Deadwood: Season 1, Episode 5- The Trial of Jack McCall

"Hickock breaks my balls from the afterlife..."

This is another multifaceted, complex gem of an episode as the people of the town walk past Wild Bill's body to pay their respects while a man stands around loudly trying to sell the severed head of a "heathen" Inevitably, this lawless community moves to try the killer, but the issues surrounding this are fascinating and fundamental. Meanwhile, so many characters get meaningful development.

Bullock is grumpy all episode, particularly with the ingratiating evangelism of the Reverend Smith- it seems that, like many quietly irreligious people in societes where outright atheism is frowned upon, this makes him very uncomfortable. Yet Smith himself is behaving strangely, and ends the episode with some kind of seizure. This is a man we know to have been traumatised by war- there are clearly depths to him.

E.B. shows signs of deep resentment towards Swearengen, and signs of an independent agenda. He's a man needing security for his declining years. Meanwhile Al is getting Trixie to manipulate the newly widowed Alma by replacing her addiction to laudanum with another substance as part of Al's getting her caim back. But she's leaving her agency in the literal hands of a man (not much feminism in 1876)- and, if the first meeting between her and Seth is anything to go by, a man she rather likes the look of. Future lovers, I wonder?

Meanwhile the relationship between Tolliver and mistress Joanie is shown to be complex- how loose is her leash? And she clearly has desires of a Sapphic nature. Tolliver, callously, has his sick old friend Andy dumped in the wilderness where he finds himself looked after by a drunk but nevertheless crudely kindly Calamity Jane, upset at the loss of her "best friend" who never judged her. This is all masterful character development.

But the trial is fascinating- and so is Al's word with the judge. Does this lawless community, wishing for eventual annexation by the United States, really want to look like a society with pretensions of its own legal system, a part of the infrastructure of a functioning state? Would this not be a provocation? And yet, what else can they do?

The killer is ultimately acquitted, and genly reminded to leave town pretty sharpish. But it seems, from coughng at Bill's funeral, that getting rid of Andy (not quite dead) may have brought a plague. How very topical.

This is superlative television.

The Gifted: Season 1, Episode 12 and 13- eXtraction and X-Roads

“I’m the only person in this family who’s actually proud to be a Von Strucker!”

...

“The X-Men made a mistake. This is who I am”

The finale was broadcast, for some reason, as a feature length double bill, so I’m treating it as such. And... well, it had a few surprises, but... meh. I’ll probably end up seeing the next season before too long but only because Mrs Llamastrangler is happy to watch it with me. It’s lucky to have that reprieve, because a promising start has been wasted in becoming a predictable, plodding, repetitive programme in which the characters never seem to actually drive the narrative.

The penultimate episode focuses on the Mutant Underground trying to kidnap Campbell at some anti-Mutant event in North Carolina while Reed and co try to find his mother, Cagney from Cagney & Lacey, to keep her safe from bad old Sentinel Services. But not much happens other than the usual angst- Andy is increasingly wondering whether his ancestors had the right idea, putting him at odds with the rest of the family, while Lorna and Marcos continue to clash over ethics as Lorna gets constantly reminded of who her father is. It’s all somewhat tedious aside from an in-joke about Sentinel Services originally intending to use robots but not doing so for, presumably, budgetary reasons.

We also have hints that John and Clarice are going to get together as at first he berates her over her Brotherhood ("of Evil Mutants") past, and then apologises later and gets a snog. I bet they will. We end with the attack on the conference going all wrong.

The final "episode" concerns the siege of Mutant Underground's HQ by Sentinel Services and later the Hounds while Polaris nips off to assassinate Campbell and his nasty senator friend and, praise be, the reset button remains unpressed. Stuff actually happens. The Struckers all save the day, evacuating everyone; Marcos, with Blink and John, fails to stop Lorna from dramatically turning a plane full of people into a fireball; Jace quits. All this and a face with "J. Kirby" written on it. And then we get the dramatic finale in which Lorna and the Frosts turn up and convince half the mutants to join them... including Andy.

It's an effective finale, yes. But it feels as if the series has been treading water for episodes upon episodes and only because it's the finale are things actually allowed to happen. That isn't in the grand Chris Claremont X-Men tradition; nor is it good episodic television. Please do better next season. A writer's room can be a creative thung but this very much feels written by committee.

