Tuesday, 15 January 2019

The Gifted: hoMe - Jan 15


‘hoMe’ the episode has arrived, and-

And it was impressive. For a show that is still working on a limited budget, (as compared to AoS in the seasons past, for example), ‘the Gifted’ continues to impress as our mutant heroes sink further into the pit of despair.

Let us begin with the most obvious plot development here: the Mutant Underground is officially dead: Reeva’s new batch of hired thugs had killed them. Off screen, because of the limited budget issues, but they are dead regardless, even Evangeline Whedon, (a canon comics’ character, by the way). At least this is how things are for now, for in MCU and its’ satellites death isn’t always permanent, especially since the Avengers are planning to fight Thanos in their next movie, and maybe undo the effects of the Cosmic snap, so there’s that.

…‘Runaways’ have also debuted their S2 on TV, but due to real life issues, we are unable to talk about them, or watch them, because in the end? Real life sucks, but you got to make choices about how you navigate it, ‘cause you’re living it. Until you’re not, and are dead – by accident, by suicide, by being unlucky, by deliberately doing crime (fill in your own blanks regarding the crime in question), etc. As long as you live, you have to make choices – and sometimes you get lucky; today my family, (include me, naturally), got to observe a red-tailed hawk in the wild for a few minutes before it fly off because of its’ own reasons and reasoning…

Back to TV and ‘the Gifted’? As it was implied above, sometimes you cannot get what you want because of your choices, because no one is an island and you get to live in the bed you made; sometimes the results, (good or bad), are unintentional, but they are still here, you got to handle them, somehow. This includes no ‘Runaways’, at least for now. What is left?

The next ‘Spider-Man’ movie is coming, featuring – apparently - Tony Stark’s lawyer Happy Hogan dating Peter’s aunt May, (well, at least it isn’t Tony himself, that would be even more awkward), Peter and his classmates on a trip, the return of Nick Fury to MCU proper, (yes, he’s doing that in ‘Captain Marvel’ movie, technically, but still), and some new-old Spiderman faces, including Mysterio… who may not be the typical villain he’d been in the previous Spiderman incarnations, including the 1990s’ Spiderman cartoon series. The biggest heavyweights in this movie, however, shaping up to be the Elementals – four extradimensional entities with the mastery of one element each; it’s all very Pathfinder, if you ask me.

…The point is that in the Marvel-world we got at least three epic-sized exciting movies with a distinctive positive vibe…which is as far as possible from ‘the Gifted’ at this point: in their world, the Mutant Underground is officially dead, Clarice has left John for Morlocks, (so now it’s really just him, his dog, Marcos, Lorna – sort of, and the Struckers, who tend to do their own thing much more often than not), and then there are the Struckers…

The Struckers are actually the low point of ‘hoMe’ – ‘the Gifted’ is back in mashing Andy and Lauren together as they did back in S1, especially in the second part, when the Strucker siblings had to get their act in synch to defeat Trask’s and its people. This time, it apparently is the Inner Circle, and this plot twist had been nowhere in evidence; it is something old and something new at the same time; this strategy had been used in AoS time and again as its’ seasons progressed, and it didn’t help the older Marvel show in the matter of numbers; and as for ‘the Gifted’? Its’ numbers in S2 go up and down, true, but on average? It is lower than what they had back in S1, and that is not good, and that recycling of ideas is not helping either.

On the other hand, what else do they have? Lorna acting undercover in the Inner Circle reminiscent of S.H.I.E.L.D. infiltrating Hydra (and vice versa)? Check. ‘The Gifted’ further going with the entire Elf-king situation? Also, check.

…This probably deserves some elaboration. As we might have talked last time, in the ballad of Goethe, the child constantly sees things that are not quite real and his father is constantly explaining them to the boy, calming him down some, until it does not work anymore in the ballad and when they arrive at their destination – purposefully vague – the boy is dead. Ouch, and now we got ‘the Gifted’ trying to access Lauren via her dreams that are shared by Andy. It would be impressive if it were not so ‘tacked on’ and contrived, even more so than Marcos’ contrive conflict with the Morlocks.

The same goes for the Clarice/John conflict. Basically, Clarice had had enough of John’s heroics and her caring for him, so she quits. Well, considering that the Mutant Underground is gone, she technically does not quit, but the result is still the same: Lorna is back in, Clarice/Blink is out, and we got more drama among the non-Strucker mutants. What will they do next? I guess we will just have to wait and see.

…Well, this is it for this time – see you all soon!

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