S01.E01: Behold...The Inhumans! / S01.E02: Those Who Would Destroy Us

[jhlipton]

1 hour ago, statsgirl said:

Karnak treated that serving girl horribly.  What an ass.

In his mind, he was doing her a favor -- letting her know that flirting with him was a Bad Idea.  What he said may have stung for a moment, but if he let her continue, she would have been hurt even more.  That I can forgive.  But why do these Royals need human servants anyway?

[Matt K]

3 hours ago, statsgirl said:

Also Karnak treated that serving girl horribly.  What an ass.

I really don't get why they structured that scene like that since it pretty much soured me on the character.  They could have dropped the same information by having Gorgon notice the servant flirting with Karnak and then tease him about it.  Then Karnak could tell Gorgon why that wouldn't work (using the same basic speech from the show). 

Edited October 2, 2017 by Matt K

[HunterHunted]

3 hours ago, Raja said:

I think that the show leaned to heavily on the comics fans knowing a comic back story. Hence some of those fans talking about classic Inhumans versus new characters created for Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D not being those who they waited decades to see. Right now the royalty are only heroes because we know that they were heroes in another format 

2 hours ago, Jamoche said:

That's remarkably inept of them given all the press about "Look at us making a movie TV show about characters that only the most hard-core Marvel fans have ever heard of."

I figure I'm pretty typical of the non-reader audience - I like science fiction and the genre comics tend to fall into, I just never read any of them. I knew all about the DC characters that have been on TV and movies since forever, I'd seen the Marvel movies and some of the TV, I'd picked up on characters like Captain America before the movies started from cultural osmosis - and all I know about the Inhumans came from that pilot. They did not manage to pull off anything close to what Guardians of the Galaxy did with characters that also were essentially unknown outside the comic readership.

 

If Inhumans was leaning on familiarity with the characters, then that was really stupid. Iron Man and The First Avenger are origin stories. You absolutely did not need to know anything about either character going in. In Guardians, Peter is the protagonist, but he's also the surrogate because he has no clue who Rocket, Groot, and Gamorra are either. When we meet Peter, he's a little kid kidnapped by aliens who grows up to be Han Solo. Peter is the character who grounds us even if the rest of the Guardians universe and characters are completely foreign. Even Ant-Man has Scott Lang who was basically like "Excuse me? An Ant what now?!?!???"

Inhumans, doesn't have anyone like that. It could have been the Inhuman girl who was killed off in the first minutes. If you've been watching AoS, you'd be familiar with Inhumans and their history though the Royal Family might be foreign to you. If you bailed on AoS in season 1 or early 2, you'd be clueless about Inhumans. That girl could have been a good way to introduce the concept of Inhumans, the Royal Family, and Attilan to the viewers.

It looks like the show wants to make the woman who works for not-NASA that person, but there's been so little of her, she hasn't interacted with anyone else in the cast, and it's hard to figure out how she might be integral to the story. Black Bolt is in jail. Medusa is wandering around the city looking for her husband. Karnak is lost in the jungle with a concussion. Gorgon is chilling on the beach with some surfers. I fail to see how a woman who works for not-NASA can intervene to make any of those situations better. "I'm sorry officers. You need to release this shoplifter to my custody. I work for not-NASA." It would be a stupid request even if she worked for NASA.

Even after telling Crystal that Auran was going to use her wrist communicator to track and find Medusa, I'm unsurprised that none of the Royal idiots thought to use the GPS functions of the wrist communicators that only the "bad guys" remembered. "I hear traffic. You must be in the city." Nah stupid. He's at Trader Joe's on a Saturday. 

[HunterHunted]

2 hours ago, jhlipton said:

 But why do these Royals need human servants anyway?

This food and drink isn't just going to serve itself. Unless there is an Inhuman slaving away in the mines with the ability to only telepathically serve food and drinks. 

[statsgirl]

2 hours ago, jhlipton said:

In his mind, he was doing her a favor -- letting her know that flirting with him was a Bad Idea.  What he said may have stung for a moment, but if he let her continue, she would have been hurt even more.  That I can forgive.  But why do these Royals need human servants anyway?

Men have been turning down women, and women turning down men and (insert your own gender preferences) for millions of years.  Nice people turn the other person down nicely; terrible people turn the other person down in a way that makes her/him/neutral fell terrible.  Karnak did it in such as way as to make that serving girl feel like she's something he scraped off the bottom of his shoe.

