Legion - Series Premiere - Best Marvel TV Show?

Hey guys, welcome back to the channel, and today we're going to be reviewing Legion. We got the premiere of the show this week, and I will be giving you my thoughts about the show. I just want to let y'all know that this will be spoiler-filled, so if you haven't seen the show yet, um, unless you just don't like surprises, uh I, I, you probably be best to watch the show then come back to the review. But, um, yeah, if you don't mind being spoiled from the shows, by all means, um, uh, you know, take a seat and we'll try to, uh, understand this show that is called Legion. So let's, um, get into what Legion is all about first, because, um, if you're probably like I was, you were like, what? Who is Legion? What is Legion? I mean, unless you're just a real devoted comic book reader, you probably wouldn't have known who Legion was, you know, although Legion does become an X-Men in some of the comic books. But let's talk about Legion, aka, or, or David Haller, is actually the son of Professor Charles Xavier. Yes, the Professor Charles Xavier. So That's a pretty big deal. This is his son, but this is a son that Professor Xavier was unaware of. He didn't know that they existed. And when I first heard that, I was like, wow, that's kind of, uh, that's kind of, you know, you would think that Professor Xavier would know, you know, if he had some kids, like through his psychic abilities, you know, you think he would just kind of hone in and he would, he could just feel it, you know, I have a child somewhere. but here's something interesting I found out by doing a little bit of research on Legion the character. I actually stumbled on a cartoon he was in from the X-Men Evolution cartoon series. And there's kind of this scene in the cartoon where Professor Xavier is basically saying the reason he didn't know he had a child is because He doesn't just like use, um, he doesn't just target, you know, uh, uh, to read minds and things like that unless there's a specific reason to do that. You know, he doesn't, uh, use cerebral to, to try to find mutants or do so. So in other words, he's not just sitting around hearing thoughts unless he, uh, specifically focuses, uh, you know, so Uh, that kind of explains why he wouldn't know about his son David Haller. So let's talk a little bit about some of David's abilities from the comic books. And it's important to make the distinction between the comic books and what we see in the series, because we know that in many cases we deal with comic book to TV adaptations. They aren't always exactly like what, uh, the comic book is. So it could be some changes in how they deal with the material. And, uh, so far from what I've seen in the show, it's kind of hard to determine if we're going to get to see all of the things that the comic books, uh, uh, in the comic books, the things, the powers he has and the things he can do. But let's talk about the powers he has in the comic books, then we'll talk about some of the things we've seen in the show thus far. So in the comic books David Haller, or Legion, is classified as a mega-level mutant. And a mega-level, that's the most powerful. That's the most powerful of the mutants. He's at the top, you know, the top of the class. And so he can do just about anything you can imagine, whether you're talking about flight, psychic abilities, time warping, reality warping. He can do all of this stuff, and that's in the comics. And that's what's kind of interesting to me, uh, about them picking this character to do, because I, I think what I've seen and where my mind's been with a lot of these, um, these TV show from comic book adaptions— we've gotten a lot over the last few years, and we've gotten quite a bit of them— is that there's— they kind of have this model that they use. And of course, I understand why they use this model. This is kind of, um, pushed down on them by the bigwigs, because the bigwigs are basically saying, don't take our most marketable characters when we're, you know, using them in the silver screen. We're making all this money off of them in the silver screen. But usually what happens is we'll get, uh, number one, we'll get a lot of times not the most known of the characters, and then we also get not the most powerful. But in this series, it's a little bit different because yes, we hit the model where we get a character who's not very well known by a lot of people unless, like I said, you're a very devoted comic book reader. Um, but we do get the most— one of the most powerful You know, talking more powerful than like Charles Xavier, more powerful on the level of like the Phoenix or Jean Grey, that kind of thing. And usually they don't pick these super powerful characters in the TV shows. In many cases they're saving them for maybe doing a film of them later and things like that. But anyway, we get an Omega-level mutant. In this series. Now, how the show deals with how he will, you know, deal with all