The Gifted- Season 1, Episode 11: 3 x 1

“They got the job done."

"Is that all that matters?"

Sigh. After an episode that seemed to change the status quo it's back to an episode of the same arguments and the same running around that we've seen all season. Can something happen please?

I mean, it's good to have the Hellfire Club around, although it's unclear what they exist for in this continuity, and the Frost sisters aren't cool, although apparently they aren't Emma but the Cuckoo Sisters, from well after my time in the comics. It's also great to have the heavy hint that Polaris is Magneto's daughter. But, I mean, really? Do we need the Struckers to have another family argument about what to do until daddy knows best and they all try to flee to Mexico, only to have plot convenience force them back to the Mutant Underground? Do we need the exciting revelation that is the Cuckoo Sisters to be wasted as a pretext for the Mutant Underground to have yet another bloody debate and do sod all? Do we need Campbell's big evil plan to turn out to just be mutants combining their powers?

It's beginning to feel, after a promising few episodes, that nobody here has any real agency except the Cuckoo Sisters, who we've only just bloody met. The parallel funeral sequences achieve little to highlight what flat and shallow ciphers both Polaris and, especially, Jace have become. Does Jace have moral doubts or doesn't he? There's no bloody consistency from episode to episode.

This series looked promising but I have m doubts about whether it's really going anywhere. I'll give it until the end of the season and see.

The Gifted- Season 1, Episode 10: eXploited

"Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go...”

This episode always threatened to be a downbeat one, and unavoidably it is, but we also get a big pleasing twist at the end which seems to offer the chance to divert this first season from its unrelentingly downbeat tone. We begin, though, to a curious flashback- there's a senator, electioneering in ways which are deeply unpleasant in terms of chauvinistic nationalism before he even gets on to his anti_mutant racism. A character for next season?

In the here and now, though, Andy, Lauren, Dream and Blink are captured and collared, and things appear very bleak indeed. And there appears to be nothing but aimless argument at the Mutant Underground, something for Esme, the cuckoo in their nest, to exploit. There's a startling interrogation scene between Jace and Dreamer, though, in which he tells her what she did to him by making him mourn his daughter all over again- and in which he bitterly tells her that he wants not apologies, but vengeance; a nice touch, as this is followed up on.

Campbell, though, is back from hospital, cured, if scarred, and manages to persuade Jace to release all four mutants to him for his nefarious, cruel and extra-legal purposes. We see his cruelty as he forces the Strucker teens to perform their joint power under controlled conditions through torture, during the process of which he murders Sonya in cold blood.

We also see Esme turning the adult Struckers and their mutant allies in different directions, manipulating them and, perhaps not entirely credibly, persuading Reed and Caitlin to try and appeal to Jace's decency; as far as I'm concerned, personal tragedies be damned, he has none. He simply isn't an ambiguous character; he's a shit. Nevertheless, the two of them drive into his neighbourhood, full of flags on people's lawns (does no one in America find this kind of aggressive nationalism creepy?) to the home which Jace shares with Mrs Jace- and attempt to reason with them by gunpoint. Jace, of course, is unmoved, but Mrs Jace is naturally appalled at what her husband has been doing, and that simple question "What are you doing in our little girl's name?" seems to have an effect.

Indeed, when we next see Jace, he's seizing back his prisoners from Campbell and promising to investigate Sonya's suspicious death. But chaos ensues as Thunderbird and the mutants strike, and it becomes clear that Esme has an agenda of her own. Who is she...?

An uneven episode; this season was good at the beginning as it slowly built its world and characters but soon fell into a pattern, and now we may be seeing an escape from this bleak pattern. But there's still plenty of bleakness here and I'm not sure where the ending to this season is going.

The Gifted- Season 1, Episode 8: threat of eXtinction

"I failed! It came back!"

This is, quite clearly, a pivotal episode in which we comics fans have our suspicions confirmed about the decision to use the family name “Strucker”. In fact, we start with a 1952 flashback featuring Andreas and Andrea von Strucker, indeed Fenris, in their full terrifying glory, or at least dialogue about it, which is much kinder on the budget. These mutants are not traditionally X-Men characters, of course, but I like that. And the sense of secrets being uncovered fills the episode.

