[TV] The Gifted on Fox: Baby mutants galore

[hepcat]

I wasn't aware of this one, but a trailer was just released. described as a teen version of The X-Men, looks like a remake of Escape to Witch Mountain* (man, I had such a crush on Kim Richards when I was a kid).

Legion kind of raised the bar to ridiculous heights when it comes to creating a new show with mutants. Actually, it climbed up on the roof of the building, then handed the bar to God and told him to just put it "at the top". So...yeah.



*Actually it's more like Heroes. I just wanted to bring up Kim Richards because Tuff Turf was on TV a few weeks ago. This is how my mind works, people. I'm honestly surprised that I'm able to string together more than one conscious thought without suddenly wanting to talk about my favorite kind of pudding or why I think Teddy Ruxpin was a communist plot.

[Jag]

Before I read your post, I saw the trailer.

My initial impressions were "This can't even hold a candle to Legion" and "Hmm, looks like Heroes with mutants".

That male kid character reminded me of the kid from the Heroes reboot/continuation. He wasn't terrible, but not very engaging either. I get the same feeling from this trailer.

[Smoove_B]

Vampire Bill!

I'm guessing this show will live or die based on the performance of the teen actors. It has the Marvel stamp so I'm hopeful, but it wouldn't surprise me if Fox somehow manages to cock it up.

[Jag]

Vampire Bill!

I'm guessing this show will live or die based on the performance of the teen actors. It has the Marvel stamp so I'm hopeful, but it wouldn't surprise me if Fox somehow manages to cock it up.

The X-Men movies also had the Marvel stamp because they are Marvel properties on license to Fox. This is a Fox/Singer production all the way. So I'm not hopeful.

[tru1cy]

So Fox has X Men , Wolverine(probably done for now ) Deadpool and New Mutants on the big screens and Legion and The Gifted and Deadpool animated on the small screen. I guess my only issue is continuity or the lack there of. With the MCU there is a clear timeline, but not with Fox BS

So, apparently the X-Men are currently around as seen in Deadpool and the school is up and running, but The Gifted sounds like it's following the Logan timeline and the X-Men are gone or am I reading too much into it

[Jag]

So Fox has X Men , Wolverine(probably done for now ) Deadpool and New Mutants on the big screens and Legion and The Gifted and Deadpool animated on the small screen. I guess my only issue is continuity or the lack there of. With the MCU there is a clear timeline, but not with Fox BS

So, apparently the X-Men are currently around as seen in Deadpool and the school is up and running, but The Gifted sounds like it's following the Logan timeline and the X-Men are gone or am I reading too much into it

Haven't seen Logan yet

[hepcat]

It's more western than super hero film. Which is why I love it.

[Daehawk]

Loved the Witch Mountain movies as a kid.

[Hrothgar]

I just finished watching season 2. It's quite enjoyable and watchable. I like the characters, but I wish the whole thing wasn't so dark. Dark forces moving, a family's dark legacy, a brooding character's dark past, people living in darkness. One side character seemed briefly happy, so she was immediately injured, nearly killed and shipped off never to be seen again. Still, great characters, moving emotional arcs and solid writing and production values have kept me engaged. Anyone else enjoy it?

[tjg_marantz]

We watched it. Never hate watched it but things were getting a little hard to accept.

Cancelled. Not unhappy. It filled a void.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

[coopasonic]

We liked season 1, but apparently not enough to ever get around to watching season 2.

[rittchard]

As a huge X-Men (and X-everything) plus Amy Acker and Jamie Chung fan, I really really really wanted to love this show. Blink! Polaris!!! Sign me up!

Unfortunately while it had its moments, it disappointed me at every turn because I constantly felt like it could be infinitely better. Sometimes I wonder what TV executives are thinking when they put their ideas together. I know they have limitations and there are writers and producers and show runners to contend with, but often it just feels like they do inane and stupid things that are completely contradictory to pleasing fans.

The starting point alone was enough to poke holes in. After watching her kick massive ass as Illyria and Root, did any fan want to see Amy Acker play "worried mom"? Seriously, give her some freaking powers, or a battle suit, or ninja training. You can tell they realized this (way too late) in the final episodes where she would suddenly show up and start doing some kickass shit. Too late, producers, you are stupid.

Stephen Moyer was pretty cool as the lead vampire in True Blood, but here they made him a whiny bitch for the majority of the show. And when they did decide to power him up, they give him an inane power that he can't control. So that just gives him reason to whine even more. ARGH STUPID STUPID STUPID.

The two main kids I guess were OK, the boy was kind of annoying and whiny and looked horrible with bleached hair, but I could tolerate him. I liked the big boob girl, she reminded me of the girl from Heroes. They were fine with the material and powers they were given.

I understand they were likely not given permission to use the core X-Men, but that's OK. Even sub par X-Men can be pretty cool when used correctly. But these writers seemed to not know what to do with some of the ones they chose. Polaris was probably the biggest problem. She is on the level of Magneto when it comes to abilities, yet for the most part all they have her do is stop the occasional bullet and open doors, etc. Seriously she should have been able to make short work of any of the human targets, and probably just about any of the mutants aside from the Cuckoos. But they constantly made her wishy washy, or used her pregnancy to slow her down, or found any excuse to keep her limited. Then it seemed they couldn't decide if she was good or bad. Blink was also poorly used. Her teleporting powers make her arguably one of the most powerful mutants as well, particularly when she uses the Blink daggers correctly. But instead of allowing her to be a fast moving teleporter, they decided it would be better to, again, keep her out of key battles, slow her teleporting to making big portals, and basically keep her from being effective as much as possible. Again, until the finale when it was too late.

This show had a lot of the same problems that Agents of SHIELD did in terms of not knowing how they wanted to handle powers. They started with a premise that someone seemed to think was a good idea (focus on the family and personal aspect of being a mutant as opposed to the super power, action part) but instead of embracing it, they immediately throw the characters into plotlines that demand a more action-oriented storyline. If you want action, and you have super powered mutants, by all means go for it, but don't pussy foot around and handicap your characters at every turn. If you wanted a more limited family type of show, you should have actually spent some time developing that story line.

Ultimately I'm just sad that a show that had a ton of potential was just wasted, and just when they might have turned it around they apparently got cancelled. AoS was lucky enough to have the MCU movies to help them survive long enough to find their mojo, it's too bad these guys aren't getting the same chance.

[coopasonic]

As a huge X-Men (and X-everything) plus Amy Acker and Jamie Chung fan, I really really really wanted to love this show. Blink! Polaris!!! Sign me up!

Amy Acker is why I started watching it at all. Bonus that it had Moyer to get my wife onboard.