【War Archives】

If you’ve suffered through enough mediocre X-Menmovies to feel a general fatigue for any live action incarnations of Professor X and War Archiveshis lovable gang -- comics fan or not -- Legionis capable of changing your mind.

Legionhas all the ingredients for greatness: A promising cast, a wealth of well-regarded source source material from the X-Men comics, FargoTV series creator Noah Hawley pulling the strings as showrunner, and a home on FX, which struck creative gold with Fargoand is looking to repeat that success with a similar formula here.

The premiere episode, “Chapter 1,” signals that Fargo’s special sauce goes well on other dishes. An hour in and Legionalready feels like its own little universe, one in which you might find true love on the worst day of your life and suitcases are lime green as a matter of course.

Legionfollows David Haller (Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens), a mutant truly in the X-Men tradition -- he possesses incredible powers that, for various reasons, he’s unable to harness. Specifically, David seems to be a powerful telepath, but has convinced himself he’s insane in order to survive in a world of aggressive normalization (in that way, at least, Legion’s reality is just like ours).

SEE ALSO: 'Legion' creator wants the show to prove itself before you call it an X-Men series

"Chapter 1" covered a refreshing amount of that trope-laden ground. No, David, you’re not really crazy; yes, you have powers. And it will indeed be cathartic to watch you learn to wield them against men in ugly suits, or men wielding masks and assault rifles. That journey seems well underway by the time this episode’s credits triumphantly begin to roll.

That’s not what Legionis really about, though -- not currently, at least. In "Chapter 1," this X-Men show is entirely about nostalgia -- though crucially it’s David’s nostalgia, not the audience’s. An infant David is our first glimpse within, and through this opening montage the show says a lot with a little. David is happy, David grows up, David hears voices, David is unhappy, David hangs himself.

David is always yearning for that earlier time -- when his mother called to him, when he played in a field. His flashbacks are a constant in "Chapter 1." And at the end, after a climactic (if a little cheesy) trench warfare escape from someone’s probably-evil clutches, when it seems David’s world is finally about to open up, he thinks only of his time in the hospital. He senses a turning point, and his six years locked safely away take on the golden hue of fond remembrance. Anything is better than the confusing present and an uncertain future.

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Clearly David has developed this coping mechanism across a lifetime of trying futilely to convince himself he’s mentally ill. And it’s downright incredible how effectively Legiongets this across in a single episode. Stevens’ unhinged performance -- his character seeming always on the edge of freaking out -- goes a long way. We know going into the show that David is a mutant, but Stevens convinces us he also really is at least partially crazy. And seeing this world through the frenetic lens of David’s mind will make you feel crazy too.

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Fargo’s stylistic trappings are everywhere. Legionmay be set in the present (or maybe not -- its time period is left intentionally vague), but half its scenes, particularly those in the hospital and in David’s sister’s house, could have been plucked from a period piece set in the ‘60s or ‘70s. Modest cardigans, big collars and tweed abound. The episode opens to The Who’s “Happy Jack,” a song released in 1966.

There’s phenomenal use of music overall, the score never missing a beat even as it switches seamlessly to electronica; as well as exquisite slow-mo and carefully utilized color (pay attention any time red shows up).

Some of Fargo’s stars are present as well. Rachel Keller as Syd Barrett takes charge of any room or scene she enters, while Jean Smart’s Melanie Bird promises something great with an outstretched hand.

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And Hawley’s penchant for wringing sarcastic drama from otherwise funny actors -- a la Key and Peele in Fargoseason 1 -- continues with Aubrey Plaza’s role as David’s voice-in-head companion Lenny Busker.

The connective tissue between Hawley’s past successes and Legioncan’t be ignored. If you liked Fargo, you will like Legion, whether or not you give a hoot about X-Menin general.

Perhaps most of all, it’s because of Hawley’s unique talent for injecting twisted levity into scenes bookended with tension and violence. “I’m insane, you idiot,” David explains wryly, seconds before a room’s worth of people get psychically microwaved (or something!). There’s even a damn dance number toward the end.

There’s so much promise in Legion’s first chapter. The show could have languished, drawing out David’s journey through the system, and it probably would have gotten away with it, because even the episode’s slow opening half is enthralling. But in the latter portion of the hour, it immediately answers half the questions it knew you already had, and poses many more.

SEE ALSO: Bryan Singer explains why the X-Men franchise is perfect for TV

What's the nature of Syd’s power? Was the body-switch her doing or David's? Who is the hideous devil with the yellow eyes? Is David a reliable narrator? (No.) Maybe most importantly, or maybe least, what’s real and what isn’t in David’s world?

David may be partially crazy, but he isn’t stupid. He’s asking the same questions. And the people who’ve surrounded him so far have differing answers. Meanwhile Syd’s vehement and loving assurances at the end that she is, indeed, really real, might just have convinced me of the opposite. Anyone else notice, in the scene where she sneaks into David’s bed, that the camera never showed her entering the room?

Legionairs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.

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