Despite being a lifelong fan of the X-Men, I must confess that I had some reservations heading into the series premiere of The Gifted. To put it mildly, I wondered if such an endeavor could be capably handled on a major network, especially considering that its roster was made up by mostly D-list characters. Thankfully, my worries were put to bed as Bryan Singer, Matt Nix and the rest of the crew proved that this franchise has so much depth that it makes failure difficult. Face it, Marvel: Your best and most interesting characters all belong to Fox.
With that, it’s exciting to see that next week’s episode, “rX,” looks to be every bit as thrilling as the pilot episode. Truth be told, we wouldn’t doubt if some snippets here were culled from episodes to follow, as teasing what’s to come in the foreseeable future isn’t unheard of in television, but consider us enthralled nonetheless. At this point, it really shouldn’t matter if this series doesn’t connect to the movies because none of the DC TV shows have ever worried about doing so, so why should these writers be creatively stifled by worrying about what’s happening on the big screen?
Still, we’re given connections to the more familiar mutants we know and love, thanks in part to the involvement of Polaris, daughter of Magneto. Apparently, some great calamity was to blame for the supposed disappearance of the X-Men and the Brotherhood, so we’re anticipating some light being shed on that before the season wraps. Still, we hope the ragtag group employs some kind of name familiar to comic book readers before long, lest comparisons be made to The Tomorrow People.
For more on next week’s episode of The Gifted, be sure to check out the official synopsis below:
After exerting her powers beyond their limits, Blink (Jamie Chung, “Big Hero 6,” “The Hangover Part II”) goes into a state of shock, forcing Caitlin (Amy Acker, “Person of Interest”) and Eclipse (Sean Teale, “Survivor”) to go on a mission to find a special serum that will help her to recover. Meanwhile, Reed (Stephen Moyer, “True Blood,” SHOTS FIRED) faces some difficult choices when it comes to helping his family, and Polaris (Emma Dumont, “Bunheads,” “Aquarius”) runs into some trouble in the all-new “rX” episode of THE GIFTED airing Monday, Oct. 9 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (GIF-102) (TV-14 L, V)
