Note: This article contains light spoilers.

Clarity and concision are the key to most successful TV pilots. After setting the scene and introducing the central characters as quickly and memorably as possible, the writers must launch into a plot compelling enough to hook viewers. But since FX’s superhero drama “Legion” prides itself on being the kind of show that isn’t afraid to be confusing, its series premiere opens with a sort of overture. “Happy Jack” by the Who scores a montage of slow-motion scenes from a man’s life, from birth to juvenile delinquency to a suicide attempt.

The man turns out to be the show’s hero, David Haller, an apparently schizophrenic mental patient played by Dan Stevens. Juxtaposed with increasingly alarming moments from David’s childhood, from winning sports trophies to setting the chemistry lab on fire, “Happy Jack” takes on a darker resonance, too. In the song, Jack is relentlessly tormented by children, but those pint-sized harassers can’t spoil his good mood. Because of his telekinetic powers, which may be delusions, David is almost physically invulnerable. The irony is, rather than keeping him happy, his abilities only bring him misery.

Beyond the cleverness of the sync, this opening sequence signals that music will be an integral part of “Legion.” Louder in the mix than the ambient sounds in scenes from David’s past, the song essentially transforms the montage of bright colors and dreamlike images into a music video. The mood of the intro makes a bigger impression than the content. And that’s the point. “The show is a little surreal,” creator Noah Hawley (“Fargo”) explained in an interview, “and sometimes the shortest distance between two points is yellow.”

"Legion” is, in other words, a psychedelic TV show. Its bright color palette and deceptively loose structure recall ’60s cult classics like 2001: A Space Oddity and the films of Kenneth Anger. David’s love interest, a fellow patient at the Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital who urges him to embrace his powers, is named Syd Barrett, after Pink Floyd’s original frontman (not to mention a LSD enthusiast and probable schizophrenic). Music supervisor Maggie Phillips (“Fargo,” Ingrid Goes West) wisely exercised restraint in waiting until the season one finale to cue up Floyd’s “Breathe (In the Air)” and “On the Run,” opening the show with trippy, retro rock tracks by the Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, and Jane’s Addiction instead. But her syncs have become much more diverse—and daring—in the show’s current second season, which finds a more rational David literally entering the minds of the people around him.