The Gifted Review: eXtreme measures (Season 1 Episode 7)
The Gifted Season 1 Episode 7 “eXtreme measures” is entirely frustrating for one single reason: It’s too bland to either hate or like. It’s like eating a piece of paper: there’s not anything there to illicit any kind of strong reaction, good or bad.
The Gifted is a conundrum. It tries a lot and nothing all at the same time. Things are technically happening, but there’s no sense of connection and tangibility in and between the scenes. They just feel like disparate moments that have no meaning to the actual episode.
To pour salt on the wound, “eXtreme measures” can’t even be bothered to be fun. Instead, it opts for something that it has so often been: Boring.
At this point, it’s not that we’re bored watching Marcos get sucked back into the Cartel, but the show itself is. There’s a level of detachment that feels severe, even for The Gifted. The audience is trudging through the episode and it feels like the writers are doing the same thing.
Not once in this episode did it seem like the series had any tangible warmth or emotion towards any of the characters and this goes back to the top of the review; it’s painfully bland.
“eXtreme measures” is supposed to be this thoughtful look at crime and the way society forces minority groups to that life, but the show doesn’t try to explore anything. It’s not that it tries and fails, there’s no effort or energy put out there by the show.
It gives the subject errant tongue service throughout the episode by various characters, such as Reed or Wes (Danny Ramirez), but it feels empty, like blowing a bubble. It might look vaguely like something, but touch it and you’ll find nothing inside.
It’s difficult to get a sense of anything or anyone in the episode. It all feels so transient and hollow, there’s nothing nothing to latch onto because there are no jutted rocks on the side of this mountain.
This is the seventh episode of the series and there’s nothing to be felt for any of the characters, even the Struckers some of the time. Ultimately, that is a fault of the series and their inability to illicit any kind of emotional connection to anything or anyone in the series.
Even Amy Acker, who continues to be one of the brighter spots of the show, has little to do most of the time. More often than not, it feels like a waste of her talents and time. That’s no different in this episode where she has little more to do than chastise Reed and teach the refugee children.
Despite all of those negative comments, is The Gifted bad? No, it would have to actually be something to be bad. This is still just a formless blob of a show and that’s probably the worst thing that it could be.
What did you think of this episode of The Gifted? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
Reviewer Rating:
User Rating:
The Gifted airs Mondays at 9/8c on FOX.
Follow us on Twitter @telltaleTV_
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.