The first 30 minutes of FXs Legion are better than any other superhero show on TV
It’s very rare to find yourself wanting more of anything on the last day of New York Comic Con. The four-day pop culture bonanza is a sensory overload. Casting announcements are made. Trailers, teasers, sizzle reels, and sneak peeks are shown. Panel discussions are held to examine every detail of every comic book topic imaginable. By the end of the convention, it all bleeds together, and nothing feels fresh.
FX’s upcoming TV show Legion beat the odds and changed that, by offering an early look at what stands to become the most visually evocative and inventive — and perhaps even the best — superhero show on television.
The series is an adaptation of Marvel’s Legion comic book character, a powerful mutant whose powers are intertwined with his dissociative identity/multiple personality disorder and mental illness. The show has been in the works since last October, and I’ve had my reservations about it since its announcement — even with Noah Hawley, the talented writer and producer behind FX’s acclaimed series Fargo, at the helm. My reasoning: It’s too ambitious, because the character of Legion and his origin story are too sprawling to capture on screen.
But after seeing a 30-minute slice of the show’s pilot — in which we meet Legion, a.k.a. David Haller (played by Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens) a man living (perhaps trapped) in a mental institute (or his own mind) — I’ve never been more thrilled to be wrong. So far, what Marvel, FX, and Hawley have accomplished looks awesome.
http://www.vox.com/culture/2016/10/11/13230420/fx-legion-pilot-screener-spoilers
