Fox’s new X-Men-inspired series The Gifted takes place in a world where the X-Men and The Brotherhood of Mutants have disappeared, leaving an increasingly anti-mutant government in their wake. The show follows a group called the Mutant Underground that helps fellow mutants escape from persecution, and includes faces familiar to comic book readers including Sunspot, Polaris, Thunderbird, and Blink.
First off – I’m going to judge the show on its own merits, and not on its place within the jumbled continuity of the X-Men movie universe. Despite the pilot being directed by X-Men movie-verse head honcho Bryan Singer, the show’s creators have said that The Gifted does not take place in either of that franchise’s timelines. However, it might incorporate some events of those films into its own canon. Slightly confusing perhaps, but I’m willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt.
The pilot episode, titled eXposed, sees the Mutant Underground coming to the aid of the Strucker family when teenagers Lauren and Andy are forced to use their mutant powers in public. They go on the run with their mother Caitlin (Sci-fi vet Amy Acker) and father Reed (True Blood’s Stephen Moyer), a prosecutor specializing in mutants who’s quickly painted as “one of the good ones.”
Though it doesn’t push any creative boundaries or reinvent the wheel, The Gifted is something new for the world of X-Men onscreen. While the films are full of big-budget super heroics, this show feels smaller and more grounded. These are not the X-Men – just mutants trying to survive. In this way, The Gifted keys in on a central theme of the X-Men in a way the films have rarely managed -mutant oppression. Throughout their history, the X-Men have acted as stand-ins for real-world minorities. The stories that resonate the most are those that have depicted mutants as a marginalized group doing good in a world that hates and fears them.
The Gifted quickly establishes mutants as a minority, tapping into today’s anxieties over civil rights, immigration, and LGBT issues. Before manifesting his powers, Andy refers to mutants as “muties.” Chided for racism by his sister, who’s secretly a mutant herself, he corrects himself to “person of genetic difference.” It’s not hard to imagine a conversation like this – about the words we choose to use to describe marginalized groups – in our world.
In the show, a law is being debated about testing and monitoring those with the mutant X-gene. Mutant criminals are kept in a special detention center, and an “amended Patriot Act” allows the ICE-like Sentinel Services (or SS, while we’re drawing comparisons) to drag people from their homes without a warrant, arresting any mutant they suspect of being a threat. With everything going on in our world today, this strikes a very particular chord.
With only one episode under its belt, The Gifted still has plenty of growing to do. It’s not clear exactly where the story will head over the first season, but it will definitely need some added depth beyond “mutants on the run” to remain interesting. The mystery of what’s happened to the X-Men is something I hope will eventually be explored, and not sidestepped because the show is unable to cast Patrick Stewart or Hugh Jackman.
The characters also need much more fleshing out, though the basics are there. We see Andy’s (Percy Hynes White) dark sense of humor, Reed (Moyer) and Caitlin’s (Acker) devotion to their family, and hints of mental instability from Lorna (Emma Dumont). Though the performances feel somewhat wooden at times, I would chalk it up to the pilot’s need for exposition to set up the world of the show. Given time, I think these actors have the potential to find unique and interesting voices for their characters.
The show’s special effects are visually impressive but not overwrought, fitting nicely with the more grounded tone of the series. Blink’s portals, Polaris’ magnetism, and Sunspot’s light energy all look like you’d hope they would, even on a TV budget. I’m looking forward to seeing what other familiar mutants we’ll meet, and what it looks like when these characters fully cut loose with their powers.
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