Legion

Bill Irwin is a fine physical comedian.

And I'll let the redhead abduct me anyday.

Mr. Noodle's brother, Mr. Noodle, is probably my favorite part of the show next to Lenny. But he rarely gets a chance to shine.

I'm kind of frustrated with the show since the end of last season. I get that the show has never really been about plot, it's visuals and setpieces and metaphors etc, but the whole "Division working with the literal monster and basing everything they do on his input" is making me fucking nuts. Nobody on the show is a good guy, everyone is flawed, and that's cool, but we're in a situation where Syd is straight up murdering David because the literal monster said to. If it doesn't end with Farouhk somehow influencing them, none of this really makes sense, even in the context of a show that never makes sense.

Ah, there's the Legion I know.

That was a great episode. David's eventual "Look mother fucker..." talk with the demon was awesome. I like how they murked up Syd's shower incident as a kid, assuming I'm reading that correctly it seems like they're trying to show how perspective and time can influence guilt and self-justification. Same with David, to some extent. Although I worry about whether or not the show can do it well, or even intends to. I read a review that said something along the lines of "David has tried to reimagine himself as a lifelong victim..." when that's literally what the show is about, David as a lifelong victim of the Shadow King. Some topics call for subtlety and nuance, and sometimes it's more important to be explicit.

That rap battle kicked ass, obv, the whole thing was cool as hell, Mantzoukas is always awesome. Just really great.

I liked it, but I thought the rap battle could have been better. I was expecting one of them to go RAPGOD on the other and it just didn't happen.

Next week is the finale. Looks to be a very interesting battle in the works. Given that both Charles and David have beaten, but been unable to ultimately destroy, the shadow king, I am wondering how they will deal with that.

By themselves they can't beat SK, but if David gets in Charles head and he amplifies the power from David's mind then SK will go down.

joz123 said:

By themselves they can't beat SK, but if David gets in Charles head and he amplifies the power from David's mind then SK will go down.

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Well considering that there are now two shadow kings, not sure how that will work out.

Just so I'm clear, the abbreviated season count meant the finale had to have both a babyface turn and a Deus Ex Machina to 'wrap up' non-disastrously? Yeesh.

Double demerits for suggesting 'Rape a dude and send him to jail for it, confined to a mental institution before she ever met David' Syd would have turned out fine if not for David being around.

Also, extra weird that everyone gets some closure, except for whoever the fuck Lenny was, and Ptonomy who was killed off, turned into a robot man, then given six lines this season.

I don't regret watching the show, but in retrospect vast swathes were either a mess or meaningless cul-de-sacs. Plan out your major story arcs when writing Season 1, I guess.

pharmakos said:

i couldn't make it more than half way through season 1, because it started to feel like this was going to be the case. sad to see i was right.

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I have tried probably 8 or 10 times to watch this show. I make it an episode, or part of an episode, before I'm like WTF is this shit ?

Then a few weeks go by, I read this discussion, and I think " that show sounds awesome, I should give it another try"

idk, it's like Noah Hawley made this show in a lab for me. I really liked the way they approached the ending, much better than an epic showdown. This show had some of the best scenes, the dance scenes, and great fucking music. But pretty thin plot. It's definitely an experience.

dammit, thats the kind of post that always does this to me.

Next thing you know I'll try Legion again and before you know it, I'll be WTFing my way through a scene with unknown characters that havent been introduced, doing some kind of bizarre dance, and it'll turn out nothing in the scene really happened and none of the characters actually exist and then without explanation they'll switch to another equally inexplicable scene. After a string of confusing non-sequitors I'll eventually turn it off again until someone updates this thread. FML

Juvarisx said:

I'm just glad this exists. Yea it was weird and the plot didn't always get where it needed to go, but it was so different that, honestly, I cant believe it was ever made. How does a show where a physic battle to Behind Blue Eyes and animated by the team that does Archer, or a fairy tale rap battle between Jemaine Clement and Jason Mantzoukas, The Time Eaters who rival the Weeping Angels from Dr Who, Aubrey Plaza playing a character named The Breakfast Queen exist? I have no idea but I am so glad it does, and it was never going to be for everyone or sometimes anyone but I am happy I watched it all.

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Yeah, the best thing about the modern age of TV is that shit like this, which never EVER would have been made, or would have been noted to death, is not only getting made but retaining the vision that started it. And they pretty much always stuck the landing, like in season two the buildup to the psychic battle between Clement/Plaza and David being turned into a dance off in the middle of a nightclub, how awesome is that scene? And how much of a letdown would it have been if it had been some tropey "intense faces!!!!!!!!!" psychic battle. Or the classic example is the Bolero scene in season 1, Plaza's portrayal of the monster, Clement conducting a defense spell, that scene was amazing. And the cast, man I would probably watch a show that was just Jemaine Clement wearing badass 1960s suits-with-belts and making martinis while reciting poetry. And the horror elements they managed to blend into the story, the Shadow King is legit terrifying in a way you rarely see on tv period. And they do all this without being shlocky or forced, it all makes sense at the end.

Aldarion I'm pretty much fanboying on it, it's not a perfect show, and you have to have an appreciation for surreal methods of storytelling or the things I gush over will probably just seem like nonsense, and the show asks a lot of you as far as giving it leeway to tell the story. But if you can, it's worth it I think. The first season is hard to make sense of, at least immediately, it's all unreliable narrator, it becomes clear at the end of the season though.