What Marvel’s Inhumans Is Doing Well And Where The Story Could Go With Another Season

What Marvel’s Inhumans Is Doing Well And Where The Story Could Go With Another Season

Inhumans has suffered a feeding frenzy of criticism, but we’ve heard very little about its positives and possibilities. Here’s why the show should get another season.

Editorial Opinion
By MyBeard - Oct 30, 2017 10:10 PM EST
Filed Under: Inhumans
With the conclusion of Inhumans first, and hopefully not only, season rapidly approaching, it’s worth taking stock of what the series has done well. Yes, there are good points; and we are still allowed to acknowledge them while being disappointed with certain aspects of the show. Much of the criticism has been hyperbolic, and some of it flatly undeserved. Bearing that in mind, let’s dig into what the show has going for it and where that might allow the story to proceed should it be renewed.
 
All is not perfect in Attilan and neither are any of our heroes.
We have been introduced to an inhuman society that produces an ethical quandary. Those of us raised with the ideals of egalitarianism and implanted with a suspicion of monarchy, aristocracy or generalized elitism can’t help but dislike Attilan’s rigid social hierarchy and, by extension its royal ruling class, at least a little bit. Whatever meritocratic value basing a society on the usefulness of each individual’s powers might have, it is tempered by the notion that those abilities are not earned through one’s actions, but endowed solely by DNA. Yes, Attilan needs miners, but viewers should be justifiably concerned that those ranks are filled by unwilling participants, which smacks of a repressive caste system. As a result, the royal family is painted to varying degrees with a sense of entitlement that keeps whatever positive character traits they have in check. No one is some stereotypically flawless good guy. We are meant to come to a more positive view of the characters as we follow their journeys, and that is narratively refreshing in this television genre.
 
Maximus is not a mustache twiddling villain.
There are similar shades of gray in our antagonist. Maximus’ ideals of a more egalitarian inhuman society are meant to initially endear him to the audience, only to set up a growing disgust with him as his psychology is laid bare. We are led to question how selfless his motivations actually are as his actions to maintain his grip on the throne become more extreme. At the beginning of the series, the only hint we have of the malignance of his personality is his willingness to belligerently return to earth for desperately needed resources. By the end we are less and less surprised of how deep he will sink to appease his sense of inferiority and his somewhat justified paranoia. Iwan Rheon does a good job of layering the character, and while we aren’t quite to Walter White territory here, having a villain with depth is a good cornerstone to build on going forward.
 
The characters’ journey is rewarding audience investment.
Their unintended excursion to earth is yielding dividends in terms of endearing the royal family to the audience. All of them have wound up interacting with people in a way that forces them to question the universal distrust they initially had of humanity. Similarly, conflict with inhumans who support Maximus’ revolution has seemingly caused Black Bolt and Medusa to consider the notion that maintaining the repressive societal structure of their previous reign might not be the best move for Attilan. The end result of this development will likely be an inhuman society that the audience can support and could conceivably serve as protectors of humanity in some later adventure. Bringing the characters along in that fashion has covered a good amount of narrative ground in a single season, while leaving the show poised for interesting future storylines. Additionally, the writers have shown a willingness to eliminate important inhuman characters, which opens the door to introducing others from the comics and giving them an opportunity to pursue their own arcs. Consistently introducing new characters and having them interact with surviving original ones is part of what makes a world feel more lived in, like that of Westeros in Game of Thrones. Inhumans could productively go in that direction and the audience would be all the more intrigued for it.
 
There are many fruitful ways a second season could go from here.
I had hoped for a different type of Inhumans story for this season, but nothing that has happened so far prevents doing that next time around. We have already been introduced to the Kree in Agents of Shield. The next season of Inhumans could see the royal family preventing an invasion by taking the fight to Kree territory and using that opportunity to fill in some of the blanks about the origin of the inhumans, how and why they moved the moon, and how Hive ended up on Maven. That could possibly tie in nicely with the S.W.O.R.D. storyline that will be pursued on AoS. Alternately, they could explore more earth based stories and still link with AoS by creating a group of “evil” inhumans, who are tired of being persecuted, that the royal family needs to stop without causing further distrust of their kind (basically the resolution of the X-Men on a budget storyline happening on AoS). Both stories could be filled out by having Maximus, assuming he survives this season, seek an alliance with the enemy to maneuver his way back to controlling Attilan or some breakaway colony. They could also continue the arcs of the characters by having complicated relationships with human allies and antagonists that problematize whether the royal family should reveal themselves to the general population of earth. There are many interesting directions to take the Inhumans’ storyline, connect them to AoS and maybe the larger MCU by taking up the fallout of the Kree – Skrull war.
 
