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Marvel's The Inhumans
I wanted to like this show, but definitely had mixed feelings about it....
It had potential--I liked Ken Leung (Karnak), who is an old favorite from Lost. (It seems to be a rule that any show filmed in Hawaii must feature one or more Lost actors? Henry Ian Cusick also had a role in the show as a scientist.) I also liked Iwan Rheon (from Game of Thrones) as the traitorous Prince Maximus who seeks to overthrow his brother Black Bolt, the king of the Inhumans, who live in a secret city concealed on the moon. Also, Lockjaw the giant teleporting dog was great, and weirdly adorable for a dog the size of a large horse!
We're supposed to be rooting for Black Bolt and his family, who escape to Earth (specifically, Hawaii) after Maximus stages a coup. But frankly, my sympathy was (at least initially) more with Maximus than the rest of the royal family. Maximus is an ordinary human, lacking the Inhuman powers that give people status in their society, and is thus disqualified from inheriting the throne. He's treated with contempt by most of his family, so you can't really blame him for having a huge chip on his shoulder.
But he still has it better than most of the unpowered or lower-powered Inhumans, who are forced to slave in the mines that power the city. This is justified with the argument that with the limited resources available on the moon, they need to ration those resources accordingly by who is most valuable (i.e. the powerful Inhumans), which means that the lower castes get the short end of the stick. Black Bolt seems somewhat sympathetic to their plight, but I notice that he doesn't suggest that maybe the royal family could live in a little less luxury so that the lower castes could live a little better.
The royal family are arrogant and prejudiced (the queen and her sister in particular), and the series is (I think) supposed to be about how they grow and change after coming into contact with the humans they encounter and eventually befriend. They do eventually change for the better and realize that they haven't treated the lower castes well, but frankly, it's hard to muster much sympathy for a bunch of spoiled royals and applaud them for achieving a level of basic decency. Maximus turns out to be even worse than his family--he did not stage the rebellion to aid the downtrodden masses as he claimed, but only to gain power for himself.
It wasn't a total bust--there were some good moments, and the Hawaiian scenery looked so familiar from Hawaii Five-0 that it was fun to imagine a crossover, because I half-expected the 5-0 guys to show up anytime, especially when Black Bolt and Lockjaw show up on the streets of Waikiki! And the show did present an interesting moral dilemma, but dismissed it way too quickly, although this might be partly due to the show having only 8 episodes. It really needed more time for the characters to develop and evolve for the audience (or me, anyway) to find their redemptive arc believable.
And I really would like to read an AU version in which Maximus really did have noble motives, and how the revolution and confrontation with his family would go in that case.
It had potential--I liked Ken Leung (Karnak), who is an old favorite from Lost. (It seems to be a rule that any show filmed in Hawaii must feature one or more Lost actors? Henry Ian Cusick also had a role in the show as a scientist.) I also liked Iwan Rheon (from Game of Thrones) as the traitorous Prince Maximus who seeks to overthrow his brother Black Bolt, the king of the Inhumans, who live in a secret city concealed on the moon. Also, Lockjaw the giant teleporting dog was great, and weirdly adorable for a dog the size of a large horse!
We're supposed to be rooting for Black Bolt and his family, who escape to Earth (specifically, Hawaii) after Maximus stages a coup. But frankly, my sympathy was (at least initially) more with Maximus than the rest of the royal family. Maximus is an ordinary human, lacking the Inhuman powers that give people status in their society, and is thus disqualified from inheriting the throne. He's treated with contempt by most of his family, so you can't really blame him for having a huge chip on his shoulder.
But he still has it better than most of the unpowered or lower-powered Inhumans, who are forced to slave in the mines that power the city. This is justified with the argument that with the limited resources available on the moon, they need to ration those resources accordingly by who is most valuable (i.e. the powerful Inhumans), which means that the lower castes get the short end of the stick. Black Bolt seems somewhat sympathetic to their plight, but I notice that he doesn't suggest that maybe the royal family could live in a little less luxury so that the lower castes could live a little better.
The royal family are arrogant and prejudiced (the queen and her sister in particular), and the series is (I think) supposed to be about how they grow and change after coming into contact with the humans they encounter and eventually befriend. They do eventually change for the better and realize that they haven't treated the lower castes well, but frankly, it's hard to muster much sympathy for a bunch of spoiled royals and applaud them for achieving a level of basic decency. Maximus turns out to be even worse than his family--he did not stage the rebellion to aid the downtrodden masses as he claimed, but only to gain power for himself.
It wasn't a total bust--there were some good moments, and the Hawaiian scenery looked so familiar from Hawaii Five-0 that it was fun to imagine a crossover, because I half-expected the 5-0 guys to show up anytime, especially when Black Bolt and Lockjaw show up on the streets of Waikiki! And the show did present an interesting moral dilemma, but dismissed it way too quickly, although this might be partly due to the show having only 8 episodes. It really needed more time for the characters to develop and evolve for the audience (or me, anyway) to find their redemptive arc believable.
And I really would like to read an AU version in which Maximus really did have noble motives, and how the revolution and confrontation with his family would go in that case.
no subject
I'm honestly glad that it was only 8 episodes and unlikely to be renewed. ABC didn't put much production value into it, and the writers seemed lacking as well. They knew all along that they would have 8 episodes - they could have done more (or, really, less) with the time they had.
At this point, I'm worried that Agents of Shield is going to have to deal with the fallout of Inhumans. I don't think it will help AoS's ratings.
love, lore
no subject
I forgot to mention in the post that I liked Auran (the female head guard) a lot, and I loved Louise! I would totally watch a show in which they were the main characters.
I have not watched Game of Thrones, but I can see how Iwan could get stereotyped as a villain! I wish they'd made him a little more shades-of-gray rather than outright evil. I was intrigued by the fact that a powerless human prince was able to win over not just the miners but most of the royal guard.
I'm a little worried too about how Inhumans will affect AoS. Also wondering, on an in-universe level, where they intend to put all the Inhumans who just popped over from the moon!