FX's "Legion" recently premiered on Wednesday, Feb. 8, and both critics and viewers alike are praising the show for its bold take on the superhero genre. "Legion" is also one of the first TV shows to be linked to the live-action X-Men film franchise.

According to Polygon, FX's "Legion" is "a terrifying funhouse that redefines what a Marvel show can be." While there are rare scenes that make "Legion" feel "like an extended branch of the X-Men family," those moments are few and far between.

Since "Legion" has connections to the X-Men films, "there are government agents who want to control and abolish mutants, a school for gifted individuals, and the identity crisis that most of Marvel's most famous mutants have to come to terms with." However, "Legion" doesn't out the spotlight on its connection to mutants. Instead, the show focuses on a "more important theme: mental illness."

Dan Stevens plays David Haller, the main character of the show "Legion." David "has lived in a mental institution for most of his adult life after suffering from visual and auditory hallucinations." He is diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, and aside from his sister, his entire family abandons him. David accepts his diagnosis and calls himself "crazy."

Despite being resigned to his fate, David still thinks that there's more to his condition than the doctors understand. When he's angry, objects levitate and sometimes, "people get hurt." When he encounters another mental patient called Syd Barrett (Rachel Keller), he starts to think that the voices in his head could be real.

Following this encounter, David "is brought to a school where he can learn to harness those abilities." Via a "self-discovery process," Haller also finds out that while there are good people like his new teacher, Melanie Bird (Jean Smart) "who want to help him control his abilities and use them for good," there are also government agents "who would prefer he act as a weapon for their army."

Noah Hawley, "Legion's" showrunner, uses the show to focus on David's response "to what's happening around him instead of the obvious mutant angle." "Legion" doesn't tackle "misguided, extraordinary beings who come together to save the world from surefire devastation," it's a show about "one man's ability to cope with the illness he's been given, learning how to navigate relationships that put people first instead of their illnesses."

"Legion" has raised the stakes "for the entire superhero genre," per The Verge. David's story isn't in the same group as the other Marvel shows on Netflix, "but the creative energy and inventiveness Noah Hawley has brought to the show makes it a singular experience, unlike anything else on television today."