The Gifted

Fox’s The Gifted is everything ABC’s “Marvel’s Inhumans” is not: exciting, suspenseful and brimming with interesting, smart characters.

Although The Gifted lacks the tongue-in-cheek humor of Netflix’s Jessica Jones or The Defenders, it stays afloat with quality special effects and surprisingly excellent performances across the large ensemble cast.

The episode may bear Singer’s hallmarks, but Nix’s story provides a fresh take on teen angst, family tensions, and being feared for being different. The script is far from flawless; some of the dialogue is clunky, and Acker’s character is underdeveloped compared to the rest of the Strucker family. Good performances and respectable special effects help the pilot clear those hurdles, though, and set up a promising new drama.

Where the show goes will largely determine its ability to sustain itself as a weekly series, but “The Gifted” gets off to a smarter, more visually compelling start than the other new superhero show of the fall season that debuts tonight.

There’s a lot to admire here, though whether the show can build on its initial promise remains to be seen.

The thing The Gifted accomplishes that's most essential is that the Struckers work as a family.

The Gifted does a better job at establishing its initial story arc than “Inhumans,” but that’s not exactly a high bar to clear, and it still has the look and feel of a series with a paltry budget. ... At times the pilot resembles a middling round of cosplay, complete with temporary tattoos, Halloween contact lenses and Manic Panic highlights.

The Gifted falls pretty squarely in the middle. Based on tonight’s pilot episode (the only one Fox screened for critics), it gets the basics down and doesn’t try to deliver more than what you might expect, for better or worse.

The Gifted pilot is all the things “Inhumans” isn’t: quick, tense, funny, occasionally moving. Exposition is at a minimum and the obligatory speeches about intolerance and conformity are kept short.

There are certainly plot points that seem insufficiently thought through. But the actors--including Sean Teale, Jamie Chung, Emma Dumont and Blair Redford as the mutant resistance--give a good account of themselves.

The Gifted does little to make you forget you’re watching a less ambitious version of an “X-Men” story. You can see the actors--all of the actors--straining to convey the emotional weight of their struggles, and it helps. Having people like Acker, Moyer, Dumont, and the generally strong cast push themselves to give the pilot more of an impact is a benefit that’ll carry into future episodes.