The Gifted, Episode 1: "eXposed"
Considering that the first X-Men film came out in 2000, it's been a long road to get Marvel's Merry Mutants any live action play on the small screen. They have seen quite a bit of success in animated form, from the 90's animated series, which gets a small audio shout out in tonight's series premiere, to "X-Men Evolution" to the more recent "Wolverine and the X-Men." Prior to the debut of FX's mind-bending "Legion" last year, the only true mutant property to get the live-action small screen treatment was "Generation X" and the less said about that disaster the better.
I've already watched one comic book pilot stink up my television screen in less than a week, "Marvel's Inhumans" I'm looking directly at you, so I was a little trepidatious when I fired up this first episode. After spending an hour with this show, it looks as if, the wait for more flesh and blood X-characters on television was well worth it.
The X-Men have always served as an allegory for any group of people that have felt discriminated against or disenfranchised. They are hated and feared simply due to a quirk of genetics. That allegory resonates even more deeply in the Trump era where anyone who is not a straight, white male can feel any level of persecution. "The Gifted" succeeds by leaning heavily into these real world parallels.
In the world of "The Gifted," the X-Men and the Brotherhood haven't been seen for some time. There is no explanation for their disappearance, but in their absence, persecution of mutants has reached perhaps an all-time high. Sentinel Services, a Homeland Security like government agency, seem to be detaining any person with the X gene with or without cause. Just because the X-Men aren't around, doesn't mean there are no heroic mutants doing what they can for their brethren. A mutant underground network consisting of Marcos Ramirez/Eclipse, John Proudstar/Thunderbird and Lorna Dane/Polaris are trying to save mutants from the governments detention center, mutants like Clarice Fong/Blink.
During Clarice's rescue, Marcos is wounded by police and Lorna loses it. She's apprehended and soon after meets lawyer Reed Strucker. The Strucker family are the main focus of the series. Reed is married to nurse Caitlin and have two children, Lauren and Andy. They seem to be the perfect family until Andy is attacked by school bullies in the locker room at a dance and his mutant powers manifest in destructive fashion. To save her brother, Lauren reveals she is a mutant too and it's not long before Sentinel Services is at their door. Caitlin and the kids flee and meet up with Reed, who uses his connections to set a meeting with the mutant underground. During the meet, Sentinel Services attack with what look to be sleeker, smaller Sentinels that resemble Doctor Octopus' octo-bots, spherical metal devices propelled on spindly legs. Andy and Marcos are able to fend them off while Clarice creates a portal allowing everyone to escape except for Reed.
"The Gifted" is a fast paced hour that does a lot and mainly works. Part of the reason it works as well as it does is because the show makes the smart decision of focusing on characters that only the most die hard of X-fans would be aware of. Polaris is the daughter of Magneto and she seems to be the only character that has any sort of connection with the more well known mutants. The Strucker family is a great point of entry for viewers. They are recognizable. You feel like you know them, so when things go downhill and stakes are high you are concerned with what might happen to them.
The effects work is great as well. Everything from Blink's portals, to Lauren's portals to Eclipse's sun powers are really visually stunning and it definitely doesn't look like they are being done on a television show's budget. It'll be interesting if the show is able to keep up this quality throughout the first season's ten episode run. In this vein, the show was a little murky on how some of the core mutant's powers work. Blink and Eclipse's powers were pretty straightforward, but Andy's powers were a little harder to pin down. Is he a telekinetic? Something else. Thunderbird's tracking powers could be showcased a little better as well.
Bryan Singer's direction is tight and well focused. It is frenetic but not in an unfocused way. Having Singer direct the pilot is a great way to keep visual continuity with this series and the film series. It also plants some interesting plot threads that will hopefully blossom during the first season like Lorna's pregnancy, Blink's place in the underground and the Struckers finding themselves on the wrong side of the law. We may even see an appearance by some of the more recognizable mutants in the X-Men series.
I'm hopeful that "The Gifted" will be a strong addition to the X-Verse. We will see if that is the case in the weeks to come.
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