We're supposed to be rooting for Karnak, not hoping he gets his just rewards  for those actions.

3 hours ago, Raja said:

I think that the show leaned to heavily on the comics fans knowing a comic back story. Hence some of those fans talking about classic Inhumans versus new characters created for Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D not being those who they waited decades to see. Right now the royalty are only heroes because we know that they were heroes in another format 

The small percentage of the audience who has read the comic books. The rest of us see them as villains.

This is a problem that Arrow and every comic book TV show since have had for its past five seasons  -- that those who came to the show from reading the comic books come in with the expectation of the TV shows reproducing what they had been reading and everyone else coming in cold and expecting a coherent and entertaining story.

The part of the audience that comes from the comic books or in this case from the last seasons of AoS generally a minority.  They have to write as if for people who have no idea of what came before the show's pilot episode.

[athelyna]

I guess I'm in the minority that didn't hate it.  I've seen some of the AoS episodes that introduced Inhumans, so I at least knew what the terrigen crystal ceremonies were about, but they could definitely have done a better job explaining the setup of the world.  Did they create these 2 episodes knowing they were going to be released to theaters?  Because it definitely felt rushed, and I'm wondering if they were trying to pack as much in 2 hours as possible to justify the "movie" release.  It would have been better if they had spent the first episode setting up the world and then the second episode could have been the coup.  They especially needed to explain the whole caste system and give the king/queen a chance to explain why living on the moon under the caste system is better than going back to Earth, beyond not wanting a war with normal humans.  It would have helped if they had brought someone from Earth in to be an audience surrogate.

That said, I thought Black Bolt's actor did a good job, and I definitely saw him emoting with his expressions, but I think they needed to be bigger to come across.  I thought Medusa was okay, but her wig was distractingly awful, and I think I saw better CG on tv shows from the 90's.  I liked most of the side characters better, especially Gorgon.  I thought Gorgon and the surfers was just dumb enough to be amazing.  Overall, I found it entertaining enough that I can probably sit through 8 episodes.  There's something about the concept I find interesting, and I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out I like the fanfic more than the actual show but I'm willing to give it a shot.

[AKA...CJ86]

I didn't hate it.  Enjoyed it very much, although many times I felt the show bordered on parody.

Right now, Anson Mount's the best one on the show, and I'm here for Lockjaw.

[blackwing]

After watching "The Gifted" tonight, I now think this show did an even poorer job of introducing its characters and world.  And it had two hours to do it versus The Gifted's one.  

The Felicity Smoak looking woman seems useless.  What is the point of this character?

[jhlipton]

5 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

It could have been the Inhuman girl who was killed off in the first minutes. That girl could have been a good way to introduce the concept of Inhumans, the Royal Family, and Attilan to the viewers.

Why bother to introduce her just to kill her right after?  And they didn't even make sure she was dead -- it would have taken 2 seconds to put a bullet in her head.

5 hours ago, statsgirl said:

This is a problem that Arrow and every comic book TV show since have had for its past five seasons  -- that those who came to the show from reading the comic books come in with the expectation of the TV shows reproducing what they had been reading and everyone else coming in cold and expecting a coherent and entertaining story.

Both Gotham and Legends of Tomorrow (I'm not sure if LoT is from comics, but I think some of the characters are) have their problems, but introducing their wold and keeping it consistent isn't one of them.

[formerlyfreedom]

A reminder; this is not the spot to get into lengthy discussions of other shows. Posts that do may be removed at the discretion of the mods. Please keep it relevant to this show, and thanks.

[paulvdb]

4 hours ago, jhlipton said:

10 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

It could have been the Inhuman girl who was killed off in the first minutes. That girl could have been a good way to introduce the concept of Inhumans, the Royal Family, and Attilan to the viewers.

Why bother to introduce her just to kill her right after?  And they didn't even make sure she was dead -- it would have taken 2 seconds to put a bullet in her head.

When I was watching the opening scene I expected that that would be her role. I think it could have improved the show if she had been used to introduce us to the Inhumans. Let Crystal (or someone else, but Crystal doesn't seem to have another job so she should have the time for it) show her around the city on the moon and introduce us to this world.

[xfuse]

16 hours ago, jhlipton said:

n his mind, he was doing her a favor -- letting her know that flirting with him was a Bad Idea.  What he said may have stung for a moment, but if he let her continue, she would have been hurt even more.  That I can forgive. 