these powers— because another thing is important to note in the character of Legion, he is the super powerful mutant. All of these abilities he has is access through multiple personalities. And I believe in the comic book series, he's actually described as having multiple personality disorder. However, in the TV series, it's basically translated to schizophrenia. So he's dealing with schizophrenia in this, um, in the TV show. So that's important because his powers are accessed by different personalities, the splinter personalities, and each one of them uses a different power. And I guess all together they make up Legion. Or his character, because he's all these various different personalities into one. And so each one uses a different type of power. Now, what's unfortunate about Legion's abilities is that he's unaware of who's accessing what. He doesn't know what he did, and there is no good or bad, or they are— there are different variety of— they could be— he could be a bad character. He could be a good character. And the main person he is, David Haller, uh, he doesn't seem to have any of the powers. He seems to just be a regular person, you know, as far as I, you know, as far as, you know, I can understand in the show so far. Because it looks like when he uses abilities, he's unaware that he can use, you know, these abilities and, and things like that. Uh, so very interesting, very, very, you know, very interesting, uh, that they chose to do this show. And I like the storyline. And as well, uh, the director, the Fargo, uh, he was involved in doing this. You know, this is being produced by Marvel as well. So, you know, uh, we got all the things that go into this show to make it a great— to make it a great show. Now Do I think it's going to be a great show with what I've seen so far? Do I think that it's living up to that, or that this will be a super big show, or one of the best Marvel TV— Marvel-based shows on television? Well, first, uh, I'll answer that as we get to the end of it, but, uh, let's, let's, let's get into what I liked about the show, then we'll get into what I didn't like about the show, and then I'll give some closing thoughts on where I think this show is going to be as, you know, in this ring, I think, any other Marvel TV shows we've gotten and, and we're getting. So, uh, you know, basically the show opens up and we get David Haller, and, uh, his life looks pretty normal. His life looks like the average person as he's growing up from a baby. And I like the way that the that they, uh, do his, uh, you know, his development, you know, uh, into, you know, into early adulthood and into, you know, being an adult. Um, you know, I like the, uh, the music that they use. I'm not sure who that— I know the song, but I just can't think of the name of it and things. So it's a popular song we've heard before, maybe heard on commercials and things like that. I just like how they did that. It kind of reminded me of how they did some of the X-Men films. It did have that vibe of X-Men: First Class, that feel of the, the all these X-Men series, uh, you know, X-Men, um, you know, Future Past, um, you know, a lot of Wolverine movies. It just had that feeling toward it. So it did feel like a, a, a, you know, a a high-quality movie production and not so much like, like just TV show. And so, uh, you know, great job on that. But, um, you know, as we get into his, um, early adulthood, we start to see that it's not seeming so normal anymore, that his powers are starting to manifest. And like we've seen with many, uh, superpower people Learning to cope with these powers unassisted, or these new abilities unassisted, is quite the challenge. And, uh, you know, unfortunately, you know, for David Haller, you know, not having, um, his father know about him, not having Professor X aware of him, or he could probably bring him into, uh, the School of the Gifted, the mutant schools, and teach them how to cope and deal with his powers. He doesn't have that. So David ends up trying to cope with his abilities the best way he can, you know. He turns to drinking alcohol. He's a troubled teenager, things like that. And then it just gets to the point where he just— by the time it looks like he makes it to high school or college, he's just gone crazy, you know, by that point, you know. He's checked into an insane asylum. You know, he goes to a mental hospital, and that's pretty, pretty much where our show opens up. It opens up with his life in a mental hospital and just being overly medicated. And, you know, apparently this overmedication is, um, uh, basically, uh, suppressing his abilities so that you know, he can't shift into these different personalities and use his powers. So this medication he's taking is doing that. So, you know, we get to learn, you know, uh, you know, he has, uh, you know, this kind of crazy friend, like, you know, you would assume you, you probably have in a mental hospital, you know, hospital. And so, you know, they