Legion Explained: Symbolism & Visual Storytelling
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- Опубліковано 20 кві 2017
- We explore how FX's Legion uses visual storytelling techniques and symbolism to give us a window into David Haller's mind. As the Marvel character struggles to distinguish his mutant powers from insanity, the show uses creative camera, sound, editing and lighting to express what he's feeling and how he perceives the world. Buy or rent Legion on Amazon: amzn.to/2oXPHBY
Correction: Narrated by Simon Garrett. (Garrett was incorrectly credited for camerawork.)
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And it cant be stressed enough how excellent was acting on the show, by Dan Stevens especially. Not to mention songs selection for the soundtrack.
vgotnofingers For my money, Dan Stevens perfectly embodied what a functional sufferer of mental illness actually acts like. And yeah, any soundtrack that includes The Who's "Happy Jack" for an opening, The Stones' "She's Like A Rainbow" and a cover of Bowie's "Oh, You Pretty Things!" is aces in my book.
@Jonathan Bell Flight of the Conchords. Feel old yet? Check out the season 2 sountrock, it's pure diamond.
I cry everytime I hear Bon Iver's "It might be over soon" at the start of S02E04. Everything is so carefully crafted around that song, it's really a piece of art.
It's almost like he knows me.
The soundtrack and audio effects were phenomenal.
.the sequences in the beginning of each episode really got me. That social contagion sequence was ridiculous 😊
I was not prepared for how great this show would be
Me too, Bitch. Me too.
I cried on the last episode
Right?
I was not prepared for how much this show sucks. It was so annoying and boring and pseudointellectual crap. Biggest waste of time in my life.
@@FatManJackson ok go watch fast and furious 17
One of the best tv series I've seen in a long time, truly cinematic and visually stunning
Fraga Movies you said it
Fraga Movies This generation's The Prisoner...look that one up if you're confused.
Good but isnt on my top 10
the MOST original show in a long time. One of the only shows that actually gave me anxiety viewing it. Bravo to the storyboard and to the special effects crew. Fucking brilliant!!
Thank you for your input don't need to watch it. Your cool thanks for the heads up🙏🧘👁️✌️💖
@@carlosferguson6119 ????? youtube is full of idiots holy shit
Legion really show what living in our heads can really be like and how the mind functions on it's own without any logic and the concept of time etc. Legion truly is a pshycological masterpiece.
How to correctly make a superhero tv series
Olivia Petersen Agreed, everything else they do is a copy and paste.
Olivia Petersen Yeah, but it's difficult to do this with other superhero TV series because most superheroes don't have David's powers or problems.
I hope with the New Mutants moví coming out next year, that they'll do something stunning like Legion
Archangeldawn Unfortunately, you'll have to wait until next year since there are delays for New Mutants.
Archangeldawn they stopped production for that movie lmao
This show is fucking brilliant
This is quite possibly the greatest Tv show/movie I have ever scene. Yes I am a fan but Legion mixes many elements that I love do much that I have never scene mixed together so well. Pink Floyd, Kubrick style, acid trip, TVMA, non-spoon fed predictable MCU crap......
You're in good company!
Isn't it AmAyzeen? Totally underrated.
yes dude!
Frustrates me to no end that people slammed this show for not making any sense just because it doesn't spoon feed through dialogue. If people could just stay off their goddamn phones for 5 minutes and actually submerge themselves in what they watch, this show would have been hailed as the greatest superhero property since The Dark Knight.
That's OK though, I'm sure those people loved Iron Fist *yacks*
Yes!! I 100% agree. Legion was so rich and visually stunning.
Good god Iron Fist was awful! The only reason I finished that putrid and puerile show was because I kept telling myself, "this can't get worse, right?" It did.
It's all subjective mate. Let it go, dude. It's not about being spoon-feed through dialogue. And actually, people on average spend less than a minute on their phones every 30 minutes. Don't make excuses for other people's subjective opinions. It's weak and shallow for someone to make excuses for other people's opinions like you are doing right now. It's pathetic.
Legion is a very unconventional show, so its definitely fair that some people won't quite gravitate towards it and or even enjoy it. Just because you thoroughly enjoyed it, doesn't mean that if someone else doesn't that they're somehow flawed. And for the record, no one enjoyed Iron Fist lmao
Well said
you can actually enjoy both!! :) but of course legion is a master piece that is above most of the comic books adaptations
This is a nice break from Marvel's predictability
I consider myself an interactive watcher. I engage with what I see, I process it, and I interpret it. This show is so non-linear, and highly visual rather than expositional... that it went beyond my skills. now of course I picked up on the themes like identity and questioning reality and the more philosophical things... But I couldn't get some of the visual clues like red and blue lighting or the one that bugged me is the cinematic bars (like, it was annoying me because I couldn't figure out why they kept switching back and forth). It's meant to be a jumbled mess, and looking at it now I get why... it's the way our memories are. but my goodness is it hard to watch.
lol this sounds like copypasta
Yes, ok, but what still haunts me to this day is, what does color Yellow stand for?!? Any help?
