S01.E01: Chapter 1

[Tara Ariano]

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In the series premiere, a troubled young man battling mental illness wonders if the visions he experiences are real following a strange encounter with a fellow patient.

[Primetimer]

Or is the series doomed?

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[shrewd.buddha]

I am cautiously optimistic but bracing for disappointment. I fear it will attempt to be too high-mindedly weird for its own good.  

The premise seems overly ripe for the old "it was all a dream", "everything you thought was a lie", etc, which could be thrown at us at any time : in any given episode, at the end of the season, or the end of the series. With these type of shows it can become exhausting having to mentally reassemble the 'true' scenes from the 'false' ones. 
And I am still not okay with how badly this technique was abused in the BBC Sherlock finale. If the viewpoint of the story is supposed to be from an unreliable narrator and what we are shown could be either real or a delusion,  then it would follow that we should never be shown anything outside of that narrator's viewpoint, right? (We shouldn't be able to see B and C subplots that don't involve the narrator.)
It's irritating when the PTB feel free to jump from an objective third person viewpoint to some character's internal viewpoint with nothing to indicate the change. 

Edited February 7, 2017 by shrewd.buddha

[ShadowHunter]

I am looking forward to this but also prepared to be disappointed.  I never watched Downtown Abbey but liked Dan Stevens in The Guest so I am glad he is the lead.  I will try and avoid the reviews and go in with my own thoughts and opinions. 

[kirkola]

I am cautiously optimistic but bracing for disappointment. I fear it will attempt to be too high-mindedly weird for its own good.  

The premise seems overly ripe for the old "it was all a dream", "everything you thought was a lie", etc, which could be thrown at us at any time : in any given episode, at the end of the season, or the end of the series. With these type of shows it can become exhausting having to mentally reassemble the 'true' scenes from the 'false' ones. 
And I am still not okay with how badly this technique was abused in the BBC Sherlock finale. If the viewpoint of the story is supposed to be from an unreliable narrator and what we see could be either real or a delusion,  then it would follow that we should never be shown anything outside of that narrator's viewpoint, right? (We shouldn't be able to see B and C subplots that don't involve the narrator.)
It's irritating when the PTB feel free to jump from an objective third person viewpoint to some characters's internal viewpoint with nothing to indicate the change. 

That's what made the British version of Life on Mars so brilliant. I managed to get through the entire thing without realizing that it was entirely from the lead's viewpoint. But, this has Dan Stevens....so I'm in. I'm a sucker for British actors (they tend to have a better range).

[PatternRec]

I just wanna know Will @David T. Cole Hate This? based in the fact that it's *not* based in his favorite movie from 2010. 

[AimingforYoko]

[Jody]That was fuckin' trippy.[/Jody]

I like that they didn't wait too long to confirm that it wasn't all in his head. Well, it kinda is, but you know what I mean.

Two questions: How has David slid under the radar this long? And Syd Barrett? Really, show?

[peridot]

Interesting pilot.  The yellow-eyed thing gave me the creeps, I wasn't expecting horror in this show!

It'll be interesting to see who is a mutant, and what power they have.

[jcin617]

That was different.  Interesting style choices too; a lot makes it look like it takes place in the 70s, but the flatscreen TVs say otherwise.  

[Bruinsfan]

The acting was quite good, but the narrative was so confused that it was pretty much impossible to follow. I realize that's being done intentionally to mirror the main character's mental state, but it still doesn't make it work.

Also, having sought treatment in a psychiatric care facility, this looked more like it was set in some vacation resort. They are not open, airy places where lots of neatly-dressed people lounge around calmly in comfy chairs.

[TheInnerClown]

Interesting show, i'll definitely be watching the next episode. I did think the pacing was off (going too slow) but then people here are seeing a bunch of cool things in the background that i didn't pick up on at all, so maybe i just need to spend some time looking there.

Whenever a show uses an unreliable narrator I get worried the writers will stop caring about consistency as they can hand wave everything away by saying"haha fooled you that earlier scene that totally contradicts this one was just in his mind."

Lastly, the breakout scene was awesome to watch, but really unless they reveal some new power in the group they should all have been riddled with bullets 20 feet outside the door.