What bothered me more was that he felt that she was beneath him because she was a servant.

That is what bothers me about the royal family. How many times was Maximus not heard or insulted by saying he was only human.  It's a big pet peeve in RL so i'm not going to root for characters on a tv show.

AoS did it better showing that inhumans were good, bad and in between. They make mistakes; they grow, learn and some never change.  

[jhlipton]

6 hours ago, xfuse said:

What bothered me more was that he felt that she was beneath him because she was a servant.

I have the feeling that Karnak would have said the same thing to anyone, even Crystal.

[Jamoche]

20 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

If you bailed on AoS in season 1 or early 2, you'd be clueless about Inhumans.

Exactly this. They have to know that they lost a lot of people around that point, and we didn't all come back even though we're willing to give new shows a chance.

[Jacks-Son]

I think Karnak turned her down because he thought she was stupid, not because she was a servant.

[paigow]

Gorgon seems to have inherited the role of hedonistic frat boy - e.g. Zac Efron from Neighbours - everybody else is pretty dull. Guess that probably comes from how Scott Buck ran Dexter. Deb was the emotional core of the show.

[jhlipton]

1 hour ago, Jacks-Son said:

I think Karnak turned her down because he thought she was stupid, not because she was a servant.

But she wasn't; she just didn't know him.  "He's cute and a Royal -- could be my ticket up."

[call me ishmael]

Odds are it is all a set up for them to learn from the humans who help them that the cast system is wrong.  Because Earth has done such a great job with equality.

[Irishmaple]

Finally got to this. CTV took forever to put it up on demand; I thought I was going to have to watch it online.  Given the reviews, my expectations were beyond low. I'm all in for the Marvel movies, though Guardians of the Galaxy 2 has given me pause. I held on through a few seasons of Agents of SHIELD but bailed before they got into their Inhumans storyline. I gave it another shot for Luke Mitchell but, like The Tomorrow People, I like the actor but not the show.  I really don't know much about the Inhumans. I decided to watch the show because I read through the first page of the thread and a couple of familiar names gave it a thumbs up. 

I don't see why this show rated an IMAX release but it isn't the worst new show I've watched. I like Anson Mount and feel I owe him one for bailing on the final season of Hell on Wheels (I hated what the show did with Naomi and I can't believe The Swede outlasted me) I also like Serinda Swan from The Breakout Kings. Iwan Rheon is on his own - I'm currently watching season 6 of Game of Thrones.

The show really rushed through establishing the characters but they did enough that I got a read on the majors so I'm good to go. The CGI on Medusa's hair was unspeakably bad, particularly in her fight with the guards. I was so embarrassed for the tech team I could hardly watch it. Black Bolt is a bit too comfortable with casual violence and entitlement but Anson Mount wears arrogance well. The caste society is unfair and I challenge Maximus's assertion that it is a meritocracy. I'm also side-eying his revolution. I'm unconvinced he's on the side of the workers given how fast his ass hit the throne and how eagerly he assumed the title, and he would have been thrilled if the Queen came with the kingship.

 I'm going to stick with it for now. I liked Louise and I'm curious to see how she becomes an ally, assuming that's what the show intends. I also hope the surfers don't stick around because I thought the actors were terribly stolid and unconvincing. 

[diebartdie]

On 9/30/2017 at 0:51 PM, marketdoctor said:

I could have used a line about a gravity enhancer--otherwise the characters would have had a VERY hard time going to Earth (6x the gravity of the Moon), in addition to walking differently, etc.

 

Thank you for saying this! I know it must be the tiniest nit to ever be picked but seriously, how were they all walking and running and carrying on on Earth? They were all born and raised on the Moon with very little gravity, suddenly finding themselves on Earth they would have been so pathetic, unable to even lift their heads.

I agree with basically everyone about Maximus' point regarding the caste (slavery) system. However, he's only in it for himself AND he wants to come to Earth and subjugate (enslave) Earther humans, what kinda bullshit is that? I dont watch GoT so am not familiar with the actor playing Maximus but boy howdy was he struggling with a California flat accent! Poor thing.

