TV Review – Fox’s The Gifted S01

Leave it to Fox to do what ABC hasn’t been able to do with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Agent Carter, or the dreadful Marvel’s Inhumans by bringing a fun, engaging, and not to mention the most suspenseful new series to network TV with The Gifted.
Taking place at a time when no one knows if the X-Men exist anymore, the United States government has taken it upon themselves to round up mutants, even debating a law to “test people with the X-gene and monitor them”. The series opens up with the police chasing Clarice “Blink” Fong (Jamie Chung), a mutant who disappears through a portal she creates only be found again and ultimately rescued by The Mutant Network, a nationwide underground group of mutants designed to protect their own.
At the heart of the show is the Strucker family: dad Reed (True Blood‘s Stephen Moyer), mom Kate (Angel‘s Amy Acker) and what appear to be their typical high school-aged children Andy (Percy Hynes White) and Lauren (Natalie Alyn Lind). Reed is a federal prosecutor responsible for putting away criminal mutants, Kate is a doting mom and wife who wants the best for her family, Lauren is their beautiful daughter with a handsome boyfriend, and Andy is their loner son who doesn’t have friends and is being bullied at school. All is normal until Andy sneaks away from the house to join Lauren at the school dance. Met and attacked by the bullies who his parents recently met with the Principal about, Andy discovers powers he never knew he had and creates what the government deems an attack on the school. The government comes after Lauren and Andy and their parents go into protective mode, stopping at nothing to get them to safety. What follows is more entertaining than most movies at the box office this summer.
The Gifted comes at an interesting time in that it feels much like the current administration’s decision to deport Dreamers in our country. At one point, Reed Strucker tries to compromise with the Sentinel Services, a federal government agency responsible for people with genetically related powers, and tells them, “We are Americans. We have rights.” Oddly and sadly similar to how many are feeling today.
With the most recent X-Men movie tanking with critics and at the box office, Fox’s The Gifted brings new life to the X-Men universe and channels the early X-Men films by presenting fans with a fun, tense, and entertaining experience. The first episode even feels like a close cousin of the critically-acclaimed first season of NBC’s Heroes. Congrats to Fox for finally bringing a quality Marvel series to network TV…and Stan Lee.
The Gifted premieres on Fox on Monday, October 2nd, at 9:00 p.m. ET.