Spoilers The Gifted - Season 1

[JD]

I still watch most of my TV on live basic cable. I just read or look around on the internet during commercial breaks.
Two hour season finale tonight:
eXtraction; X-roads
In the Season 1 finale, Dr. Campbell attends an anti-mutant summit, attempting to take the Hound program national, and some of the team at Mutant HQ goes on a dangerous mission to stop his efforts. Polaris learns more about her past and makes a crucial decision that could have impactful consequences. Meanwhile, the Mutant HQ comes under attack and, with everything to lose, relationships are put to the test, and alliances shift.

 

[crookeddy]

I still watch most of my TV on live basic cable. I just read or look around on the internet during commercial breaks.

60 minutes of real time for 42 minutes of content? You must have a lot of time to waste.

 

[Set Harth]

Well, that was a bit underwhelming.

But really I could say that about the show in general, a lot of the time, though obviously it does have its moments.

Though I knew it was pipe dream territory, a part of me was hoping for something awesome... maybe the actual X-Men showing up to save the day, complete with accompanying music cue from the Singer films?

Or at least the name "Magneto" spoken aloud, for once?

And the ending felt a bit rehashed from First Class.

Dillahunt using children as human shields was a nice touch.

 

[Christopher]

Welp. Polaris has gone full supervillain, right down to the gratuitously revealing wardrobe.

Between Andy & Lauren blowing up the safe house and Turner quitting Sentinel Services, they're gonna need to build a lot of new sets next season. Although I guess that fancier "safe house" might be Hellfire HQ. It seems like the same place the Cuckoos went before to meet with their finance guy.

 

[Forbin]

This show ain't 10% as good as Shield. Although in BOTH cases, I'm pretty tired of the fugitives on the run plot.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

This show is so damn frustrating.

Overall, it's a solid finale but it's far from great. Largely good action, but the morale dilemmas were a mixed bag in execution, ranging from well-handled (Lorna's, for the most part) to decent (X-Men philosophy versus Brotherhood philosophy) to largely meh (Andy's). They all look great on paper but they're not carried out well, sometimes because of the directing, sometimes because of the script, sometimes from the inexperienced acting.

Unfortunately, that's been the show's problem from the get go. A lot of potential, plenty of great ideas to work with, and a solid cast (but not without its weaknesses), but the final product doesn't reach greatness. Ill-conceived contrivances, eye-rolling moments, and awful dialogue continues to hold back the show. I hope the producers are able to learn from the mistakes of the first season and become better in the next season (especially with newly hired writers), but some of the stuff in the finale doesn't give me much hope.

Welp. Polaris has gone full supervillain, right down to the gratuitously revealing wardrobe.

Not just revealing but awfully stereotypical. Granted Lorna always had the "punk" vibe going for her, but she went all out here to say "Look at me! I'm a villain now!"

 

[JD]

It was a little weird how they kept making a big deal about Polaris's father but never actually said the name Magneto. I kept expecting a big reveal towards the end of the episode and never actually happened.
I was actually pretty happy with how they built up to the big split at the end over the last few episodes, rather than just doing it all in just the finale here.
It will be interesting to see what kind of relationship the two groups will end up having next season.

 

[Set Harth]

A lot of potential, plenty of great ideas to work with, and a solid cast (but not without its weaknesses), but the final product doesn't reach greatness. Ill-conceived contrivances, eye-rolling moments, and awful dialogue continues to hold back the show.

It starts to fall into familiar patterns. For example, anytime someone gets captured by the bad guys, it doesn't have the impact or stakes that it should, because you know they won't be imprisoned for very long - the bad guys will inevitably feel the need to move them in a convoy to a different facility, the convoy ( or the facility itself ) will get attacked by the Underground, rinse, lather, repeat.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Cosplayer Brianna Lamb, known as "The Lady Nerd" is Emma Dumont's stand-in on The Gifted. She blogs about the experience here.

 

[Christopher]

A cosplayer becoming an actual stand-in? That's so perfect!

Well, being an actual on-camera double would be better, I guess, because then you'd actually be in the same costume. But I guess it's a good idea to have stand-ins be as similar in height, hair, and wardrobe to the actors as possible in order to get the lighting and everything right before bringing the actors in.

 

[Turtletrekker]

A cosplayer becoming an actual stand-in? That's so perfect!

She also worked on the MacGyver re-boot.

She first came to my attention with her May-Day Parker cos-play, which looked like the character brought to life just as I imagined her. Tom DeFalco himself even approved. Her Rey is pretty good as well.

 

[JD]

Cosplayer Brianna Lamb, known as "The Lady Nerd" is Emma Dumont's stand-in on The Gifted. She blogs about the experience here.

