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Legion (1 Viewer)

wikkidpissah

Footballguy
The Fargo guy has a new series premiering tonite @ 10 on FX. Thought (hope) it might deserve its own thread. Figured it was based on the bad (both ways) angel movie, but it turns out there's already one of them on Syfy. Marvel thing, nespa? Oy. But it has Jean Smart from Fargo, the delicious Aubrey Plaza and the greatest clown of my generation, Bill Irwin, so it can't be all bad. What's the buzz?

ETA: the last show thread i started was for Downtown Abby which, though only like 3 people responded in the first (only good) season, turned out pretty big as a show and a thread.

 
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I mentioned this in the MCU thread, but I'll say it here, too.

This is being put out by the same group that does the X-Men movies and is supposed to tie in with them - somehow. The continuity of that group of movies is so screwy, it's hard to make sense of what's going on.

From the comics, Legion is David Haller, son of Professor X. He's an immensely powerful mutant with multiple personality disorder (which is why he's called Legion, because there's a legion of personalities in his head). His personalities all had different powers, one of the main ones was telepathy like is dad. And he was often a bad guy in the comics.

 
thought it was pretty decent. good soundtrack and cinematography. the show looked great. It was like Wes Anderson doing a super hero story, without being that quirky. I'm in for a few more episodes.

 
I couldn't make it past the first half hour. I wanted to watch at least one entire episode, and I really like Aubrey Plaza. But there was no hook. When it turned out the girl had gone missing, I was glad. I don't care if it turns out she was real or a symptom of his crazy. Turning it off felt like a weight lifted off me.

 
As Bill Nye say, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs". Just wads & wads of the former thrown @ the wall last nite with no promise that the latter is coming. I'll give em one more shot to show they're not just making #### up cuz its cool or connect it all to sumn that actually plays.

 
I liked but I like weird #### like that. Looks like the series goes into normal x-men type #### though. 

 
Didn't catch it, but heard a few good things about it.  From what I've heard, it sounds like it's taking pieces from the comics to build out the show.  It's not entirely canon, but there are bits and pieces thrown together from the character's timeline from the comics.  A mish-mash, timey-wimey, psychotic-nuthouse kind of vibe.

<spoiler>In case you want to better understand the character from the comics</spoiler>

 
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was definitely a fun premiere. i'm glad it is Marvel Television, cause i assume they may have some characters show up and better tell Legion's story

 
It's on my dvr, waiting to see if it's getting good reviews.  If done right, Legion is probably the best concept in history for a super hero Tv show.  But I have low expectations right now. 

 
It's on my dvr, waiting to see if it's getting good reviews.  If done right, Legion is probably the best concept in history for a super hero Tv show.  But I have low expectations right now. 
Alan Sepinwall, the best tv critic, said it could be television's first truly great comic book series. That's all you need to know.

 
As Bill Nye say, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs". Just wads & wads of the former thrown @ the wall last nite with no promise that the latter is coming. I'll give em one more shot to show they're not just making #### up cuz its cool or connect it all to sumn that actually plays.
Creator Noah Hawley in interview with Sepinwall ...

There has been a recent TV trend of unreliable narrators. How do you keep the audience from looking at the show as a puzzle to solve?

You have to solve the mystery. The narrator has to become reliable. It’s a lot to ask an audience to take a perpetually unsatisfying journey where it’s like you’re never going to know for sure. It’s another thing to say, “We’re going to take a character out of confusion into clarity and an audience out of mystery into clarity.” That’s the goal of it which is to say, there’s a contract and you watch that first hour and you like, “I don’t know. There’s a devil with yellow eyes and there are these other elements that I’m not sure what they mean, but I trust the filmmaker and I know that I’m going to understand it eventually.” You do. It becomes clear by the end of the first year what’s going on.

 
Creator Noah Hawley in interview with Sepinwall ...

There has been a recent TV trend of unreliable narrators. How do you keep the audience from looking at the show as a puzzle to solve?

You have to solve the mystery. The narrator has to become reliable. It’s a lot to ask an audience to take a perpetually unsatisfying journey where it’s like you’re never going to know for sure. It’s another thing to say, “We’re going to take a character out of confusion into clarity and an audience out of mystery into clarity.” That’s the goal of it which is to say, there’s a contract and you watch that first hour and you like, “I don’t know. There’s a devil with yellow eyes and there are these other elements that I’m not sure what they mean, but I trust the filmmaker and I know that I’m going to understand it eventually.” You do. It becomes clear by the end of the first year what’s going on.
My greatest fear is that the creator doesnt understand brain science well enough to be credible. The narrator's constructs are simply not that of one whose brain's been stormed that long.

 
Alan Sepinwall, the best tv critic, said it could be television's first truly great comic book series. That's all you need to know.
My big concern is my familiarity with the character.  I was a huge Claremont fan for a decade or so; I read everything he wrote. Legion's one of my favorite characters. I have a hard time believing they'll make me happy with the representation, but we shall see. 

 
I watched it, liked it but have to admit, didnt always know what was going on
Watched it over the weekend and I am not sure I liked it but that might of been from not knowing what was going on (or the character).  The ending seemed to feel like we were out of the fog and into the story so I may give it a couple eps to see what happens.  More like the 1st hour and I am not sure I want to invest.  

 
As good a first episode of TV as I can remember. A bit too indebted to the Wes Anderson aesthetic (of which I'm a fan), but pretty much perfectly told and shown vision of this guys insanity. Fantastic direction and story telling there, and even the casting seems spot on. Strange to say... and I know nothing about the story... but i have low expectations for this maintaining such a high level now that the final scene produced the reveal of his reality. Still in to find out though.

