The Gifted Review: “rX”

The Gifted‘s second episode, rX, promises a prescription to save Blink from her overexertion, while Polaris stars in a Mutants in Prison movie (complete with shower scene!), and Reed gets hassled by Sentinels after his capture last week.

Title: “rX”

Director: Len Wiseman
Writer: Matt Nix

Cast:

Stephen Moyer as Reed Strucker
Amy Acker as Kate Strucker
Sean Teale as Marcos Diaz / Eclipse
Natalie Alyn Lind as Lauren Strucker
Percy Hynes White as Andy Strucker
Coby Bell as Jace Turner
Jamie Chung as Blink
Blair Redford as John Proudstar / Thunderbird
Emma Dumont as Lorna Dane / Polaris
Christian Adam as Obnoxious Guy
Dave Blamy as Father
Jacinte Blankenship as Mutant Mom
Darion Costley as Student
Ava Culpepper as Daughter
Elizabeth Davidovich as Tough woman #1
Tony Demil as Guard #2
Garret Dillahunt as Dr. Roderick Campbell
Lauran Foster as Cocktail Waitress
Monique Grant as Guard
Sierra Nicole Krug as Teenage Girl
Hayley Lovitt as Sage
Jermaine Rivers as Shatter
Elena Satine as Dreamer

Premise:

Picking up immediately where last week left off, Blink is suffering from over exertion, which causes her powers to go haywire.  This prompts a trip to a hospital for supplies.  Meanwhile, Sentinel Services applies pressure to Reed, and Lorna adjusts to life in prison.

High Points:

The use of powers continues to be done in a believable way, for as believable as powered mutants can be.  The presence of the powers and their effects don’t feel forced, they feel like they are manifesting and being used in a natural way.

I was also impressed with how well they were using mutant prejudices to shine a light on cultural prejudices, such as assuming a mutant was a domestic abuser…

Low Point:

…until they just went over the top with it.  Mutie is the best slur you can come up with?

Sentinel Services continues to be a poor at their jobs, being too heavy handed and still not applying the correct kind of pressure to their detainee.

My wife also noted that the specific medicines needed, doses, and their effectiveness were a bit too convenient.  “I’m not a doctor, but apparently neither was she!”

The Scores:

Originality: 2/6 There wasn’t anything in this show we haven’t seen in a television drama recently.  The hospital scenes even reminded me of Firefly‘s episode “Ariel.”

Effects: 5/6 The show gives us convincing effects, and slowly builds to a few reveals.  A world with comic book colored skin feels completely believable.  My only drawback was the light show later in the episode was too over the top for the limited damage that resulted.

Acting: 5/6 The main cast seemed spot on with their characters, though a few of the Sentinel scenes didn’t seem to land perfectly.

Production: 5/6 I find the story and visuals completely believable, and it should be pointed out that they have done a wonderful job of getting the audience to accept a prison with obvious mutants, obvious anti-mutant prejudices, and a planet with powers if they end up feeling unoriginal as any ordinary prison, prejudice, or planet.  My wife added that she was impressed that even after a prison shower Lorna was still able to have perfect make-up.

Story: 4/6 The story didn’t give us anything new to sink our teeth into, but it was well paced and gave us enough to stay occupied.

Emotional Response: 3/6 It may be to the predictable nature of this episode, but I didn’t feel like anyone was in any particularly dire straits.

Overall: 4/6 While it felt like a typical slice of what we expect from a Marvel show, it still was more enjoyable than some of the other genre offerings.

In total, “rX” receives 29/42

3 replies on “The Gifted Review: “rX””

  1. The reveal of Lorna’s hair in the shower was a favorite point for me. Admittedly, bright, comic book colored hair is something I enjoy, but the obviousness of it having been dyed explained why we didn’t see it before, and also gives the show a chance to be less outrageous with their first episode.

  2. I don’t have direct experience with slurs, racism, etc (on either side of the fence). However, it seems to me that a relatively simple and uncreative slur is fairly reasonable among the general population. And it seems to me that “mutie” is actually a pretty obvious one that English speakers would actually use, likely being coined independently by multiple people/groups.

    The “interrogation” bits felt like a completley not veiled commentary on the erosion of due process in the “free” nations of the world. I was kind of expecting a “four lights” moment around the end of the episode and, sure enough, we got one, albeit with a lot less moral high ground or conviction on that part of the prisoner. I do hope he has a more nuanced plan that we’ve been led to believe, though.

    Overall, this episode felt like an infodump more than anything. As much as I dislike infodumps of this nature, I think it was probably necessary to avoid killing narrative momentum and dragging out future story elements.

    • Re: Mutie
      You’re probably right. In my experience, and I’d go so far as to say that by definition, people who engage in slurs and racism are on the shallow side of the intelligence pool. I remember seeing “Genetrash” somewhere in the comics, but odds are not good that the sort of person who insults those who are different are even aware of what genes are.

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