have their banter and just their day-to-day life in the mental, you know, hospital with, you know, the things that happen in there and the kind of, uh, you know, uh, activities that go on there. And then he's introduced to this, you know, we get introduced as well as him to this, you know, this, uh, attractive young lady who comes in. And, you know, they, they, they have this, uh, immediate connection to one another. You know, it's the scene where You know, he just straight out asks her, do you want to be my girlfriend? And she goes, yeah, you know, as long as you don't touch me. And it's just, it's almost like their first meeting almost when, when, you know, when, you know, and I'm, and I'm thinking maybe if everybody in, um, in real life was crazy, it would be easier to, you know, to, uh, relationships will be a lot easier, you know. Uh, so Um, you know, you know, they're going through their therapy sessions and, you know, and this and that. And, you know, it basically comes to the point, you know, in the show where she's about to be released and, uh, you know, she's getting better, so she's about to go home. And so of course this is very troubling to David because he's not getting any better. His condition isn't really getting that better, and she's gonna leave him basically in there, you know. So, uh, it comes to where she's actually leaving. The day she's leaving, David, uh, decides he's going to kiss her. And, uh, you know, all through the show she's warned about she can't be touched, nobody needs to touch her. And so he kisses her, and when he kisses her when she's leaving they in this weird way, they actually swap places. He becomes her and she becomes him. And, you know, basically I'm assuming that that has to do with her, you know, that she was a mutant, she had some mutant abilities, and that was her ability. That's why she didn't want to be touched and this and that. And another thing that's, you know, that's, uh, kind of, uh, a bit complicated show is we have to understand that, uh, because of his level of abilities and because of the fact it takes place in a mental hospital, we don't always know what's real. He's having all— he's having all these different, uh, sequences, these dream sequences, these, uh, I don't know if they're hallucinations or— and so we're in this place where we don't know if some of these things are real, or he's creating these realities, or they're just going on and they're not actually happening. So you have a lot of that with the show and a lot of that going back and figure out what's real and what isn't. And usually, uh, I don't always like that kind of thing, but, uh, it worked with this TV show. I thought it was interesting, it kept me intrigued. And, um, uh, so I like that part. I just like how, how that was done. I think, uh, that was probably done as one of the best TV shows I've seen do something like that. I think this was probably— did it probably one of the best ways I've seen. Uh, anyway, they've switched bodies somehow now, and his girlfriend, she's— and I can't— I don't know her name. I don't even know if she's from the comic books or not. But now she's in his body, and she now has his abilities and his powers. So she ends up just destroying and just killing a bunch of people. They're merged in between the walls of this, uh, hospital. It's, it's just a disaster. And, uh, and, um, David has become her, you know, he's in her body and, and, and things like that. So, uh, he somehow— he— they swap back again, he gets back in his body, he escapes the mental hospital And he goes looking for her for so much period of time. He's caught, he's recaptured by this kind of shadow group of people. We don't really know who they are. It's a shadow, I don't know if it's like a shadow government or some type of black ops operation or some type of secret government organization. Whatever they are, they're fully aware of the abilities that mutants have. And they're aware that David Haller is one of the most powerful mutants that exists. So they are able to capture him and they're basically interrogating him, but they're doing it in a way where they think he— David thinks they're just people from the hospital that, you know, come back and they put him back in the hospital. He's, you know, he's been, you know, put back there. He doesn't know who they are really, and they don't let him on to know that they're just trying to further study and understand him. And they're dealing with him like they're psychologists from the hospital. They just want to know what happened, uh, how'd all these people end up dead, uh, and trying to ascertain as much information from him as they possibly can. Uh, so then we move on, you know, as he's dealing with the therapy and different things like that, uh, you know some kind of way they trigger a reaction in him, or it's, it's come to the point where either himself or one of his personalities has accessed some of his mental abilities throughout the interrogation. He