‘The Gifted’ takes X-Men to a smart new universe
The Gifted is the kind of show you’d want to take with you on the run.
The new Fox series (Monday, 9 ET/PT, eeeg out of four) is set in the X-Men universe and follows a family with two mutant teens fleeing from the government forces that want to lock them away. It’s a gripping and savvy series that carves out its own space in the cluttered comic book TV landscape.
From its first scene, it’s clear that The Gifted has a handle on both its source material and the best way to adapt it. The series opens with a young mutant (Jamie Chung) being pursued by police. He is eventually rescued by another group of mutants, although one (Emma Dumont) is captured.
But the world of terror and bloodshed seems far removed from the Strucker family’s, whose biggest problems are dance outfit choices and school bullying. The family includes Reed (Stephen Moyer), an attorney charged with prosecuting mutant criminals, Kate (Amy Acker) and teens Lauren (Natalie Alyn Lind) and Andy (Percy Hynes White).
A traumatic event at a school dance unleashes Andy’s destructive powers and reveals Lauren’s hidden talents. After Sentinel Services, a shadowy secret-police force, shows up at their door looking to collect the kids, the family goes on the run, eventually meeting up with the other mutants.
The Gifted is neither oversaturated in comic-book mythology nor entirely divorced from it. It wisely doesn’t waste time explaining what mutants and the XMen are (quite a few movies have done so by this point), but even someone unfamiliar with the franchise can catch on quickly. It helps that the characters are appealing and feature strong performances, especially from Moyer and Dumont.
Mutants have been employed — in dozens of X-Men comics and
the various feature films — as a stand-in for marginalized groups. In The Gifted, the allegory is broader, with the powerful and secretive police force tapping into fears about authoritarianism and state-sanctioned discrimination. Reed is a part of that system of oppression until it’s used against him. The pilot touches on the tension between Reed and the mutants, but it seems clear the series will explore this territory further.
One of the best aspects of The Gifted is that creator Matt Nix ( Burn Notice) fundamentally understands how to stage a thrilling action sequence, which many comic book series struggle to do. It’s a mix of veteran and new mutants offering different styles of fighting, gracefully combined with judiciously deployed special effects. A sequence involving creepy robots is particularly striking, employing both horror and action tropes.
The Gifted looks and feels different from other superhero series on TV, and Monday’s premiere backs up that novelty with smart storytelling and strong characters.