My Thoughts On Marvel's The Inhumans After Five Episodes

Damn the Inhumans is a weird show. There are parts about it that are really cool and others that just grate on my last nerve.

The Good Parts

 

 

Karnak's loss of power and his relationship with Gorgon. Karnak is the most interesting character. How he copes with the loss of his ability to predict all outcomes and chose the correct action in all situations is more interesting when it stops working so perfectly every time. His doubt makes his powers unreliable and he has to deal with that. I found that to be interesting stuff. His relationship with Gorgon is fun and ripe with comedy potential. They are polar opposites but closer than brothers. They make each other better.

Lockjaw - He was great in the comics and is great here. He, however is not used nearly enough. I am telling you, his merchandising could fund another season.

The Rebellion against the Rebellion of Maximus which may promise some good Inhuman vs Inhuman battles which of course will kill the cute little butterfly girl from the pilot episode which is the whole point of this story in the first place and motivation for the Royal Family to change their autocratic ways. It may hammer the point home with a sledgehammer but at least there seems to be a beginning, middle and end to this little experiment. We rarely get that on Network TV anymore with the exception of Agent Carter.

 

The show gets better with each episode. I know there are still bumps in the story each week but they are less and less annoying as we go along.

The Bad Parts

 

Crystal's Hunky Surfer Boyfriend - nuff said. It's was like being in an old episode of Hanna Montana.

Medusa, Medusa Medusa. What can I say about the actress playing Medusa? She is just wrong. She is not a strong actress and we should like the character she is playing more than we do.

Karnak loses awesome girlfriend just because the caste is large enough as it is. Craft services must be through the roof on this production.

Not enough Lockjaw. This effect and character was criminally underused by having him either drugged or injured for most of the series.

Maximus is just a crazy dickhead in a role I have seen this actor play before. Lazy casting.

 

 

Dumb story points - Death of Locus just to inspire Black Bolt to be a better king because let's be honest he was a bad one before the revolt of Maximus. Those without powers worked in the mines while those with powers lived in relative luxury. Maybe those with powers should SERVE those without the power. The change that comes from terrigenisis is a gift but also a responsibility. That is what made the comic books so much different than the TV show. The Royal Family was always for a  just and fair system and no system like this caste system would exist under Kirby's Inhumans. I am sorry to invoke that name all over this post but it's the well from which all that is cool about the Inhumans springs. More Kirby and less committee would have helped this whole production immensely. Maximus doing the 'right' thing by revolting against his family actually IS the right thing in this world and it shouldn't be. Maximus was always more for the oppression that the TV Maximus is fighting against or is suppose to be fighting against.

Black Bolt is not an interesting character even with Anson Mount playing him. Mount is an enormously compelling actor to watch but without a voice he is stuck making 3 or 4 expressions and some sign language that few can understand but the actors around him who always have to translate out loud for the rest of us. I wish there was a workaround but there just isn't. So charisma is all you have left and Mount hasn't been given much to do as a supposed 'King'.

 

The cutting of Medusa's hair which is treated as a violation akin to a rape but at the same time takes away the very thing that makes her cool just because someone didn't think the effect would look good enough on TV. Her long hair is what makes her who she is and to take that away without showing her actually use her powers more than once is low rent theatrics unworthy of Kirby. Her hair has the tensile strength of STEEL yet it can be clipped with a pair of common sheers?

 

If animating the hair was too expensive or didn't look right then you still try to make the digital effect work. Like Lockjaw it's the Inhuman that you most have to make sure looks 'right' when she uses her powers - which is her hair. There is no excuse for saying, 'fuck it' on TV show where if you want me to feel bad about loss of the hair make it MEAN something for me. People who don't know the Inhumans will be lost on the symbolism of this 'haircut'.