The Gifted is Marvel’s Best Television Attempt Yet – Mid-Season Review and Discussion

<p>I personally find that the best Superhero and Fantasy series have some sort of basis in real-world issues&period; DC Comics has done a fantastic job of that with shows like <em>Arrow<&sol;em> and <em>The Flash<&sol;em>&comma; and even with their more &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;fantastical series” like <em>Supergirl<&sol;em> and <em>Legends of Tomorrow<&sol;em>&period; On a Television platform though&comma; Marvel has struggled to find their footing in a show that has longevity and a real-world feel&period; The Gifted is the first show that I have seen come out of a Marvel Comics property &lpar;despite the film and TV rights being owned by Fox&rpar; that has correctly captured what is necessary to create a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;realistic” superhero narrative&period; If you haven&&num;8217&semi;t watch such shows yet because you weren&&num;8217&semi;t able to properly setup your system&comma; Tech Vision Electronics store in Scarborough offers premium TV mounts and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;techvisionelectronics&period;com&sol;product-category&sol;tv-mounts&sol;tv-wallmounts&sol;">65 inch tv wall mount<&sol;a> at affordable prices&period; Whether you want to have a premium TV viewing experience&comma; visit our website today and have the best TV bracket&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Gifted’s first 10 episode season is over halfway finished&comma; and I can’t help but feel like Fox &lpar;and Marvel by extension&rpar; has captured something special here&period; By using a cast of television veterans like Stephen Moyer &lpar;known for his role as Bill Compton on <em>True Blood<&sol;em>&rpar; and Amy Acker &lpar;known for her roles in <em>Angel<&sol;em> and <em>Person of Interest<&sol;em>&rpar; alongside newer&comma; less known actors like Sean Teale &lpar;of <em>Reign<&sol;em>&rpar; and Jamie Chung &lpar;of <em>Once Upon a Time<&sol;em> and <em>Gotham<&sol;em>&comma;&rpar; they have crafted a great ensemble that works brilliantly together&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Gifted<&sol;em> is a series focused on members of the Strucker family who become fugitives after Andy &lpar;the youngest sibling&rpar; manifests mutant abilities while being bullied&period; His sister Lauren is also a mutant with the ability to control the air &lpar;though in dialogue it is revealed that she can control water and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;other things” but with more difficulty&comma;&rpar; and while trying to protect her brother and contain his powers&comma; they find themselves in the sights of Sentinel Services&period; The Strucker family finds themselves joining forces with the Mutant Underground&comma; consisting &lpar;partly&rpar; of Marco Diaz &sol; Eclipse &lpar;portrayed by Sean Teale&comma;&rpar; Lorna Dane&sol; Polaris &lpar;portrayed by Emma Dumont&comma;&rpar; John Proudstar &sol; Thunderbird &lpar;portrayed by Blair Redford&rpar; and Clarice Fong &sol; Blink &lpar;portrayed by Jamie Chung&period;&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;131514" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-131514" style&equals;"width&colon; 780px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-131514" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;11&sol;08022305&sol;Lauren-and-Andy&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"780" height&equals;"401" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-131514" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Gifted&comma; 20th Century Fox<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The series doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of being a mutant&period; Like in the film series&comma; <em>The Gifted<&sol;em> shows mutants as oppressed&comma; marginalized people who are treated like terrorists&period; While it isn’t clear whether it takes place in an alternate universe or if it is set in a precursor to the dystopian future found in <em>Logan<&sol;em> or <em>X-Men Days of Future Past<&sol;em>&comma; it is referenced in the first episode that the <em>X-Men<&sol;em> and Brotherhood have been missing for some time&period; Despite this&comma; references and nods to various characters and aspects of the universe are evident&comma; such as the Sentinel Services&comma; who are not a group of mutant-hunting robots but instead are a government agency that has refined technology to capture and detain mutants&period; Mutants have been largely branded as terrorists and fugitives&comma; to the point that the Mutant Underground was created as a network to smuggle mutants to safe havens &lpar;or countries where mutant laws are looser&comma; such as Mexico&period;&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ironically&comma; the world of <em>The Gifted<&sol;em> mirrors our own in a few noticeable ways&comma; for example in Episode 2 Caitlin Strucker and Marco Diaz venture out to get medical supplies to stabilize Clarice who has lost control of her powers after overextending them in the previous episode&period; During the adventure to a clinic that is one of the last to treat mutants&comma; Caitlin discovers that many mutants are unable to have access to health care&period; The importance of this is that to the average homo sapien in The Gifted’s version of America&comma; the government paints mutants as either terrorists&comma; extremists&comma; or as people who are &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;taken