SERIES PREMIERE: Last week, ABC unveiled
Marvel’s Inhumans, the latest entry in the Marvel universe of TV series – latest, that is, until tonight, when Fox presents
The Gifted. The differences between the two are immediate and obvious:
Inhumans is a flop and a waste, while
The Gifted may turn out to be the best Marvel TV series since Netflix’s
Jessica Jones. Trace it, in part, to the people in front of the camera:
Inhumans features no one of note, while
The Gifted starts with Stephen Moyer and Amy Acker – long-time genre favorites thanks to their strong work in, respectively,
True Blood and
Angel. They play parents who discover, suddenly and quite unexpectedly, that their two teen children are mutants with special powers, and the kind of mutants the father used to track down as part of his top-secret government job. Until now, when he takes the family on the run and connects with a group of super-powered mutants hiding underground. In this series, the action and special effects are good, but the characterizations and relationships are even better. But give credit, and blame, behind the scenes as well.
The Gifted is created for TV by Matt Nix and its pilot diected by Bryan Singer, two very talented TV folks -- while
Inhumans is created by Scott Buck, whose previous Marvel series was the super-poorly received
Iron Fist. For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.