Recently, a somewhat niche but highly anticipated American drama has been launched.
The "X-Men" spin-off series created by Marvel Entertainment and Fox, the second season of "The Swarm".
Speaking of X-Men, I think everyone is no stranger. From 2000 to today, the X-Men series has launched 6 movies to entertain fans.
But unlike the currently popular MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), the X-Men copyright was sold to Fox by Marvel early on. Due to the early development of the series, there is no overall planning, the worldview is not uniform, and there are some bugs on the timeline.
Sometimes something strange pops up.
For example, the beloved Little Deadpool is also a spin-off of the X-Men series.
However, the lack of a unified worldview also gives Fox new opportunities, each sub-series, each TV series will not be constrained by the "movie universe", and can create a unique style according to the characteristics of the characters.
For example, last year's "Wolverine 3: Deadly War", the plot is set in the future of the X-Men withering, and the sad Western style hits people's hearts.
Youth to the American drama "Gifted", return to the original intention, once again explore the speculation of mutant human rights, also inspired countless resonance.
"The Swarm" is even more powerful, the creators put film expression techniques, popular music, installation art, fashion elements, color science, etc. into this fictional world, and finally presented an unprecedented audiovisual experience.
The first season was of good quality, and the second season of Douban score jumped from 8.0 to 9.1.
But aside from the occasional mention of "mutants" in the show, it's hard to define Swarm as a superhero series because there's no tight uniform or save the world.
It's more like an unbridled experiment, with frequent surrealist visual symbols; rapid editing of dreams, reality, and illusions intertwined; and auditory-like sound effects that make the already complex plot even more brain-burning.
These unique styles in the comic book series all originate from the self-creation of Noah Holly, who is also the producer of another "divine drama" "Ice Storm".
In his view, "The Swarm" is not just a superhero story, but more like a strange journey to find identity in memory fragments.
The show is set in a parallel universe that is neither realistic nor X-Men universe.
A large group in the comics
The protagonist, David Holler, is the son of Professor X, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia + schizophrenia at a very young age, and spent most of his life in and out of a mental hospital, but ordinary doctors regarded it as a disease.
But in fact, his split personality is his mutant ability, and each of his personalities has a ability or trait, hence the name "large group". The film is played by Dan Stevens.
Dan Stevens became popular for playing the "big cousin" in "Downton Abbey" and also received a nickname.
The eldest cousin who graduated from Cambridge was born in England, and a number of British male gods are friends with each other, and last year he also starred in the hit film "Beauty and the Beast", and the upward momentum of his career is quite strong.
Heroine Sid Barrett is played by Rachel Keller. She is also a mutant whose ability is to exchange bodies with each other through physical contact, so she has always avoided physical contact with other people.
Because she never had contact with people, she was also imprisoned in a mental hospital as a "mental illness" and became a patient with a large group.
Actress Rachel Keller has starred in the second season of "Ice Storm", and this time it is considered to be a second cooperation with the producer.
The crazy actress Lenny Basque is played by O'Brie Praza, a music-loving girl who is a real "madman" and one of the few good friends in the group.
However, in the first episode, she was killed by a large group of accidentally erupting superpowers, but after that, she frequently appeared through illusions or flashbacks.
In the play, O'Brie Praza, who pretends to be crazy and stupid, is a big beauty in life, and has been selected as one of the world's 99 sexy actresses by foreign media. The subversive performance in "The Swarm" is very admirable.
At the beginning of the first episode, accompanied by the British rock band The Who's "happy jack", a series of montages show David's growth from a harmless baby, to a well-behaved child, to a rebellious and manic teenager.
The montage ends with David preparing to end his life with a wire, but the sparks from the wires turn into the candles of birthday candles, and the scene comes to one of the important scenes in the series - David's "Clockwork Mental Hospital".
The opening director's series of fierce operations set the tone for the whole play. Fantasy, dreams, and reality are constantly interspersed, and the tone of the picture also changes, which is very suitable for David's schizophrenic temperament.
Clockwork Psychiatric Hospital, a little homage to the flavor of "Clockwork Orange"
The first season is mainly about the struggle between David and the "Shadow King", who is also a powerful mutant, who was originally David's biological father, the enemy of Professor X, and after Professor X defeated him, the Shadow King's mind escaped from the flesh in a vain attempt to parasitize Professor X. Because his son David has the potential to become the strongest mutant, in order to prevent David from being parasitized by the Shadow King, Professor X gives David to an ordinary couple for adoption.
However, the Shadow King still sneaks into David's body, using David's mutant abilities to become stronger. It was his presence that caused David's mental instability and influenced the way David perceived reality.
The movie king in the play appears in various physical forms, such as David's dog when he was a child, "Angry Boy", David's addicted friend, and "Yellow-Eyed Demon".
Some unexpected musical clips also add a lot to the film, david in a dream with the patients in the mental hospital to dance a Bollywood style dance, the soundtrack is french singer Serge Gansbour's "pauvre lola", quite magical.
After the absolute superiority of the shadow king incarnated as Lenny, there is also a clip that resembles the opening silhouette of 007, where Lenny shows arrogance in jazz-style music.
Most jaw-dropping was Lenny's battle with members of the mutant organization Summer Island, which turned into a black-and-white silent film style when Polly dew sounded.
In the episode, you can also see the shadow of many masters and classic elements. Shadow King incarnates the "Angry Boy" and "Yellow-Eyed Demon" to escape the monsters that came out of David Lynch's Twin Peaks.
The huge eyes that appear on the walls of David's old house have the eerie atmosphere of the surrealist Dalí's work, just like the dreams in Hitchcock's thriller "Doctor Edward".
The play also clearly states that Professor X is David's biological father, which is really gratifying to X-Men fans.
Chalk drawing shows Professor X against Shadow King
The tone of the whole series is like David's personality, even reckless, but at the same time, it does not lack a heartless sense of humor and hope and expectation for life.
Watching the first episode at first may feel a little cluttered and confused, but when you watch it slowly, you will be immersed in this carefully arranged "brainstorming" and can't extricate yourself.