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MUTANT X |
Shalimar Fox – Victoria Pratt Adam Kane – John Shea Brennan Mulwray – Victor Webster Jesse Kilmartin – Forbes March Emma de Lauro – Lauren Lee Smith Gabrielle Ashlocke – Michael Easton Mason Eckhart – Tom McCamus 
OTHER MUTANT X SEASONS Season 1 Season 3 OTHER SUPERHERO SHOWS Batman Birds Of Prey Blade - The Series Heroes Misfits No Heroics 
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Season OverviewThe Mutant X team are a small group of superpowered young people led by their creator, Adam Kane. Jessie can phase from indestructible to ephemeral, Shalimar is a feral presence with increased agility and strenght, Emma is telepathic and Brennan controls electricity. This season sees the team come back for more action adventures, but without the consistent enemy of Mason Eckhart who is replaced by a number of faceless and uninteresting villains, which renders the low level superheroics even less interesting than the first time around. The characters are also less likeable as the show ups the drama factor by mainly having the team shout at each other repetitively over various misunderstandings. Considering that they keep going on about how much of a 'family' they are they certainly don't trust each other with a lot of information. The other trick that this season uses to increase the drama is by giving each new episode some link with one of the team through either family, old lovers, friends etc. It doesn't work and just gets silly by the end. Surely there must be someone they can save who they don't have a vested interest in? The effects remain variable (mainly in terms of their personal jet) and the wire work is scaled back and so is less impressive than before. Accenting the drama over the action doesn't pay dividends for the show. TopPast As PrologueAshlocke, the first and ultimate New Mutant, is dying and he knows it, but he has a plan. He intends to reincarnate an ancient Egyptian goddess/priestess who will cure him with her magic. Adam, though, has plans of his own which also include curing Ashlocke, much to Shalimar's disgust. The opening episode of the new season of comic book heroics is a very muddled affair mixing up science, magic, prophecies and genetics in a very messy plot that revels in Ashlocke's villainy, but doesn't make any sense at all. Adam's hypothesis that an Ashlocke with nothing to lose is an Ashlocke who will be even more ruthless doesn't take into account the fact that he is already utterly ruthless. The priestess/goddess when she arrives does nothing more than wave her arms around a bit to fire off pyrotechnics that don't manage to hit anyone before being taken care of in short order. If this is the best that the new season can offer then perhaps it would be better to stop watching now. TopPower PlayA black ops mercenary takes a piece of high-tech military hardware from its storage base and intends to use it as a defence shield whilst he blackmails the country with the threat of chemical attack. The Mutant X team go in, but the one member they really need, Jesse, finds that using his powers might very well kill him. Shamelessly ripping off the Nic Cage starring THE ROCK for its plot, this episode is a slapdash affair that has a laser defence shield that the team bypass in moments and a few twists to the storyline that can be seen coming from a long way off. The action is pretty lame and this is certainly below the (admittedly not too high) standard of the first season. TopTime SquaredAshlocke tracks down a mutant who can send him back through time so that he can mess with his own development as a mutant, becoming invincible and saving his life at the same time. The Mutant X team follow him there and find that they are too late to stop Adam being killed. Time travel is a curious thing and offers lots of opportunities for plot twists, but there aren't that many here. As time changes, things disappear, yes, but the Mutant X team in the present are aware of the changes when they ought to know nothing at all since the changes would have meant that they weren't even there. Paradoxes are just completely ignored. Also ignored are the possibilities there are to have fun with the background of the 70s for the plot. If ever there was a decade that could have been a good source for some nice one-liners and comedy then the 70s must have been it, but apart from the clothing and the cars, the particular era in which the story is set is completely wasted. TopWhose Woods These AreSeveral deaths in an area of woodlands brings Shalimar and Brennan to investigate. There is a man-like creature in there that appears to be a new mutant, but when it rakes Shalimar with its claws, Brennan fears that she might be turning into another one of the creatures. It's hard to have sympathy with Shalimar's pain and suffering when the pair of experienced field agents don't even bother with the basics of taking care of a wound such as cleaning it or dressing it. It's also hard to be impressed by a man in poor plastic makeup trying to be scary and failing miserably. There is something to be said for Shalimar's empathising with one of her own kind gone bad and it is nice to see that even Mutant X can't win them all, but neither point is worth sitting through the episode for. TopThe Future RevealedAshlocke finds a way into the Sanctuary and tries to force Adam to come up with cure whilst the rest of the team have to find a way around their own security defences. There's an awful lot of talking that goes on in this episode as Adam and Ashlocke