Noah Hawley’s Heat Check
After the incredible success of the first two seasons of Fargo, it’s clear that Legion is Noah Hawley’s television “heat check”.
Just putting all my cards on the table, this is an immediate overreaction to episode one of Legion. If you haven’t seen the first episode of Noah Hawley’s X-Men spinoff on FX, go watch it immediately. It breaks the most rules of the stereotypical Marvel content I’ve ever seen — specifically the mold that Iron Man, Avengers, Thor, Ant-Man, Daredevil, Luke Cage, and basically every other piece of content they’ve put out, except Guardians of the Galaxy. Not to say that many of those pieces of content aren’t genuinely good movies or TV shows, but they fit into a somewhat consistent mold and model of storytelling.
Just because episode one of Legion is completely different from those other pieces of content isn’t what makes it stunning. The complete chaotic orchestra of visuals and audio that Hawley throws at us in 90 minutes is amazing. From the opening sequence of our introduction to David, to the unexpected and enjoyable dance sequence, to the kitchen cluster that David creates. All of it are meshed together and despite not understanding immediately what was going on, it all made sense by the end of the episode.
The length of the episode made it feel like a movie. If Hawley had straight up just made this a one episode special I would be totally fine with it. The fact that this is the first in what looks to be eight episodes is insane. Just when I thought Hawley couldn’t follow up season one and two of Fargo with anything decent, he blew away my expectations, and now I really don’t know how he can follow this episode with anything substantial.
One of the hopes with the rest of the season is that there is plenty of room to explain a story that is somewhat confusing, to say the least. It isn’t the linear sort of storytelling we’re used to in Daredevil or The Flash. The type of storytelling Hawley is implementing throughout Legion re-creates the model for telling the story of those with incredible abilities, or superheroes.
Of course I fully expect the rest of the season to continue at the furiously ambitious pace that the pilot set. Even if the rest of the season is average, Hawley has now earned the respect and credibility to be the ultimate heat check creator in TV. He’s at the Christopher Nolan level of creating so many great episodes of TV in a row that everything he touches is a must watch. If Hawley were making one of those awful Chevrolet adds highlighting worthless car awards, I would schedule my entire week around its debut.
There is now a reasonable expectation that the rest of the season will be at the very least decent. After season 1 of Fargo Hawley’s ability to follow it up was questioned, and deservedly so. Season 1 was fantastic and it was going to be brutal to create some sort of a season 2 that was in the same realm. Hawley of course went and made a second season that was critically acclaimed and thought by many to be an even better season of television than season 1.
Legion is so good that my wife walked in five minutes into the episode, sat down and watched the entire episode without looking at her phone. She’s all in for episode two now and was captivated throughout its entirety. I couldn’t pay her to watch Avengers or Thor. It captures the common television viewer and captivates the nerdiest of comic book fans.
After the first jaw dropping episode of Legion there is a certain level of anticipation. One level of that anticipation is purely laced in the readiness to see what comes next in Hawley’s vision for the story. The second level of anticipation is surrounded in a certain level of awe as Hawley attempts to continue an incredible run of success.
This moment in Noah’s career feels like the start of the 3rd quarter of an incredible basketball game, forgetting everything before Fargo. He had 40 in the first half on 7 for 10 from 3 (seasons 1 and 2 of Fargo). The first episode of Legion was a turnaround 3 to start the second half, and the rest of the season is the the entirety of the 3rd quarter. Fargo season 3 of course being the 4th quarter. Most guys who have a really hot first half cool off as the game continues. As episode one of Legion shined and mystified, Hawley looks in no mood to stop making amazing television at a pace we’re not used to seeing.