gets very upset and he uses his abilities and he basically just destroys the room However, they're ready for this. They know about his ability, so they're able to use some type of special gas, and this gas, uh, basically is able to put him out, and they're able to subdue him. Uh, this time they put him in a pool full of water with so many volts of electricity triggered to him. All they got to do is hit the button and they can take him out if he tries to use his abilities again. And, um, we have this, uh, sequence. And again, it's, uh, or a little bit prior to that, we have this sequence where we don't know if it's, it's real or not, thinking it's real, but we find out it's not. And it's where his girlfriend enters his mind, um, and she's able to communicate with him through his mind and let him know some of the things that's going on, but that he needs to slip down into the pool. And once he slips down into the pool, she will come in and she will save him. And he's trying to figure out everything that's going on because again, as David Haller, he's unaware. All this stuff has been put out of his mind of, uh, all of his abilities and, and, and, uh, who all of his different— who all of the people who are associated with him are. And so he does what his girlfriend says during the interrogation, and when he does that, we see all these different gunshots and fire, and it seems just to be a, uh, a host of different mutant abilities coming in and taking out this, this, uh, shadow organization that had him captured. They pull him out of the pool We get to find out it's his girlfriend, but not only his girlfriend, but a team of seemingly other— I don't know if they're mutants or just people with special, uh, abilities, or just people with— well, some of them are mutants, so I'm assuming that they may all be a team of mutants, but, uh, not sure what all of their abilities are. But we do get to see this one mutant who's able to— he uses some type of psionics where he's able to— it's like psychic abilities where he can throw people around and he can push them out. So he's some type of mutant like that as well. And they're being rescued out of this facility. And what we get to see is, as they exit this facility they're in that we thought was a mental hospital, there is just utterly chaos going on. It looks like there's a war going on outside. It's the shadow government, and they're fighting. They got all this army of people fighting to try to stop them from escaping. And, uh, you know, they're able to use their abilities, this team of mutants along with his girlfriend, to, um, basically beat them back and escape. And then in the end, we are introduced to this older woman, and she takes David's hand. We don't know who she is yet, but I'm assuming she's the head of this mutant, this mutant resistance, or this mutant team. So that's pretty much what happens in this episode, and I'm just going to give some of my closing thoughts and how I think this show is going to do overall, and if it's, you know, if it's going to end up being, uh, you know, a really great show as some people believe. So what I liked about the show, I really like the first half of the show when it dealt with David in the mental hospital and him going through his various sequences, um, of, uh, you know, of who he was. And I just like that entire mystery of how it was done, uh, you know, of, uh, him coping with, uh, who he was as a person and all these splinter personalities that exist in who he was. And I just liked how it was done, you know. It was, um, um, you know, the site, the mystery, and the, the psych— the psychological part of it. I really enjoyed that. Oddly enough, when they finally separate or break out of the— or get free from the Shadow Organization, I get to see the different mutant abilities, or some of them, and them trying to escape. Didn't like that part as much, uh, and that's kind of concerning a bit. So, um, I'm thinking that Dan Stevens, who plays David Haller, has a lot to do with that. I think his acting is great. He's been on a lot of other TV shows and movies, from Downton Abbey to The Guest in the movie theaters. And I believe he's actually going to be in Beauty and the Beast that's coming out. So he's just a really great actor. And so I guess what I'm going at is The first part of the show was very character-driven, and I really liked that. I really liked having to think about who he was and exploring his, you know, him as a character and things like that. I liked all of that part in the entry. Uh, didn't much like the, the action sequences, what we got to see, and, you know, a lot of things we get to see in these, uh, superpower mutant movies. And that was a big concern. I'm not sure what— if, you know, when compared to other Marvel shows that have come out specifically on Netflix, like The Defenders that are coming out, the, you know, The Punisher, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones. Well, what's coming