I had seen the promotion trailer to this TV series few weeks ago and I noticed it was based on X-Men from Marvel. So it should be interesting to see it. Two weeks ago, I found out from my wife's nephew that the series was already completed as it was only having 8 episodes. I decided then it would be easy to finish off the first season and see what the fuzz was all about. Here goes.
Brief Story Line
The pilot episode started with the introduction of David Haller (Dan Stevens - Beauty and the Beast, Downton Abbey TV series etc) from the very young age till the time he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital due to nervous breakdown and diagnosed as schizophrenic. He was sometimes visited by his older sister Amy (Katie Aselton - The Gift) who obviously loved him very much and wanted him to be healed.
In the hospital, David was always accompanied by another patient named Lenny (Aubrey Plaza - Dirty Grandpa, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates etc) who seemed to give him lots of advice. One day there was a new patient at the hospital named Sydney Barret (Rachel Keller). She seemed to be having phobia of being touched. It would be revealed later the reason for such behavior. David immediately fall for her and they became attached to one another until Sydney was released from the hospital. This would be the start of something truly amazing and blow your mind.
In later episodes, we would be introduced to other interesting characters such as Melanie Bird (Jean Smart - Sweet Home Alabama, The Accountant etc) who was the "leader" of the mutants. There were also Cary the scientist (Bill Irwin - Lady in the Water, Rachel Getting Married etc), Kerry who was very good in martial arts (Amber Midthunder) and Ptonomy who was able to enter into anybody's memory (Jeremie Harris).
Since the first season was so short, I would not be able to go beyond the above brief story line without revealing too much information, which I believe should be seen by yourselves.
End of Brief Story Line
Now, this is a truly different, one of a kind series about mutants. The series was putting real emphasis on the mind of David. Most of the episodes would be providing us bits and pieces of David's past and his abilities. This was shown in the first 2 or 3 episodes. Other episodes actually were giving us glimpses of what was going on inside David's mind. My admiration also goes to Dan Stevens for being able to portray such a complex character.
This series is not the normal or usual type of superhero series where the origin of the main character was shown either in flashbacks, or narrated or any other method. In here, we would have to really concentrate on watching it. There can be no scene missed. One particular episode that you should watch closely was episode 7 which would reveal something shocking. I myself did not see that part until I read it in a website. However, I think that it was very difficult to notice it unless you are aware that you should be looking at it, or if you have read the comic books about David Haller.
The series was not full of action kind. There were some actions done where the mutants abilities were shown, but it felt like just background. Mostly the actions were shown in slow motion or through CCTV recording. The special effects were actually pretty amazing for a TV series, but I think the make up effects were not really good,
I believe that this series was good in term of originality. There was no other series dared to tell superhero/mutant story from this angle. However, I do not think this series is for general audience. Unfortunately despite the show was very interesting and intriguing, I am not able to appreciate this series as highly as the rest of the audience. I think this series can be considered as what I call a "critics' darling", a show that critics very much loved. But I would not dare to say this as a bad series. It is actually very good, though it may not be my really favorite series. Nevertheless, since the season only having few episodes (understand that second season would only consist of 8 episodes), I would definitely watch the second season, since the end of season 1 gave a real cliffhanger. You should continue watching the 8th episode till the very end, since there was this scene after the post credit scene.
So if you happen to be a fan of X-Men comic series and you also know about David Haller's character, this one should be an interesting choice for your watching. But if you are looking for light superhero series, this one definitely is not one of those. The choice is yours.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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