[shrewd.buddha]

It was like a beautiful, slow moving ice flow. Top notch cinematography. Good cast. Nice music choices. 
Like watching a flower bloom in slow motion - fascinating but potentially sleep inducing.
I nodded off before the last ten minutes (despite the "Viewer discretion advised" warnings indicating that stuff was going to happen).

Maybe it was the repeated sit-down sessions with David. It is doubtful that I will make it through live episodes if each one is going to consist of repeatedly revisiting events of the past to show them from different perspectives (clear, delusional, with newfound information, etc). Amazing camera angles and lighting only gets you so far. 

I'm not sure why anyone thought this needed to be promoted as being connected to the X-Men franchise. Except for using the word 'mutant', there was nothing about this that felt like a comic book adaptation. 

Despite seeing that Legion is a high quality production, I feel that I'm going to quickly get tired of the twitchy  "crazy" acting : red-ringed eyes, hands-to-head 'anguish', etc. And it looks as if David's early life is going to get a long, drawn out reexamination. 
We will see how it goes ... 

Edited February 9, 2017 by shrewd.buddha

[sjohnson]

My son once tried to get out of the car because he was afraid of the electronic bug in the dashboard. We were on the four lane, going about sixty at that moment.

To my eyes, the hero is astonishingly upbeat. Also, amazingly free of catatonia. I have to say there's a huge dose of blatant phony about the proceedings which so far has kept me from investing at all. I could try to think of this as the Hogan's Heroes of mental illness, but it's altogether too pompous to succeed as a shameless farce.

Psychiatric wards generally do not have wheelchairs, because mental illness inexplicably does not make it difficult to walk. Not truly important, but I thought it was symptomatic of how unthinking this thing can be.

[zxy556575]

Oh hell naw. I can't sit through this.

But then, I have an extremely low tolerance for dream states, hallucinations, and trippy flashbacks in general.

[HurricaneVal]

I found this show to be eerie, intriguing, and a big spooky.  What is real?  What is in his head?  Like TheInnerClown, I'm a little wary of a show depending so much on an unreliable narrator.  I also did not realize that the premiere was a 90 minute show.  When it got to the one hour mark, and I thought it was done, I was really incredibly confused, since there hadn't been any closure by that point.

 

The timeline is very hard to determine, which I think is on purpose.  There's '70s tech mixed with modern tech, the clothing is all over the place, style-wise, as are the vehicles--and I don't think that is the set design folks and the production folks not paying attention.  I think they're paying careful attention, and everything has a meaning.

 

But...what freaked me out the most was the final chase scene where they're running through the walkway with all the columns, down the seaside stairs, between the rocks, to that little bay with the cave.  Put a shopping mall being invaded by evil life-size puppets at the top instead of a swimming pool with strange tile art, and put a James Bond hideaway down in the little bay with a kick-ass yacht moored on the other side of the point, and you've got exactly the nightmare I had a couple of weeks ago that still re-visits me at odd moments. 

[tanita]

So, at the end there, how many of those characters are really just David ?

I'm kinda unfamiliar with Legion, so I'm not sure if he has like a personality disorder where each personality is a different person with a mutant power or when he meets new people he absorbs their personality so they become a port of him, one of the Legion sort of speak.

It was good, if not a bit too trippy at times. I have a headache after watching this.

[sjohnson]

By the way, Falling Water gave this show a run for its money for being eerie and trippy, and did it without fictionalizing schizophrenia. Didn't do superhero gosh-wow flash bang FX. Which it just now dawns on me is probably what the Sepinwalls really liked about this show. Certainly has been delivering in that depart in a way something like SHIELD doesn't.

[Canada]

Okay, this is not a show I can watch while tired.  I have no idea what was going on, but I was vaguely entertained by it all.

[Bruinsfan]

4 hours ago, tanita said:

I'm kinda unfamiliar with Legion, so I'm not sure if he has like a personality disorder where each personality is a different person with a mutant power or when he meets new people he absorbs their personality so they become a port of him, one of the Legion sort of speak.

If I recall correctly, it's a mix of both. In the comics David's mental difficulties started as a little kid when he reflexively killed a bunch of terrorists mid-attack, and one of their minds was sucked into his with the resulting mental trauma transferring his telepathy power to the terrorist's mind and shattering his own consciousness into a number of alters, each possessing another of his powers like telekinesis, pyrokinesis, etc.

[maczero]

I'll admit I was totally lost throughout this.  So here are my questions.

