The Gifted

I'm usually hesitant to watch new TV shows these days as they mostly disappoint me. I am very critical on quality of acting and the plot or the story itself. I'm hooked alright!. Although it is more like the X-men series, it's surprisingly captivating. It emphasized the importance of family and value of human lives. The acting is excellent; the plot is unpredictable. The CGI can be improved, but it's far better than standard TV shows. It's an action show but not too violent. It's a great show to watch for the entire family.

The X-Men are gone. The world has grown to fear and loath the mutants especially after an incident four years earlier. Reed Strucker (Stephen Moyer) has been prosecuting mutant terrorists and for the last 5 years, he's been a member of the Mutant Task Force. His son Andy gets bullied at school and his mutant powers are unleashed. He and sister Lauren are revealed. Reed is forced to go on the run with his family. Reed tracks down the Mutant Underground where he offers imprisoned Lorna Dane in return for transit to Mexico. Jace Turner is a Sentinel Services agent driven to catch fugitive mutants due to a personal loss.

This is as good as network live action X-Men TV show is probably going to get. It gets to the main theme of persecution of minorities. It's not prestige TV. It doesn't have the dark style or experimentation. It has action with some limits. There is a bit of network blandness that bleeds into the show. It has a lot of lead characters but is able to maintain focus on them. The brother can be annoying which happens with some rebellious youth. I would love more daring in the writing but this is fine for network TV. At least, it's not Inhumans.

At the start the plot is slow but it gets awesome later in the series. It presents some cool mutant abilities which I haven't seen in any other show.The drama is on point!

I really enjoy this series, good plots, good acting/actors, lots of potential...and each episode has improved as writers and directors are finding their groove.

But, please - kids, (Strucker brother and sister) - please emancipate yourselves from your constantly whining, hovering, wimpy, classic helicopter parents that are in denial about your powers and holding you back from maturing! They (parents) are the only part of the show that I cringe at, every time they are in front of the camera.

I wasn't captivated by the show. I think it suffers of the same problems of other current super hero shows: the writing. Some lines of dialogue are unnecessary (If someone just had an obvious meltdown, there is not need to ask "Are you ok?"). Something that I just don't get is people with super powers sunning away instead of using the powers. I also find particularly annoying is the Strukers, especially the parents, so dramatic and unnecessarily over protective, wanting to "help" but not by letting their kids use their powers. I find the mom particularly guilty of this in almost every scene that she is in (which again, is mainly the poor writing). This show has so much potencial, but so far is being wasted. Comic book based shows need to be written by comic book writers or at least by people familiar with the style. soap operish drama should stay in soap operas.