Legion was a show that I watched because of X-Men and Noah Hawley. I will probably never watch anything again just because of the presence of either of these components (never mind them combined), but it is notable that even in my late twenties I could be seduced into viewing something because of that. Hawley has proven to be a bag of false goods, but this was probably one of the more consistently strong things he has ever done. Maybe?
Some of the many previous X-Men articles on this site:
Top 10 Performances in the X-Men Films
5 Takeaways from Re-Watching X-Men [2000]
8 Takeaways from the “The X-Men Adventure” in Spider-man and his Amazing Friends
7 Takeaways from the Juggernaut Episode of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends
11 Takeaways from the Pryde of the X-Men Pilot
7 Takeaways from The New Mutants
Top 7 Villainous Sidekicks in the X-Men Cinematic Universe
3. Season 2: “What’s the last thing you remember?”
“His true face. The one he hides.”
Season 2 of Legion took some big steps forward and also some steps back. First, the good. This was a very ambitious season thematically and big-picture wise. The premise of this season is that David aka Legion is the real danger they have to worry about and stop. Communication from the future reveals that David will become Legion and destroy the world – and that only the Shadow King possibly has a shot at preventing that. It is a welcome narrative and thematic twist. The bad though is that the show becomes more meandering and to what end? Noah Hawley is not David Lynch. He is not nearly interesting enough to get away with this annoying ass shit quite frankly! The payoff is possibly worth it though and really ended the season on an exclamation point finish and set things up nicely for the final season.
2. Season 1: “You got what the kids today called moxie.”
A hollow, abstract television show about the little-known son of Charles Xavier sounds like a terrible idea. Actually, let’s correct that. That is a terrible idea. But somehow Himbo Television Auteur Noah Hawley mildly pulled it off. He cast a bunch of serviceable actors to make a pleasant hang of a show with mutant powers, fake weird stuff, and government conspiracies. I really do not have much more to say about the first season of this show other than that.
1. Season 3: “Do you know why you failed? Under all your anger, there is a baby.”
Legion was an up-and-down show that managed to remain intriguing during its less-than-compelling moments and stretches. The show thankfully ended on its best season overall. Returning to eight episodes helped and the endgame being in sight gave the show a sense of purpose and direction and urgency that was missing too often from the first two seasons. David is now the dangerous villain that must be stopped, and David has his own plan to stop the Shadow King and return everything back to when people thought he was a good person. David’s plan is insane, and the heroes have a low chance of success. It’s a great premise. On top of that, we finally got to see Charles fucking Xavier. He has a fantastic three-episode arc where we see his journey of discovering his powers, using them to survive war, starting a family, and leaving them to search for other mutants – thus opening them up to attack from The Shadow King which leads to all the problems for David et co. That eventually leads to the big showdown where Charles and the Shadow King negotiate a truce so that the cycle of violence can stop and everyone’s lives can start over. It was a fitting and satisfying conclusion to a show that tested your patience frequently.
The Reel World 