FX’s two-season series The Bridge aired nearly a decade ago, a murder mystery filled with twists and intrigue, and an irresistible combination of acting talent. It’s in the league of Longmire and L.A.’s Finest, in that with so many series and networks, you may have overlooked this gem in its initial run. A story of cops at the U.S./Mexico border, unresolved crimes and out-of-control bureaucracy, it was actually a remake of a Danish/Swedish border series of the same name that has also been adapted into series in the UK, Russia, Austria, and Singapore.
Border wars may be an obvious source of conflict for good storytelling, but it’s the efforts to work together by its unlikely heroes played by Diane Kruger(National Treasure, Inglourious Basterds),Demián Bichir(The Hateful Eight, Alien: Covenant, Godzilla vs Kong),Ted Levine (Monk, The Fast and the Furious),Thomas M. Wright (The Stranger, Outsiders),Matthew Lillard (Scream, Scooby Doo), and Emily Rios(From Dusk Til Dawn, Men of a Certain Age) that makes the series an overlooked hit not to be missed. It’s streaming now on the free streaming network Freevie (formerly the iMDB TV channel) and Amazon Prime.
The first season of FX’s fringe superhero series Legion was an unexpected hit, but the sophomore season didn’t quite have the same mix of edgy, weird, and dark humor. The series, based on the comic book by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz, returns a little more than a week away for its third and final season, and FX has revealed the first look at what lies ahead. FX has also released a summary to catch up anyone who missed last season:
Legion follows lead character David Haller (Dan Stevens), a man who believed himself to be schizophrenic, only to discover that he is the most powerful mutant the world has ever seen. From childhood, David shuffled from one psychiatric institution to the next until, in his early 30s, he met and fell in love with a beautiful and troubled fellow patient named Syd Barrett (Rachel Keller). After Syd and David shared a startling encounter, he was forced to confront the shocking reality that the voices he hears and the visions he sees are actually real.
With the help of Syd and a team of specialists who also possess unique and extraordinary gifts – Ptonomy Wallace (Jeremie Harris), Kerry Loudermilk (Amber Midthunder) and Cary Loudermilk (Bill Irwin) – David unlocked a deeply suppressed truth: he had been haunted his entire life by a malicious parasite of unimaginable power. Known as The Shadow King, this malevolent creature appeared in the form of David’s friend Lenny Busker (Aubrey Plaza), but was actually an ancient being named Amahl Farouk (Navid Negahban). During an epic showdown, David managed to push Farouk out of his body and gain control of his mind. With Farouk on the loose, the team formed an unlikely alliance with their former enemy, Clark DeBussy (Hamish Linklater), and his well-funded government organization, Division 3. Unfortunately, the hunt for Farouk reawakened the dark voices in David’s head, and with them, a lust for power. At odds with everyone he once considered a friend, David enlists the help of a young mutant named Switch (Lauren Tsai) whose secret ability is key to his plans to repair the damage he caused.
That’s the story so far.
We were supposed to see even more X-Men this year. Fox’s last hoorah, The New Mutants movie based on Chris Claremont’s comic book series was slated for release in theaters later this year, but it’s been pushed again, this time to April 3, 2020. Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg is a producer on this series.
Take a look at this preview for Season 3–the final season–of Legion:
It’s interesting that 20th Century Fox is not calling the new FX channel series Legion, X-Men: Legion, although it at least is carrying the X-Men symbol as part of the title art. Netflix’s Marvel series Daredevil was already a recognizable brand, and once onboard it was easy for fans to try on the next series, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. But Legion may get lost in the shuffle of a half-dozen DC Universe series and Netflix’s cornering the market on Marvel serials. To be successful Legion will need to be good, and good enough to succeed based on word-of-mouth, just as Luke Cage was able to take off with viewers earlier this year.
Legion, as a character, hails from writer Chris Claremont and legendary comic book artist Bill Sienkiewicz from the New Mutants comic book in 1985. Legion is David Haller (played by Downton Abbey actor and the new Beauty and the Beast star Dan Stevens), the mutant son of Professor Charles Xavier. Legion is one of those superheroes who can take on others’ abilities (something like the adaptive powers of Sylar and Peter Petrelli in Heroes, the Charmed Ones in Charmed, the X-Men universe Sentinels, The Borg from Star Trek, or Doomsday). This is related to his schizophrenia or similar mental disorder–as a mutant it means each personality is tied to Haller manifesting different powers. Which means we have the foundation for what could be a pretty open-ended playground for the series writers.
