There is a good Marvel story trying to get out of this family drama. It's just the family drama holding it back. There are just too many "we need to talk about this son" moments, and too many "over-bearing when it makes no sense" mom moments too. They really seem to have built a lot of the show on the premise of, "what if a regular family had a couple mutant kids in a very anti-mutant world"?, and that part isn't all that interesting. The attempts at back-story for the other mutants is shallow and does little to strengthen the story.
So where might you ask is that good Marvel story waiting to get out? There is a plot twist that kind of ties some characters found in Marvel comics to some main characters. Several of the mutants have pretty unique abilities, and some of minor plot lines have nothing to do with the boring family drama plot that drags every episode it touches down.
It's been picked up for another season, so hopefully there's enough feedback to steer this show in the right direction. I'd be OK with several episodes digging into backstory more. Clearly I want less family drama and more mutant story lines. There are endless Marvel story lines to draw from, which is really the only thing separating this show from something like Heroes.
Review of The Gifted
