Friday, October 25, 2019

The Review: Legion Season 2


Legion Season Two 10/10

I finished watching season two of the FX series Legion the other day and have been trying to figure out how to even write a review. After watching the first season a couple years back and absolutely loving it for whatever reason I dragged my ass watching the second season. Yes, I know there is a third and last season and I will drag my ass to watch it because I am bummed a great show is ending. Hmm. Maybe I'm not. Shows go too long these days and three seasons seem to be the magic number. The last season focused on getting to know the characters and David Haller defeating the Shadow King. This season continues that but far more in depth as well as figuring out if David is actually the hero of this story. There is a race going on to find the real body of the Shadow King fka Amahl Farouk. Our group is now located at Division 3 and it is being run by Admiral Fukyama who sits in a strange ass room with a basket on his head surrounded by three android lady folk that have mustaches. Everything is freaky!



This is where I start to remember how impossible it is to review this show in a linear fashion and just start talking about what I loved about it. David is fucking nuts and I love it. The more it seemed like he was being heroic the more I thought to myself “Legion is nuts. That's his thing. This will not have a happy ending.” There is one scene from the future that shows him in full Legion mode with the high hair and everything. There are people that think he is good and wants to save the world and others that treat him like a weapon that can go off at any minute.


This show has astral plane fights! In all of the X Men films with psychics and whatever random bullshit mutants they threw in they have never shown an astral plane fight. This show does it a few times and it is different and awesome each time. This gives the show a chance to do whatever weird shit they want to do within the confines of their minds. The weird stuff is not just saved for there. On one episode there is a drain with a plug laying next to it. Why? Who cares?! It looks crazy. There is a narrator in most episodes that explains a concept that relates to not just the show but reality as well. One I liked was “Human beings are the only animal that forms ideas about their world. We perceive it not through our bodies but through our minds. We must agree on what is real. Because of this, we are the only animal on Earth that goes mad.”


They made the Shadow King one of the best Marvel villains. What am I even talking about? He is the best. They managed to take this character that no one ever talks about who is the one of the first Charles Xavier ever faced and used him in such an effective manner. The actor that plays him is one of the most charismatic people I have ever seen. Dude could trick me into walking into traffic. He got me to think he was the bad guy to thinking he was the good guy that did bad things. The worse David behaved the less evil Shadow King seemed by comparison.


The look of this show is incredible. Before I forget, the music is amazing and I have a page bookmarked so I can download everything I have heard on it. But back to the look. For sure this show has the best wardrobe. The. Best. Every suit, every dress, every pair of pants looks perfect for whoever is wearing it. The way the scenes look are so damned original. I said “What?” so many times while looking at rooms and how they were designed.


Yes, they have a dance sequence this season! It takes place in the astral plane and is a fight between David, Lenny, and Oliver. David is looking for the monk who is the key to so much information and where Farouk's body is hidden and a damn dance happens. This show can do this and get away with it without it seeming forced or silly. Nothing seems silly on here but if you put it anywhere else it would not fit. This show is in its own world and everyone involved with it deserves so much praise and recognition. I hate that people aren't talking about how great this show is. It may be because of the network it is on or because it is so damned different that people aren't giving it a chance. I know I didn't when it first came out because I thought the idea of Legion having his own show was stupid. I was extremely wrong.


I still love the women on this show. Lenny because I straight up have a huge crush on the actress playing her and love looking at her face. Her character goes through so damned much in this season from being trapped in Shadow King's world to being freed at the cost of someone else to being captured to being teleported with a rifle in a lunch box. Its a lot. Sydney of course is such my jam it isn't even funny. I loved how she was jealous of the future version of herself and wanted David to be such a good guy until she realized that he is actually a monster. I did not see that coming. This season ran her ass through the ringer. They showed her past including her actual birth to handling her powers as a child and how it affected her. How she used it to do some terrible shit growing up and how it shaped who she is now. And Kerry needs her own show where she and Cary just walk around while he explains things to her. She spends way more time outside of him this season and even has to poop for the first time. She ages the longer she is out of him which is why she is in her twenties. She loves to fight and gets plenty of chances this time around. I love all these women and they could not be any different form one another.


If you have ever been on the fence about checking this show out I seriously suggest you check it out. There is no other show I can compare it to. This is one of those shows you can not watch while doing other things. I will miss something visually or not hear something that will make sense in a later episode. Each episode is a strange experience that needs to be absorbed. I also realized that this is not a show you binge. I watched three episodes in one day and felt weird as hell for the rest of the night. Two episodes tops is enough.

Dan Stevens as David Haller
Rachel Keller as Sydney “Syd” Barrett
Aubrey Plaza as Lenny Busker
Bill Irwin as Cary Loudermilk
Navid Negahban as Amahl Farouk/Shadow King
Jemaine Clement as Oliver Bird
Jeremie Harris as Ptonomy Wallace
Amber Midthunder as Kerry Loudermilk
Hamish Linklater as Clark Debussy
Jean Smart as Melanie Bird
Marc Oka as Admiral Fukyama
Jon Hamm as the Narrator
Nathan Hurd as the Monk
Katie Aselton as Amy Halle

Click here for previous The Review.

No comments: