The Gifted

The Gifted is a series that I won't be harsh on, as it was entertaining, had much potential and an overall good cast, but didn't live up to expectations in the end.

Pros

• Near award-winning VFX and special effects, besides the horrible lenses
• Overall good cast, especially worth noting are the acting of Coby Bell, Jamie Chung, Emma Dumont and Grace Byers
• Entertaining storyline, well-woven at times (nothing deep though). The background of characters were well explored at the beginning of each episode.

Cons

• Huge and never-ending melodramatic tone
• Lack of intensity in the story, mostly because of the above
• Cringe-worthy and unbearable parents (especially the mother!), which by themselves and their constantly upsetting attentionate presence, ruined the series on an atomic level
• Not developed enough of serious (and dark) steadiness in the show of the characters' powers, mostly because of the flowing melodrama and weak writing

To the series credit, it was a fun ride, was getting better and finding itself more after 2 seasons, before being abruptly cancelled by Fox, which has a strong and infamous history of creating good 1-2-seasons series before trampling them over, all because of what - the ratings point?!

This is very reminiscent of Heroes and the first episode hasn't shown something we haven't seen before.

There are some token characters and basically if you've seen any of the trailers out there you've seen the first episode. The little sentinels look a little bit too much like the robots from the Matrix.

Acting is good, CGI is bearable but could do better.

Not sure where the plot is going.. is it just mutants vs the Sentinel program? Anyhow it's not a bad start but it's not great either. At this stage it's decent but it could go either way.

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.

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.

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.