Legion review roundup: The X-Men spinoff gets thumbs up from critics

Marvel Television, in collaboration with FX Original Series, is preparing to release a new TV show based on a mutant from X-Men series, Legion.

Sharing the story of David Haller, a troubled young man diagnosed with schizophrenia, Legion will revolve around how there are numerous personalities in his head and each personality has its own powers that is used for the benefit of each. The TV series is created by Noah Hawley and stars Dan Stevens, Aubrey Plaza, Jean Smart, Jemaine Clement and Rachel Keller.

The official synopsis of the show reads:

Legion follows David Haller, a troubled young man who may be more than human. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, David has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years. But after a strange encounter with a fellow patient, he's confronted with the possibility that the voices he hears and visions might be real. Legion debuts in early 2017 and is produced by FX Productions and Marvel Television.

Also Read: Legion TV series: Five things you need to know before you start watching Marvel X-Men's most powerful mutant on television

Is the X-Men spinoff worth your time? Here's what the critics have to say:

While Rotten Tomatoes has given the show an average tomatometer of 100 per cent, Variety's Maureen Ryan writes that Legion is not everyone's cup of tea. However, for the ones who like it, will be hooked on to it. "Legion is not timid. It offers a jittery take on many of the genre's familiar themes, and it hurls them together with such boldness that the entire concoction ends up carrying quite a kick. It won't be for everyone, but those who are pulled into the surreal, jagged orbit of this distinctive drama are likely to stay there for the full eight-episode run. It is, literally and figuratively, a trip — and it's often an exhilarating one," she reports.

Appreciating Steven's performance, she writes that his act keeps the show glued together. "Stevens' performance is the glue that keeps "Legion" from flying apart: His vulnerability and his skill at transitioning between hopelessness and hope is continually impressive, as is the deft ways he indicates that a tender sliver of yearning optimism exists in David's otherwise frightened and frustrated soul," she writes.

The Hollywood Reporter's Tim Goodman shares that you should lock yourself in a rubber room and binge-watch the show. "Hawley has essentially decided to fully tell the narrative from the mental interior of David's brain and build out from there what he sees, imagines, suffers, dreams and acts out from that POV. That choice makes the first episode of Legion a visual thrill-ride of disconnected, juxtaposed narratives that are brain-bending and, at times, purposefully confusing. Hawley wants the audience to be disoriented as they wonder exactly how bad David's mental illness is," he writes.

"Stylistically, there's nothing quite like Legion's smart take on mutant powers, which keeps the series more dramatic and less light or flippantly Marvel-esque, a welcome change from other projects out there. It might seem weird to have a Marvel show on FX, or to have it star that upper-crust Brit from Downton Abbey, filtered through the creator of Fargo, but somehow it all works," he adds.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's TV reviewer Rob Owen has reviewed the show writing that Legion is Strange but satisfying. "Developed for TV by FX's Fargo mastermind Noah Hawley, Legion does not play out like Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. with weekly missions, at least not through the first three episodes. It's a serialised story with an initial focus on helping David escape the clutches of an apparently evil cabal and then trying to aid his sister, Amy," he writes. Owen adds that Legion gives you a feel of the 1970s-era British sci-fi show. 

So should you watch it? You can decide after watching the premiere episode on February 8 on FX at 10 pm EST.