All the costumes looked like polyester with various vinyl bits tacked on. Lockjaw was too shiny. The sets looked like plywood. The fight scenes actually were WORSE than Iron Fist which man wtf. IDK, someone in this thread (thuganomics?) said they managed to enjoy it by thinking of it like a 90's syndicated thing like Hercules. If it had just a tablespoon more humor I could really take it like that. As it is now....it gets one more episode....if I remember it.

[Jacks-Son]

53 minutes ago, diebartdie said:

They were all born and raised on the Moon with very little gravity, suddenly finding themselves on Earth they would have been so pathetic, unable to even lift their heads.

I don't think they were born on the moon. I kind of remember hearing that they escaped Earth to ultimately live on the moon under a camouflaged dome. 

[Raja]

9 minutes ago, Jacks-Son said:

I don't think they were born on the moon. I kind of remember hearing that they escaped Earth to ultimately live on the moon under a camouflaged dome. 

The unanswered question is when did this happen? Just before the explosion of Inhumans on earth. When Nazi Hydra learned of their existence and started experimenting in WWII? Before?

Perhaps the next 6 weeks will tell 

[Cool Breeze]

In the comic books, Attilan was in The Himalayas for many years, and was subsequently relocated to The Blue Area on the moon.  So, fanwanking says these Inhumans are basically earthlings who now reside on the moon.

[FishyJoe]

Are we supposed to be deeply disturbed about the rule of the Royal family? They were basically running a eugenics program.

Sending genetically inferior people to the mines sounds like something the Nazis would do. Meanwhile the genetically pure people live the high life on the surface. 

[starri]

12 hours ago, Cool Breeze said:

In the comic books, Attilan was in The Himalayas for many years, and was subsequently relocated to The Blue Area on the moon.  So, fanwanking says these Inhumans are basically earthlings who now reside on the moon.

And now it's an independent nation in the Hudson between New York and New Jersey.

[TV Anonymous]

Alright, it has been discussed quite extensively how the supposedly protagonists live in their expansive palace having sex and listening to music in bed while those without power toiling away in the mines. So my other issues:

1. If they know that their king can not speak, why is his comlink voice only?
2. So the mission control for a moon expedition is tables with several monitors in an industrial loft? 
3. This is a universe where the Avengers exist. Where SHIELD is/was a genuine government agency that operate(d) in the open. Yet they are confused to see somebody with power flipping the police car?
4. Why do the police seem clueless with someone who does not speak? Mutism is quite common, I would think.

[dwmarch]

After my third attempt I was able to get through the first episode. It picked up a little in the third episode but I can't say I'm loving this show by at all.

There are two huge cardinal sins with this show. First and foremost it is boring. We've already seen a Marvel movie about a special alien who will rule over a kingdom someday except his jealous and non-special brother hates him for that. We've also had several takes in which it isn't a brother ruling over a kingdom but a main character in charge of a company and the jealous second in command thinks he'd be better at it.

Second of all, I think there is way too much reliance on recognition of the Game of Thrones dude. Now maybe on that show he was the villain to end all villains and every time he spoke the audience cheered his villainous plans. Maybe he was such a bastard that he brought hero characters to their lowest point with little effort. Maybe he died in some terrible but justified manner and everyone cheered. But I've never seen Game of Thrones so I don't give a shit! To me this dude is just some insecure nutsack who talks too goddamn much and who looks like his biggest problem in life is that he's never been laid. They could have cast Liam Neeson or Gary Oldman as this villain and I still wouldn't care about his endless insecurities and need to validate himself in front of a crowd.

And for people who aren't supposed to be human they sure buy their clothes from a similar source. Black Bolt's leather pants are just plain old leather pants that you could buy at the Gap. I have a pair just like them. Another character was wearing jeans.

I was a little disappointed that Black Bolt didn't end up getting taken to 5-0 headquarters. But where was he actually being incarcerated? Because as far as I know he'd be in a lockup until he could be tried and then he'd be thrown into the actual prison with the corrupt guards and the yard and etc.

[AKA...CJ86]

So, made my way through "Those Who Would Destroy Us" and so far:

• Black Bolt experiences his own personal episode of COPS
• Karnak experiences his own personal episode of Naked and Afraid
• Medusa experiences every person's experiences on a vacation
• Gorgon learned to bro out

Episode was a step up from the first.  Scenery is a nice change of pace.  It wasn't as parody-ish as the first episode.  I agree with my fellow poster(s) who have mentioned it is a bit on the boring/bland side.

Edited October 10, 2017 by CyberJawa1986