That name, Noah Hawley, sounds familiar.
It should. He’s a novelist (read last year’s terrific “Before The Fall”), and former “Bones” writer, who was the madman who attempted to turn the Coen Brothers’ “Fargo” into an FX series.
And succeeded! Those two seasons are some of the best TV of the last few years.
You are correct. He both wrote the script, and directed the pilot here, and he’s the showrunner across all eight episodes.
Alright, now you have my attention. So what’s it actually about?
So, David Haller (played by “Downton Abbey” star Dan Stevens) has seemingly spent most of his adult life in a mental institution, having been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. He hears voices, and, like a Trump voter, he has difficulty differentiating what’s real and what’s a delusion. His only friend is Lenny (Aubrey Plaza), a wild-eyed, curiously optimistic misfit in the Clockworks Mental Hospital where he lives. But his life is turned upside down when Syd (Rachel Keller, a standout in season two of “Fargo”) turns up and he falls in love with her.
This… doesn’t sound like a superhero show.
I know. Isn’t it great? Anyway, the more genre-y elements eventually arrive, but in fascinating ways, as a mysterious man (the always welcome Hamish Linklater) interrogates him about an incident that happened at Clockworks. An incident that maybe suggests that David isn’t crazy — or at least, isn’t just crazy — but that he’s a superpowered mutant. And the Interrogator doesn’t seem to be the only interested party…
So it’s a sort of “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” meets, well, every other superpowered story?
Not really. And much of that is because of the style, of which Hawley brings plenty with his direction. The opening minutes (which in the briefest possible way tracks David’s earlier years) are almost abstract, and there’s a disorientating feeling throughout, with unexpected shots, strange background elements and curious cutaways. More effectively than almost anything at least in the superhero genre, it really places you inside David’s head.
Nice.
And it looks glorious too. It’s set in a hyper-stylized world, with almost a 1960s vibe (Katie Aselton, who plays David’s sister Amy, looks like she’s walked out of “Mad Men”), reminiscent in places of something like “The Prisoner.” Between that and a British invasion soundtrack including The Who and The Rolling Stones, it sometimes feels like a real-world version of one of those faintly annoying “What If Wes Anderson Did The X-Men” viral videos.
That feels like a backhanded compliment.
I meant it in a good way. Mostly. In a time where television has been making great strides in terms of its filmmaking — “True Detective,” “Fargo,” “Mr. Robot,” “The Knick” etc — this might be the boldest, most visually inventive thing to have aired, and it’s not afraid of putting you off. It’s a pleasing reminder that the function-first Marvel Cinematic Universe house style isn’t the only way to tell these stories (though the show handles action nicely too — there’s a stunning one-take sequence that closes the debut episode out.)
Is it style over substance, though?
It’s perhaps too early to say, but we don’t think so. “Mr. Robot,” maybe the closest comparison point to this, was a visual and sonic pleasure to begin with, but it quickly proved empty-headed and imitative, like the guy in your college dorm who had Kubrick posters on the wall but whose favorite movies of all time were “The Butterfly Effect” and “Lucky Number Slevin.” Hawley’s proven his chops as a great storyteller before, and he’s using his tricks here (including a “Inception”-ish gambit later on) in the service of something, and once you get through the abstraction of the opening, it becomes clear that everything’s there for a reason.
You mentioned a “mostly” earlier?
Yeah. There’s a slight tendency in the first episode to be overly cute with some of the references — naming the mental institution after “A Clockwork Orange,” Syd being called Syd Barrett after the Pink Floyd member who suffered from mental illness before becoming a recluse, some technicians all bedecked in Team Zissou-ish beanies. It breaks you out of the world rather than immersing you in it, and we hope it quietens down as the show goes on.
Any other issues?
We had a slight problem with some of the mental hospital sequences, which felt a bit stereotypical and glib in the treatment of the patients. Plaza in particular flirts with someone playing Crazy, rather than a real character. That said, there’s reason to believe that it’s part of the subjective perspective of the show, so we’ll reserve judgement on this front for now — Plaza’s later scenes are notably different, and she looks like she’ll be a real asset to the show moving forward.
And the rest of the cast are good?
Great. Hamish Linklater is such a strong presence that it’s a shame that his turn here seems to be a one-off (though we look forward to seeing more of the Tom Waits-looking villain guy who appears alongside him), and Keller continues to demonstrate she’s one of the most promising young actresses out there. Best of all is Stevens, who after reinventing his career with “The Guest” continues to impress. He’s twitchy without being mannered, brings much-needed humor in, and a lot of heart too — there’s a boyish vulnerability to him that makes the show more accessible than it might have been otherwise.
So you’re in for the duration?
For sure. I can’t guarantee that it’ll stay good: the last time I enjoyed a pilot this much, it was “Preacher,” and that then proceeded to spend the next nine hours mostly spinning its wheels. But I have faith in Hawley, who plotted “Fargo” excellently across its two seasons, the eight-episode run (which increasingly feels like the Platonic ideal of a TV drama length) and mostly good notices from critics who’ve seen episodes two and three suggest that we won’t be let down here.
Anything else?
There’s a Bollywood dance number set to a Serge Gainsbourg song.
Awesome. Grade?
A- as it stands.
Legion airs on FX on Wednesday nights. We’re thinking about doing weekly recaps of the show — let us know if that’s something you’d like to see.