care of” in special facilities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>To the average person&comma; they have no concept of how mutants really live&comma; much in the same way that marginalized people in our society are painted with one specific &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;media brush” while the truth lies somewhere in the shadows&period; This is dressed up a bit by showing that in some ways this treatment can be seen as justified due to the dangerous nature of many mutant abilities&comma; but in a lot of ways&comma; the comparison is quite noticeable even in a subtle context&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;131515" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-131515" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-131515" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;11&sol;08023021&sol;Lorna-Dane-1024x683&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"667" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-131515" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Gifted&comma; 20th Century Fox<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I have to take a moment to mention that while I am a fan of Amy Acker’s previous body of work&comma; and despite the fact that I believe that anything she touches turns to gold&comma; I was greatly impressed by her portrayal of Caitlin Strucker&period; I am impressed more and more each week due to the fact that even when presented with the fact that her children are mutants&comma; Amy brings a fantastic range of emotions to Caitlin and portrays her as more than just the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;token nurse” or &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;worrying mother&period;” Throughout the series thus far&comma; Caitlin has gotten her hands dirty&comma; whether it was using her nursing training&comma; or being an overall supportive mother&period; In some ways&comma; she provides a voice of reason that encourages the rest of the cast not to give in to mindless violence and vengeance&comma; while in others she showcases a woman who will do anything to protect her family&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The visual effects are well done in <em>The Gifted<&sol;em>&comma; and if the series continues on the path it is on so far&comma; I can see it being a series that lasts a while&period; I wasn’t exactly sold when Fox started bringing the <em>X-Men<&sol;em> franchise to television and while I know many people enjoyed <em>Legion&comma;<&sol;em> it wasn’t something that caught my attention very well&period; <em>The Gifted<&sol;em> on the other hand actually feels like a part of a cinematic world and focuses on what makes series like this great&colon; the characters and their storylines&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>From concepts like &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;How do we bring a child into a world that would hate them&quest;” to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;How do you make things right when you realize you’ve been the villain all along&quest;” <em>The Gifted<&sol;em> takes powerful real-world dilemmas and brings them to life&period; If you haven’t started watching The Gifted yet&comma; it really is great television&period; With that being said&comma; <em>The Gifted<&sol;em> isn’t perfect&comma; and where it really needs work is in terms of the villains or antagonists&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;131516" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-131516" style&equals;"width&colon; 970px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-131516" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;11&sol;08023103&sol;Blink&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"970" height&equals;"545" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-131516" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Gifted&comma; 20th Century Fox<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The showrunners have attempted to make us feel for one of the antagonists in particular&comma; who lost his daughter as collateral damage during a mutant rights rally before mutants were oppressed&period; Despite this&comma; the villains don’t really give the same screen presence that the heroes do&period; This is mostly a problem because&comma; in other superhero shows&comma; you really want a villain that commands the screen or at least provides an interesting foil to the protagonists&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With Sentinel Services being a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;big&comma; scary&comma; oppressive&comma; shadow-organization” that hides what they do to mutants they capture&comma; we may be getting closer to the villain viewers want&period; For the mean-time&comma; the day to day struggle for survival is enough&comma; but there will come a point in the series where viewers will want a more formidable villain for the Strucker family and their allies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While it isn’t perfect&comma; <em>The Gifted<&sol;em> is a well-crafted bit of television and in our divided world these days&comma; I can’t help but think that it is a necessary show&comma; if not to take our minds off the insanity that is day to day life&period; Even if you aren’t interested in the social commentary aspect&comma; <em>The Gifted<&sol;em> is just a fun show to enjoy with friends and family&comma; especially if you are an <em>X-Men<&sol;em> fan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;