The Gifted: the dreaM - Nov 27

Obligatory disclaimer: sometimes, real life does not just suck, but it also hurts. Like, emotionally. Sometimes, your family members are like emotional/energy vampires, and there is nothing that you can do with them…nothing that is truly legal, anyhow. Any solution that results in a funeral with a closed casket/coffin/call it whatever you will has to be wrong than the problem, it just has to!.. And now on to our feature presentation.

‘the dreaM’ of ‘the Gifted’ shows the continuous issue of this TV series: it is conflict-driven, and primarily – it is mutants vs. Sentinel Services. Whenever Sentinel Services went out of the equation, ‘the Gifted’ suffered. In S2, Sentinel Services around in the equation at all; in this episode, Jace isn’t even in it – instead we got yet another friend of Reed Strucker’s father Otto, who’s got an entire institute, (sort of), and whose goal is to learn how to manage and probably to suppress the X-gene, which makes mutants mutants. Sorry about repetition, but we already had something similar back in S1, so now it feels as if ‘the Gifted’ are going around in circles; it didn’t help AoS, which was notorious in recycling ideas for its’ plot and scripts, and it doesn’t really help ‘the Gifted’ either.

…This is the Strucker plot line, actually – whereas the other two of this episode were Lorna. Her life story, her journey to the current point in time in the world of ‘the Gifted’, and it culminates in her giving up baby Dawn to her aunt, and making Magneto’s token (and yes, this is the first evidence of Magneto/X-Men/Xavier/Brotherhood of Evil Mutants/etc. in the show. Oh, there had been plenty of references, but the token is something different, more real and precise, and Lorna makes into her own headpiece, reminiscent of Polaris – of all of Magneto’s children, she was the one the most like him.

The problem is that this version of Lorna is nothing like the mainline Polaris; by, well, giving up Dawn and all, Lorna has given up herself – her self that had been building up from the S1 premiere until now. Is this a result of FOX and Marvel (MCU) teaming up now, I do not know; true, there are some similarities now between ‘the Gifted’ and AoS & AC, but few and safely buried, so there.

Finally, there were also Thunderbird and Blink searching for Rebecca/Twist as the latter took a runner from the Inner Circle at the beginning of ‘the dreaM’. At the end of the episode, after sharing her small information dump with the not so dynamic duo, she seems to have been either killed or captured, and while that is bad, (especially for her), why…hasn’t she left D.C. yet? She had an entire day, (though the entire chronology of ‘the dreaM’ went jumping around in a non-linear way, and the various flashbacks did not help either), I guess… script reasons?

And the same goes for the John/Clarice fight/argument/etc. It felt contrived in the previous episode, (two weeks ago), and it feels contrived now. John and Clarice, it seems, just decided to fight, and Marcos…either is fanning the flames or is staying out of it entirely. Ditto for Lauren Strucker, even though at the S2 premiere she was shown to be an integral part of the Mutants Underground team. Now, though, the Strucker family has gone down one path and the Mutants’ Underground people – Marcos, Clarice, John – another. A plot device or a plot hole? Who knows, we can only wait and see…

…Well, this is it for now. ‘the dreaM’ had been a lackluster episode; or rather – an unbalanced one. Most of its’ focus, overwhelmingly so, had been on Lorna/Polaris, and ‘the Gifted’, in the past, didn’t do such character-heavy episodes. AoS, on the other hand, did, especially in its’ first seasons, with various effects, but that did not help it either; the S6 finale found AoS at a low point…but that is another story.

For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!

The Gifted: no Mercy - Nov 13

Tonight, we are back. Real life still sucks – and that even without taking into account that Mr. Stan Lee is gone: I was never his biggest fan, but regardless, his death is being felt already; what is coming out of it is another story; onto ‘the Gifted’?

Well, let us try. This week’s episode - ‘no Mercy’ – was something else; in S2, ‘the Gifted’ are having issues into combining all of their narratives into one, and it shows.

What has happened in ‘no Mercy’? The Inner Circle robbed a bank. Jace met some sort of an evil politician/TV show host/someone-someone, and is going to star on his show. And the Mutant Underground are dealing with the fact that Reed’s problems are getting worse, and that they suck, at the same time. Let us elaborate?

‘no Mercy’ felt like three or four separate stories with little connecting them, period. The bank story line with the Inner Circle feels completely detached from the Mutant Underground story line, period. At least with Jace, the show’s scriptwriters put in effort to connect his TV appearance with the Inner Circle’s bank attack, and showed his inner struggle. (Hey, it sells the numbers, ratings and otherwise, so there!) The Mutant Underground, on the other hand? We had the Struckers doing their family issues thing, while on the other hand, we had Marcos all but stirring up trouble between John and Clarice regarding the Morlocks. Sorry, I still enjoy ‘the Gifted’, but John and Clarice’s conflict feels especially contrived – it really does. As we have seen in the past, the Mutant Underground, (i.e. Marcos) was aware of the Morlocks before S2, (technically speaking), so what is their problem with Morlocks? This conflict just holds no water, even by AoS’ standards, and that is just sad, because in S1 ‘the Gifted’ were more like AC, than AoS…

Anything else? Rebecca has a bigger chip on her shoulder than the rest of the Inner Circle do, now many people are dead, and Reeva’s true test as a leader has come: how will she handle Rebecca and her disobedience? She did have a plan, she gave Rebecca an order, and it did not work. Reeva will need to bring Rebecca to heel eventually, because if she does not, Rebecca might turn on her, and Reeva’s entire master plan will derail completely.

Here is a fact: as far as leadership goes, Reeva pictures herself more like Dumbledore than Riddle. She is willing to sacrifice anyone for the greater good, (whatever she perceives it to be), but good is the key word here. Rebecca is more like a Death Eater instead – she does not care about who gets in her way, as long as she succeeds. Andy Strucker is currently riding the metaphorical tiger, and it is an open question if he will succeed. (The fact that Rebecca’s character was upgraded is put aside – real life matters, even on a TV show, you know?) What next?

Well, on one hand, ‘the Gifted’ were showing Rebecca to be bad news since she appeared; the question is, is she irredeemably bad? (And what about Andy? Where does he fall here, again?) AoS tried its’ hand with redemption, (especially in S2), and made a hash of it; AC tried something similar…also in S2…but got cancelled after the second season, so that was the end of it; the greater MCU is just meh on it…so it’s anyone’s guess as how this will turn out. The same goes for Jace, though with him it’s more of an open question will he become just a narrative engine to expose the social ills of the world of ‘the Gifted’, or will he come into open interactions with the Mutant Underground (or any other mutant characters on the show) instead.

Anything else? S2 of ‘Runaways’ is coming on December 2018; S2 of ‘C&D’ – in spring 2019, and detective Mayhem will play a proportionate role to Ty and Dy, who are the titular characters after all. Real life does suck, but not always, it seems.

Well, this is it for now; see you all soon!