Every Friday, I let you know the latest announcements about when new, imported TV shows will finally be arriving on UK screens – assuming anyone’s bought anything, of course.
Not much new this week. In fact there’s only one show and I’ve never even heard of it or its subject, and I didn’t even know the UK network it’s airing on existed. So there you go. Surprise!
The New Edition Story (US: BET; UK: BET International)
Thursday, March 2, 9pm
Reviews: Nope
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In the US: Wednesdays, 10pm ET/PT, FX
In the UK: Thursdays, 9pm, Fox UK
Legion, FX’s new superhero show based on a Marvel X-Men comic of the same name, has one big problem: it’s a superhero show based on a Marvel X-Men comic of the same name. Were it not for that singular problem, the show would be able to avoid some of the now colossally well worn tropes of that ‘universe’ and be able to plough its own wonderful furrow unfettered. Instead, despite its majestic wildness, psychedelic directorial vision, and focus on the psychological and just plain old insane, and despite also foregoing much of the original source material, Legion still has to have mutants at war with the government, exploring their abilities, feeling oppressed, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Other than that, though, Legion is really a joy to behold, although the degree of joy depends on how much show creator Noah Hawley (Fargo) is involved in it. Episode one, which was both written by and directed by Hawley, is absolutely amazing, a mind-bending, reality warping piece of 70s-style trippiness. Since then, Hawley has been less involved, only writing the second episode and neither writing nor directing the third, all of which has resulting in slightly diminished returns that rely considerably on what Hawley set up in the first episode, but without innovating too much themselves.
Nevertheless, while considerably less visually inventive – although all credit to whomever thought having a little boy with a Frank Sidebottom-style paper head would be scary – and not having as strong a sense of plotting as before, Legion has remained quality viewing, effectively becoming a mystery story of the mind, as we try to work out what’s been going on in Dan Stevens’ head – and everyone hopes that if they do find out, it won’t cause him to accidentally destroy reality in some way with his amazing mental powers. Characterisation for everyone except Stevens is weak, with the show revolving almost exclusively around its titular character and his issues, and the show effectively only has two real locations, in which people mostly sit and chat a lot each week. But somehow it doesn’t really seem to matter, since the show manages to remain almost constantly fascinating, never truly revealing what’s real and what’s imagination or distortion. It’s also frequently quite frightening, as we deal with Stevens’ various internal nightmares.
I do hope that the show manages to avoid the pitfalls being part of the X-Men universe brings. But even with its superheroic problems, it’s still a great piece of weekly viewing.
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In the US: Tuesdays, 10/9c, Bravo
So it turns out that despite being about con artists and their victims, Imposters is quite nice and quite funny. The basic story is that Inbar Levi (The Last Ship) is a conwoman who gets men – and women – to fall in love with them, marries them, steals all their money with the help of her accomplices (Katherine LaNasa, Brian Benben), and then moves on to her next mark. However, over the course of the first three episodes, a group of her jilted exes (Rob Heaps, Parker Young, Marianne Rendón) slowly discover the existence of one another and like a slightly sad and broken, slightly more incompetent, but considerably more likable Magnificent Seven, they head off in pursuit of Levi in the hope of getting their money back – and maybe even Levi herself.
The show oscillates between sadness and hilarity. Episode one, which gives us sensitive Heaps’ sudden descent from bliss to despair, is suicidally miserable; episode two, on the other hand, gives us the knuckle-headed Young and the slow forging of a partnership between Young and Heaps; episode three adds Rendón and veers between melancholy and mischief, as we see how Young might have slightly greater depths and Rendón is a therapy-addicted hipster.
Imposters also has two converging but separate storylines, with Levi trying to trick her current mark, the rich, sweet but dull Aaron Douglas but thinking she might have a real relationship with the handsome Stephen Bishop instead. While Levi is having second thoughts about ‘the life’, Heaps, Young and Rendón are starting to learn the art of the con (some might already know a little about it) in order to boost their penniless existence. Eventually, they might all meet in the middle of a grey morality and be suitable for each other
Where Imposters is most interesting is its commentaries on relationships. Levi makes people fall in love with her, by giving them what they want – her marks all want to believe her. Meanwhile, when Levi genuinely wants to settle down, she can’t because she can’t stop acting and so setting off warning sirens with other people’s intuition.
But the show’s nebulous con organisation is also quite a fun invention, with episode three giving Benben a bit more to do (which is nice – you remember Dream On, don’t you?)…
…as well as introducing Uma Thurman as the organisation’s enforcer, who’ll go full Kill Bill on Levi if she gets out of line.
Imposters is at its best when it’s being slightly silly, but it’s still no shirk when it comes to dealing with the rawer aspects of the emotions. The cast are good, Levi is impressive and while it doesn’t exactly have the hard edge of a Noir, it does have a bit more of a proximity to reality than Leverage did. It’s not really doing anything that new in terms of plotting, but it’s an amusing exploration of ideas, characters and emotions nevertheless.
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