The show returns tonight on FX. I am really looking forward to this as I have confidence that the showrunners have put a lot of work into making a coherent work of art. Of course there are those who see the show as a shaggy dog story. Time will tell who is right!
The thread for the first season:
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=818645&highlight=Legion+Stevens
Thanks for the heads up!
You’re welcome.
Though --wait— maybe I only imagined it… 
Cheers. I absolutely had no idea last time so might as well carry on.
While this season didn’t start off as mind-blowing as the first season did, it was still damn good. And like nothing else I can think of on tv right now.
The look of the show continues to be amazing; their location scout(s) finds the most interesting places for them to film. And the sets are just interesting and stylized – the lights progressing down the corridor, the commissary with meals-on-boats drifting by, and all the groovy décor. Really well done.
I explained it to someone this morning as “the kind of show where representing a psychic battle as a dance-off in different styles makes complete sense”. Because, obviously, that’s how you fight the Shadow King. (Aubry Plaza needs more dance numbers in this show.)
Agreed. Though the funny part was that the moment that actually took me out of the show was (my mental thinking going like) “Why in the Hell is the elevator that big? No one is going to build a elevator that large” 
Agreed. For me there were more “OMG that looks amazing” moments than in any other show—and I’m including the revival of Twin Peaks.
She does! And so does Bill Irwin. Most of what he was doing was in background and in shadow, which was a shame. But this show seems to take pride in how much they ‘throw away.’
I haven’t a clue as to where they’re going. But the cast alone would be enough to make me want to go along (Jemaine Clement is in this fer corn’s sake!). And there’s so much more to it than just the cast.
Just got around to watching the first episode. Absolutely loved it. I have faith that many things—but probably not everything—will eventually make more sense, but for the moment, I can just revel in the imagery, picking up small clues here and there.
Not sure they’ll ever explain why Admiral Fukuyama’s female android (I assume?) bodies needed mustaches, but also not sure they need to—some of this stuff is clearly just there to knock the viewer out of familiar paths and patterns of thinking, like a zen koan: it’s not really about understanding, it’s more like practice.
I like that. It fits the show quite well.
For me, episode 2 advances the theory that the showrunners are trying to make the stakes a bit more clear to the audience: Oliver may be killed and that would devastate Melanie Bird; a greater evil than the Shadow King may menace the characters; time travel will complicate matters. (Okay, that last one doesn’t contribute to clarity.)
I keep expecting the scenes with Admiral Fukyama to include flashes of lightning, a la Big Trouble in Little China. Guess that wouldn’t make sense for this story.
I thoroughly enjoyed Episode 2. The whole David being able to force himself to the future was a really cool dynamic and I liked the portrayal of Farouk as a suave Egyptian man.
The only disappointment is that the ratings are abysmal. Ep2 fell to a 0.2. Now FX is perfectly fine keeping critically acclaimed shows with terrible ratings around (cough The Americans), but I’d imagine that Legion also costs a ton. Hopefully it gets a 3rd season.
Prediction: David is becomes whatever kills off everyone in the future and they need the Shadow King to stop him.
Yeah, I had that thought as Future Syd is very vague on what it was that killed everyone.
Yup. The line about how he was still “sweet” was particularly leading. It’s an obviousish way to go, but a reasonable one. I certainly think they could pull it off.
But who knows on this show, maybe its Cary/Kerry that is slowly devouring the world in the future ;).
It’s what I was thinking too but the fact that we are all thinking that makes me think that’s just what they want us to think …
Another well-made episode, last night.
I think this show suffers in the ratings because people see “from Marvel” and expect a group of wise-cracking mutants kicking alien butt while getting off epic one-liners. And of course it’s not that.
But what it is, is very enjoyable, if given a chance. Not everything has to be groups of wise-cracking mutants!
So the delusion was a throwaway monster there just because??
Where are they going with this show?
I love its odd vibe, and there have been some great lines - the one that went something like “what is more dangerous, the fear or those who are afraid?” hit me as a good one - but not sure it actually has a real direction or arc at this point.
Anyone else still watching? Was there a point to the previous week’s multiverse digression? Can he choose a reality in which his sister is still alive?
I still don’t know what’s going on half the time. I thought the Admiral was dead or destroyed a couple of episodes ago, but here they are trying to destroy him again. Who or what the frak is trying to destroy him, I have no clue. The only thing I think I understand now is that Future Syd believes David was/will be responsible for the apocalypse and Farouk is necessary to stop him.
At this point, I’ve given up on waiting for the show to develop a plot, and instead have started to think of it as a series of loosely-connected vignettes. They don’t mean anything, they’re not leading anywhere, but they’re still fun to watch.
So that happened. Compared to this show, Westworld is a masterpiece of straightforward, linear storytelling. It was a terribly convoluted plot to get to the point of what I presume was David’s psychotic break. Now was that something that would have happened anyway? Or did they somehow cause it by trying to prevent it?