So, I know a lot of us heard about the body swap element in the new FX show, Legion. In fact, it served as a central element in one of the promos for the show. I haven’t been so excited for a show’s premiere in a long, long time and even raced home from a social engagement to make sure I got to watch it live.
The TG element of the first was promising, but not awesome. I love the girl that he gets placed inside, and the whole thing was set up nicely because he is in love with her, and they have a relationship, and then he suddenly becomes her, and he is just kind of freaked out and wanders off into the city.
We get to see him check himself out in a mirror, touch his new boobs, but not much else. There is a trippy scene where he has all these flashbacks to being a boy, and his mom calling him her little boy, and it contrasts nicely with him now this pretty blonde woman, and sugggests ways in which the switch may be impacting his sense of self. However, before really having to deal with his new body and gender at all, her just suddenly pops back into his own body and goes on with his life.
As for the series, the body swapping character, Syd Barret, remains in the show, and the two of them continue to have a relationship. It seems very likely there could be further explorations between the two, and that as she learns to control her power she may do swaps with other people. As it is, she projects into his mind and influences his thoughts and memory, and we get a nice role-reversal where she comes and rescues him after he has been captured.
In addition, Aubrey Plaza plays a very butch character named Lenny who seems like she may have some gender issues of her own.
So, I think this show is going to have lots more to say about gender fluidity, and will have additional body swaps as well. Best of all, it is a really interesting show in its own right, and is great to watch, so it isn’t like one of these TV shows or movies where you have to suffer between the TG moments.
It should be interesting, and I can’t wait for the fanfic to get going!
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