Happened to me . But i loved the show
Normaly i dont like psycho movies or episodes - but this is art and intelligent. Its like "lets do every movie-visual-technic/style ever made and put it into the series". Not only psychodelic scenece without meaing - everything was meaningfull.
Mathias Krill If you liked this, I recommend you track down Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner series. You can draw a straight line between the two.
Brilliant analysis for a brilliant show...
I just finished binging the show for the first time (very confusing for a short while, when watching Moon Knight at the same time), and I can safely say I've never seen a show like this. Nearly every episode is like a wild acid trip. The way this show incorporates music into scenes is nothing short of amazing. From the beautiful fight in the astral plane, while David's singing Behind Blue Eyes, the very touching rendition of Pink Floyd's Mother by David and his mother, and The Beta Band's Squares in the scene involving the creepy time eaters. The music in Legion was its own separate character, and tied the whole series together.
I was thankful for continuing to watch the show. The first minutes I was like, what, but it kept me more than intrigued, especially because I'm a visual person. The more I watched, the more I understood and liked it. Unconventional storytelling that is very refreshing from the standard things we're too used to see and expect - and are explained to us too easily.
The letterbox format also signifies danger. The show changes to the letterbox format when there's a threat or right before something bad happens. Like how in the first episode, there's letterbox when David thinks he's in danger when Ptonomy and Kerry are chasing him.
KingOfMadCows Also that format expands as we track his downward spiral to the tune of "Happy Jack" in the opening.
I first noticed the red in David’s kitchen and the chairs in his psychiatrist’s office. It stood out and let me know that something was amiss- that I needed to pay attention to to what was happening. It’s not just red and blue that play a role, but orange, green, white, grey, and brown do as well. This show is similar to Westworld, it challenges the viewer; but ultimately the reward is so much more rewarding for it.
YES!
Definitely my favourite comic book tv show of all time. It saddens me that it didn't get more public recognition than it did, but after watching the ending of the final season, I have realized that it got the perfect amount of hype. It didn't become bloated with popularity and too overhyped for its own good (like, say, with Supernatural or Stranger Things which both have overstayed their welcome in my opinion). It ended on its own terms and told the story it wanted to tell. Even though I am left wanting more. I am so happy to have watched Legion and I would gladly watch it again - to be able to see it all in a new light with all of this amazing film language that I missed the first time around. Noah Hawley really gave us a masterpiece here that can be enjoyed for years to come.
forgot to mention the various nods it does to Kubrick's work.
I really like the show and I think the only show that I can look at multiple times and still learn something new. Looking at the show they really make you think what is going on.
And all the symbolism and hidden stuff in the background
Amazing analysis!
First I was like "Does it really need explaining?" Then I was like "Oh, this is so cool, I never noticed"
StarCrusher Given how warped the story landscape was from beginning to end? A LITTLE explanation wouldn't hurt.
same StarCrusher, I had noticed the lighting changes but I only associated the red with the monster, not the blue with David.
If you familiarise yourself with the work of Gustav Jung and the concept of the "Shadow" you can greatly appreciate the meaning of what's happening. I doubt it's any coincidence the 'villain' in the show is called "The Shadow King" and represented in the way that it is. It's genius, the symbolism is fantastic with a very unique sense of humour mixed with the sometimes quite disturbing.
I'm about to rewatch the show again (after seeing it once and watching a few videos like this) - I'm excited to watch it in a whole new light now! This show is remarkably done in every way!
The adherence towards simply evaluating and analyzing the cinematic value and auteurship of the content at hand within this video is just impeccable. Bravo.
This video made me start watching the show.I finished watching all of the episodes and it's way way better than I thought it was going to be(and I thought it was gonna be great).One of a kind show
This show scares me, and I love it.
You should try to analyse the film Logan. Because I think there is so much to talk about in this film.
- Maybe the Art of Character Studies
- Maybe to show that it's okay to have a story about an ending
- Maybe how Music creates a narrative
- Maybe how the environment reflects the mood and the character development on Logan. From the desolate, dry Mexican border representing the bitter, cantankerous, grizzled on man to the green, bright, Canadian border representing that there is still hope that Logan gave for the kids.
I may ask for too much, but please put that as a consideration.
Wow! What an amazing anylsis. I like superheroes, but this is just beyond the traditional tropes we tend to see in show (apart from Agents of Shield or Gotham). I really love your channel.
