Long story short: I liked it a lot.

With so many of the superhero movies and shows of the past couple of years all feeling the same, it's a breath of fresh air to see Fox and Marvel work together (for a change) to give us something different.

This isn't another superhero action series, although there is a good amount of action in the premier episode. It plays out more like a psychological thriller, with the viewer seeing the world from the perspective of the paranoid schizophrenic David Haller. To call him an unreliable narrator would be an understatement. It's almost impossible to place the story in any specific time period or location, because everything we see is an amalgamation of styles from the 1970s to today.

The one piece of context we can pull from the show is that it's likely taking place in the same world as Fox's X-Men films. It's never stated explicitly, and no other characters from the franchise appear, but the aesthetic and overall tone of the episode fit right into the slightly darker and less optimistic world of the X-Films.

The only other possible appearance by an X-Books character comes in the form of "The Devil with Yellow Eyes." I won't give away who I think he really is, but long time fans of the franchise are likely to come a very similar conclusion.

I recently saw Legion episode 1 and was completely floored - this show is superb, and is definitely one of my favorite premiere TV episodes of all time. Really enjoyed the '60's rock/folk music, as well as the setting, the trippy/surreal elements, the inability (at times) to distinguish between fantasy & reality, the effects re: Legion's mutant powers, etc.

The show reminded me somewhat of the '99 movie Girl Interrupted, which was set in a mental institution in the 1960's - great film.

The female character Sydney Barrett is an obvious reference to Syd Barrett, one of the founding members of the iconic rock/pop group Pink Floyd. He was only with the group for a short time, but IIRC was very influential. Apparently, he also ended up spending some time in a mental hospital.

As has been said, the series has a very late '60's/'70's "vibe", but there is also modern technology so it's probably set now. The hairstyles (on the women, especially) seem to definitely be 1960's/early '70's influenced.

I have many of the New Mutants Classics Trades (through #7) but haven't read all of these volumes yet. I know the Legion character makes his debut in #25/26. Back in the day, I actually preferred New Mutants to the much more iconic & popular Uncanny X-men series; though I didn't follow either series that much at that time. However, I found NM to be much trippier & more interesting - primarily when Bill Sienciewicz was drawing this. Around that same time, I was also a huge fan of BS's work on Moon Knight - he's definitely one of my top ten favorite comic book artists.

I LOVE that. He was the founding creative genius of the band though he had mental issues. His drug use (including LSD, some of which was given to him without his knowledge), increased those issues till they became overwhelming and he was essentially kicked out of the group and replaced with David Gilmour. Having a character named so obviously for him, in this type of show with these types of themes, is endearing and sad. So far, I'm really enjoying how they are building up her relationship with David.

This show is trippy good. The symbolism and motifs remind me strongly of The Prisoner. The bold use of color, the music, the fuzzy distinction between reality and symbolism (even past and present), all of it is mesmerizing. And it's sad that the second episode featured more on training and/or examination of mutant abilities than any of the films (though First Class comes close).

This series was better than I expected and was equally parts creepy and trippy that made me want to keep watching. Hopefully season 2 is as high quality.

Watched the very first episode from last year:

1) THere are a lot of superhero tv shows that I want to watch, but it takes me a long time to watch TV Shows now that I am single. I chose this one because it had Aubrey Plaza (from Parks and Recreation) in it.

2) It looks beautiful. The cinematography and camera work is amazing. The spoilers death of a major character was shocking and terrible and it was all carried by the directing, not the acting. I really, really liked how it used fashions and touchstones from different eras to come off as dislocated in time to disorient the audience.

3) The opening montage to "Happy Jack" was spectacular, very funny, very sad, amazingly well directed.

4) Everything after wasn't as good as the opening montage. It was a little too serious for my superhero tastes = the opening montage was the the last decent funny scene in the whole thing - it dropped the psychadelic nature-of-reality story about halfway through for generic "The guvment is out to gET YOU" paranoia. This episode was LONG and it kept getting worse.

5) I quite liked the government interrogator guy being awkward and socially inept rather than menacing.

6) Aubrey Plaza ia a much better comedic actress than dramatic. At least so far. Other female lead = kind of boring.

7) I dunno... Reality is a construct that functions on multiple levels and there is no objective truth to our perceived experiences is, like, my jam fiction-wise. So I"ll probably keep watching. Still, ten minutes in I was convinced this would be the greatest show ever, and I left disappointed.

8) No other X-men, no connections to Marvel continuity so far. I dunno... I am both annoyed at and empowered by Marvel Easter Egg fan pandering, but I kind of missed it here.

Glad to read this was picked up for a third season!