spend the whole running time swapping speeches. The action is provided by Emma and Shalimar chasing down a mutant with the power to turn every electrical appliance in an entire city into a bomb. Their solution to stopping her is...more talking. The final solution for Ashlocke comes as a bit of a surprise, though there is also a bit of a get out clause at the end. TopNo Man Left BehindAdam is incensed when a piece of technology he has invented is turned into a weapon that the military then loses in a Balkan state's civil war. The Mutant X team go in to retrieve it, but Brennan is also intent on recovering the transport plane's pilot. The background to Brennan's desire to save the pilot above all else is incredibly clumsy and, as a result, utterly unbelievable. He is also pretty unsuccessful, having to rely on his friends to get him out of his jam. Emma's revelation about her increased powers leads to another awkward scene in which Jesse is turned into an ogling pig just so that the point can be put across. TopCrossroads Of The SoulAn accident in a thunderstorm leaves Brennan in a town peopled by folk who believe that there is nothing more in the world than the town itself. As an outsider, he is a threat to the stability of the community and there are those that would see him removed, permanently. MUTANT X steals the whole set up for M Night Shyamalan's THE VILLAGE (minus those that we do not speak of) for this initially intriguing, but ultimately foolish story. Since he has no powers inside the village, there isn't much room for superhero action and the speed with which he falls for a local girl only to walk away with equal speed and ease beggars disbelief. TopSign From AboveAliens are sucking mutants' spinal fluid from their brains in order to make themselves hugely powerful. Even Mutant X's combined skills might not be enough to stop them. If ever there was a B-movie plot pitch in MUTANT X then this has got to be it. By now you would have thought that the team had grown a brain when it comes to others in their lives, but Emma meets a stranger, immediately takes him back to the Sanctuary and gives him full access to the computers, not to mention being attracted by the fact that she can't read his emotions. It's so painfully obvious that he's not who he says he is that everything else is completely undermined. TopBody And SoulA mutant spirit moves from body to body, searching out the scientists that created it. The Mutant X team try to track it down, but are hampered by a determined news team. Everyone that Shalimar Foxx fancies either ends up being the bad guy or dead or the victim, so it's should be a sure sign to the rest of the team not to trust anyone that she likes. The rest of this episode is fairly standard stuff, though the body count is fairly high and the outcome is harsh to say the least. TopUnderstudyOne of Shalimar's oldest friends shows up just as she gets injured and offers to help out the team until their feral member is back on her feet. Whilst old times are hashed over, it becomes clear that the newcomer doesn't just want the assignment to be temporary. The curse of Shalimar Foxx strikes again as her best friend does one of the FATAL ATTRACTION things where she tries to turn herself into a better Shalimar than Shalimar so that she can then kill her off and take her place. It's fairly obvious what's happening, so it fails to be either impressive or tense, proving only how stupid these characters are capable of being when the plot requires it. TopThe GriftAn ex-girlfriend of Brennan's shows up with a son in tow that she says is Brennan's and a bunch of goons on her tail who want something that she stole and have unkillable soldiers to use to get it back. Yet another episode in which someone from the past comes back to haunt a member of the team. This time around it's Christina Cox (BLOOD TIES), an ex-girlfriend and now mother. Every twist in the relationship between Brennan and the woman and her son is absolutely predictable and the plot of the scam in which she is involved is hackneyed and uninteresting and does nothing to make up for that. TopAt Destiny's EndA group of eco-terrorists are having remarkable success thanks to one of their number being a mutant whose telepathic abilities give him the power to sense the future. Emma is drawn to the man and he decides to give up the destruction game to be with her, but the others of his gang have different ideas, planning the job that will cement their notoriety, but could also destroy the Earth. There’s nobody from anyone’s past in this episode, but Emma immediately becomes involved with the telepath thanks to the empathic link that she immediately shares with him. At this point, everyone enters into a plotline lifted from POINT BREAK, there’s an excuse for a lot of beachwear (even though the beach in question doesn’t look any too warm) and everything sort of fizzles out. TopWithin These WallsA mutant created to be an assassin escapes from the transport to his secure prison, hurting Brennan in the process. He then decides to go after the woman who was going to imprison him, a woman with whom Adam has a history. In trying to save her, Adam finds himself trapped with her in a panic room hoping that the Mutant X team will figure out he’s in danger and where he is before the mutant can find a way in. And another episode in which someone from the Mutant X team is involved with the main driver of the plot, this time around the woman who was in charge of producing weaponised mutants. The story is predictable, tedious and gives the