1)  Is the psychiatric hospital real?  I think it is but the shadowy government guys made it seem like it's all a ruse designed to study David without him knowing.  

2)  Who's real?  I know the comic version of Legion has multiple personalities so I'm assuming his "allies" are David's other personalities.  If that's the case, I'm hoping this is revealed by next episode.  

To the poster who questioned why the show needs to advertise its connection to the X-men, I ask why wouldn't it?  Even though this show doesn't feel like your typical super hero show, highlighting that it's part of the X-men universe gets fans of the franchise to tune in.          

[Vapor]

Also, why does it need to feel like a typical super hero show? We're verging on a dozen of those within the next year or so, I don't really need another, despite enjoying some.

What I appreciate most about this so far is its disinterest in taking the immediate, obvious route with costumes and easy-to-decipher bad guys that just need a good punching and the like. That stuff has its place, and can be a lot of fun, but I think I'd go insane watching only that forever.

Let this be the bizarre, oblique thing it wants to be, and check out the other stuff if your interests divert elsewhere. I know I will.

Edited February 10, 2017 by Vapor

[ShadowHunter]

Well that certainly had a few weird moments but I enjoyed it enough to continue watching. 

I was glad when David hurled the pen in that guys cheeck he annoyed me lol. One of his captors the older man was the actor David Selby who I remembered from the old soap opera Dark Shadows and Falcon Crest. I use to watch the reruns of those shows when I was a kid.

I even laughed was his sister started to remove the tools from the basement.

Syd reminds me of Rogue since she can't touch anyone. She even has the gloves. I thought it was cute when she and David were holding hands in the hospital with a sock.

[thuganomics85]

Well, then.  I didn't do much research going in, but that was way more insane and trippy then I expected.  I guess with his success with Fargo, FX was cool with letting Noah Hawley just go insane here.  I still don't know half of what was going on, but I kind of liked it, I think?  I'm at least curious to see where this goes.  But I do hope it slows its role soon.  And it doesn't all end up being a dream or some shit.  I'm sure they were be plenty of twists, but I just hope they don't just reset the entire thing.

Having never watched Dowton Abbey, I'm unfamiliar with Dan Stevens, outside of voicing a computer in The Tomorrow People.  I thought he was really good here (good American accent too.  Would have never guest he was British had I not known about him), and David an interesting character, who could be strangely funny a times, but also sad and messed up.  The concept of a mutant not realizing he is a mutant and thinking he's just crazy is an interesting concept, and I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Great seeing Rachel Keller again (a.k.a. Simone from Fargo), and I'm curious about Syd.  The whole no touching bit reminded me of Rogue and the way she and David interact over it kind of reminded me of Ned and Chuck's relationship on Pushing Daises.  That's a crazy power though: whoever you touch, you end up swapping bodies with?  Yikes!

Did not see the actually killing Aubrey Plaza's character, but having her stick around as a hallucination in David's mind.  That should be fun!

Jean Smart!  I see Hawley really just wanted to work with the Fargo actresses again.  Maybe he'll get Kirsten Dunst to make a cameo!

Hamish Linklater was fun, but I so knew he was going to get killed off.  But I think the silent afro guy who was carving wooden stuff is still around, so I guess we'll see more of him.

Whelp, I can wait to see where this twisty ride goes next!
 

[Bruinsfan]

Did he not get barbecued with everyone else at the pool?

The opening sequence reminded me strongly of that of Watchmen; very powerful imagery in those slo-mo vignettes. And I still have "Happy Jack" running through my head more than 24 hours later!

Edited February 10, 2017 by Bruinsfan

[ApathyMonger]

I'm going to have to rewatch the pilot. I've a feeling parts of it will make much more sense after watching more episodes.

[HurricaneVal]

I am also unfamiliar with Dan Stevens, but I have to say, from many angles, he greatly resembles a young Ben Stiller and that knocked me out of a couple of scenes.

 

The details are amazing.  Why was that dog figurine sitting on the table in the interrogation room?   Why is Syd so obsessed with keeping her neck covered?  His sister removing the sharp tools from the pegboard was another bit of detail that was played for nervous comic relief.

 

I'm also going to have to rewatch the pilot.  I think I missed so much!

