Last year, Fargo‘s Noah Hawley took the story of a fairly obscure X-Men villain, David Haller (Dan Stevens) aka Legion, and turned him into a hero, of sorts, as he teams up with an oddball crew of mutants to figure out just what’s wrong with his brain. That turns out to be the Shadow King (Aubrey Plaza), who, at the end of the season, fled, but who’s still lurking waiting for another crack at David’s psyche. Oh, also David got stuffed in a Pokeball and abducted, and we pick up a year later when Legion returns for its second series Tuesday, April 3rd 10 pm on FX.
Legion, in the comics, is a fascinating character, because he’s a hundred heroes and villains in one. David, the son of Professor X (a topic the show never quite gets into in its first season), has disassociative identity disorder, or at least the Hollywood version of it, and each personality in his head has a different mutant power. As a result, David’s life is about dealing with past trauma and trying to make his wildly different personalities live together and work for the common good. Hawley smartly leaves the question of whether he’s sticking to the comics hanging over this entire show: Is David interacting with actual people in the real world? Or is all of this nothing more than David trapped inside his own brain with a monster? Or worse, could it be both?
The show pays tribute to artists like Bill Sienkiewicz with its theatrics, but it’s all in service to a point. Whether the Shadow King really is a psychic parasite, or just a toxic facet of David’s own mind, we all have to confront our demons before we turn into them, and it’s a fascinating journey Hawley is taking us on.
Legends of Tomorrow, Monday, April 2nd, 8 pm ET, The CW: Literally the title of this week’s episode is “Guest Starring John Noble” (and yes, he is a guest star), because this show can get away with anything at this point.
Black Lightning, Tuesday April 3rd 9 pm ET, The CW: Jefferson Pierce’s life somehow gets more complicated, especially now that his daughter literally generates lightning.
Krypton, Wednesday April 4th 10 pm ET, SyFy: You have to hand it to Krypton, maybe having Lyta Zod be required to murder her boss to deal with workplace conflicts isn’t the smartest system, but it sure is effective!
Gotham, Thursday, April 5th, 8 pm ET, Fox: “Mandatory Brunch Meeting” isn’t usually a set of words that inspire terror, but imagine going to brunch with Jerome.
Agents Of SHIELD, Friday, April 6th, 9 pm ET, ABC: Yes, Daisy is qualified to be leader of SHIELD, but, guys, come on, is now the time?