The Gifted, Season 2, Episode 15: Monsters
Watching The Gifted knowing that it got cancelled at the end of its second season, I'm honestly sort of curious just how much the writers knew going in that the Disney/Fox acquisition was going to happen, and how much forewarning they had before the show came on the chopping block, and I wonder if the show would've been done a bit differently otherwise. More focus on the actual X-Men characters, instead of slow building-up that ends up really being nowhere as spectacular as it should've been. Because while a small-scale superhero story can work as well, and sometimes even better, than large-scale ones, The Gifted seems to be... it tries to imply that huge things are happening all over the world, but the scale of conflict it shows us is really, really small, y'know?
Take this penultimate episode, for example. It's basically a huge set-up episode, but it feels particularly bland because the entire season, other than maybe the Morlock Massacre and the scene where the Inner Circle assaults that one building, feels like nothing but build-up. Basically, this episode has everyone sort of come to their senses, and the season-long drama about Polaris and Andy joining the Inner Circle is resolved in what's in my opinion a pretty anti-climactic way. I mean, Lorna's return to the Underground is sort of already dealt with while she's playing spy very poorly over the past couple of episodes, but Andy being sort of enjoying the happy game-like "kill the racists" viewpoint of the Inner Circle feels swept under the rug very, very quickly. And like, it's not like I've been especially enjoying the Andy/Lauren drama, but the fact that it's Reed basically telling Andy that "hey, I've killed a guy too, and I wanted to kill that guy. We can bond over accidental killing because of our powers". I mean, it got Andy back, but it feels pretty off, and I really wished the show had actually showcased more of this side of Reed as opposed to generic power incontinence and just confused mulling about.
And this episode just feels disjointed. After the whole rescuing Morlock thing, Thunderbird ends up becoming impotent because he can't track thanks to... heartbreak or some shit. Caitlin and Lauren basically tell the Morlocks in their car to run away and split up while they have a last stand, with Caitlin straight-up ready to pull off a heroic suicidal last stand to give her daughter a chance to escape, and the rest of our main characters have to go rescue them from the Purifiers. And it's Reed finally becoming angry and desperate enough to vaporize the wall that ends up allowing them to escape. Oh, and he murders someone too.
And... and I dunno. Like, on paper, the plotlines are good. Mutant factions clashing, two characters we love realizing the bad influence and having to escape the clutches of the tyrannical evil organization, the manipulation of an extremist faction... but none of the plotlines are handled well. The Purifiers are honestly nothing short of cartoonish and I really don't care for them. Lorna and Andy's escape take place off-screen and apparently they just up and left without no one realizing. And Reeva's plan is basically just to blow up some monuments all over the country or something, which... you don't really need to control both the biggest mutant terrorist group and the biggest anti-mutant extremist group to do that, surely?
Overall, this episode seems ambitious on the surface, but ultimately is just sort of poorly-paced setup. None of the soap opera stuff really landed for me and most of them felt like they happened because the plot needed it to happen, and honestly, other than Caitlin's increasing ruthlessness and the Inner Circle duo returning to the good guys, none of the characters really end up developing all that much in this episode.
No comments:
Post a Comment