What a disaster.
I never expected The Gifted to end up as good as any of the recent X-Men movies I loved (such as Logan, which I thought was a near-masterpiece), but I certainly had high expectations after a promising pilot. Sadly, the show has had so many ups and downs since then, with forced dialogue and plot contrivances halting every episode’s momentum.
3 X 1 is no exception. Forget the ridiculously juvenile title, the winter premiere also suffers from a poorly executed plot in which characters debate whether they should trust The Triplets (or The Cuckoo Triplets, as they are called in the comics) after they revealed how powerful they were last time. It’s an endlessly eye-rolling storyline jam-packed with atrocious dialogue and hollow fights because even the indifferent TV viewer could tell where this is going. Getting there, however, should not be this dull.
Then there’s the Struckers. It’s such a shame that this turned out to be the weakest aspect of a show that centers around family above everything else, but watching Caitlin and Reed continue to run away (or talk about running away) is becoming tedious. Amy Acker deserves a show that can truly make use of her ass-kicking skills.
Let’s hope the show can redeem itself at all in its upcoming season (series?) finale. I’m certainly not holding my breath, though.
Xtra Bits
– The cold opens are becoming extremely heavy-handed. And what is the point of showing Blink and her horrible ex-boyfriend if the episode fails to bring up her backstory again?
– Really hated the soapy montage during the funerals of Dreamer and Some Guy From Sentinel Services. What is this, The OC?
– Wes is back for a brief moment and no one could care any less.
– The only plausible and truly intriguing scene of the hour is when Eclipse, Polaris, Blink and Johnny were discussing whether they wanted to take Esme’s help. Can this show center only around these four please?
– With that said, The Gifted really does know how to blow things up. The last 10 minutes, where this show always keeps its action-heavy stuff, are just as exciting as they need to be as the building tears down over our mutants’ heads. It’s a thrilling set-piece, even if short-lived.
– So, is Magneto really Polaris’ dad or is the line “your father was a king in the Hellfire Club” just a red herring?
– The Cuckoos are planning on rebuilding the Hellfire Club. That’s exciting, for sure, but something about the triplets being in the same frame is extremely underwhelming and poorly executed.
– Of course, there’s a bigger boss in a big white office staring at a chess board. #CountTheCliches
Gifts & Quips
(echoing boom noise)
Eclipse: What was that about?
Polaris: I was just thinking.
Eclipse: Well, those were some strong thoughts.
Conclusion
An uneventful and ultimately disappointing penultimate episode. Is there still any hope left for this show?
Chris Rating
D+