Inhumans vs The Gifted

Marvel

I am the nerd half of Midnight Eggs. Superheroes, sci-fi, fantasy… I’m down for it all. Please allow me to geek out for a bit. Even though I’ve never read a comic book, I love Marvel. Every time they announce a new TV show, I’m totally on board. Not every attempt is a winner – I’m looking at you, Iron Fist – but I enjoy most of their offerings. Cuz, I’m a dork.

When there were 2 new Marvel shows slated for the Fall season (you know, on old-fashioned TV instead of Netflix) I was beside myself. At first glance I thought I would like one more than the other. Technically, I was right. I just picked the wrong show.

Inhumans
ABC’s Inhumans

Inhumans had a huge roll out. It debuted in IMAX theaters and ran for two weeks before premiering on ABC at the end of September. Impressive! Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Snow from Game of Thrones) is cast as the villain. Hell yes! It’s set in Attilan, a hidden city for Inhumans on the moon. Well, sure. The King of Attilan doesn’t speak because he could rip everyone apart with even a whisper. Um, ok. The royal family is transported around by a giant Inhuman dog named Lockjaw. Wait, what?

The show was awkward, at best. I’m writing about it in the past tense because I’m pretty sure it’s not coming back. No spoilers in case you want to watch it (don’t bother), but the story never really came together. I feel like they assumed that everyone watching was already familiar with the characters and the story so they just didn’t bother. Probably not the case, but that’s how it felt. The characters didn’t seem like a family, even though they kept hitting us over the head with that word. It was stylized like Marvel’s Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D (which I love) and Agent Carter (which I love even more and am still mourning), but it didn’t have any of their charm or humor. It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t exciting. There were no great SFX. It wasn’t even kitschy. I watched all the episodes to see if it led to anything remotely interesting. It did not.

The Gifted
Fox’s The Gifted

The Gifted had a more low-key premiere. It debuted on FOX the week after Inhumans. It’s the story of an ordinary family whose life gets completely uprooted when the parents discover their teenage kids are mutants. When I saw the promo, I thought, “Oh, like Heroes. They even have a Hayden Panettiere look-a-like.” Stephen Moyer (meh) of True Blood fame is the father and Amy Acker of Firefly (LOVE!) is the mom. It didn’t seem like it was anything special so I decided to wait and binge later. Wrong choice.

The other featured mutants include Emma Dumont (Bunheads, Aquarius anyone? No? Just me?) as Polaris and Sean Teale (Reign) as Eclipse. They have great chemistry and they are believable as leaders of the resistance. Oh yeah, the government is hunting down mutants and locking them away – a little on-the-nose in this political climate. Because The Gifted is part of the X-Men universe, which is a Marvel property and not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (complicated, I know!), it doesn’t need to conform to or incorporate any of that universe. They acknowledge the X-Men, but that’s about it. So the show has the freedom to make its own path. The characters and story are compelling and the SFX are simple, but good.

I highly doubt that Inhumans will return for another season. But The Gifted looks to be in good shape. Tomorrow night, my poor, sweet Fitz will be back with the rest of the Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D to find out where in the Marvel Universe is Phil Coulson. I really hope they did not plan to tie into Inhumans. I don’t think even the indestructible Agent Coulson could save them.

 

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