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.