FX’s mind-bending new drama Legion premieres today. The superhero show has been called everything from “explosive” to “A true X-Men adaptation”. The new mutant drama is turning heads with everyone getting ready to tune in. Before it premieres tonight, check out a list of some of the best reviews of the series.
UpRoxx asked if Legion is the first “great” comic book superhero show. While fans of Arrow and The Flash, not to mention Agents of SHIELD and the Marvelflix (Jessica Jones, Daredevil, etc.) Uproxx found the series unique and strange – yet they were driven to finish.
Legion is so strange, so idiosyncratic, so outside the norms of anything we’ve come to expect from modern comic book adaptations, on the big screen or small, that it was hard not to wonder if I was just imagining the whole thing.
It fits in with the overwhelming trend that Legion is going to be something that we’ve never seen before. The trends continue with The Hollywood Reporter calling it a “visual masterpiece about mental illness and mutant powers” focusing on Dan Stevens and the incredible focus he brings to the character.
With its stellar cast — featuring Bill Irwin and Jeremie Harris, who work to help David at Melanie’s hidden compound; Katie Aselton as his beloved sister Amy; and the future emergence of Jemaine Clement as Melanie’s husband Oliver Bird — Legion has a lot of gifted people around to bring life to Hawley’s vision. (Smart and Keller worked with him on Fargo.) 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.
The praise keeps on growing. Collider.com focused on the mental health aspect of the series and painted a picture that makes Legion not only respectful, but a positive origin story for individuals struggling with mental health issues.
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.
Respect for the mental health community in superhero origin stories has been coming – slow in coming but it’s coming so this news is very welcome. Traditionally superheroes are either “tortured” or their villainy is related to the fact that they are different. Major outlets continue to report that this is not the case – being different is “cool and unique” instead of something that tortures others. In a world where our differences aren’t always celebrated, this is a welcome change.
Are you excited for Legion? share your thoughts in the comments below about the first take on the television “Fox Universe.”. Legion premieres February 8th and stars Dan Stevens, it is directed by Noah Hawley.