It’s two of my blogging trends for the price of one! What the hell is going on? More importantly than that, it’s Wednesday, so for the first time in ages it’s a COMIC BOOK WEDNESDAY post! Ah, I missed these. Today’s subject? The Gifted.
Ok, so let’s set the background for me talking about this show. It’s a Fox TV show “set in the X-Men universe”, so there’s immediately two problems with that. First off, it’s Fox product about the X-Men. That’s never good. Unless it’s the ONE time they absolutely nailed it, in that little unheard-of movie called Skull-Poop-L, then you know they’re going to screw it up. Secondly, it’s an expanded universe product, and I’m one day going to write a blog about why I hate this current trend of expanded universe products. However, I have good news: The Gifted actually isn’t a bad show.
I know. I was surprised too. But it’s actually a lot more than just the “watchable” tag I’ll give a few other TV shows I’ve seen lately. This one I may even go so far as to call “good”. And that’s partly due to the fact that they’ve not taken any of the “major” X-Men characters for it. That’s why I think X-Men: First Class worked above and beyond any other X-Men film they’ve done. Because they DIDN’T use the regular band of mutants, and instead took time to introduce new and more interesting mutants into a new team. They told stories that haven’t been told a thousand times, and more importantly than that they took characters we haven’t already seen better versions of (because screw you if you dare to tell me that the X-Men movies are better than the X-Men 90’s animated series, because you’re wrong) and had them actually appeal to us in ways that they’ve failed to do in other movies. And it’s for that reason, amongst others, that The Gifted works as a show.
For those of you who aren’t big comic book nerds who know far too many of the rotating cast of X-Men characters for your own good, let me give you a quick rundown of a new of the characters you’ll see here. First off, one of the main characters is actually created specifically for the show. His codename is “Eclipse” and his abilities involve generating intense beams of light from his hands, along with absorbing light from other sources. He may be an original character, but he’s very much a cool new version of the X-Men character Sunspot, who I genuinely spent the first few episodes thinking he WAS meant to be. And I’ve got to say that there’s very little about this character that I can find to complain about. He’s interesting enough to keep your attention. He’s got a backstory that involves a gang he used to work for before joining the current band of mutants, which comes into play in a few episodes and creates a nice story for him, and he’s also got a really cool role as one of the leaders of the band of mutants we see in the show.
Another of the characters who has to be mentioned, and my favourite character in the show (although that may be because she’s also one of my favourite characters ever in the X-Men comics, and I’ve been dying for a cool movie/TV version of her for a long time) is Lorna Dane, better known as the bad-ass mistress of magnetism with green hair codenamed Polaris. Now in the comics she’s been around a LONG time. She, and her boyfriend Havok, appeared WAAAAAAY back in Uncanny X-Men #49 (back before Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, and back when the X-Men were still in their original line-up). Her power set is shockingly similar to Magneto, which in the comics always led her to believe that Magneto was her father, although he always denied it. In the show they haven’t touched upon this aspect of the character at all, nor have they in any way mentioned Havok, and instead they’ve taken Lorna in a whole new direction, exploring her character in the “present day” of the show along with in some of the flashback scenes. She’s dating new character Eclipse, and she has an absolutely awesome storyline in the show that I won’t spoil here. She’s also the most rebellious one of the “leaders”, the most emotionally charged one, and yet also the most compelling and relatable one.
Then there’s the third of the “leader” characters, who again has been explored in the flashbacks as well as in the present day, and that’s John Proudstar, aka Thunderbird. I mentioned that Lorna predated many of the X-Men you’ve heard of, but Thunderbird actually debuted in Giant-Sized X-Men #1 alongside the rest of the second team of X-Men. You may not have heard of him before because he also died really early in one of the second team’s first adventures. He was super strong, fast (well, faster than an average guy, nothing compared to the likes of Quicksilver), and had intense stamina. He also possessed tracking skills and had hand-to-hand combat training, all of which is present in the TV adaption. The TV adaption, thankfully, didn’t die right at the beginning, and has become one of my favourite characters and another I find relatable. He’s a good guy, caring, who genuinely wants to do the right thing while protecting his friends. Sometimes it’s difficult to both do the right thing AND protect his friends, which is where the most interesting scenes with the character come into play in the show.
Rounding out the “incredibly cool characters who are based on X-Men from the comics” comes another I’ve longed to see a proper big-screen adaption of, who we sort of got an appearance of in Days of Future Past, and that’s Blink. She’s not a 100% adaption of the comic character, but in my opinion the changes they’ve made have IMPROVED her. Blink is also a character who died stupidly early in the comics, which was really upsetting because she was fantastic in the setup for Generation X, but they brought back an alternative version of her due to her popularity in Age of Apocalypse, and would later base a whole series – The Exiles – around that version of the character. The TV show version has a toned-down version of the comic character’s appearance, in that she has a few facial markings and bright green eyes. This character is introduced to us as a new recruit who doesn’t have proper control of her powers, and she’s most definitely not fond of being part of the team when she first joins. That’s what keeps her interesting though. She’s an outsider that the others need for her abilities, and regrettably she definitely knows that they use her for her abilities more than want her there as a friend.