I also really liked how you said Legion challenges us to look at our own realities as less fixed than they seem. It's something I've thought about a lot but no other analysis had mentioned
After such a brilliant take on Legion, I *really* want to see the ScreenPrism crew work its magic on the similarly mind-bending, eye-popping American Gods TV series.
Very well done explanation!
I didn't observed that much on music, colour that's now I appreciate more thanks to you
Best analysis I've seen on YT good show.
Had a stroke in 2017 which caused extensive brain damage, and for several months I had difficulty distinguishing dreams, memories, reality and hallucinations (still do sometimes), and I can confirm that this series does a fantastic job of portraying the subjective experience of viewing reality through a shattered kaleidoscope.
I agree that blue represents calm, but I disagree about it representing clarity or the true self. I think Oliver's ice cube was symbolic of him being an alcoholic, and like David with his blue vapor. They both used substance abuse to keep them calm and to avoid their trauma. Trauma symbolized by Farouk. As Oliver tells David "your monster can't get you in here."
I also don't think red represents fear, i think yellow is used to represent fear. Hence the Devil with Yellow Eyes. Scenes with fear seem to have more yellow than red.
I also think the color green is used to represent something like watching or surveillance. Walter AKA "The Eye" wore all green. David's sister, Amy, pretty much always wore green. In Clockworks there's the man hidden in all the green plants who I think is supposed to represent that David is being watched perhaps by Division 3 but maybe just by the hospital workers themselves. In season 2 in the episode where David is observing Syd's life he's wearing a green tshirt, and in the multiverse episode he's wearing all green in pretty much all the times when he's heavily medicated. Perhaps because he's just watching his own life rather than really being a part of it.
nicely explained. was this video done for a university class? this is the next level of visual story telling..kudos to the creators. and I thought the movie Inception was seminal.
the last episode of season 2, starts playing the song "Behind Blue Eyes"
It was so cheesy..
we all have red and blue....which makes us 3D... odd, but true
I was thinking about the scene in episode 1 when they kiss and his power is transferred to Syd. The TV scene of all his memories on a summer meadow could imply he can see time differently and can enter each 'memory' and live it again. Think Arrival, Interstellar or Slaughterhouse 5... The analogy I find easiest is seeing a painting of all your experiences and choosing one to look at and enter to live it.
I love this. I feel so respected when people put so much effort into their work like this. So much was done in this show Soo deep. I live it I love and appreciate this art work.
ScreenPrism, thanks for explaining this, it makes more sense now. If only I had understood this when watching it.
Excellent analysis, one of the greatest show I've seen in a long time. Nothing else like it.
One of the best channels on UA-cam.
Well done!!
The best scene is when he was sent a message from Sydney in his dream/memory. Yes, someone is communicating with him through his dream/memory for him to take action now.
I love this series! Please make them ALL on bluray! 😍
The story telling in this is mind blowing! Very underrated.
legion is the most underrated and unknown masterpiece...its just...fking .....i dont hae words for it...i have never seen anythin like it....camera work...perfect....musical stuff...perfect...mindfuck...perfect...its absolutly brilliant ....theres been god shit on TV ...but legion is just another league...yo ucant compare it to other good stuff bcuz its just....mindblowing
The mental power I consume to watch one episode of this show is equivalent to what I spend picturing abstract math concepts. Sometimes I had to pause and think. Beyond fiction, existentialism is one of its major themes.
What a fantastic breakdown.
And his bedside lamp from his bedroom as a boy and the table and ceiling when he's in the interrogation room are in the shape of coded mask lenses which are used on x-ray telescopes which are actually used in astronomy to see stars in a different viewing way than regular telescopes which he also has and looks through in a scene
Please make another video about Legion, including all three seasons.
amazing, thank you so much!
Good video! It deserves to be loved...
This show sets a new bar as to what we should demand our comic to film to be. This is what is and could be from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Excellent video
such a brilliant video
and serirs is amazing. too
BEST SHOW OUT RIGHT NOW BY FAR.
Damn, I never noticed the blue/red light meanings. I feel like it'd be like going down a rabbit hole trying to pick apart all the hidden symbols and meanings of the show, like the lights for instance.
Fabulous show...
The blue light thing is handy to know for season 2 😉
Thank you for helping me notice the usage of color which was apparently in plain sight and obvious but I was rather oblivious to that matter great video!
never noticed about the colors and what was on control
this show has an artistic direction... so deep, so rich
and even if i know comics and mutants the insense Cary-Kerry being/thing/power/whatever drived me nuts
Are you a professor of film? Amazing work. Keep it up.