[ashleylm]

Loved it.  Of course, opinions might change as episodes go forward, but at the moment it stands a rare chance to be one of my all-time faves.  Loved everything about it--the slow burn, the careful production design, the effects, the mood--and large chunks of it were filmed about 20 feet away from my office, which is very surreal!

[Latverian Diplomat]

Well, it was skillfully made, but with no real ground rules yet (maybe ever?) it could get tedious and self indulgent quickly, for me, at least.

For example, David switching back to his body, spontaneously, in front of another person who stopped to ask him something, seemed like a huge narrative cheat. "OK, we got all we could out of the body swap, now let's just have David be out of the hospital for a while."

On 2/8/2017 at 9:34 PM, Bruinsfan said:

Also, having sought treatment in a psychiatric care facility, this looked more like it was set in some vacation resort. They are not open, airy places where lots of neatly-dressed people lounge around calmly in comfy chairs.

It seemed very much like a movie/TV version of a psychiatric ward. 

I also thought it was strange that a patient checking out had to go out through the day room. Dramatically convenient, but not so practical, I think?

The group therapy scene also seemed stagey. Syd walks in, says her piece, and walks out again just like that?

On 2/9/2017 at 6:53 AM, sjohnson said:

My son once tried to get out of the car because he was afraid of the electronic bug in the dashboard. We were on the four lane, going about sixty at that moment.

 

That must have been terrifying for both of you.

I wondered why the Dr. didn't respond to Syd with "you're not here because you might be Picasso. That's fine. You're here because you might hurt yourself or others."

FWIW, they are also not doing any favors for the confusion in the general public between schizophrenia and Multiple Personality Disorder, the first of which is common, and the latter of which is so rare some psychologists think it doesn't really exist. (Some well know cases turned out to be faked in one way or another).

[TV Anonymous]

Too surrealistic for me. But it may because of first episode that takes place in mental institution. Put it in PVR and watch it when I have the chance. As of now it is in conflict with The Expanse and I do not see myself switching from there.

[Bruinsfan]

8 hours ago, Latverian Diplomat said:

I also thought it was strange that a patient checking out had to go out through the day room. Dramatically convenient, but not so practical, I think?

That part probably depends on the specific layout. The one I was in had a central nurses' station and lounge area with the men's ward, women's ward, geriatric ward, and cafeteria/front offices radiating away from it like the spokes of a wheel. Depending on when exactly you were released you might be passing by most of the patients in the lounge, unless it was a mealtime or group therapy was in session.

[AngelKitty]

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For example, David switching back to his body, spontaneously, in front of another person who stopped to ask him something, seemed like a huge narrative cheat. "OK, we got all we could out of the body swap, now let's just have David be out of the hospital for a while."

This is what confused me. How did he get back in his body? I was surprised when he arrived at his sister's and she saw him as him. I thought he was still in Syd's body.  He had her suitcase.

[planet17]

On 09/02/2017 at 5:12 PM, tanita said:

So, at the end there, how many of those characters are really just David ?

I'm kinda unfamiliar with Legion, so I'm not sure if he has like a personality disorder where each personality is a different person with a mutant power or when he meets new people he absorbs their personality so they become a port of him, one of the Legion sort of speak.

It was good, if not a bit too trippy at times. I have a headache after watching this.

Legion has multi personalities in the comics, and each one of them controls a different power.

Two of the most known of his personalities are a rebellious girl named Cindi who controls pyrokinisis and Jack, an adventurous man who control David's telekinisis. In the end of the episode, in that escape sequence we see a girl who has pyrokinisis and a man with telekinisis. We're all assuming they are part of David's mind (at least those two). Now if Syd is one of his personalities too, we don't know yet.

 

Plus, when Syd reach her arms to him in the pool, we briefly see them at the hospital, and the girl with pyrokinisis is seen as Lenny. So probably Lenny and that girl in the end are the same personality of David, just manifesting in a different way.

[shrewd.buddha]

On 2/10/2017 at 3:52 PM, Latverian Diplomat said:

For example, David switching back to his body, spontaneously, in front of another person who stopped to ask him something, seemed like a huge narrative cheat.

That really threw me, too. How was that supposed to have happened? Magic? Swapping minds is one thing. Spontaneously transforming an entire body,  clothes included,  is a whole different level of suspension of disbelief. 

[ZoloftBlob]

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That really threw me, too. How was that supposed to have happened? Magic?