The final characters I’ll mention – not Sage, who’s story is great in the comics and who isn’t yet explored fully in the show, not Dreamer, who’s also a fantastic character in the show even if she is only a guest star, and not even Esme, the telepath who shows up mid-way through the show with a scheme of her own who I freaked out over when she first said her name… and if you don’t know it, I won’t ruin that for you either – are the Strucker family, who act as your way into the show but also as the central characters. We’ve got mother and father Caitlin and Reed Strucker, human parents of Lauren and Andy Strucker, two mutant children who get in trouble in the first episode and kick off the events of the show. Reed works originally to put mutants who break the law in prison, but weirdly switches sides when it’s his own kids who might be given a death sentence for the crime of being different. The story of the family is interesting enough, even if they do take too much of a central role at times.
So, What’s The Show About?
Now you know the characters, the show is pretty much about the Strucker family joining what they refer to as the “mutant underground”, set up by members of the X-Men but with none of the actual X-Men involved. They work in secret to help other mutants who are being hunted down by Sentinel Services. These mutants have “broken the law”, although it doesn’t seem it takes MUCH for them to be considered law-breakers. It does seem like there’s some kind of law “protecting mutants” in this world the show is set in, but those rights that mutants have don’t seem to extend very far and it feels like if a mutant gives a human an odd look then they’ll be hunted down and branded a “terrorist”, thus giving rise to the need for the mutant underground to protect these mutants who therefore need to flee.
The main antagonists of the show are the aforementioned Sentinel Services, including one of their leaders who lost his only daughter due to a mutant incident, and now seemingly believes that all other mutants should be punished because of this. He even states at one point he doesn’t know which mutant was responsible and if they were a “good mutant” or a “bad mutant”, he just views all mutants as responsible for what happened and honestly believes he’s doing the right thing by hunting them down. He, therefore, is a decent antagonist, and his anger is easily manipulated by those with a more sinister agenda, as we see throughout the show. Quite what these individuals intend to do isn’t yet clear by the half way point, but it’ll be interesting to see exactly what they plan to do as the show progresses.
That’s really all I’ll tell you about the show in case you decide to start watching it, because saying much more would definitely spoil key episodes throughout the story. The story does hold up pretty well though, and it gives you the chance to explore the relationships between certain characters, it creates tension between key characters, it has a semi-love-story between a few of them, but mostly it follows the Strucker family as they experience all of this, find out about themselves and their place in the mutant underground, and the kids train with the other mutants to better use their abilities.
What’s Good About The Show?
The story holds up pretty well, as I already said, but it’s the characters and the unique take on the comic book portrayals that I’m most enjoying. For example, Blink is quickly evolving into a fantastic character because she’s NOT part of the team and DOESN’T go all in for the cause. She’s kind of a mash-up of Rogue and Wolverine in that sense from the first X-Men film. She’s not too much like Wolverine, which is a good thing, but also not so quick to join up and go all in like Rogue was. She’s an outsider who, unfortunately for her, gets manipulated into doing what the group needs her to do, which is where her character arc really gets interesting to see how she copes with that. Also, her exploring her history and thus us as viewers finding out more about where she came from gives the character a fantastic backstory which isn’t present in the comic version of her, which combined with her ever growing facial tattoos (an indication that her powers are evolving and becoming more like her comic counterpart) makes her one of the best things in the show.
Unfortunately, I have to spoil at least the beginning of Polaris’ arc to tell you why she’s such a great character. The show starts off with her being captured while helping the Strucker family, but from there her arc only gets better and better, and even the producers have apparently noted that while she wasn’t even intended to really be in the show – she was introduced as a love interest for Eclipse apparently and nothing more – she’s evolving into one of the central characters of the show. That’s because she’s by far one of the most interesting in the show, and I really feel like if the show keeps going and if they DO explore her history more, including any potential ties to Magneto, then she’ll only get stronger and could, eventually, become the central character of the whole show. I’m drawn to her because she stands out to me as an edgier version of Sue Storm from the Fantastic Four runs. When Fantastic Four was my favourite comic it’s when they were nailing Sue Storm’s role in the team perfectly. The best episodes here of The Gifted are the ones where Polaris is given the best chance to shine as a character.
