Marvel/Fox's X-Men: The Gifted

Disappeared until further notice. I wouldn't expect any big names to join the cast anytime soon, but I also wouldn't be surprised if the details of the July 15th Incident get filled in a little more, or if some other lesser X-Men appear. The show clearly doesn't want X-Men, Magneto, or Wolverine to overshadow the main cast, but you wouldn't include Lorna Dane and *not* make use of that connection.

...Which isn't quite that close. Lorna's Magneto's daughter through an affair, and she was raised by her mother. Depending on how the show wants to play this, Magneto might not even know about her, but I'm sure she definitely knows about him.

Interesting to see Amy Acker play a character who doesn't really have a gimmick, someone who's becoming less ordinary over time. And great to see Sharon Gless on another Matt Nix show, and Coby Bell and Garrett Dillahunt, too. Wonder if we'll get Jeffrey Donovan or Bruce Campbell somewhere down the line.

Never mind her dad, my theory is that the only reason everybody in that prison is not dead is that Lorna is mutant Martin Luther King. Cataclysmic power, lots of restraint because she does not want to cause the incident 2.0, electric boogaloo.

The collar they have on her is a joke - the taser is far to slow to stop her from frying it, and there is just so much steel everywhere. But Lorna sees an opportunity to rescue some fellow mutants, not prison walls, so she is laying low.

I just realized that Eclipse is partly based on Havok.

edited 11th Oct '17 5:23:55 PM by ManOfSin

Reed continues to be a boss. Sad little refugee potential-mutant girl got to me, too.

I also liked the quiet confidence Thunderbird has, without being arrogant about it. "My head can't be ripped off."

I thought he was based more on Sunspot.

That part got to me too. It also humanized Reed a lot, trying to get the father and daughter away before the cops showed up.

His solar powers, and I suppose his South American though not Brazilian heritage are based on Sunspot, but the 'partly' comes into it with him and Lorna being a longtime item. Growing up on the streets sets him pretty far apart from Bobby Da Costa, though.

Real standup thing to do, jumping out of the van like that. Danny trying to talk down the crowd was a nice moment as well. And even Turner turning down Campbell, though we'll see how long that lasts. Lot of quiet moral stands in this episode, and it's nice to see.

edited 17th Oct '17 10:55:28 AM by Unsung

Well, now Ahab has been teased.

I have the feeling that he will be the Season real Big Bad and Jace Turner might even pull a Heel–Face Turn yet.

Also firing yellow beams is also Havok-like.

Dreamer, that is not cool. I might ship Blink and Thunderbird but you can't just do that.

[sorry double post]

edited 22nd Oct '17 11:13:10 AM by Julep

Didn't even hear of this show before three episodes were released, but seeing Bill Compton and Root being the parents of Silver St Cloud made me chuckle already. Amy Acker alone means ì'll give it a good try.

After catching up, I am extremely satisfied with how it's going on so far, and I realized how much I love the X-Men. The Inhuman story arcs were what I preferred on AOS, but mutants are just plain more appealing, with better powers, a less convoluted and more relatable origin, and they tackle social issues in a much more direct way. An excellent surprise, and a great cast, the characters all look functional and personable so far, I can't single out a favorite, but neither have I being annoyed by anyone already. Very homogeneous.

It seems like Amy Acker is now the go-to girl when you want a member of La Résistance fighting against an oppressive, borderline/outright fascist government which casually tramples individual liberties. It took the entire first episode for me to adapt to her playing a sincere characer though - I miss Root, a lot.

I like how Blink's new memory didn't translate to an instant, over-the-top attraction to Thunderbird.

Though one wonders why Dreamer can't just take the memory away now, though i suppose that would be too easy.

Here's hoping Polaris gets out soon-we're nearly halfway through the season already.

Reed continues to be a boss. Though this moment is cool for pretty much all involved.

The plotline with Gus reminds me a lot of the old X-Men cartoon and Morph.

What a great episode! I knew things would go wrong because that's how these types of episodes work, but I was surprised at how abruptly and severely it went to hell.

Polaris is killing it. Loved seeing her get to let loose. I'm glad they didn't kill off the episode's Red Shirt. It was cool what they did with their flashback teaser, which is apparently a staple of the show. It introduced a new character that would play a part later in the episode, established the stakes and reinforced the threat, and had a bit of a parallel to Eclipse's "leave me behind if necessary" attitude.

The Strucker kids are fine, but they're still the least interesting part for me. I do enjoy how the writers have worked to be creative with their powers. I also like how the show doesn't pretend like our main characters are the only ones part of the underground. They're just the only ones with personal interest in the outcome. And Red Shirt guy.

Man, I fucking love that show. And todays episode was a blast. It blows every other current superhero show way out of the water.

I like all these characters, but I feel like we still need to get to know them more specifically. Cool as the breakout scene was (and it showed this series is going to have some action, which is good because Matt Nix can do great action scenes), my favourite parts were probably actually Lorna and Reed getting to know each other in holding and finding out a little more about Marcos's past.

And it's tough to be a teen actor, but it's a little odd just how much Caitlin has changed these past four episodes, while Lauren and Andy are still a little flat so far. I think they've gotten about as many scenes, even, but the kids still kind of feel like extras rather than stars.

I'd agree with that. There are a lot of characters and so far the show has been more plot driven than character driven. And the kids haven't really gotten a story line that allowed them any development since the pilot. It's like the writer's room realized the most interesting part of the show was the Underground and went with it. Well, the parents are interesting too, but you get my point.

Is it just me, or does everyone in the underground seem to own designer clothes/have great fashion sense?

They have a whole punk rock thing going on. No surprise there, given how much of this series echoes the punk/cyberpunk/Rage Against The Machine aesthetic of the '90s. Also, good-looking people look good in their clothes, whatever they are.

Plus the distressed look is very in now. People spend a lot of money on clothes to look like they have no money to spend on clothes.

The invisibility guy from the Underground is based on a character from the comics, Trader who is a rare example of codename not being dependent on powers (he's called Trader cause he used to work on Wall Street) by the way.

Wow, this usage of Dreamer's powers seems way more traumatic than last time.

I internally objected to what she did to Blink labelled Mind Rape, but this actually qualifies.

Boy, what a gut punch at the end. Like I saw it going in that direction, but that was so rough for him.

It was great seeing Eclipse and Polaris. Their scene in the car was great. They're two of the best characters and their chemistry is great.

I like with Dreamer we're getting to some moral ambiguity. I hope they build up her character more. Like it'll be a disappointment if they don't explore why she didn't tell Blink.

One thing I've kind of felt throughout, but I'm just now realizing is the episodes seem stuffed to the gills. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but I think it'd benefit from slowing down a bit. Like them being holed up could have been super tense. But instead it was just a scene.

Still a fun episode though.

One thing that i think has really been to the show's benefit has been some of the directing talent they've had. Bryan Singer directed the pilot, Len Wiseman directed the second episode (and apparently added some stuff like Lauren using her powers in the bowling alley, a lot of what happens with the main Blink portal, and a few other things-which is probably why the episode went over schedule), and the most recent episode was directed by Jeremiah Chechik, who directed Christmas Vacation and Benny & Joon, among other things.

The other two, while not feature film directors, are Karen Gaviola who has directed 100+ episodes of TV and Scott Peters who co-created the 4400 and was the head writer for the V reboot.

That's a lot of talent for a first season network show. They might also have a higher budget, per episode, than some other shows cause the episode run is so comparatively small.

This show just keeps getting better. Who would have thought how sorry they could make us feel for Jace Turner?