No no no, that happened by *mutant powers*!

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Swapping minds is one thing. Spontaneously transforming an entire body,  clothes included,  is a whole different level of suspension of disbelief. 

If we accept the concept of mutant powers then it will work.

HOWEVER - it leads us to the question of how Syd got out of the mental hospital since if David swapped with her, then she ended up back in the mental facility in the enclosed room with no door that David was in. I am genuinely interested to see if they resolve that.

Overall I liked the pilot but it's a bit cerebral and the general audience might get tired of the show's conceit that no one really knows what's real.

[foreverevolving]

That wasn't a bad pilot at all, nice introduction to the show and what it may be about.

I was super skeptical of Dan Stevens playing the part, not because he's a bad actor but because I couldn't really picture him as David/Legion. he happily surprised me.

While I generally enjoy the general comic book based movies and shows, I like the fact that this may just end up becoming a fresh take on the whole genre. I guess it's a wait and see, but so far I think the cast is doing well, and I really like Lanny.

I wonder how long it will take them to mention David's father.

[ZoloftBlob]

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While I generally enjoy the general comic book based movies and shows, I like the fact that this may just end up becoming a fresh take on the whole genre. I guess it's a wait and see, but so far I think the cast is doing well, and I really like Lanny.

I wonder how long it will take them to mention David's father.

Without getting too deep into the comic, as its not one I read, what I do know is that David's background and origin story is already significantly different than depicted in the comics. So it may never come up. I'm also hoping they drop the MPD aspect with different personalities controlling different powers and just go with delusions and hallucinations.

I'm intrigued by the notion that the downside to David's powers is that he has no idea how to control them and they give him the appearance of being crazy, Dan Stevens is doing a good job at making David both compelling and funny. Right now my only gripe with him is that his American accent and natural hair color make him look and sound like Hugh Laurie when Laurie was playing Dr. Greg House. It was really a little eerie.

Edited February 12, 2017 by ZoloftBlob

[candle96]

Perhaps my love of Mr. Robot made me feel more comfortable with being all in from the beginning on this show. I was confused and questioning "wait, what?" throughout it, but I was intrigued. Similar to Mr. Robot, you have a completely unreliable narrator, which I'm okay with, assuming they don't pull too many "it was just a dream/hallucination" moments. For now, though, I'm okay with the mystery, rather than it just being a more straightforward superhero story. Those are fine, just not my thing.

I personally loved the weird styling/mix of eras, it gave it a very distinct feel. I think the making of the psychiatric hospital in more of 70s/early80s vibe was on purpose, because people in there are cut off from the world, and may feel like they're being left behind. The clothing and lighting being behind the times narrated that quite well, I thought. I'm a psychologist, and no, the whole thing was not accurate at all, but at this point in my career, I'm used to mental illness and mental illness treatment NEVER being portrayed accurately, so I've learned just to go with it. (Among other things, people are rarely in inpatient units for more than 1 or 2 weeks at a time. The long-term institutions are mostly gone. I won't even get started on how all psychiatrists/therapists are portrayed as either evil or incompetent.)

I guess safe to say Matthew Crawley is officially dead. I wasn't sure how I'd like Dan Stevens in this part, as I found his acting to be lacking sometimes on Downton Abbey, but he did well here. 

[ZoloftBlob]

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I wasn't sure how I'd like Dan Stevens in this part, as I found his acting to be lacking sometimes on Downton Abbey, but he did well here. 

After season one of Downton, the writing got sillier and sillier  and I thought Dan made a silk purse out of a sow's ear at times (what can you do with 'your spine is broken, oh wait now you can walk' and 'your dead fiancé's dad died and left you third in line for his fortune and the first two guys are died, which is exactly how you ended up heir to the earldom that just convienetely went broke, huh')

It was fun to see him play a sarcastic character and the scene with the noose and the aftermath of the kitchen exploding were pretty powerful.

[Cosmosgravitation]

My current theory is that everything at the mental institution took place in David's mind.  The patients are all his different personalities symbolically locked away.  When David touched Syd she took control of his body, and the patients being trapped in their rooms without doors when she was in charge shows that David is the central personality.   When David had his body again he was back in control.  The mental institution being imaginary also explains why it didn't work like a real mental institution does.  

