Posted in: TV | Tagged: ABC, black bolt, entertainment, karnak, marvel's inhumans, Maximus, medusa, television

Marvel's Inhumans Season 1: Will The Ends Justify The Season?

Published Sun, 22 Oct 2017 13:25:03 -0500

Continuing with Speculation Sunday, I'm moving my attention over to the Marvel Universe and taking a look at Marvel's Inhumans as the series crosses over the halfway point of their first season. Now, I can hear a lot of you saying, "and only season," but the fate of the Inhumans may not be settled by ratings and reviews alone.

After the end of the fourth season, I was about ready to check out. The story was moving at a snails pace and I just didn't see what the show was trying to get to. They only characters at that point that were likable were Black Bolt and Maximus and Maximus was starting to lose his shine. Medusa made some strides in the fourth episode, but not enough to make me root for her. And then the finished the episode with the most anticlimactic battle with Mordis blowing up a fuel tank. I wanted to see the deadliest Inhuman, Black Bolt, square off against the second deadliest, Mordis. Instead we got Mordis hit by a car door and a misfire. So, yeah… I was just about done.

Then this week came along and we got to see a few different things we hadn't really seen. We got to see Black Bolt and Medusa together for the first time since the premiere and there was genuine emotion between them. A pair of orphans whose parents hated each other came together because of their shared loneliness. A love and dedication that came out of it that suddenly explained a lot of their previous actions. That, and having how they rule being called out by Locus and seeing that it affected them. This was important character development and growth.

We also got to see Karnak move past his abilities and take action. He is someone who was so infinitely confident in his path because he knew it was the right one, but it alienated him from others. But since he hit his head he is forced to make decisions without knowing how they will come out. To love, to fight… all in the moment. And this opens him up and allows him to see his family for their strength rather than trying to see past their flaws. It also made Gorgon stop and think. A warrior with no one to hit isn't worth much. He had to think before acting and he did this by trying to figure out what Karnak would do.

Writing wise, this was probably the best episode of the season so far. It dived deeper into each character, including Crystal and Maximus, and we get a better understanding of each. Yet this was also the episode with the best action so far. It also gives me a tinge of hope about how the series will end and wonder if the ending will tied into whatever they have in store for season five of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.

It would be a surprise if this series doesn't end with Maximus being deposed and Black Bolt returning to the throne with a better understanding of how to rule his people. Black Bolt and the Royal Family are supposed to be the heroes and until this last episode, that was in question. But we are starting to see a heroic side to them and we're starting to see the more selfish aspects of Maximus. This show is still flawed, there is no denying it. They hurt themselves by starting off in the theaters, setting expectations too high. They're also doing some very obvious things to save on budget like having Triton out of the way since the first few moments of the series, having Lockjaw constantly a sleep or unconscious off camera and even in the last episode when Black Bolt and Medus took out the smugglers, it happened off camera. Putting that aside, I'm starting to think this series will be looked at in a better light after the fact. That the destination might justify the journey and that this is a series that would definitely have benefited from being able to binge watch.

If the Inhumans we end the series with are the ones that comic fans want, will we be able to forgive the rocky road it took to get there?

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