That's pretty cool.

 

[JD]

Mat Nix, The Gifted's creator/showrunner, has done a brief interview with IGN where he addressed Lorna and Andy joining the Hellfire Club, and gives a tease of what to expect for Season 2.
It sounds like the won't be spending as much time in their new HQ as they did this in this season's, which is fin by me. I didn't mind the stuff we got this season, but I the characters spending less sitting around at their HQ sounds like an improvement to me.

 

[Christopher]

It sounds like the won't be spending as much time in their new HQ as they did this in this season's, which is fin by me. I didn't mind the stuff we got this season, but I the characters spending less sitting around at their HQ sounds like an improvement to me.

No doubt the fairly sedentary format of season 1 was dictated by budgetary limitations. Hopefully they'll have a bit more money to play around with next year, or be able to spend it more efficiently. Normally I'd say you'd have more freedom to spend in a second season because you'd be able to keep using the standing sets/vehicles/props/costumes built for the first season, but they just blew up their main standing set and don't really have distinctive vehicles, props, or costumes for the heroes. As it is, they'll have to start over largely from scratch with the sets, so there are no savings there.

 

[Tuvix5675]

SPOILER! I liked how the season finale ended with a split in the mutant underground, kind of echoing the split between Xavier and Magneto, but we got to see how the split developed so we can see the logic of both sides. It was a predictable path, but for some reason I didn't see it coming, although all the signs were there. I don't really see much of a difference between the two groups except that Lorna and the sisters are choosing high level targets for kidnapping or assassination, whereas John and the others are just focused on saving mutants, but otherwise laying low, and only fighting back when attacked.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Here is part 2 of a day on the set of The Gifted, by Emma Dumont's body double.

http://theladynerd.com/a-day-on-set-of-the-gifted-part-ii/

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Season two trailer, which is surprisingly long for a television show:

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Things still look pretty angsty, unfortunately. I'm holding onto hope that the new showrunners have learned from the mistakes of the first season.

 

[jmc247]

Really top notch production values in that preview, they got a real budget boost and seem at least to be firing on all cylinders to start off with. Let’s see if they avoid the mid season doldrums this time.

Cast interviews

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It seems they are teasing possible team uniforms in the future.

The mutants of the X-Men comics have always been seen as a parallel for oppression, and with season 2 of The Gifted, that seems to be even more prominent.

“We opened it up, so there are so many other facets of the X-Men and just our universe in general that we haven’t been able to show because of what we were doing last year,” cast member Sean Teale told EW in a Facebook Live interview at San Diego Comic-Con. “And now that we’ve been on the run, we see so many cities, so many subsets of the mutant world.”

Joined by costars Stephen Moyer, Emma Dumont, Blair Redford, Jamie Chung, Natalie Alyn Lind, and Skyler Samuels, Teale specifically mentioned the new villainous Purifiers. “The Purifiers are a mutant hate group. I don’t know what parallels we could compare that to in mordern-day times,” he said sarcastically. “If only we had an idea. They’re tiki torch-carrying mutant haters.”

Chung also pointed out the introduction of the Morlocks, a group of mutants in the comics who live underground in the sewers. “It’s the proper mutant underground, like, they’re literally mutants that live underground,” she laughed. “That’s a really interesting story line, but you get to see a different side, or a different society, of how mutants could live freely — but underground.”

When season 2 premieres this Sep. 25 on Fox, we will pick up six months after the season 1 finale. Polaris (Dumont) will be in labor — an event that makes her stronger, since mutant powers are influenced by their emotions — and much more in line with her father, Magneto.

“She follows her exact father’s footsteps,” Dumont said. “They have the same political beliefs and, now that she’s gonna be a mother, she understands what it means to be a parent and what you have to sacrifice.”

http://ew.com/tv/2018/07/21/the-gifted-season-2-comic-con-video/

 

[Pauln6]

I rather enjoyed the build up on the show but I agree that the fugitive plot on its own has no legs if you have to either think of novel ways of not being caught, treat Sentinel services as morons who never learn, or leave plot holes.

I thought Dreamer was an interesting take on a very minor character but I've been disappointed how Sage has been under-used. I was never a fan of giving her a weird array of mutant powers in the comics when her computer mind was so fascinating on its own but she is just being portrayed as someone who can process data quickly and hack. She displays none of her analytical abilities and it seems a shame that her Afghan heritage has fallen away.

That said, she might turn out to be a double agent who is underplaying her abilities.

 

[Greg Cox]

60 minutes of real time for 42 minutes of content? You must have a lot of time to waste.

That's what crossword puzzles are for.