The other subplot is that the Mutant Underground is dealing with many refugees, one of whom turns out to be a helplessly brainwashed “Hound” spy, although not one without pathos in the manner of her eventual death.

While this keeps the others occupied, John accompanies Reed on a visit to his estranged dad, Otto, who used to work for Trask. What they discover is a real bombshell. Otto is the son of Andreas, is himself a closeted but powerful mutant, and his work with Trask was to eliminate the x-gene and “cure” Reed, his mutant son- what Reed remembers as a serious childhood illness was in fact his powers being erased. Otto could never look his son in the eye after nearly killing him like that, but insists that “everything I did in life was for you!” And he then goes to prove it by sacrificing himself so Reed and John can escape as Sentinel Services come looking.

The bigger revelation, though, is that Lauren and Andy have the same powers as their feared great grandfather add great aunt- what does this mean for them...? This is gripping, fascinating, arc-defining stuff.

In other news, Polaris and Marcos make up and Clarice is subtly integrated into the team, but this extraordinary episode is all about the revelations.

The Gifted- Season 1, Episode 7: eXtreme measures

"All he ever believed in was Magnet Girl..."

A lot of different threads are unfolding- it must be mid-season- in an episode that luxuriates in the fact that we finally know the score ad things can unfold. So we see, in flashback, as Marcos is recruited by John and Lorna, with whom there is a spark from the start. We also see Lorna's disgusted reaction as John is forced to do an underworld ob for his dodgy ex, Carmen. He remains a prisoner of his past.

The same is true of Wes, to whom, following last episode, Lauren is taking a shine. It turns out he has a history of petty theft, but after a bit of a kerfuffle, and some father/daughter awkwardness, he is allowed to overcome them. He and Lauren are still parted for other reasons, though.

John heads off in pursuit of Clarice to find out that she, too, is a prisoner of her past, trying to trace what happened to the foster carers who used to look after her and other mutant children. When John helps her to discover the awful truth- all the people she loved were murdered by Sentinel Services- she finally has a reason to join the Mutant Underground.

Yet most tragically a prisoner of his past is Jace, mourning his daughter again, as he does a deal with the sinister Dr Campbell in agreeing to be more "aggressive" in the use of apparently brainwashed Mutant "assets" called "Hounds". When a lady comes from the Department of Justice to shut this down as being quite illegal and appalling for a free society she is assaulted by a shockingly racist rant from Jace, reminding us that, whatever his personal tragedies, he's a colossal twat. And then said lady suffers a highly convenient stroke...

Meanwhile, the Mutants finally finish reading all the stuff they nicked last week, where they read of Trask Industries (we who know our old comic books recognise that name!) and a family connection for Reed...

The Gifted- Season 1,Episode 6: got your siX

" Nothing says father-son bonding like breaking into a federal building."

Six episodes in and the subplots are all interacting nicely. We also seem to have got to know all the main characters now and things are moving noticeably faster. Revealingly, there’s a longer “previously on”.

We begin with a flashback, though, to four years ago, as John experiences anti-Mutant racism in the wake of 7/15. Interestingly, too, we’re told he was chosen to lead the Mutant Underground by the X-Men, and that the X-Men are expecting a war. This is interesting wider world building, and only the second and third mentions of the X-Men.

We also learn that other Mutants beside Pulse may be working with Sentinel Services, an escalation, and John in turn decides to up the ante with a raid on a mysterious facility at Baton Rouge. Much of the episode revolves around this but a lot of character development happens. In particular, Clarice confronts John on his acceptance after the fact of what Dreamer did to her- and leaves. I’m not sure whether, next time, she will be friend or foe.

Then there’s Jace again, back at work after mourning his child a second time and cutting legal corners in a disturbing pursuit of revenge. He’s now willing to accept the help of Doctor Campbell who, in true TV drama cliche style, he turned down in a previous episode- and Campbell shows a particular interest in “the Strucker children”.

We also have both Andy and Lauren going on missions and developing their powers, both with the reluctant consent of their parents, who are both doing well under the circumstances but struggling to adjust to the harsh new reality. We’re also introduced to Wes, with his power for illusions, who connects with Lauren and proves his usefulness at the dramatic episode ending. But we end with Marco’s being summoned by Carmen to do nefarious things...

A good episode, and one with many moving parts. The Gifted may not be the stuff of greatness, at least not yet, but it’s the stuff of very good indeed.