Tuesday, October 9, 2018

What I’m Watching: The Gifted


The Gifted: Season 2, Episode 2 “unMoored” (B-)

There are some characters on this show who I feel like have been extremely underdeveloped compared to others, and Thunderbird is at the top of that list. Opening with him as an underground fighter who got compelled by someone else to lead a wholly different kind of underground helps to give him some context, but it feels a whole lot like he’s much better at tracking people and things than he is at finding his own purpose in life. Evangeline was the one who talked him into all of this, and now she doesn’t want to have anything to do with it since she has managed to fit in and remain a mutant rights lawyer without being pegged as one herself. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Reeva was ready to take Andy out because his connection to his sister was a weakness, but, as evil forces always tend to do, they turn emotions like sadness and nostalgia into vehicles for power, helping to transform him into an unstoppable weapon. Eclipse celebrating the birth of a child he can’t meet - and may never if its health declines like it seemed it was in the episode’s final scene - was far from inspirational, and that’s going to be a crippling obstacle rather than one that will empower him to track Polaris down. I thought that Jace had been written out of this show, and why we needed yet another opportunity to see everyone tell him he needs to stop with this mutant obsession when he’s actually completely correct about what’s going on was puzzling and irritating.

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