TV Review: Legion

We are five episodes in to some watershed television.

Legion is a curious egg. I was first made aware of it through flickers of praise on Twitter. Then I saw the TV guide artwork.

What could it mean?!

This was clearly a show to be watched carefully in a dark room. And so I did.

Immediately I felt subversion. The opening montage was fairly compelling—the shots at least. The strange thing was the music: Happy Jack by The Who (said Google). This song was new to me—a relatively obscure choice with a locomotive tension but muffled lyrics. I cocked my head.

What followed was a mind-bending pilot. Eloquently written. A triumph of set design with a jarring colour palette. Avant-garde direction, choppy editing and rumbling unease.

Two other things grabbed my attention. One thing was Aubrey Plaza, who I know mainly from Scott Pilgrim. She lurked in every scene at the high-security mental hospital where our story began. Or at least she appeared to. Her character is at once playful and sinister. Almost grotesquely flirtatious.

The other thing was Dan Stevens. I'd never heard of this actor before but he is a revelation. Further study revealed him to be not only something of a cultural polymath, but also the eponymous Beast to Emma Watson's Beauty in a current film with which you may be familiar.

Dan Stevens is essential to Legion. As the protagonist, David, he displays a fractious calm with a wry smile but charming innocence. Ostensibly schizophrenic, he is clearly the most interesting patient in the psychiatric gaol. His brain is saturated with vivid, confused memories. Flashback is a lazy way of storytelling in the wrong hands, but here it is embraced, dissected and forced into our brain-mass with furious intent.

Who is David? Why is he there? What is real?

The soundtrack, so esoterically set up by the Who track, continues apace. Not only is there a mischievous score—of which more later—composed by a man called Jeff Russo, but also one of the best three Rolling Stones songs in existence. The latter has been subject to speculation about exactly how much the rights cost.

The climax of the first episode, probably intended to draw in a mainstream audience, was a minor letdown. I have intentionally not linked to the trailer because it features that ending heavily. It made me drop my shoulders and think, "oh, I see." Ignore all of that; the subsequent episodes have been nothing short of mesmerising. Episode five in particular was almost a tonal shift too far for my mashed-up brain to process. Just when you think it's becoming pedestrian they throw a concussion grenade.

I read somewhere that series' creator Noah Hawley stated Legion is about something incredibly specific. I think I know what he means. God I wish I didn't.

In summary, bypass the trailer. Read nothing about Legion. The new series of Twin Peaks is out this year, and it has stiff competition.

If you must, MUST, know more, this relentlessly metronomic Jeff Russo track explains everything.

Good luck.

Legion airs every Wednesday on FX