First Impressions: 'The Gifted' Sucks

The most unoriginal uninteresting superhero show I have ever seen.

It's Heroes meets Legion and The Tomorrow People.  I can almost imagine the group of writers sitting around a table drinking coffee when the lead writer asks "what is the most successful mutant show that ever graced TV... okay why don't we take snippets from those and make our own mutant story".

Asides the unoriginality of the show, I find myself not caring about any of the characters. We have a man whose job it is to hunt down mutants but both his kids end up being mutants. Sounds familiar? Did I also mention this man's daughter is a blonde could-be-cheerleader-in-a-universe-where-cheerleaders-are-still-cool? Also, her brother is someone with raw untapped power (I already see him having more than one power). Then there's a band of misfit mutants (who hideout underground!) and help mutant escapees stay low. I cannot think of one factor in the pilot episode of "The Gifted" that I haven't seen in any other mutant-related show.

Here's all the time I rolled my eyes at the screen in the forty-something minutes I watched The Gifted:

FOX

Eye Roll Moments

• The bathroom scene: Seriously, how long can one person scream?

•  Mrs. Strucker to Mr. Strucker: "where do I start?" How about "our kids are mutants, the police is onto us, HELP!". Everyone in the Strucker family seems to either be under-reacting or overreacting. Oh, you want to stay at your sister's condo? And you want to go to Mexico? You're a cop. Think better!

• Your family is on the run, you blow up a vending machine, injure your sister to the point of bleeding and still have time for a snack? That's either a "this guy might be a sociopath clue" or thoughtless screenplay at its peak.

• Lorna is pregnant? Really? That was the big surprise?

•  What on Earth do those spider-y things do? Do they just latch on to a person's leg and refuse to let go? Like a clingy baby?

• The fact Mr. Strucker getting shot and left behind is the supposed cliffhanger of the episode makes it the most eye-roll-worthy moment. We know someone will get left behind or get killed. It's not exactly a story if they all make it happily to Mexico in the pilot episode.

Summary: I expected so much more from an X-Men related show but the pilot episode felt more like CW's The Messengers than Heroes (at its peak). 

Have you seen the pilot episode of The Gifted? What did you think?