The midseason finale was kind of weird and I'm not sure I like the way it went. They've had all these threads that were set in motion and building up, the growing tension between the two sides, but suddenly they've just thrown them all off course by introducing Esme and her sisters -- the Stepford Cuckoos from the comics -- as a third, wild-card faction that's working against both of them. I don't know why they've shifted focus so suddenly, in a way that feels like it's shoving the other arcs aside. How does this fit into the narrative? If the idea is to have the Cuckoos cause an incident that provokes more anti-mutant tension and hostility, that seems redundant, considering that we've already got government-sanctioned mutant torture and enslavement at Trask, casual murder by Campbell, and Turner's very personal anger driving him. It also seems strange to build up the tension between Turner and Dreamer by giving them a direct confrontation and then just have Dreamer casually killed off in a different subplot. Structurally, it's just odd. Meanwhile, we finally get the payoff to the buildup of Andy and Lauren combining their powers, and nothing really happens as a result. They disintegrate some sensors (but the security camera is surprisingly untouched), they shake up the building a bit, Campbell gets some data that he says is crucial, but it's just one more bit of setup for whatever happens later in the series. It's pretty disappointing. Also, if they could disintegrate anything short of adamantium, why didn't they disintegrate their control collars?
Yeah, the whole thing with the Stepford Cuckoos does feel like a sudden swerve. I'm still enjoying the show, so I'm going to trust the writers, but the whole Cuckoos story does feel like an unnecessary complication. Dreamer's death was kind of annoying, it felt to me like there was a lot they could still do with the character.
I'm not even sure how an adamantium room could even hold them. Did they make an entire box without joins? How about the door? It's kind of stupid. And how could he know their power would even be contained by a room anyway? For all he knew, they could have ignored the walls and destroyed the rest of the building. ...Plus, if they only got some adamantium because of the abandoned Alkali Base, why did they choose to make a little room? Did they make anything else that doesn't have a specific purpose but might come in handy some day? And now they're stuck with a wrecked room.
The show is heading into some dark territory, so I hope it'll be able to deal with the issues that are harming it, including the dialogue (which wasn't so bad in this episode) and the cheesier elements (like the slow-motion melodramatic presentation of the Strucker twins' power). I've never heard of the Stepford Cuckoos before, so that was a pleasant twist for me once we finally discovered what Esme was up to. I don't mind the addition to another angle in the show as long as it's able to juggle all of the dynamics, although granted, the handling of Dreamer doesn't seem to indicate that precision just yet. That bothered me a lot. Less so the cold-blooded nature (which drives the duel points of Campbell's hate for mutants and his drive to destroy them), but as you said, the flimsy story structure. While I didn't have any real attachment to Dreamer as a character, it was definitely a waste to build up to that confrontation, as well as creating friction between her and Blink and then work to make them friends, but only to just discard her altogether. I think it was a fairly big deal because handily destroyed what Campbell and others considered to be indestructible. Certainly, William Stryker and Logan would be pretty damn impressed that the Strucker twins did that to adamantium. As for the collars, this was the first time they've used this power and they were using it under duress, filled with anger over Dreamer's death. The force of power seemed to have a specific vector to it, instead of just spreading out everywhere. Only one of the walls was damaged. Given more time and focus, I'm sure they would be able to destroy the collars in such a scenario again.
No, the adamantium was fine. The sensor spikes inside the wall were turned to dust, and the building beyond suffered structural damage, but the actual walls of the chamber were still completely intact, the only parts that weren't damaged, other than that miraculous security camera.
It was tough to tell, but I think they made a huge dent in the adamantium. (It looked kind of warped I think.) Decent mid-season finale. The kids now have a better idea of what their powers can do, and perhaps they will have a growing taste for it. I agree that I would have liked to have seen more Dreamer, but I guess the whole idea with a shock death is that it happens at a non-normal time in a character's story. When Agent Turner complains to Reed or Thunderbird about all the people who died at the end there, they'll be able to turn that around and point to Sonya's murder and say that he sent her to her executioner. John , Lorna, and the rest of the mutants were kind of in the background for this one, weren't they? A sign of a proper X-Men show with the cast getting bigger all the time.
My guess would be better than 50/50. It's ratings seem to be decent enough. Nothing spectacular, but worth keeping. That said, with the whole Disney buying Fox business, that probably increases the odds even more. Unless the ratings tank when it comes back after Christmas break, I'd expect The Gifted to get a second season.
For those of you who have Hulu, they have an edition of the pilot with audio commentary from Matt Nix.
I don't recall that, but even if they did, that's with a power that would otherwise have destroyed the whole building, and they were still sealed inside the room. I'm calling that a win for the adamantium. I might agree if so much of the focus hadn't been on Esme and her sisters, who I find to be merely an intrusion on the narrative at this point. The whole Cuckoos arc feels like a random swerve. Maybe when the show returns, we'll gain some understanding of what the point of it all is, but so far it's just annoying. It doesn't help that I don't find the actress very engaging.
I agree. We see both the dent from the inside, and also the wall in the next room being smashed outwards by the room's distortion.
Any sympathy I had for Agent Turner is completely gone at this point, especially with his whole Lucifer speech during his partner's funeral. He sees the horrors of Campbell's operation and doesn't care as long as he achieves his blind goals. As far he's concerned, all mutants are the same and they should pay for the actions of the few. Screw him. Of course, it doesn't help any that the Mutant Underground has teamed up with the Hellfire Club for whatever devious reasons, even if it was under duress and manipulation. The show continues to demonstrate great story potential but the writing just isn't up to snuff. I really do hope it improves if the show gets a second season. Is Ray Campbell's character suppose to be someone we know? IMDb credits him only as "William" but that's an awfully vague name.
Like many, I suspect, didn't realize there was a new episode last night. Living in Upstate South Carolina, I was watching Clemson loose to Alabama last night. Had I known there was a new episode, I might have spared myself the grief of watching defeat and watched The Gifted instead! I guess it's Hulu tonight! Q2
The addition of the Hellfire Club was interesting. At first I was a annoyed with the sudden addition of the Frost sisters, but I liked what we got here with them and their boss, so I'm OK with it now. I'm definitely curious to see exactly what their endgame is. I was surprised that Lorna wasn't aware Magneto is her father.
Yeah -- he's failing to distinguish between the mutants who are willing to use such tactics and those who aren't. A man of color should know better than to think like that. Why is it that shows and movies about fantasy racism always cast black people as the racists? (E.g. Tawny Cypress in Supergirl, or Will Smith in Bright. Or Will Smith in I, Robot, for that matter.) Lorna's parentage has been a matter of uncertainty in the comics since her debut. Apparently, the story that introduced her had Magneto claim to her that he was her father, but it was then revealed to be a hoax Magneto used to manipulate her. It wasn't until 2003 that she was retconned into being Magneto's daughter for real. https://www.cbr.com/the-abandoned-an-forsaked-so-is-magneto-polaris-dad-or-what/ I was more surprised by the implication that Magneto belonged to the Hellfire Club. That's sort of blending the HC with the Brotherhood. I'm pretty sure they were always separate in the comics.
Does Skyler Samuels play all 3 Cuckoos or does she have sisters? If so, the effects are Orphan-Black-level seamless. I was trying to figger out if they hired triplets last night.
Yeah, that surprised me too. Has he ever been a member in the comics? I wonder if the Cuckoos last name being Frost means they are using at least some version of their comic origin. According to Wikipedia in the comics they are clones of Emma Frost, but I could see the show just making them her daughters if they didn't want to go the clone route. It's just her, I just found this EW interview where she talks about playing all three sisters.