Legion: What you need to know about 'mindbending' new series

Even in a television landscape crowded with superhero shows, Marvel's Legion, which premieres in the UK tonight on Fox, is causing a stir.

What's it about?

Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley's eight-part series follows the story of David Haller, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia at an early age and has been in and out of psychiatric care ever since. But when Haller meets an extraordinary fellow psychiatric patient, he begins to wonder if the voices in his head may actually be real.

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In the Marvel comics, Haller is the son of Charles Xavier, the mutant leader of the X-Men, with a lineage and multiple personality disorder that allow him to manifest potentially infinite sub-personalities with infinite superpowers, hence the name "Legion". The TV adaptation takes place in the X-Men universe but is completely self-contained, suggesting there is unlikely to be a crossover with the film franchise any time soon.

Who’s in it?

Dan Stevens, best known as Matthew Crawley in ITV’s Downton Abbey, plays Haller. Fargo star Rachel Keller is his fellow patient – and the woman of his dreams - Sydney Barrett (a name inspired by Pink Floyd musician Syd Barrett). Haller believes Sydney has the ability to "trade places" with him by using her mind to enter his body.

The series also features another Fargo actress, Jean Smart, as well as Parks and Recreation’s Aubrey Plaza and Jermaine Clement from Flight of the Conchord.

What are the critics saying?

Emily Zemler at The Guardian says even those with superhero fatigue will find something "fascinatingly unconventional" in this "ambitious drama".

If you didn’t know the background, "you’d have no idea this is even a story of a superhero", she says, adding: "It upends your conception of a tights-clad champion armed with extraordinary powers."

Indeed, Legion's strength, Zemler concludes, lies in the way it "grapples with mental health in a way other shows veer away from".

This is a "reality-bending thriller that redefines the superhero genre", says Kwame Opam at The Verge. Instead of painting "a clear portrait of a troubled yet relatable protagonist, the story takes a pickaxe to all expectations, forcing viewers to ask: Is any of this even real?"

This makes Legion a "trippy, ambitious, confounding" show "unlike any cape-and-cowl series before it", he continues. Haller's illness is the focus, rather than the superhero comic source material, and Dan Steven’s performance reveals that "care and research went into the portrayal".

Dominic Patten at Deadline agrees, calling Legion a "rule-breaking series that you must actually see to believe".

He also praises the "mind-bending, creepily paranoia-inducing and sometimes Clockwork Orange homage" for challenging not just the superhero genre, but "the format of TV and reality itself".

In fact, he says, Legion is "already one of the best new shows of 2017".

Legion airs on Fox at 9pm tonight.