…And it came to pass that ‘The Gifted’ TV series premiered
earlier this month. Where to begin?
This is the opposite of Marvel’s ‘InHumans’. ‘The Gifted’
are designed to deal, to discuss, to confront and etc. some very specific
issues that bother the modern society in RL of our times – namely, the relation
between the individual and the state, (i.e., a government of a country, say –
USA, as opposed to Canada or Mexico)… Fair enough, and it is still better than
what ‘InHumans’ are doing – yes, most of them are in the United States, (the
state of Hawaii, to be precise), down on Earth, but they are still detached
from Earth – there’s nothing happening down there, most of them, except for
Medusa and Black Bolt, but that is a mess in its own right, as I talked about
it; the problem is not just in the fact that BB’s take down by Hawaiian police
is poorly choreographed, but because it is done by the police (rather than some
specialized task force), and then the king of the InHumans is taken to a police
district, where he has his mugshot and etc.
Let us think about it for a moment. By now, the InHumans are
firmly a part of MCU due to AoS, which has introduced them by the second half
of S2, which was several years ago, both in MCU and RL. By now, there are some
InHumans on Earth, (whose connection to BB’s and Medusa’s subjects was not
discussed yet), and BB has sent Triton to rescue one of them, but Maximus’
minions have intercepted them, and the girl is apparently dead, while Triton
has escaped into the ocean…
Rewind and re-examine. As the first two episodes of ‘InHumans’
showed us, the titular characters have several ways of coming and going to
Earth – Lockjaw can take them there, (and he’s adorable), or they can use some
sort of a sentient stone wall, (another transformed InHuman?) that can also
deliver them to our planet. This is a very large suspension of disbelief, and
as a new TV show, ‘InHumans’ cannot afford to miscalculate, here.
Yes, ‘InHumans’ is a sci-fi action/adventure TV show about a
race of sentient beings that live in a hidden city on the moon…except for those
that live down on Earth in Li Shi…or just got transformed after Li Shi fell and
their Terragenesis crystals contaminated the fish of Earth…wait. We became
sidetracked.
Both ‘InHumans’ and ‘The Gifted’ are sci-fi, action, and
adventure shows, but ‘The Gifted’ is trying to related to RL issues and does
its’ best to show an analogue to RL USA, (kind of as how ‘Will & Grace’
does, and that is certainly not a
sci-fi show). Again, one might argue just how accurate that depiction is from
RL terms, but this is still better that what the ‘InHumans’ have done in the
series’ premiere – they are seemingly detached from RL or just connected by
some tenuous threads… ‘The Gifted’ underwent a much greater effort – and fights
that were choreographed much better – when dealing with this sort of thing. Anything
else?
The actors of ‘The Gifted’ are just as good as those of ‘InHumans’
and were more inspired by their show; no offence to the cast of ‘InHumans’ –
they were the ones who rescued the show, if anyone did – but even they had
their limits; the talks between Maximus and Crystal in particular felt flat and
uninspired – those two characters may or may not get together, but the actors
certainly don’t have any chemistry between them, period.
Conversely, the characters of ‘The Gifted’ have plenty of
chemistry between each other, sexual or not, which is good, because it also
shows how the actors (of ‘The Gifted’) respect their characters. Otherwise, as
AoS has shown, the entire show suffers – and yes, AoS has four full seasons
now, and it is going for a fifth (currently), but still. Between ‘The Gifted’,
InHumans’, and the upcoming TV versions of ‘The Runaways’ and ‘Cloak &
Dagger’, there is no indication that this state of affairs will last…
That is it for now; see you all later!
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