To kinda catch you up: a year has passed since The Shadow King escaped with Oliver’s body, leaving David trapped in a mechanical orb. Although David only perceives that he’s been out of action for a day. The rest of his mutant friends have formed an organisation, with different Divisions dedicated to tracking down the Shadow King, but they’ve encountered a big problem along the way: The Catalyst. Essentially, it’s a psychological infection that causes regular humans to become permanently non-responsive, and to continually chatter their teeth. It’s intensely disturbing. To say more than that is to spoil much of the episode, so I won’t, but that’s the basic set-up. If you’re thinking of getting into Legion season 2 without watching S1: don’t. It’s confusing enough when you know what’s happened previously. Without seeing Legion season 1 (opens in new tab), it’s impenetrable.

What you get with this first instalment of season 2 is a strange collection of scenes, which I’d be hard pressed to describe as a coherent episode of TV. It’s like a music video from the ‘90s, shot by the crew of Blade Runner 2049. It’s superhero TV discovering some of the paintings it did after coming down from a particularly disturbing acid trip. In many ways it’s beautiful, and when you get what the show is telling you, some of the scenes feel utterly, brilliantly unique. You may have heard that there’s a dance-off (opens in new tab) part-way through this episode. You heard right, but you’re in no way prepared for how incredible that scene is.

Nor are you ready for one particular scene where Melanie Bird (Jean Smart) has a tragic conversation with Syd about “our men”, which touches on the male superhero obsession with saving the world and the consequences their actions have on the ones they leave behind. It’s a pocket of sobering humanity squeezed into the sprawling madness of the rest of the episode. Tonally, though, it’s very much the exception – Legion remains as darkly humorous as ever, packing in a handful of genuinely funny moments to keep things as grounded as possible.

That has always been the true genius of Legion, and this first episode of season 2 definitely feels like the most refined example yet. It walks the line between wilfully conceptual TV, visual spectacle, and a wonderfully human story – never letting one element overpower the other. The resulting mixture is a show that undoubtedly isn’t for everyone, and many may watch this episode and decide it’s a load of old arty crap. Following what’s happening minute to minute is still intensely demanding. Persist, though, and Legion rewards you with scenes, lines, and characters you’ll never see anywhere else on TV. It’s the only show that could pull off the line “So… I’m supposed to find The Shadow King from inside a daiquiri” and it’s all the better for it.

Hungry for more? Check out our best upcoming TV shows of 2018 (opens in new tab).

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How is Legion season 2 going to top that? Lead Dan Stevens spoke to our sister publication SFX magazine (opens in new tab) about that very thing. The full story is in this month’s issue, out Wednesday, 28 March, but here’s an oh-so-tantalising snippet.

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“Things get stranger and weirder, so I don’t still fully understand what’s going on,” says Stevens, who plays Professor Xavier’s son David Haller on the show.

With Haller trapped again at the onset of Legion season 2, that only opens up more fantastical possibilities for showrunner Noah Hawley and the team to play around with. “Are [Haller’s] powers going to be used for good and evil? And, who says which is which?” suggests Stevens, hinting at a possibly darker second season for the X-Men spin-off-but-not-quite-a-spin-off.

But one thing is for certain: among the surreal and sublime, we’re going being treated to a few toe-tapping numbers. “I really love that this show can entertain these musical interludes… It’s really going to become a feature of the show,” Stevens teases, which, if you’ve watched the show’s premiere, will know that it can boogie with the best of ‘em.

While Haller is still “very much dealing with this Shadow King” – the villain of the piece – here’s hoping Legion season 2 can double down on the beautifully bizarre. There’s no other show like it when it gets going – and (whisper it) it might just be the best superhero TV show out there.

For more on Legion season 2, you can read about the plentiful trippy goings-on in the latest issue of SFX (opens in new tab), coming to a retailer near you on Wednesday, March 28.

The post Dan Stevens talks a “stranger and weirder” Legion season 2 (and whether it features more dance-offs) appeared first on Game News.