The Gifted: Season One (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

Yes, Esme's plan of attack completely surprised me (I assumed she was colluding with the enemy) and was shocking but also understandable. Adam is right, however. Any built bridges are now permanently demolished.

 

[NeilO]

Yes, Esme's plan of attack completely surprised me (I assumed she was colluding with the enemy) and was shocking but also understandable. Adam is right, however. Any built bridges are now permanently demolished.

I knew she was manipulating the underground, but I had no idea why. When the subtitle called them "the Frost triplets" it made sense. She completely destroyed all good will that had been built up - she is evil.

 

[Matt Hough]

Looks like there was a new episode tonight. I was busy unpacking for a holiday vacation and couldn't get around to watching it, but I should get to it tomorrow on the DVR.

 

[NeilO]

Looks like there was a new episode tonight. I was busy unpacking for a holiday vacation and couldn't get around to watching it, but I should get to it tomorrow on the DVR.

Plenty of time to get to it. Next week is a repeat due to the NCAA championship. Then the following week is the 2-hour season finale.

 

[Sean Bryan]

I’ve really enjoyed this season, and I’m disappointed that it is only 13 episodes.

I hate it when most of the shows I’m enjoying go away so fast due to the short seasons.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

What's particularly frustrating is FOX's recent habit of putting shows on lengthy hiatuses in December, bringing them back for three episodes, and then benching them again. Almost couldn't design a more effective method for killing interest in a show.

 

[Matt Hough]

The 2-hour finale should be exciting since they primed it for us with this talky and mostly forgettable latest installment. Hasn't it already been made abundantly clear that the mutants are fighting for their survival? I don't know what else has to happen for all of them to realize that.

 

[Josh Dial]

My initial review remains unchanged. For me, The Gifted is an okay, solid show. It takes absolutely zero risks: everything is completely by the numbers. I'm not expecting Legion here (or even Runaways), but I don't think it's too much to ask for maybe one or two episodes where the viewer doesn't know exactly how each scene is going to resolve.

That said, I like the performances a lot, and there are enough nuggets of interesting story to keep my coming back. Plus, I'm pretty much completely invested by default in any and all Marvel shows.

Maybe inclusion of the Cuckoos and references to Magneto are signs the show is going in an interesting direction. I would be completely down with a show that embraced "villains" as the central players. Maybe all of the mutants slowly turn to see Magneto's wisdom, and we have a new Brotherhood/Hellfire Club driving the narrative. That would be interesting.

 

[NeilO]

Maybe all of the mutants slowly turn to see Magneto's wisdom, and we have a new Brotherhood/Hellfire Club driving the narrative. That would be interesting.

Well, we do have a Hellfire Club driving things. The Cuckoos manipulated everyone again in the last episode, though I'm sure most of us saw that happening and knew they must have leaked the information to Sentinel Services. I have no idea where they will leave things after the 2-hour finale.

 

[Richard V]

They keep mentioning "the X-Men chose us", makes me think they might spring a surprise on us and introduce one of the major (minor) X-Men characters in a one-off episode. Colossus? Rogue? Hank McCoy? Any thoughts? Or I am just spitting in the wind?

 

[NeilO]

They keep mentioning "the X-Men chose us", makes me think they might spring a surprise on us and introduce one of the major (minor) X-Men characters in a one-off episode. Colossus? Rogue? Hank McCoy? Any thoughts? Or I am just spitting in the wind?

Of course, Thunderbird was briefly a member of the X-Men in the comics and Lorna Dane/Polaris has been as well. I doubt we'll see regular X-Man cameo in the season finale, but if there is a second season I wouldn't be surprised to see some appearances.

 

[Josh Dial]

Well, we do have a Hellfire Club driving things. The Cuckoos manipulated everyone again in the last episode, though I'm sure most of us saw that happening and knew they must have leaked the information to Sentinel Services. I have no idea where they will leave things after the 2-hour finale.

I was thinking more in terms of having the villains be the actual stars. I would like to see the genesis of an evil organization and how good mutants "go bad" (and stay there--no more redemption arcs).

 

[Sean Bryan]

Officially renewed for season two

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/gifted-renewed-season-2-at-fox-1071523

 

[Matt Hough]

Read about the renewal this afternoon and am happy it will get a season two. I hope they use their time off to focus more clearly on dramatic situations that don't require this tiresome tendency for characters to be so slow in realizing the stakes of their plight like this season.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Officially renewed for season two

Very happy about this news. The back half of the season hasn't lived up to the first few episodes, with too much wheel-spinning, but this is still probably my favorite of the broadcast comics-based shows at the moment.

 

[Matt Hough]

Two-hour season finale tonight!

 

[Matt Hough]

And two taut, tense episodes they were, too, though I must say I was not surprised at all with the schism which developed between the mutants: just as with the X-Men themselves, there will always be two sides to the argument about their efforts to protect themselves and proceed to work through problems with humanity.

I have to say the deck seemed stacked pretty much on one side of the argument. If they had shown us ANY humans who weren't rabble rousers and weren't up in arms, then maybe the arguments of the passive mutants might be on firmer ground, but I really couldn't blame the mutants who were out to save themselves at any cost.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I've gotten a bit frustrated with the Frost sisters as the devil standing on our character's shoulder, whispering encouragement to embrace their darker impulses. An external motivation is never as compelling an internal one.

I have to say the deck seemed stacked pretty much on one side of the argument. If they had shown us ANY humans who weren't rabble rousers and weren't up in arms, then maybe the arguments of the passive mutants might be on firmer ground, but I really couldn't blame the mutants who were out to save themselves at any cost.

Yes, the first season has given us ample argument for the militant position. But I'm rooting for the second season to be about the perils and pitfalls of taking a hard line. Campbell and Turner took a hard line, and it cost them everything.

Lorna took down that plane because she thought it would make the world safer for her child. Andy is romanticizing his ancestors and embracing the neatness of an us-versus-them dynamic.

I want the second season to challenge that, to show Lorna that her violence is making the world more dangerous for her child and to show Andy that things aren't quite as simple as he makes them out to be.

It was fascinating watching this finale on Martin Luther King Day. If Professor X and the X-Men (now represented by the Mutant Underground) represent the MLK position, Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants (now represented by the Frost sisters and the Hellfire Club) represent the Malcolm X position.

The Frost sisters, Lorna, Andy et al. are probably right that they can achieve more tactic success faster by taking an "any means necessary" approach. But the end game gets much murkier. They might wipe out the human resistance, using the advantages of their genetic gifts, and impose their vision upon the world. But it will require constant strength and terror to maintain.

Especially now, in 2018, I come into this show rooting with everything I've got for Xavier's dream of harmony. It's not enough to be better warriors. This is a war of ideas, and to win you need to have the better ideas.