Marvel’s Inhumans has been on my list to review for a while now but honestly cannot bring myself to sit through the first episode. Everything I’ve seen from this series has looked terrible, from the effects and production to acting and premise. Best case scenario Iwan Rheon is amazing and makes the show worth watching but I highly doubt even stellar performances from the actors can save this show.
I think in part I’ve been put off by the fickle development of Marvel’s Inhumans. Initially it was intended to be a phase three film in the MCU, then that was scrapped and after a while in limbo there was talk of a television show. Instead of a tv show proper, the Inhumans group was integrated into Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Since Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had improved since its initial season and the Inhumans story seemed to help connect the show to the wider MCU , there seemed to be a renewed interest of Inhumans at Marvel. But what they’ve put together just looks so cheap and I can’t help but feel that if there had been a more focused and dedicated development I’d be more interested. If anyone has watched the series and thinks it’s better than it looks, let me know and maybe I can be convinced to give it a chance.
Instead I have watched The Gifted, another superhero television drama that premiered this September. The Gifted isn’t part of the MCU because it concerns the X-Men expanded universe which is owned by Fox rather than Marvel Entertainment. It also doesn’t concern the X-Men team itself, being set some interterminal time after the X-Men have all but disappeared. The government are actively tracking and arresting mutants. One member of the government involved in prosecuting said mutants is Stephen Moyer’s character, Reed Strucker.
What do you mean Wolverine isn’t coming?
One night, at a high school dance, during an instance of bulling, Reed’s son, Andy, played by Percy Hydes, lashes out and causes earth tremors and other destruction. The school hall begins to collapse and Andy only makes it out thanks to the mutant powers of his sister, Lauren, played by Natalie Alyn Lind. In order to protect his family from the government he works for, Reed makes contact with an underground mutant community that helps sneak mutants across the border to sanctuary, similar to the real life underground railroad that helped slaves in the 1800s.
My main concern going into The Gifted was that the focus would be on the parents and not the children, especially as Stephen Moyer is listed as a lead character. And it turns out to be a justified concern, although not perhaps as bad as it could have been. Reed Strucker is the one who interacts with mutants and makes deals with them, and the show is obviously playing on the conflict of this government guy now having to work against the laws he once upheld. But it’s a predictable conflict and there are much more interesting plots at play instead.
For instance, I think it would have been more interesting to delve into the family dynamic. We do see a couple of scenes of Lauren and Andy bonding over their mutant abilities, but it is also revealed that Lauren has known about her powers for three years and has kept secret about them because of her father and his work. This certainly suggests a level of distrust but yet after the incident she goes straight home and just gives herself up to her parents. The potentially more interesting conflict here would have been for the kids to seek out the underground on their own because of the distrust of their parents and then for their father to have to hunt them down like he normally would but with the intention of saving them.
Even the underground community itself and its inner workings are more interesting than the mundane struggle of the father being caught between duty to family and of that to country. Even a series focusing on an underground group smuggling mutant refugees over the border would be entertaining in and of itself. Instead, the show feels the needs to invest the underground group in helping the kids even more by having one of their own captured and needing Reed’s help to free her.
Andy Strucker goes full-Carrie
This is not to say that The Gifted is over complicating itself. The point is only that by focusing on the father the show has also chosen to focus on what is arguably the least interesting plot point. It also says something about the stakes of the series. It implies that a powerful, high-tech government seeking to erase an entire species or race isn’t serious enough. It suggests that audiences will need a personal reason to be able to relate to the danger that the characters face when really the idea of a government singling out a particular group of peoples for removal is more relatable now than it ever has been in recent times.
In truth, X-Men greatest strength has always been the social and political themes and if The Gifted can tap into even a fraction of those it will be able to capture the imaginations of its viewers, no problem. As it is, it’s a decent show that’s got some good actors attached and some real storyline potential.
But what were your thoughts on The Gifted? Like, dislike, love or hate? Feel free to let me know. You can contact me via the comments below or through any of the various social media profiles to the right. You can also keep up to date with new editorials and reviews by hitting the follow button or check out old posts in the archives. And finally, if you’d rather read some fiction, you can my second novel is available over on Swoonreads.com.
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