up, new Iron Fist, which I'm gonna do a review on that a little later. And trailers we've gotten Um, uh, I think those shows have raised the bar so much. I think they're just so well done that you really gotta come with it, you know. You gotta come with it when you're doing the action sequences and you're setting up a lot of these scenes. And I just think, uh, for me it kind of failed in that. I, I like it as the character-driven parts of it, and I, and I think they should explore that more. I, I don't think that this should try to be uh, you know, so much to suit. Even though he's, he's an Omega-level mutant, he's one of the most powerful mutants. I'm sure he could do a lot of stuff. And, you know, normally that's what I would want to see. Uh, for, for some reason, it's just not— so far, it just isn't working for me, you know, in that it's just something about the action sequence that seemed kind of, uh, fake. It seemed kind of And, uh, pretty sure that that was real in reality because he does— they do specifically have a scene where he addresses his girlfriend about, is this real? Is this part actually real? And I think that was done to drive home that, you know, everything we've seen thus far that we've been confused about, uh, in that particular case, it— that is the real world that, you know, and what the real world looks like. It looks like a world that knows about mutants. It looks like, you know, that, that part of the X-Men timeline. Uh, another thing, uh, I don't even know if this is part of any of the X-Men timelines. It could be part of some of them. He could be in and out of all of them because we know his ability is also about, uh, warping reality. So he could be part of all of that. You know, we, we don't know that, uh, or it could just be its own little universe of Legion, just kind of piggybacking off of the X-Men brand. You know, we've had that happen before. It could very well be the case. Uh, so thoughts are, I like the show, and it's something that I will put on my viewing schedule for now. Um, it's not really a show I'm excited about I don't think it's a show that I will have to watch every episode, you know what I'm saying? That's pretty much how I determine my must-watch TV, my must-see TV, is if I gotta watch the next episode. If I miss it, I feel like I missed something from my week. And I think Legion is one of these shows where I could probably miss next week, pick up with it a week after next. And so that's concerning, but it does make it on my TV schedule because the first half of it did intrigue me a lot. Also, what would be pretty cool is if we could get introductions of some of the characters from the X-Men universe. Like, even if we could have Professor X, you know, come down on, you know, one of these scenes or just make a guest appearance, even if it's for like 30 seconds, and just go, "I have a son," or something like that. I think that would be really cool. I think that would raise my spirits a bit. To even make, you know, me more of an avid show watcher of Legion. Um, but anyway guys, that's my thoughts on the show. Uh, I, I definitely think it should be somewhere on your TV lineup. Uh, I don't think that it's gonna be, uh, better than any of the Marvel shows we've gotten specifically on Netflix or the Defenders series. Don't know about Iron Fist yet. Iron Fist is kind of looking so-so to me right now, so it might be better than Iron Fist, but I don't think this show is going to be better than Luke Cage or Jessica Jones or The Punisher or anything like that. So I don't think it's gonna be on that level. I do think, think the main character Dan Stevens is gonna do some great acting, and I think if they keep it a character-driven show, I I think it's going to hold my interest, but I don't know if it's going to hit where it probably needs to hit, and that's being based on a show about mutants, you know, especially a mutant of his level. Also, how many of these different abilities and powers are he's going to be able to manifest in this show? And, you know, another thing I find with a lot of transitions from the comic book to a TV series is that they tend to power down the, uh, the super, you know, the character. So I'm assuming that's what's going to happen with him. I think he's going to be powered down a great deal, probably to somebody on the level like probably Professor X and things like that. But now if I see him warping reality and traveling through time and things like that, I think I'll be kind of shocked, but I think that would be interesting to see him do that. So something I'm gonna keep watching, and maybe it'll get better, maybe it'll pull me in even more and become must-watch TV. But that's my review on it for now, guys. I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you think about this show Legion. Tell me if you think it's going to be better than all the other Marvel, uh, TV show adapt— Don't forget to like and subscribe, guys, and until next time. Take care.