The Gifted - Season 1

It’s time to make a new world – Polaris

The new mutant series based on the X-Men universe has finished its first season. The first season, which is based on several Marvel comics, had a promising start. But was only the beginning good or will the quality remain as good during the entire season?



Before I become both very critical and positive, let's start with a description of the series. Reed Strucker (Stephen Moyer, True Blood) and his wife Caitlin (Amy Acker, Person of Interest) find out that their children are mutants. This is quite complicated as Reed serves as a prosecutor of mutants. This is the beginning of a story with various (some more well known than others) mutants, the war between mutants and an agency, secret unions and a visual spectacle.

Let's start by giving an answer to the question if the entire season of The Gifted is as good as the pilot episode. No, it isn't. Is it bad? No, it isn't either. The quality differs per episode and this is mostly due to the quality of the various writers.

As I have already mentioned before, The Gifted starts off really well. Yes, it has been done before, but strangely the characters were interesting enough to keep on watching. Somewhere around the beginning of the season I felt like I was finally shown a normal story once again, without too many plot twists. Still, somewhere in the middle the quality starts to decline. Due to the slow pace the entire situation comes to a standstill, which resulted in several boring episodes. Even during the first part of the finale I caught myself checking Facebook whilst I was watching the episode. Luckily, it does finish on a high note. I even realised that the entire story of the first season was to lay the foundation for the second season. *Cough* Hellfire Club *Cough*

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The quality of the acting varies. The previously mentioned Amy Acker perfectly portrays a warm, reliable and protective mother. Next to that I also think that Emma Dumont (Aquarius), who portrays Polaris, is someone to keep an eye on. Even though her acting declines as well, I do think she's one of the better actors in The Gifted. I also have to highlight Skyler Samuels (American Horror Story), who portrays Esme. Even though she's only introduced near the end of the season, she plays quite a big role in the story. I don't want to spoil a lot more, so this is where my description of her will end.

The special effects in The Gifted are quite good for a television series. Of course some things look better than others, but all the powers of the various mutants feel quite 'natural'. If something such as mutant powers could still be called natural, that is.

It is unfortunately noticeable that the audio in various episodes is done very badly. It usually doesn't happen that I can hear the difference between a 'real life' recording and something that has been edited in at a later point. The separately recorded sound is so obvious, that it becomes a distraction. This is quite an amateur mistake, especially for a network as big as FOX.

In the meanwhile The Gifted has been renewed for a second season, so luckily we'll find out how the story continues. That is actually something this show does well. As I have previously mentioned, the first season ends on a big cliffhanger and due to that I'm looking forward to season 2. Agreed, I'm honestly a bit of a sucker for shows of this genre.

A 7.5!