Legion dives into Marvel’s horror stories in a way that other shows never could

The first season of Legion is a great example of what a Marvel show with serious horror implications can be when given the opportunity to explore its weird and creepy elements.

One of the great things about living in the streaming age of movies and television is there is no shortage of great entertainment options to keep us busy. The drawback is there is so much available to be viewed, some great things can sometimes fall through the cracks. Such is the case for FX’s Legion for myself.

I was recently listening to some older episodes of the Hero Movie Podcast, and the show Legion came up, with the guys explaining how it was one of the best superhero shows they had seen. I hadn’t heard of the show, so I immediately sought it out to find out if it was truly worthy of the high praise it was being given by the three hosts of the podcast. What I got was a serious departure from what I was used to when it came to the superhero genre of television and movies.

Legion aired for three seasons on FX from 2017 through 2019. It starred Dan Stevens as the title character and was developed, written, directed, and produced by Noah Hawley. It was well received by both critics and fans alike, scoring 91% fresh by critics and 87% by fans on Rotten Tomatoes. I have only made it through the first season, so the purpose of this re-review will focus solely on it.

Legion broke ground for the superhero genre to thrive in the horror aspects of many of its stories

Legion was my first experience in seeing some of the creepier horror elements some comics utilize in the form of a television show. Up until this point, almost the entire genre of superhero properties in movies and television were basically action movies and shows.

To see this slightly scarier version of a superhero genre was a breath of fresh air. There are entire storylines out there in both the Marvel and DC worlds that follow these types of storylines, but very few of them have made their way to anything besides the pages of comic books.

The first season of Legion succeeds due to many facets of its story telling

Each episode of Legion ups the weird and creepy vibes, and reveals just enough of its story to keep you interested. The show also had to balance the delicate nature of David’s origin story as a person suffering from a mental illness while doing so in a respectful manner. There was a time in our society it was perfectly alright to use mental illness as a storytelling trope, but those days have long since past. So to successfully handle such a delicate topic as well as the show is a credit to the writers of the show.

Legion boasts one of the best casts for a superhero TV series. Dan Stevens pours himself into the aspects of a mentally tortured character who is trying to discover who he really is. Rachel Keller as Syd does an excellent job as the girlfriend who longs to touch her boyfriend and share an emotional and physical connection but simply can’t. Jean Smart continues her evolution in the latter years of her career as an actress with a deep well to draw from which we never saw in her early days on Designing Women. But Aubrey Plaza’s performance as the villain Lenny/Amahl Farouk is the show-stealer throughout the entire first season of Legion.

The show is not without its faults. The first season of Legion has some pretty terrible CGI, and my hope is this had more to do with the first season of a show having a lower budget given that it was unknown how successful it would be.

The first season of Legion is definitely worth a watch (and a rewatch)

Legion did things most superhero show wouldn’t. It took a chance on a character that isn’t the most well-known outside of serious comic book fans. It told a compelling story, and it setup the possibility for even weirder things to happen in the second season with a strange cliffhanger in the season finale.

If you haven’t seen the show, I would recommend checking it out. If you have but it’s been a while, it would be worth your time to revisit it.

What were your thoughts on Legion if you have seen it? Do you think it’s worth another viewing? Let us know in the comments!