Marvel's LEGION TV show by FX

[Sammael]

Wow, another brilliant episode! I loved everything about it. It's truly a shame that this first season is only 8 episodes long.

I actually think that helps the show. I have a theory on why so many tv shows today are so good. Shorter Seasons. Why does that help? Less filler and fluff to expand out the season to scrape up more ad dollars. The reason babylon 5 season 4 was so phenomenal was that JMS, the creator/writer thought season 4 might be his last season, so he crammed in as much as he could there as a season 5 was uncertain. As a consequence, season 4 had the least filler and fluff of all, it was just dreadnought after dreadnought of episode, one after the other.


These shorter and more focused seasons allow a more condensed and concentrated story to be told much better than trying to do the same over 22 episodes.

[Styles]

This show has been fantastic. It went by too fast; I can’t wait to see how it ends. I’m glad it’s getting a season 2.
Who can be the villain in season 2 that’s powerful enough to go against David after the Shadow King?

[Panic]

Who can be the villain in season 2 that’s powerful enough to go against David after the Shadow King?

Probably Hawley will be more interested in the visual or storytelling possibilities of the new foe rather than power-level. And there is a chance of course that David will be the bad-guy and it will be about him vs Summerland in an X-Men vs Dark Phoenix kind of thing.

If they do go for a villain from the comics there are all sorts of possibilities:

Selene was a villain from the New Mutants period these stories seem to have used for inspiration, she's powerful and fairly interesting, so she might fit.

The Magus (the techno-organic alien monarch, not Adam Warlock's future self) again from the 80's period of New Mutants, powerful and visually interesting (though perhaps too effects-heavy); he's an alien, which might be too weird, but then again we had David remembering talking to the stars/stars talking to him in an earlier episode didn't we? So maybe that was a set-up for him?

The Shiar, again because of that whole talking to stars thing, and also because you could easily swap out Dark Phoenix for David in the original Dark Phoenix plotline, with the Shiar wanting to kill a galaxy-threatening menace.

Mastermind (and other Hellfire-club cronies), because his illusion-based powers give Hawley a chance to play with visuals and storytelling in a way he likes.

Less likely but possible:

Mojo. Often mentioned, probably too visually similar to Farouk, but who knows?

Proteus, reality-warping son of Moira MacTaggart - he's an X-Men foe from a period before New Mutants so he's not quite from the same era Hawley has been looking to, but he is not only powerful but there are a lot of parallels between him and David, what with their mothers both being old flames of Professor X and both being reality-warpers.

And speaking of reality-warpers: Mad Jim Jaspers, the Captain Britain foe from the eighties Alan Moore CB stories who popped-up in X-Men, albeit depowered, around X-Men #200 - connected to the X-franchise, right power-set for weirdness, plus a good opportunity to cast a British character actor. Unlikely but possible.

And sticking with the Captain Britain connection, mad Jamie Braddock - his string-pulling reality warping power was very similar to what we saw the Shadow King do to Walter last episode, so perhaps too similar?

The Impossible Man - probably too silly, but this "Q"-like alien would be a handful to deal with, gives good weirdness, plus made an appearance in one of the New Mutants annuals of the right era (if that is where Hawley is drawing inspiration from); and I guess Fox own the rights to him from the FF franchise deal.

I think there are a lot of possibilities for bad-guys. Hawley is playing fast and loose with the X-Men connection anyway so he'll probably just pick someone he likes and make it work.

[JKtheMac]

I actually think that helps the show. I have a theory on why so many tv shows today are so good. Shorter Seasons. Why does that help? Less filler and fluff to expand out the season to scrape up more ad dollars. The reason babylon 5 season 4 was so phenomenal was that JMS, the creator/writer thought season 4 might be his last season, so he crammed in as much as he could there as a season 5 was uncertain. As a consequence, season 4 had the least filler and fluff of all, it was just dreadnought after dreadnought of episode, one after the other.


These shorter and more focused seasons allow a more condensed and concentrated story to be told much better than trying to do the same over 22 episodes.

There have been two main influences here. The TV executives by their very nature are always interested in the wider world of TV, and often praise shows from Europe for being tighter, more focused and having a stronger vision, as well as spending proportionally more money on less episodes. And now the rise of subscription TV and streaming where the format no longer has to conform to seasons and scheduling space.

U.S. TV has always had a very strong relationship with British TV for example, especially in the Lew Grade era of genre TV. I would be very surprised if Noah Hawley wasn't a fan of The Prisoner (the original not the misguided remake) for example, which was very much a transatlantic production made with a similar ethos.

[Qwerty]

Cliff hanger. Shadow king round two. Was hoping for a new story and characters next season
Any guesses on who kidnapped David after the credits.

[Qwerty]

Probably Hawley will be more interested in the visual or storytelling possibilities of the new foe rather than power-level. And there is a chance of course that David will be the bad-guy and it will be about him vs Summerland in an X-Men vs Dark Phoenix kind of thing.

If they do go for a villain from the comics there are all sorts of possibilities:

Selene was a villain from the New Mutants period these stories seem to have used for inspiration, she's powerful and fairly interesting, so she might fit.

The Magus (the techno-organic alien monarch, not Adam Warlock's future self) again from the 80's period of New Mutants, powerful and visually interesting (though perhaps too effects-heavy); he's an alien, which might be too weird, but then again we had David remembering talking to the stars/stars talking to him in an earlier episode didn't we? So maybe that was a set-up for him?

The Shiar, again because of that whole talking to stars thing, and also because you could easily swap out Dark Phoenix for David in the original Dark Phoenix plotline, with the Shiar wanting to kill a galaxy-threatening menace.

Mastermind (and other Hellfire-club cronies), because his illusion-based powers give Hawley a chance to play with visuals and storytelling in a way he likes.

Less likely but possible:

Mojo. Often mentioned, probably too visually similar to Farouk, but who knows?

Proteus, reality-warping son of Moira MacTaggart - he's an X-Men foe from a period before New Mutants so he's not quite from the same era Hawley has been looking to, but he is not only powerful but there are a lot of parallels between him and David, what with their mothers both being old flames of Professor X and both being reality-warpers.

And speaking of reality-warpers: Mad Jim Jaspers, the Captain Britain foe from the eighties Alan Moore CB stories who popped-up in X-Men, albeit depowered, around X-Men #200 - connected to the X-franchise, right power-set for weirdness, plus a good opportunity to cast a British character actor. Unlikely but possible.

And sticking with the Captain Britain connection, mad Jamie Braddock - his string-pulling reality warping power was very similar to what we saw the Shadow King do to Walter last episode, so perhaps too similar?

The Impossible Man - probably too silly, but this "Q"-like alien would be a handful to deal with, gives good weirdness, plus made an appearance in one of the New Mutants annuals of the right era (if that is where Hawley is drawing inspiration from); and I guess Fox own the rights to him from the FF franchise deal.

I think there are a lot of possibilities for bad-guys. Hawley is playing fast and loose with the X-Men connection anyway so he'll probably just pick someone he likes and make it work.

Who was the kid in school with the Stepford cuckoos

[numberthirty]

Who was the kid in school with the Stepford cuckoos

Quentin Quire?

[Qwerty]

Quentin Quire?

Yeah him. He was pretty powerful wasn't he? Oh what if that device was mojo capturing david to bring him to mojo world?

[Spiritualcramp]

Farouk survives into Season 2, though it seems unlikely he'd want to get into any confrontation so much as find another powerful Mutant host. There was some talk of a post credits scene??

[Sammael]

Farouk survives into Season 2, though it seems unlikely he'd want to get into any confrontation so much as find another powerful Mutant host. There was some talk of a post credits scene??

I just went back and stayed a bit longer to see it. It was David and Syd on the balcony looking out when they see this small spherical drone hovering. One of them wondered if it was from the glasses guy, and then the orb did one of those line laser scans of David and sucked him inside and trapped him... wow.


Fantastic effing show. Best comic show ever. All the actors were great, like seriously top notch the whole way through, even the main character David. This show could not get anymore god damn perfect.

[numberthirty]

Biggie Comics' Spoilers...

spoilers:

I really loved how that post-credits scene firmly yanked the narrative back into "This Might All Be In David's Head" territory.

end of spoilers

[JKtheMac]

Biggie Comics' Spoilers...

spoilers:

I really loved how that post-credits scene firmly yanked the narrative back into "This Might All Be In David's Head" territory.

end of spoilers

Not convinced that it did. You could probably say that about any development, but we have to assume scenes without David in them are unaffected by subjectivity. Such as the whole opening sequence, which still didn't fully explain the fire!

[JKtheMac]

Overall I think this show was good but not quite as good as it thinks itself to be. I strongly suspect the network got them to reign-in the subjectivity and alienation to appeal to a wider audience, as the show became much less challenging from around episode 5, but from the ratings and anecdotal evidence a lot of people bailed on the show after three or four episodes, indeed I nearly did. Notably a few minor threads from the opener seemed to get dropped. Yes, FX prefers live +3 ratings, and those figures seem to have convinced them to renew the series, but that may have been due to the general media buzz and positive reviews.

Performances were generally good but I began to be a little disappointed with Rachel Keller, who seemed to have one mode throughout. She needed to do more for me. Maybe it was partly how she was written, never quite escaping her mysterious girl origins and not having a lot to do until the very end. Dan Stevens was a revelation to me, not being a Downton fan, and Aubrey Plaza had the role of the show and grasped it with both hands.

Plot wise I felt the story hung together ok but seemed a little thin and stretched over the eight episodes. It seems series two has ten episodes, let's hope they do more in that space. I liked the ending, it would be a shame to discard Plaza and Clement. It feels like they will be involved but not necessarily the main plot of season two.

[Killercroc357]

What a great finale! I very much enjoyed everything about it.

Sorry, but I am going to make a Mojo guess again. It just felt like it fit the stories of whooshing someone away with little technical devices. Though I bet it turns out to be something to do with the Shi'ar Empire.

[The Whovian]

Cliff hanger. Shadow king round two. Was hoping for a new story and characters next season
Any guesses on who kidnapped David after the credits.

Since technology was used to kidnap him, I'm going to say Mojo.