Finally, the whole “mutant underground” aspect of the show honestly makes it interesting. Yes, it’s a version of the X-Men, and yes they kind of live in mansion (albeit not one in any way like Xavier’s School), but the show is more akin to something like Cable’s X-Force than it is to the actual X-Men movies. They’re rebellious outlaws who are willing to break the law to save other mutants. They’re not goodie-goodies who value equality above all else. It’s taking the best things about the X-Men universe and turning them into a TV show with fresh and interesting characters to support them, which only benefits the show as a whole.
What’s Bad About The Show?
Well, there’s a few bad things, but none of them are so terrible as to ruin the show. For example, they mention that the mutant underground was set up by the X-Men, and that the X-Men are “gone”, but they don’t give any explanation as to why, and that does get rather annoying at times. It feels very much like they keep dropping the name of “the X-Men” in to keep reminding us that it’s an X-Men franchise, and there’s little need for it beyond that. I’d be happier if they just stuck to the fact that they’re mutants helping mutants, rather than keep name-dropping the core group just to remind the audience of it.
Then there’s the Strucker family. As I said, a lot of the show revolves around them, and that CAN be good. There are episodes where the show revolving around them is absolutely fantastic. But then it also gets annoying from time to time why these mutants, who have all these abilities and have clearly been taking care of themselves for long enough, suddenly NEED two humans around them so much, and give so much value to their “assistance”. The mother character, Caitlin (played by Amy Acker, so you know I find it impossible to hate her), acts as a nurse for the team from time to time… but that gets really annoying because seriously did they just DIE of basic injuries before she came along? Does NOBODY else in the team have a healing ability or some kind of medical background beyond her? It feels like they rely way too much on the fact that she’s a convenient nurse to justify her being around, which does annoy me and make me wonder if they got a small cut and died ala Khal Drogo before she came along.
Plus, the fact that they used THAT surname grated on me from the very beginning. If you don’t know why the name is important in the comics then do yourself a favour and don’t look it up and just enjoy the ride. If you DO know why the name is important in the comics then you know right from the first episode that they’re likely to do something with the value of that name. Also, it’s not super helpful that it’s Strucker when the X-Men movies rely so heavily on villains named Stryker. Yes it’s a different name, but it’s annoyingly close and of all the different names they could have picked it annoys me a bit that they chose that one. They could have, if they want to use the comic reference that they imply with the surname, have chosen a different name and introduced the Strucker name later on in the show to tease where they were going. It just seems to “you know what’s going to happen” from the off with that name being front and centre, and while it’s not quite as bad as if they had a character named “Sean Xavier” who didn’t know he was secretly related to Charles it’s still something that irritates me throughout the course of the show.
Oh yeah, and one final point on the bad side – the mutant power blocking collars. Ugh. Really? Sorry, I know this is a classic X-Men thing so maybe I should be happy about it because it’s a classic X-Men thing, but it’s also such an overused X-Men thing that I find it annoying and frankly insulting that it’s back in the show and with absolutely no explanation as to how and why they work, where they came from, or why they chose collars of all things. They could have done so much better than go this route – and do, in fact, at one stage introducing a character whose ability blocks other mutant’s abilities – but instead they just went with this and it annoys me. It’s not so annoying I can’t stand to watch, but it was a chance for them to do something cooler and they didn’t, and that annoys me. The least they could do is explain it, rather than just expect us to accept that a one-size-fits-all collar works on every mutant power because “plot convenience”.
Should You Watch It?
If you enjoy the X-Men movies, I’d say the TV show is definitely for you. Then again, if you enjoy the X-Men movies there may already be something wrong with you, in which case you may absolutely love this show. If you, like me, could take or leave most of the X-Men movies, then you may also feel the same way about the show… but you should give it a shot. The use of the lesser known X-Men characters is interesting, the way they sneak a few of them in to the show (like Sage showing up, which I seriously got happy about) is fun, and for the most part the good in the show outweighs the bad. If the show is to last a long time I think they’ll need to tone down on the X-Men lore they seem to be sprinkling in, and they’ll also need to be careful which villainous entities they use and HOW they use them because if they go too far, too fast with some of them then they’ll do a lot to ruin what could be great movie and TV villainous groups moving forward. The show isn’t perfect, but I’m enjoying the first half of the season, and I’m willing to go along for the ride in the second half… even if I am hoping that Marvel Studios steps in now Fox is owned by Disney and sprinkles a little bit more of it’s Marvel magic to dilute the taste of Fox that I have in my mouth from the negative aspects.
Still, at least it doesn’t focus on Wolverine. So, you know, that makes two X-Men things now that haven’t massively shoved Wolverine down our throats. I love the guy but honestly, Fox, there are SO MANY cool mutants out there that your obsession with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine character is really, really annoying.