I strongly suspect that all the other supers that rescued him are also different personalities - all their powers are actually David's.  He touched one of them at the end the episode, so we'll see if she is in control for a time.  

The military interrogator and guards were all real though, and I'm sure we'll meet more real characters along the way. 

[Bruinsfan]

Yeah, I'm fairly certain David Selby and Not!Tom Waits are real external characters rather than figments of David's imagination, as are Amy and her husband. Sydney and Jean Smart's character might be as well; that's less clear.

 

8 hours ago, candle96 said:

I'm a psychologist, and no, the whole thing was not accurate at all, but at this point in my career, I'm used to mental illness and mental illness treatment NEVER being portrayed accurately, so I've learned just to go with it. (Among other things, people are rarely in inpatient units for more than 1 or 2 weeks at a time. The long-term institutions are mostly gone. I won't even get started on how all psychiatrists/therapists are portrayed as either evil or incompetent.)

I've run into some well-meaning but ineffectual counselors in my time (and some nurses that had clearly had all their compassion burned out of them by the job), but my experiences with psychiatrists have universally been with very smart and capable people who do their best to improve their patients' lives. Hollywood's bias against mental health care really puzzles me. They can't ALL be Scientologists, right?

[Guest]

This Is one of those shows that you have to pay attention while you watch it,  And then you need to watch it again to even figure out half of what is going on.  I'm also sure that come the end of the season, watching it again will be a complexly different thing

Things I didn't notice the first time around:

- David definitely had alters during the music montage at the beginning  In the screaming at the light scene, a couple adults crowding in on him proofed out of existence.

- The room where David meets with his sister is a backwards Its a Small World After All ride where all the writing on the wall is "Welcome" in a variety of languages.

- The mental hospital is Clockworks, then cut to orange jumpsuit. I presume the instrumental was Beethoven.  snerk.

-The nurses dispensing spills were randomly gliding in a circle on a conveyor in the background at multiple points.

- Syd manifested in David's room the night before she was going to leave.  The door opened but she never walked in. 

- After the switch, Syd/David was touched skin to skin by Dr Kissinger.  So either Syd took her powers with her and somehow also managed to retain David's or that whole thing was a misdirect.  That points to anyone that does touch David with no "switch" is real.  That would make at least part of his captivity in the swimming pool facility real because a technician touched him as did the guy that left him the dog figurine.  His sister hugged him.

Too soon to know about Ms Bird, but I'm leaning towards real based on above theory.  She didn't actually interact with anyone in that last scene but David.

[Matt K]

On 2/11/2017 at 6:25 AM, AngelKitty said:

This is what confused me. How did he get back in his body? I was surprised when he arrived at his sister's and she saw him as him. I thought he was still in Syd's body.  He had her suitcase.

 

On 2/11/2017 at 7:43 PM, shrewd.buddha said:

That really threw me, too. How was that supposed to have happened? Magic? Swapping minds is one thing. Spontaneously transforming an entire body,  clothes included,  is a whole different level of suspension of disbelief. 

I wouldn't be too surprised if that wasn't real.  The one real thing we know seems to be Hamish and that whole setup in the high school (not sure about the Eye guy).  I noticed that those scenes seemd to have a more modern vibe to them as opposed to the whole "psych ward" which definitely had a more retro vibe.  I'm wondering if that inconsistency is on purpose.  I'm wondering if what we saw of the mental hospital was real.  I mean he obviously was in a facility (again assuming Hamish's character was real) but I think what we actually saw was not.  There's also inconsistencies where outside of the hospital, we only see David's point of view but in the facility, we see scenes in which David is seemingly not present. 

 

I really loved Fargo's two seasons (and I was worried about season 2 after True Detective's season 2) so I'm willing to see where this series goes. 

[candle96]

22 hours ago, Bruinsfan said:

Yeah, I'm fairly certain David Selby and Not!Tom Waits are real external characters rather than figments of David's imagination, as are Amy and her husband. Sydney and Jean Smart's character might be as well; that's less clear.

 

I've run into some well-meaning but ineffectual counselors in my time (and some nurses that had clearly had all their compassion burned out of them by the job), but my experiences with psychiatrists have universally been with very smart and capable people who do their best to improve their patients' lives. Hollywood's bias against mental health care really puzzles me. They can't ALL be Scientologists, right?