Inhumans is far from a lost cause and deserves to continue.
Due to the promise of the IMAX partnership and the movie that could have been, the show has been disappointing for those of us who were expecting film or Game of Thrones type production quality. The show has some obvious flaws, but none of them are fatal enough to warrant the exaggerated dislike being expressed for this project. Much of the complaint seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy produced by deciding beforehand that it would not live up to expectations, some of which were probably unfairly high. That said, Inhumans is not yet the top shelf Marvel TV production we were all hoping it would be. There is plenty here that is compelling though, and it has gone in the proper direction to allow season over season improvement as many other science fiction shows, like AoS and all properties in the Star Trek and Stargate universes, have done. A solid argument can be made that a new creative team is needed to take this show to another level, and that is likely the case, but let’s not overlook what this season has made possible if another season is approved.
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bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 10/31/2017, 4:00 PM
Great article mate, agree with everything you say. I like your point of view on the show, although you could have said in it in less expensive language
MyBeard
MyBeard - 10/31/2017, 6:55 PM
@MalseMarcel - Thanks man, I appreciate your input. I've got to use all the 10 cent words I can so that those student loans seem worth it.
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 11/1/2017, 4:50 AM
@MyBeard - I dont know where you get the student loan for, but hopefully that means you write more of these articles
MyBeard
MyBeard - 11/1/2017, 6:54 AM
@MalseMarcel - Thanks for the compliment. I'll keep writing when I have time.
JDL
JDL - 10/31/2017, 10:23 PM
No SWORD. It belongs to the X-Men. :( As for a second chance I just can't see it. The first impression, even disregarding peoples various agenda's, was only slightly north of real bad. You don't come back from that.
MyBeard
MyBeard - 11/1/2017, 7:03 AM
@JDL - Interesting, I hadn't heard that. It sure seems like they are going to do SWORD, or some reasonable facsimile thereof, on AoS. I guess it doesn't matter that much what they would call it, as long as it serves the same purpose they could do those kind of story lines.

While I don't agree with you about its quality level, I think you are probably right about whether it will get a second season. It's a shame really as the show certainly isn't any worse than AoS was 8 episodes into its run. I guess that is the problem with the higher expectations that come from the IMAX partnership and following the other Marvel shows that have had better receptions.
JDL
JDL - 11/2/2017, 9:32 PM
@MyBeard - You might be right on the expectations. But part of this is people have these agenda's of what they think the show should look like and if they don't get it they throw hissy fits.

As for a SWORD lookalike I don't think so. Imo it would violate the Fox deal. Whatever it is it has to be different enough that people don't confuse it with SWORD.
katzb724
katzb724 - 11/1/2017, 12:21 PM
My thoughts on the show.

1). Most of the acting is terrible. Seriously, at times it seems like much of the cast are first year acting students reading lines off cue-cards. Specifically, the girl who plays crystal is terrible as is her boy-toy. The guys who play Karnak and black bolt are the exception.

2). Many sub plots are really dumb and pointless. I mean really the whole Karnak drug ring subplot had literally no point other than to get the hottie in her underwear. Seriously though what was the point other than for Karnak to have something to do so the writers can separate the royal family. Same with Gorgon and his "brothers" he met for five minutes and then got them killed.

3). No one uses their powers. I get it, CGI is expensive, but what is the point of superheros if you are not going to show them using their powers. Blackbolt I get and there is actually story for why he cant use his powers (we better see him using them at full force at least once though). And Gorgons powers are stupid. Having Maximus cut off medusa's hair was a complete cop-out to the budget and was ridiculous.
MyBeard
MyBeard - 11/1/2017, 6:27 PM
@katzb724 - I'd agree that the Crystal romance is difficult to watch at times, but honestly I feel the same way about most of the CW love stories. I think they put this stuff in to cater to the demographic that requires young, good looking people in love to bother watching a show.

I'm not going to defend the acting chops at play, but having spent a lot of time with actual teenagers, I have trouble sorting out bad acting of teenage characters. Most actual teens and early 20 somethings are so mixed-up and such self-imposed caricatures, it's hard to tell what is terrible acting and what is a virtuoso portrayal of actual teenage life. (I kid a bit here, but only a little bit.)

I wasn't that keen on how quickly Gorgon bonded with the surfing soldiers, but I think Karnak's adventure in cannabis commerce had some merit. He had to solve a problem with his powers not at full strength. He learned to stop looking for faults all the time, even though that is the basis of gifts (basically he learned that turning it off once in a while might help him enjoy life). He also developed a better appreciation for Gorgon. Moving along that arc required some sort of story that involved a mix of danger and enjoyment, and at least they didn't turn it into a romance as hokey as Crystal's.

The powers bit is concerning, and I agree it is probably as much budget related as it is to advance the story. I've seen people complain about not using Lockjaw being about saving money, but I don't think that is the case. The show would not have 8 episodes of material if they could have just teleported everyone back together to go get Maximus immediately.

The Flash does a better job showing us powers in action with their budget, so that does need to improve, especially if they go on to bigger adventures. I don't think we will see Black Bolt cut loose at all this season. Where exactly could he do that? There is no Thanos here to fight. I'm convinced the closest we are getting is that disintegration of his parents.

I'm undecided about Medusa. I would like to have seen her do more with her hair, and clearly it saves on special effects, but they needed her on earth right away for the story to work, so the shaving had to happen before that. The thing that bothered me most was that they should've had some sort of futuristic laser shaver when it was done. Using earth clippers was pretty chintzy.

Thanks for reading my editorial.
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