‘Legion’ May Be One Of The Most Thoughtful Stories About Mental Illness

Making a series about the X-Men is an objectively awesome idea. Making a series about Legion, Charles Xavier’s schizophrenic son who likely suffers from dissociative personality disorder and a laundry list of other mental health issues? That’s a bit more ambitious and less of a sure-fire hit. However, if early episodes of the series are any indication, FX‘s Legion may become one of the most interesting and well thought out allegories for mental health currently on television. Minor Episode 1 spoilers ahead.

For years, shows and movies have treated mental illness as a plot device to insert crazy or dramatic moments. Television in particular has gotten much better about this in recent years. Rachel Bloom’s character in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has given a face to anxiety for two seasons, Maria Bamford beautifully captures the complexities of bipolar II disorder in Lady Dynamite, and BoJack Horseman has stood as a painfully accurate portrait of depression for its three seasons. Even shows not explicitly about mental illness, such as Mr. Robot and Season Two of American Horror Story, have gotten much better at portraying their mentally ill characters as people first. Legion’s characters, especially David (Dan Stevens), continue this trend. Yes, they suffer from mental health problems, but this detail doesn’t define them as people. That’s an impressive to pull off when you start your story in a psych ward.

But more than that, Legion articulates an idea that has been central to the X-Men story since its creation: the benefits and costs of otherness. X-Men has always been a story about outsiders, mutants with confusing abilities who are shunned by the government and society at large. X-Men’s mutants have been a pop culture stand in for many marginalized groups for over years 30 years. It’s always been a story about inequality, and most of the time, it’s an inspiring story that celebrates how a marginalized group’s differences make them stronger. However, there’s another, darker side to life as a mutant: how being an outsider changes people. It’s that side of otherness that Legion explores so well.

In an interview with Decider, show creator Noah Hawley said that the central idea of the X-Men stories is “that you have a bunch of young people who have been defined by society that there’s something wrong with them because of who they are and what they can do. And then they become empowered by joining — in the case of those who go the X-Men mansion — they become empowered, and part of that is having to rewrite their past to say ‘These things have happened to me that I thought made me into someone weak but really they made me somewhat strong,’” he said.

“The best elements of the show for me are the ones where the physical power also plays into the character dynamic,” he said. In describing what this characterization looks like, Hawley focused on Rachel Keller’s character Syd, a mutant who can switch bodies with another person through skin-to-skin contact. “So, you know she has since she was a teenager gone out of the way not to touch people, and as a result has been diagnosed with an antisocial personality disorder.

“Well, that’s not actually what she has. She has the physical ability, but at the same time she does sort of have the antisocial personality disorder because she is avoiding people, and she has a negative feeling about getting too close to people,” he said. “That for me as a writer was the best part — to say this positive ability also has a downside that’s worth exploring in a more existential kind of way.”

We all know the basic X-Men story. A mutant is discriminated against (Boo), but they find a group of people who accept them (Yay!) and go on to do great things with their new family (YAY!). However, this other side, how otherness can change you to your core, how society’s treatment of a marginalized group of people can affect that group’s mental health and base understanding of themselves, is dark. If you see the characters of Legion as a marginalized group, the show hits closer to a painful and often-ignored truth about inequality’s connection to mental health and the way society dictates self-worth. That’s a powerful and shockingly relevant story to tell in today’s climate and an impressive one for a show about superheroes to tackle.

New episodes of Legion premiere on FX and FXNOW Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT.

Stream Legion on FXNOW