Legion: What I Liked and Disliked

 Things I liked about Legion:

1. Lennie (Aubrey Plaza)-Though I was confused and ended up being wrong about the nature of her character.

2. David (Dan Stevens).  I liked the character and the performance.  I like stories that explore interactions between the supernatural and mental health.

3. The Shadow King (Navid Negahban).  I once saw or read this thing about how the character spoke in different languages, but it wasn't random.  The choice of language corresponded with the mood/content.

4. That it led me down a Jemaine Clement rabbit whole...which really has been a long and winding path.  

5. The sushi conveyor belt restaurant...but it's not sushi.  It's breakfast.  That was awesome.  

Actually, was it a conveyer belt?  Or was it a boat thing?  Either way.  Fantastic.  

6. The cover songs by Noah Hawley and Jeff Russo. I don't think I've ever known of a show's creator to do the singing for a show.  I think it's pretty cool.  My favorite song is probably "Behind Blue Eyes", though the other day I was walking around the house singing "I am Superman".  I only knew that one line, so I was being quite repetitive.  

There were also a few days where I was into "Change the World".

And I love Rachel Keller's cover of "Road to Nowhere".

I pretty much love most of the songs, really.  

Things I did not like about Legion:

1. I was a little too confused at times.

2. The child-rape entrapment storyline. I was horrified by this and almost quit watching.  I'm actually not sure why we continued.  Maybe curiosity?  Or a hope that things would be eventually resolved in a way that made me feel less horrified.

3. The erasure of the Jewishness of the Holocaust.  

If I had watched Legion before I saw the antisemitic comments on the Instagram post about the Jewishness of Marvel being diminished, I would have probably felt slightly stung but mostly okay.  Because back then I was very much into the idea that lessons of the Holocaust should expand beyond antisemitism*

If I had watched Legion before October 7, I would have been annoyed...maybe a little angry.

Because we had watched Legion after October 7 and during the time that being-antisemitic was rising in popularity, I was disgusted and sad.

To be fair, Legion was made way before October 7. So I don't blame the creators. I'm sure there are things I've said and done before October 7 that haven't aged well.  I hope, though, that if given the opportunity, the creators will make better choices in the future.  Even better...I hope the creators will create the opportunities.

I do wonder if they made David's mother a Gypsy victim of the Holocaust, because they didn't want a storyline involving a Muslim/Arab abusing a Jew.  

Well...I just Googled to see if my anger was unfair and unwarranted.  And now I'm even more angry.

I was thinking maybe David's mother was a Gypsy in the comics and Noah Hawley was simply sticking to the source material.

But no.

According to this Marvel fansite, not only is Gabrielle Haller a Holocaust survivor, but she was also the ambassador of Israel to the UK.

There really IS a lot of Jewishness in the Marvel universe.

Shit.  I'm mad.

Here I've been the last few weeks wondering how Disney can help make things better for Jews by making a Jewish princess....or the equivalent.  

Something from the Torah?  Probably not.

Something like Turning Red but a Jewish story?  Maybe.

A Golem story?  Maybe.  And fun to imagine how it will trigger antisemitic Minecrafters. 

Something futuristic like Big Hero Six taking place in a peaceful Israel/Palestine with a mix of Palestinian and Jewish characters?  Yeah. That would be cool. 

But now I'm really seeing how Disney has done the opposite.

They've taken very Jewish stories and diminished the Jewishness.

It's so ugly.

But they did all this before October 7 and before being-antisemitic rose so steeply in popularity.

Now Disney is torn in two different directions.  1. Do anything remotely Zionist-friendly and be the target of hatred and boycotts  2. Continue to play erase-the-Jews and piss off people like me.

There are ways, though, to piss off only the extremists on both sides and make reasonable people on both sides fairly happy.  

EDITED TO ADD:  suddenly remembered, while listening to an advertisement for a comic book store, that Disney didn’t produce Legion. So, I can be less disgruntled with them. At least for that particular case of Jewish erasure/minimization.

EDITED TO ADD (a few minutes later). Or IS Disney partly responsible?  IMDb lists Marvel Entertainment and Marvel Television as some of the production companies?  Were they fully owned by Disney in 2017? 

It’s quite confusing.  Disney acquired FX before season 3 of  Legion. So can I blame them for stuff in season 3?  I can’t remember if the Holocaust stuff happened in season 2 or 3. 

*One day hopefully I will return to believing that Holocaust-teachings should expand beyond antisemitism.  But, at this time; in this environment, I can't be that person.