Diminishing Returns: <i>Legion</i>

Diminishing Returns: Legion

Watching Legion is a lot like the image above: I sit with the same perplexed look on my face as Sid (Rachel Keller) and that goat.

Last season's series premiere was, hands down, one of the most unique and game-changing series openers in television history. I raved to everyone who would listen about the show early in season one. Yet, once it entered the back stretch, I noticed I'd been losing interest, slowly, episode after episode.

Now, I love weird. I don't need to understand every layer of a series or film to appreciate it. I'm okay with being confused watching Legion—hell, I (mostly) happily sat through eighteen hours of Twin Peaks: The Return. It's just that, at this point, early in season two, I'm beginning to wonder if all the exceptional aesthetic and tonal aspects of the show are just masking a series that has very little to actually say. About anything.

I'm not giving up on the series. First of all, my wife enjoys it, so I'm going to be sitting through it whether I care to or not. But mostly, I'll be focusing on the two aspects of the show that appeal to me most: its gorgeous, Kubrick-inspired visual style and the jaw-dropping, subversively strange performance-art-or-whatever-it-is-thing that Aubrey Plaza is pulling off as Lenny. I have no idea what on earth Plaza is doing that fascinates me, but dammit I can't take my eyes off her.

I've thought about it, though, and I think much of what I love about Plaza's work in the show is how wonderfully she uses her entire body to act. She's called on to slink and pose and slither and dance her way through one bizarre scene after another, and she does so with great flare and a crazy kind of elegance. Plaza is gifted with giant, saucer eyes that draw you in like a magnet, and then she keeps your focus with her sinister, seductive, and often hilarious cat-like movements. A nuclear intensity practically explodes out of her anytime she's on screen.

Plaza is creating something wholly unique with this performance, unlike most anything on TV at the moment. Go back and watch her dance sequence from season one. It's mind blowing, no matter how often you watch. Much of that is owed to a brilliant visual sense and some masterful editing, of course. But, Plaza brings it all together with an intensity that derives solely from her electric performance.

I know there's more to the show, more strange characters, more pseudo-intellectual claptrap, but I'm not mentioning any of that here because, frankly, those elements bore me of late. I will keep watching, though, with the hope that it can once again spark the sort of excitement in me that it did at the start. If it doesn't rope me back in, oh well. At least I can soak up the cinematic visuals and a stunning performance from Aubrey Plaza that seems to be emanating from another world entirely.

Comments

Taís AmaralApril 20, 2018 at 12:19 PM
I'm very excited for the second season of Legion cause the series brings me so great feellings.
The visual, like you said, its stunning (so it happens with Dark) and the characters are "freakly" adorable.
I loved the color combination that the show put in the clothes and cenarios and how this match with everything in the series.

Greatings from Brazil!
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Paul SApril 25, 2018 at 1:16 PM
I haven't heard of Legion, I hadn't heard of Aubrey Plaza until I read your post. I love your idea that her performance is "emanating from another world entirely." Is Delaware another world? Apparently she is the state's most famous native!
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