I have loved this show since the first episode, but I suffer from "can't figure it out" syndrome for which I pray for a cure every time I watch the show!! I follow most of it, but it really appears to be a look into the mind of an Acid user! I will watch it to the end, and maybe watch it over again to gain better understanding. Thanks for the attempt to help me figure it out, but my brain is old and doesn't work as well as it use to so It takes me longer to figure it out!
thank god for videos like this. i'm too fucking stupid to fully understand this show.
This show is visually stunning
awesome!
one of the best shows on tv. how about that ending. Legion is born....sorry david but you're one of many....idk i can't wait to see where it all goes
This show is very awesome!
We need a video of the whole series and finale explained
I love the narrator.
so accually all the effects in some episodes and the illusions is on david's mind on the way he see's the world
brilliant
Logan and legion are both so damn amazing and i am so happy they exist, but at the same time it makes me really sad that especially legion is widely underappreciated
Whats logan? Is it a series thays similar?
@@undoctrinati0n it's a movie set in the wolverine (Logan)'s twilight years. Excellent movie
And it's also suggested that even though he wants to be free of the shadow king it's that what inevitably helps him stay safe and helps him escape the confines and shackles placed on him by the society he lives in and what gives him his freedom from the governments mentle prison. So it's also about a war in himself of knowing what he actually wants. Stability and control or madness and unlimited power
This and Watchmen really made me like comic book series. It is beyond excellent.
After David Lynch. Noah hallyway is great surrealistic director
I just can’t get over how confusing this show is…. Like I remember I watched it when it first came out and I’ve rewatched it several times since then and I just still can’t make heads or tails of it….. like I don’t remember every little detail of the show but at one point a mouse comes on screen and dances to a song or something like that….. like what is that?! 😂 I’m just so confused at all times but I really really like the show though. Super good and interesting which is why I keep rewatching it. I just now thought to look online to see if maybe someone could make heads or tails of the whole mess for me. 😂
i fucking love this show. can't wait for season 2.
Its not just red and blue, and blue isn't necessarily his 'truest' self.
looks interesting
It is hats-off, The best show ever made, It's even better than the Punisher and Daredevil. I never thought that it would be so good.
L E G I ⊗ N - лучшее, что я видел за 35 лет! А видел я многое, и ооочень придирчев))
we also see it in season 2, while david's astral room is a white room oliver's/ferouk's is a idealistic mansion. showing us not only hte status but the more control that ferouk has
I think it might be possible this entire series and all the characters are in Davids consciousness. Maybe even froze in the astral plane right before David Hangs himself at the beginning, and Xavier is trying to save him before he strangles...
Jay Wiegs Close to my own theory, actually. The main point of difference is Dear Old Dad is nowhere around. David's fragmented mind is sorting the pieces out by itself.
Legion is Omega-level mutant. God-like.
to add to previous comments, YES this show is fucking amazing. At least Atlanta got credit recently. also a great show.
Great vid, imo. I am gonna pay closer attention next time.
I don't think blue is more authentic, though, because David lies pretty consistently. But idk. Guess I'll just have to watch it again. 😏
This series is like a seven layer 🎂. It's good with every experience. But I admit this show appeals to me on a serious mental level and Wes Anderson appreciation.
I always wondered what the comic book version of Legion was going through mentally as he came off as completely crazy... I wish they had gave the actor his hair style though (nitpick)
This video triggered some of the shit my brain has put me through since i was a young child and the main reason why I'm on anti psychotics right this moment , anti depressants and mood stabilizers
I just finished the second season, many of the elements carried from the first made their way into the second, but some of them (particularly the red and blue colors) just gained a whole different meaning. Geez, I'm still bumped for that season ending :"/
i watch a loooooooot of shows and to be honest, none of them stood out to me as much as legion does
Diminished reality and nuro linguistic programming are the whole crux of the show I think the mutant thing is just a side note to the story in general
THIS SHOW IS ART, TO SHOW WHAT THE HUMAN MIND CAN DO
Whoa... A male narrator. Nice way to emphasize that this channel is about great takes on the Arts that happened to be written by women, but not necessarily always through the lens of women's issues.
By the way--I think you guys' take on Twin Peaks is one of the best out there!
This wasn't always romcoms and mean girl tropes. They used to do actual meaningful content. Now it's just shallow girl power silliness
You should do mr robot. Fucking love that show
Change your settings to newest comments first on the right side and you see all my comments breakdowns
This show requires us to redefine the very notion of an Unreliable Narrator. While the standard of what unreliable means is seen not only in every episode but several times in every episode, we are seeing the world through the eyes of character that is thought to be insane. He isn't, as we know, but he is Hamlet, but his mind has become unmade at the "hands" of another. Is he unreliable? Or is this just the limited means in which he can communicate to those that cannot comprehend his understanding of reality? Overall, this show suggests more Phillip K. Dick than Marvel.
He is definitely insane..