:) I don't think it's anything that malicious. It's probably mostly for the same reason legal trials and court on tv and in movies is totally inaccurate - the real thing is nowhere near as exciting or dramatic. A lot of times, therapy is pretty boring to the outside observer..

[Lantern7]

Saw it today. It was okay. While the show is mostly inspired by comics like Preacher, I feel that being familiar with the comics might inhibit the overall enjoyment. Not the lack of crazy hair, though. That would have doubled the budget. I'm okay without it.

Very trippy. No clue what is "real." I'm not a digger; I didn't get around to read forums on Westworld, so I didn't partake in fan theories. I'm just going with the flow with this show. It's going to be DVRed because It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (FXX) and Full Frontal With Samantha Bee (TBS) are bigger priorities for me.

[Nay]

Finally watched the pilot last night, both my partner and I came away saying the same thing, it felt like we just watched a Wes Anderson superhero movie.

I have never read the comics but understand the basic premise and I am enjoying what I have seen so far, I don't mind not really knowing what is going on or being unable to trust the narrative. Looking forward to where they go from here.

[Latverian Diplomat]

On 2/12/2017 at 6:38 PM, Bruinsfan said:

I've run into some well-meaning but ineffectual counselors in my time (and some nurses that had clearly had all their compassion burned out of them by the job), but my experiences with psychiatrists have universally been with very smart and capable people who do their best to improve their patients' lives. Hollywood's bias against mental health care really puzzles me. They can't ALL be Scientologists, right?

 

On 2/13/2017 at 4:41 PM, candle96 said:

:) I don't think it's anything that malicious. It's probably mostly for the same reason legal trials and court on tv and in movies is totally inaccurate - the real thing is nowhere near as exciting or dramatic. A lot of times, therapy is pretty boring to the outside observer..

In addition, I'd guess that a lot of writers learned most of what they know about mental health from other writers of books, TV, movies, etc. (as well as what they know about trials and many other examples we could come up with). Misconceptions, tropes, and audience expectations have been handed down from one creative project to the next. 

[queenanne]

On 2/10/2017 at 1:20 PM, ashleylm said:

Loved it.  Of course, opinions might change as episodes go forward, but at the moment it stands a rare chance to be one of my all-time faves.  Loved everything about it--the slow burn, the careful production design, the effects, the mood--and large chunks of it were filmed about 20 feet away from my office, which is very surreal!

 

On 2/10/2017 at 1:31 PM, ArmoPrincess said:

Freakin' LOVE this show. It's nice to see a story that doesn't assume we're morons.

Hells yeah, I've been sitting in suspense waiting to find how it all worked out ever since I saw the first half-hour of the pilot at NY ComicCon.  Granted I have to go and rewatch as it turns out I was too dazzled to internalize much of the dialogue at all, but I don't mind rewatching.  This kind of thing is right up my alley and just the type of confusion I like, trippy Day-Glo Mod retro hybrid and all.  Dan Stevens' American accent is delightful and I was not expecting that ending. 

[tennisgurl]

I finally caught this, and I thought it was really interesting. Cant wait to see the next episode, and see where this all goes from here.

Really weird seeing Dan Stevens here, being an American guy in a more modern time (as vague as that time is) and I thought he was really good. He can flip between lovable and scary and normal but troubled guy in a really believable way. Really, I enjoyed all the actors here, especially seeing a lot of people I know from random stuff pop up. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone's powers are. I love superhero stuff, so I'm glad they're doing something different with this one. More about the mind screw then the action.

I'm REALLY curious to see how much of the comic character version of David Hale/Legion gets used here, or how much they connect it to any of the other X-Men/Marvel stuff. The time period is so ambiguous (which I enjoy a lot. Its like a mixture of the 60s/70s/10s) that it could probably fit anywhere into continuity if they wanted to or had the rights to. Plus, the way the X Men movies are, continuity gaffs or general confusion can be attributed to time travel or alternate universes or some such thing.

[Bruinsfan]

Certainly a guest appearance by Patrick Stewart or James McAvoy could be a nice sweeps week event or season finale twist.

[PatternRec]

OK I'm in the middle of re-watching this one. Right around 7:40 David is having a dream. There's a lot of images shown in succession and there's a shot of him preparing to hang himself, and in the background the yellow eyed demon walks by. I took a screenshot, but if you can watch the scene again it's creepy AF in motion...