20th Century Fox launch their newest small screen X-Men offering…
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On the run: The lives of the Strucker family are turned upside down in Fox’s new ‘X-Men’ series ‘The Gifted’.
Starring: Stephen Moyer, Amy Acker, Natalie Alyn Lind, Percy Hynes White, Coby Bell, Sean Teale, Jamie Chung, Blair Redford, Emma Dumont
Series created by: Matt Nix
Written by: Matt Nix / Directed by: Bryan Singer
What’s it about?
When an incident at school forces teenagers Lauren and Andy Strucker to reveal that they have mutant abilities, the Strucker family find themselves on the run and hunted by the authorities…
Episode review
Following the launch of Legion earlier this year, 20th Century Fox Television add another X-Men universe show to the roster with The Gifted, developed by Burn Notice creator Matt Nix with an enjoyable, if slightly flawed, series premiere.
Unconnected to Legion and taking place apart from the X-Men films, The Gifted is unshackled by the demands of shared universe canon that can sometimes by more of a curse than a blessing. It’s a wise move in this instance given the loose, unclear approach to continuity of the big screen X-Men outings – The Gifted establishes a world where mutant groups the X-Men and the Brotherhood have disappeared, leaving the series free to chart its own course.
The premise is nothing new (mutants are of course still hated and feared) and The Gifted is more of a straightforward comic book action adventure series in the vein of Heroes or Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. than the arty head-tripping experience Legion is, yet it certainly doesn’t try to be anything else other than an entertaining watch. As Reed and Caitlin Strucker, Stephen Moyer (True Blood) and Amy Acker (Person of Interest) are capable leads, along with their mutant teenage children Lauren (Natalie Alyn Lind) and Andy (Percy Hynes White), their characters are likeable and have potential but it doesn’t feel as though we get to know all that much about them and their backgrounds in this first episode in order to really root for them. For example, we learn from the outset that Reed works as a mutant prosecutor but “eXposed” doesn’t quite delve into this properly and explore more deeply the fallout and consequences of him learning that his offspring have mutant abilities. Hopefully this will all come later as the series progresses and the writers have had more opportunity to develop the principal characters.
Whilst there are no ‘A-list’ X-Men present (nor was it expected), the mutant underground sought by the on-the-run Strucker family does include fresh takes on iconic characters – Eclipse (Sean Teale), Polaris (Emma Dumont), Thunderbird (Blair Redford) and Blink (Jamie Chung). They’re obviously not literal spandex-clad translations of their comic book counterparts but are a welcome addition that solidifies the show’s X-Men credentials.
The Sentinel Services and their spider-like drones are also a nice twist on established lore, a television budget pretty much ruling out the inclusion of the gigantic mutant-hunting robots seen in X-Men comics (and reimagined in X-Men: Days of Future Past). Likewise, mutant powers are somewhat restricted and less elaborate than what we’ve seen on the big screen but that’s understandable and director Bryan Singer – who has helmed four X-Men feature films (including two of the most popular, X2 and Days of Future Past) – brings skill and experience in utilising the tools available to him and where “eXposed” may falter a little in characterisation it compensates for with relatively tense pacing and satisfying action beats.
With its premiere, The Gifted establishes an interesting set-up, the fugitive scenario promising plenty of excitement and the intolerance and prejudice towards mutants offering some social relevance in these sadly turbulent times. There’s work to do with the characters but if the writers are able to flesh them out and explore them more deeply in episodes to come then The Gifted could prove to be a solid accompaniment to Legion and a worthy addition to Fox’s X-Men universe.
The bottom line: Despite some initial shortcomings, the season premiere of The Gifted is non-the-less entertaining and shows potential for the series ahead.
The Gifted airs in the UK Monday nights on Fox UK. U.S. viewers can catch it on Fox every Sunday.
GEEK BLOGGER REVIEWS 
Great write up. I only saw the first episode and found it to be competent if not exactly groundbreaking. I’ll give it a couple more episodes before deciding if I will continue watching it. But at least it’s not a train wreck like Inhumans.
Yeah it’s perhaps a little generic and it didn’t grab me in the way that Legion did. I enjoyed it enough to keep going with it. Inhumans premieres on UK TV shortly, I’ll give it a go but my expectations are very low!
Good luck with the Inhumans 😆
I was going to start this the day it came out but man.. so many shows has their season premiere around the same time and I wasn’t ready to juggle so many at the same time. Got to say that shows like this one and the soon to be released Runaways are probably going to raise a lot of questions for casual fans of the X-Men in regards to the link to the movie’s universe. Nice review though, it sounds exactly as I thought it would. Nothing too special, at least for now. Have you also seen the Inhumans or didn’t try that one out yet? The amount of hate it has received is phenomenal! I haven’t started that one either.
Well, I watched the first episode of Inhumans when it started it’s UK airing last week. I was not particularly impressed and probably won’t continue with it, partly because there are so many other things to watch at the moment!
The Gifted is a decent watch, four episodes in they’re starting to get into the characters more. It does feel ‘by the numbers’ and not as innovative as Legion but I’m interested to see where it goes.