Marvel’s most recent addition to its ever-expanding TV universe is Legion -- real name David Hallers, played by Dan Stevens in an environment light years away from the post-Edwardian England of Downton Abbey. David is a powerful mutant with psychic abilities, but due to a childhood diagnosis of schizophrenia this is something he has yet to discover (though suspicions abound). While residing in Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital he meets Sydney Barret (Rachel Keller), a woman who doesn’t like to be touched, or think that being different means something is wrong with you, and he takes an immediately takes a liking to her. Early in the pilot, David’s sister Amy (Katie Asleton) visits him for his birthday, and when the visit comes to an end he says, “Something new needs to happen soon.” Syd’s arrival is that something new, and their “romance of the mind” is the catalyst that finally launches David towards the truth.
If one goes into this blind -- meaning they watch the show with no prior knowledge whatsoever (including what I’ve written above) – he or she may find it hard to understand what they’re looking at from time to time. Series creator/director Noah Hawley (taking a pause from Fargo) isn’t shy about attempting to put the viewer in as perplexed a mental state as the show’s title character. The narrative is being told from David’s perspective, and more often then not it’s unreliable at best. He hears people’s thoughts, relives memories (both correctly and incorrectly) andis processing what’s actually happening in front of him all at once. If it wasn’t for the spectacular presentation of it all this would seem like a lot for the casual viewer to digest. Thankfully, none of what’s being done is frivolous. Every question raised by an unexplained image or sound bite iseventually explained -- and if it hasn’t been, it will.