

Very apropos that Lynch was brought up- I see many similarities. This is becoming my favorite show- at least until BCS. It this continues at this pace, even Fargo will have a hard time competing. Heady stuff imo.

I'm not a fan of comic book series in general (though I really liked JJ); I think Legion transcends that categorization. I'm looking forward to seeing if they can keep it up.

 

We havd that in common...glad I'm not alone in enjoying the show. I am on board 100% and psyched it has been renewed for a 2nd season

 

I absolutely love this show...as a longtime XMen fan...it is fantastic to now see the comic characters that were such a huge part of my highschool & college experience....be translated to film and television
Legion...the creators and cast are doing a top notch job
If this iconic character were ever to be portrayed as written in the comics...i can only see an anime manga doing it accurate justice...its just too bizarre
However FX has taken this complex uber powerful being and set up an elaborate construct set perfectly for the small screen....they are right up there on the HBO level...with this mind blowing inverted rollercoaster flash forward backward upside down vertical horizontal piece of art that has me totally enthralled

 

I think this is a series that will really reward repeat viewings. To state the obvious you can go back and things will make sense, and you will have a different perspective on what is happening. And its so 'packed' with visual and verbal information that it needs repeat viewings.

 

Going back to chapter 1....i like the show has chapters and not episodes......
I got a heads up to re-check the scene at Clockworks where Syd visits David's room with her pillow and see the visual...WTF....that mirrors in this chapter when he visits Syds room with his pillow....
mind blown

 

at the 3:14/3:15-ish mark
Dan Stevens....supposes to Patrick Stewart

.....well I won't spoil it for anyone....check it out for yourself

 

I hope, when the season's over, you can tell us what the did differently from the comic books...

 

Yes- some things already make more sense; and more will be revealed...

Maybe it was already apparent, but w/ Aubrey as Analyst it clicked w/ me that any storyline containing her takes place in D's head. That alone would be helpful understanding the first episodes.

The way this show uses focus (as in clarity of what's real) is so wild; it's not zooming in so much as swirling inside...

Nice to get the perspective of a real X-men fan. Great that the show works either/or.

Yeah- lots of mirroring in this show. Not just visually, but thematically. It's like a hall of mirrors.

 

I'm enjoying the hell out of the show, and I thought this last week's episode was pretty amazing. Incredible visuals, especially for TV. I hope when the series (which I think only has 8 episodes) ends in a couple of weeks, it'll have some finality and explain a few things. I just found out that show creator Noah Hawley previously did the first season of Fargo, which explains this show's pacing and visual approach (both of which I thought were unique and very interesting).

 

Not only the first season but the second, and I believe the upcoming third season of Fargo. He excelled in the Fargo seasons, and he's really delivering on Legion as well. I also really enjoyed his previous series on ABC The Unusuals.

 

Enjoying the show but it is like a psychedelic experience and sometimes may benefit by having a glass of wine or joint nearby. I live in Seattle so it's legal.

Cool and confusing but i love watching if.

 

Last night's episode was a better mixture of wacked-out, stylized stuff and actual content/exposition/plot/background, etc. While I still have extremely mixed feelings about the show, last night's episode was much less aggravating than previous episodes.

I don't want to be the guy who complains about no explanation of anything and then complains when they lay out a huge exposition-heavy scene, but it was almost comical how the "two Davids" basically hashed out huge chunks of the entire show's back story over the course of five minutes or so with a chalkboard. If I didn't know that they film these entire seasons before anything ever airs, I would think the scene was a reaction to criticisms of the show being too oblique and confusing.

Either way, while still pretty unbelievable that David would *all of a sudden* be able to conjure so much of his past (including possibly events he wasn't present for?), I appreciated getting some more info.

I also think the Jean Smart character is doing a good, subtle job.

 

What I didn't like was the fact that nobody seemed to save the black guy!
He just wound up in the 'shoot-out' scene, and we just have to accept the he 'snapped-out-of-it' on his own, or, they didn't show the other guys saving him!
other than that..not bad.

 

If you read the comic or have read it...yes and no....kind of.

 

So, is next week's episode the last?

 

Yeah, but he wasn't necessarily just doing an exposition dump for the audience's benefit (which, admittedly, a couple of earlier scenes were) so much as trying to create a logical narrative to stop himself from panicking and think rationally. Something that, having spent the bulk of his life letting other people make decisions for him, he wasn't necessarily used to. The story he was able to come up with probably fits what actually happened, but it's not necessary that it's actually true. It was pure conjecture based on what few bits of evidence he had. The real purpose of the scene wasn't so much to solidify history (and I'm sure the writers won't feel the need to stick to it in the future) - it's not canon - as to allow him to create his own story. If that hadn't happened, he probably would have been stuck in an endless loop going through door to office to door to office endlessly, just trapped in a (bigger) box screaming fruitlessly.

 

It says on Wiki that - she was real but died after episode 1 and then the Shadow King uses her 'image'.

 

I thought this was a brilliant episode. After so much psychological malleability, intertwining the illusory and the real over the course of the show (though with clear hints as to what was really going on), this episode really spilled its guts as to what's been happening. An info dump like that if handled badly could be disappointing in a show-don't-tell kind of way, but we've already been shown everything we needed to see.

But additionally, the way it was done was incredibly inventive (the blackboard sequence with animated chalk characters) and humorous (with Syd preemptively telling the whole story to Cary before he has a chance to do the same).

I also loved David's alter-ego with a a British accent - because he's the voice of reason! As well as a few other digs about his Britishness (Dan Stevens is, of course, a British actor who's actually doing an American accent). Inspired!

 

Thanks for mentioning this, I don't bother with this in general but last episode was terrific in surround.

Brilliant how with the glasses all illusions disappear and "reality" is a black and white silent film.

I also enjoyed the dig of spelling it out for us. Everything is done on purpose and planned in advance.

 

Yeah, agree, really strong episode. I've had my doubts but I love this show now. I think Noah Hawley knows exactly what he wants to do with this, he has a plan, so I am looking forward to where it will go.