The Gifted – eMergence

Season 2 of The Gifted drops like a newborn, and drops the X titles in favor of the M because of the Mutant on Mutant drama.  Our first episode fast forwards us six months to set the stage for this season’s story.

Title: “eMergence”

Directed by Robert Duncan McNeill
Written by 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 Clarice Fong / Blink
Blair Redford as John Proudstar / Thunderbird
Emma Dumont as Lorna Dane / Polaris
Skyler Samuels as Esme Frost / Sophie Frost / Phoebe Frost
Grace Byers as Reeva Payge
Ray Campbell as William
Danube Hermosillo as Cristina
Brad Carter as Wire
Adam David Thompson as Graph

Premise:

Reeva Payge purges the Inner Circle of those who disagree with her, leaving her completely in charge. Six months later, the Mutant Underground saves a girl from a Sentinel raid. Against the group’s wishes, Eclipse and Caitlin meet with a criminal hacker to get info on the Inner Circle. Meanwhile, Polaris prepares for the birth of her baby. (From Trakt.)

High Point:

I enjoyed seeing our resistance fighters working as a team.  They aren’t necessarily all on the same page, but they certainly aren’t squabbling like they were last season.  I also enjoyed Blink and Thunderbird’s banter.

Low Point:

Maybe I am short a few electrons, but I am positive electricity, magnetism, and pregnancy for that matter, do not really work like that.

The Scores:

Originality: 4/6 This season seems to be taking the characters we know from the comics, but they get to go in a new direction.  That said, we are still using plenty of cliches to travel in that new direction.

Effects: 5/6 The effects are as strong as ever, but the fake baby bump was distractingly unconvincing.

Acting: 5/6 There seemed to be a bit of rust on the gears as the cast returns, but the skills are still there.  They just need to get back in the groove a bit before the score reaches its previous levels.

Production: 6/6 The sets are everything you expect, as there are parts where they seem to film on location in places with secret rooms.

Story: 4/6  This was a nice tale of friends missing friends, but it also seemed to be pretty clearly trying to pick up all the game pieces from last season and get them on the board where they want them for this season.

Emotional Response: 4/6 I can admit I have a soft spot for baby/parenting related stories.  This didn’t hit that spot.

Overall: 4/6 I am excited for the new season, but this particular episode didn’t wow me.

In total, “eMergence” receives 32/42

Mostly unrelated fun fact I just learned: Blink is Go Go from Big Hero 6.

3 replies on “The Gifted – eMergence”

    • It felt like a number 1 for an established series. Sort of like a going to the local comic store and seeing seeing “Uncanny X-Men #1”, where there is plenty to already know, but they told us everything we needed to know. I doubt it would have the emotional impact, and I can’t say it’d stay that way. I’d recommend bingeing season 1 first if you can.

  1. They’ve pretty much established in the first season that they are going to play fast and loose with anything resembling physics or biology. That’s the only way powers can even work. The real question is whether they’ve been internally consistent. However, I don’t think I care enough to check that.

    This episode gives me some hope for the second season but I won’t be able to form a real opinion on that until I’ve seen the next episode. This episode had a lot of bits that were cleaning up things that didn’t really work from the first season and moving pieces around so this season’s events can really get started. Hopefully they can avoid repeating the bits of season one that didn’t really work.

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