Legion’s cast includes Scott Lawrence, Mackenzie Grey, Rachel Keller, Aubrey Plaza, Jean Smart, Katie Aselton, Jeremie Harris, Bill Irwin, and Amber Midthunder.
Hardly a beat is skipped before find you yourself wondering if television viewers who may be unfamiliar with Louie Anderson’s brilliant stand-up comedy realize that Zach Galifianakis’s mother on the new FX Networks series Baskets actually is being played by a man. It’s the brilliance and sincerity of Anderson’s ability to play a mother character that tells you Baskets is one darkly hilarious new series.
Galifianakis–who co-created the show and is a series writer along with comedian Louis C.K. and executive producer Jonathan Krisel (Portlandia, Saturday Night Live)–plays a very serious, committed, “classically-trained” clown named Chip Baskets, stuck now in Bakersfield as an under-appreciated rodeo clown. Galifianakis also plays the dual role of Chip’s more successful brother Dale. In the inaugural episode we follow Chip’s traumatic efforts to attend “clown college” in Paris, where the key difficulty is the simple fact that Chip doesn’t speak French, so he can only limp along trying to understand the professor’s French humor lessons. Ultimately Galifianakis plays the part for all it’s worth. He’s truly destined to be Emmett Kelly’s perpetually sad Weary Willie. Opposite Anderson as his doting mother, and Martha Kelly, who plays an infatuated Costco insurance agent who might have stepped out of the Coen Brothers’ Fargo, Galifianakis is at times both funny and oddly depressing. Baskets the Clown is real in as much as Elliot’s character is real on Mr. Robot–modern young guys stuck in a rut in every part of their lives. Yet somehow the laughs sneak through.
Sometimes they don’t just sneak through, however. Anderson explodes with humor in every scene and is a true scene stealer, whether he’s cozying up to Chip’s not-girlfriend Martha, amazed at all of the varieties of Costco’s soda water, or pondering the wonder of Arby’s curly fries. Baskets’ somewhat mail order/now estranged French wife played by Sabina Sciubba, drops Baskets the Clown (he really wants to be called Renoir the Clown) into one too many unreal, and maybe surreal, melodramas that require you to laugh along at his both hopeful and hopeless predicaments.
Despite its gratuitous gore and overall squalid setting and circumstances, the new television series Bastard Executioner pulled off a good opener last week. Bastard Executioner, in its two-hour pilot, pulls together every historical action drama archetype and bits of myths and legends to create a compelling drama in the midst of a struggle between the English and Welsh in not-so jolly old medieval England.
Fans of History Channel’s Vikings and Showtime’s Outlander as well as costume dramas like Braveheart, Rob Roy, and First Knight will all find something here of interest. Not yet as exciting as Vikings but likely to be better than Outlander, it may just be another twist on Robin Hood, but episode one gave us hope this new series will keep our interest for a while.
It would seem an entire season’s worth of activity transpired in the first two-hour episode with an entire story arc begun and ended already. A village is decimated and the avengers have sought–and gained–revenge on those that caused it. The man we first believe to be the “bastard executioner” of the title in fact isn’t, sending the viewer’s notions of what this series will be about into a tailspin. Instead, a mysterious Man With No Name type hero is thrust into the service of those that destroyed his wife, unborn child, and their village. The producers’ grasp of time and place, quick plotting, and surprising twists mean we will be back for more next week.
The brutality is every bit real even if it is a bit in-your-face. Yet as bloody and violent as you could imagine, graphic and at times gory, some sense of purpose comes through for the stories’ heroes. Loyalty, bravery, injustice, the faithful and the faithless, noble heroes and loathsome villains all can be found here. Look for Katey Sagal (Lost, Married With Children) as the elder, mystical, witch-healer Annora, in what could prove to be an Emmy-worthy role.