 
As good a first episode of TV as I can remember. A bit too indebted to the Wes Anderson aesthetic (of which I'm a fan), but pretty much perfectly told and shown vision of this guys insanity. Fantastic direction and story telling there, and even the casting seems spot on. Strange to say... and I know nothing about the story... but i have low expectations for this maintaining such a high level now that the final scene produced the reveal of his reality. Still in to find out though.
TBH, I had a hard time figuring out what was reality and what wasn't.  Maybe that was the point but to me it didn't quite make that clear.  So I was a little underwhelmed only because I had a hard time understanding the story.  Although, I did read some reviews that the 1st two episodes are kind of like this but after that it gets much more intelligible (is that the right word?).

 
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TBH, I had a hard time figuring out what was reality and what wasn't.  Maybe that was the point but to me it didn't quite make that clear.  So I was a little underwhelmed only because I had a hard time.  Although, I did read some reviews that the 1st two episodes are kind of like this but after that it gets much more intelligible (is that the right word?).
I don't know the story at all, but what was brilliant about it was that you don't know. There's far too little ambiguity and subtlety in tv and film, especially here in the us. Everything has to be spelled out and explained to the audience... not a fan of that. Feels cynical and lazy. Let us, the audience, stretch our brains a bit... have faith that we can. Makes for waaaaaay more entertaining and satisfying watching. For me at least.

 
My big concern is my familiarity with the character.  I was a huge Claremont fan for a decade or so; I read everything he wrote. Legion's one of my favorite characters. I have a hard time believing they'll make me happy with the representation, but we shall see. 
i'm glad it's on FX instead of a lot of other channels (quite a few, but AMC especially). i think they don't mind spending, and if they go into a lot of the comic stories it will be real fun. i haven't read too many of them, but they can do a whole lot if they don't restrict it

not sure the story with his girlfriend though. seems an awful lot like Rogue

 
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Yeah, as in "exactly like rogue."
yeah, slow to come around to it. but 1st episode makes a lot more sense. should have thrown in a southern twang (I'm a Philly guy, not sure if "twang" is right word) to sink in better for some of us dense folk. i thought this could be a lazy watch at first but glad it is making viewers pay attn

i read a good story line with Legion from a few years ago, if they cover any of that (and it would be like 8 seasons from now) will be amazing TV

 
Not exactly. At all, really.

http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Sydney_Barrett_(Earth-TRN620)

Rogue drains people of powers/life on touch, potentially killing them. Barrett swamps minds with them. Both their powers are activated on touch, yea, but the similarities end there.
for me, i have had a show or 2 lessoned by not letting the show tell the story, so i'm happy to let these guys do that since they are telling a good story so far.

i was listening to a podcast and they talked about how Fox/FX owns the rights to all the X-Men, which is very good news. they were saying that the show wants to make sure they tell a Legion story first before even thinking about any of that which is good to hear. Like one of the guy's mentioned on the podcast, the X-Men movies are certainly hard to follow from movie to movie, so this is probably a good thing

 
I really want to like this show but I'm getting weary of David having not a clue how to control or even use his powers.  I get that we need a slow burn but he and the group he's with are still clueless about what he can do. 

 
James Daulton said:
I really want to like this show but I'm getting weary of David having not a clue how to control or even use his powers.  I get that we need a slow burn but he and the group he's with are still clueless about what he can do. 
I feel the same way. Every episode is just missing "something" to make this show awesome. I can't put my finger on it but we need a hook and they've failed to deliver one so far but it feels like they are in the edge of one every episode. 

 
This show is probably the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Visually stunning, great soundtrack, but gives me blue balls. 

 
shadyridr said:
This show is probably the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Visually stunning, great soundtrack, but gives me blue balls. 
It has an odd stranger things - picket fences - agents of shield vibe.  

I'm recording but it's pretty low on my watch list.  

 
I quit, this past ep. It helped that the Celts/Cavs game was still on, but i had committed to watch, then they started makin #### up with no basis again&again, so i went back to the bounceybounce. Thought about it later - the only reason i stayed this long was Noah Hawley and he aint got it even close to right, psychologically nor dramatically, here so i aint goin back.

 
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I quit, this past ep. It helped that the Celts game was still on, but i had committed to watch, then they started makin #### up with no basis again&again, so i went back to the bounceybounce. Thought about it later - the only reason i stayed this long was Noah Hawley and he aint got it even close to right, psychologically nor dramatically, here so i aint goin back.
huh.

I'm genuinely loving the show. I fell asleep last night early in the episode (I shouldn't have watched the epic guilty pleasure The 100 first), but I think they repeated most of the previous episode- verbatim, but flipped some things around a bit? at least at the beginning before I fell asleep. loooove that, if so.

I'm finding the narrative structure with the slow unveiling/digging very entertaining- no issues at all with the pace. I'm more interested in how he gets there than him getting there. I've said before I'm not a super-hero guy, so I'm still kind of dreading when they've completed the digging and get to him in control and just doing super-hero stuff. will probably stop watching at that point.

but until then, the visuals are pretty fantastic and fully support the feel and idea of the show so far- discombobulation, undercurrent of bizarre tortured monsters... slowly unveiling more info. normally, I'd be annoyed by some of the bizarreness in there- but it doesn't feel gratuitous. not many shows get the narrative, directing, acting and visuals so fully in sync... I genuinely appreciate that.

plus we get jemaine clement in an groovy astral-plane bachelor pad! I'm all in.

 

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