InHumans, Black Bolt - Nov 11

‘InHumans’ S1 has reached its conclusion. What can be said about this?

This was a show where the actors and the rest of the crew know and respect their characters, and know where to take them - usually. I.e., Maximus may be sympathetic, but he is still a villain because he is selfish and does not care about anyone but himself at the end, unlike the rest of the Royal Family, who do care about each other, period. The thing is, so could Maximus, but…he does not. He fails his empathy checks – or whatever they are called – every time, despite anything and everything. He really wants to go through the Terragenesis once more and become a proper InHuman. (Of course, the obstinacy that he is facing isn’t very convincing and seems more obtuse and/or childish more than anything else – but that is a problem for ‘InHumans’ S1 entirely, as it was said in earlier discussions of the show). He does not want anything else and he does not care about anyone else, although he could. But he does not. That is his tragedy.

And on the other hand, we have Triton, who was reintroduced in ‘Havoc’ – the previous episode – for no good reason. Surely, Karnac could defeat the royal guards and capture Maximus just as well? Triton’s role is superfluous; possibly the only reason why he returned was that MCU and co. wanted to get their money worth from this character, and so they did – sort of. Neither Triton nor Gorgon have much to say in the last two episodes and their roles are minimal, but there you have it. Even Crystal played a larger role, even if it was just as an assistant or an accessory to the amazing Lockjaw, who has been a treat to watch on the show.

And as for women,…Auran’s role got rearranged some in these last two episodes. In particular, in last episode, she and Maximus ended their friendship and she left, befriending Karnak, helped him to resurrect Gorgon (with mixed results), and then just left Attilan – supposedly. And in ‘Black Bolt’ – this episode, the season’s finale – she was shown at Maximus’ side once more, as if nothing happened. But something did happen – pieces of the season’s script got shifted around; AoS had it especially bad in the later seasons; now it is coming back in December 2017 – completely rebooted, it seems. Not surprising: the last season, the fourth, was focused on basically resolving the leftover issues from the first three seasons with mixed results…where were we?

…If Auran’s role and character development got rearranged, then Declan’s just got terminated: the resurrected version of Gorgon killed him, period. His death carried no meaning, no reason, just – to frustrate Maximus again. Considering that Declan was even less of a villain than Auran was, this is just unfair and pointless; at least Mordis came across as some sort of a villain, more or less, but Declan? He was genuinely helpful to all of the InHumans, and he got no epitaph, he was just forgotten by everyone, including the Royal Family – the heroes of this series.

Here is the thing. Maximus makes an unconventional villain, but still a villain. His opponents, as far as heroes go…not so much. Medusa, in particular, allowed Auran to kill a bus driver before fighting her in the first episode of the season, and now we got more of the same. Yes, Maximus is no hero or a victim, he has set the bar low, but his brother and the rest of his relatives do not exactly do a sterling job of surpassing it, on a regular basis. They are unconventional heroes? Perhaps, but also not very good ones, and the script’s occasional twist doesn’t help matters either – whether it is revealed that Maximus and Medusa were friends once, before she married Black Bolt, or when Karnak channels his inner Jedi and declares that as strife has created Attilan, so it has destroyed it: what exactly he is talking about? Has the show intended to have another episode or two that featured the past lives of the Royal Family and the history of Attilan in general? Such episode(s) would have actually been helpful, they could have answered some of question, like – when and how Karnak had built a containment unit for Black Bolt…and why did he think that it would work? Just an example…

So, the actors and acting was good, the script – not so much, (and some humor, in particular, was somewhat juvenile), and the conclusion? Nothing surprising here: the InHumans have returned to Earth and are going to live there, at least for the foreseeable future. Considering that the show is met with low numbers and unfavourable reviews, it doesn’t have much ties-in with the rest of MCU (deliberately, it seems), the odds aren’t looking good that the show will be another AoS – but we’ll have to wait and see what will happen next in real life.

That is it for now, see you soon!

PS: And did I mention lately that real life sucks lately? Because it does, though this time it is probably my fault. I hate my life.