actors nothing believable to do. Even the rate at which the water rises in the enclosed room seems to vary as per the needs of the script and it’s amazing that none of it manages to seep through the doors. TopHard TimeInmates at a high security prison are having their aggression heightened so that they can take part in a highly lucrative and deadly cage fighting programme. Brennan, whose friend just died in the fights, goes undercover with Jesse inside the prison and friend faces off against artificially enraged friend. There’s something about the gladiatorial cage fight plotline that guarantees that it is going to show up somewhere in any sufficiently long-lasting science fiction show, so it is no surprise to find it coming up here. There is nothing new to add and the plot is predictable and trite and really rather dull. TopUnder The Cloak Of WarAdam is the target of an assassination bureau, though he has no idea why someone would want him dead before he talks to a genetics conference. Shalimar goes undercover to infiltrate the group in order to foil the plot and find out who is behind it, but the job may cost her life as well as Adam’s. It will come as no surprise to learn that the figure behind the assassination is a figure from Adam’s past. No episode, it seems, can pass without involving someone from a team member’s past or that they have become involved with in the present. Since it is an infiltration storyline with only a 45 minutes running time, the speed with which Shalimar gains access to the killers’ club and gets the prime job of killing Adam is totally unbelievable. At least the manner in which the killing is to be carried out shows that she hasn’t gained anyone’s trust absolutely, but otherwise this is another middling (at best) entry. TopOnce AroundThe team are detailed to protect a vital witness in the case of a gangster who seems to have supernatural insight into his enemies. He's actually a mutant who can see through the eyes of anyone he touches, always putting him one step ahead. This is a tired, well trodden witness babysitting storyline that is barely enlivened by the mutant aspect. Much of the time is spent trying to sort out the Double Helix superjet that despite being superadvanced always seems to be damaged one way or another recently. Since the witness is a slimy git, it is hard to care about him or his fate, making the episode somewhat tedious. TopFinal JudgementAdam is kidnapped and forced to stand trial for his crimes in front of a tribunal with no legal standing but apparently absolute power. There is only one sentence for being found guilty - death. This is a clips show in which the framing device exists only to allow the series to show a whole lot of clips from previous episodes as 'evidence' of Adam's crimes and is, as a result, not very interesting. TopInfernoSomeone is setting fires that are killing people. Emma stays mentally linked to the most recent victim right up to his death, only he doesn't die, living on in her mind instead in the hope of finding the person responsible. BACKDRAFT gets the MUTANT X treatment, but fails to raise the standard of the show. It's obvious who is responsible and having Emma deal with the family of the one good man in her head doesn't have the resonance that the show was shooting for. TopOne Step CloserA Senator's daughter is kidnapped out from Mutant X's protection when Brennan's mutant powers go out of control. Adam is faced with the search for the cause of the problem as well as getting the girl back again. Brennan's overload at the start of the show is impressive, but it is about all that is. The shouting matches between Adam and Brennan are becoming tedious in their familiarity and a kidnapper with the skills to create explosive necklaces wouldn't be caught out by using the same trick twice. TopReality CheckWhilst looking for a missing scientits, Shalimar is taken prisoner by a mutant with the power to alter people's perceptions of reality until they give up all of their secrets. The team search for her whereabouts, but will she be able to tell the real them from the fake? The white maze in this episode is impressively realised, but the rest of the show doesn't match up to it. The questioning style of the mutant is a bit obvious to say the least meaning that it is no suprise that Shalimar can fight it. TopReawakeningA friend of Adam's discovers a lost species of animal frozen in Arctic snow. Aboard a giant ice freighter, the creature thaws out and proves to still be alive. Once free, it wants to feed and can use fear as a guide to its prey. Awakening a primeval danger long frozen in ice is an old, old tale (THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD anyone?) and the giant ice breaking ship gives the cast plenty of pipe strewn dark spaces to wander fearfully through, but the creature is a man in an unconvincing rubber suit with really unconvincing tentacles, so much of their work is undone by that. TopLest He BecomeSomeone has created new, designer mutants capable of beating the Mutant X team in a fight. The key to their origin would appear to be the company belonging to Shalimar's estranged father. As she attempts to reconnect with him, an old enemy enters the frame. It seems that the Mutant X team are less of a team than they have ever been, mainly down to Adam's inability to actually tell any of them what he's actually thinking. This leads to yet another meltdown amongst the team whilst Shalimar tours what is one of the least believable high tech businesses the show could have come up with. The story doesn't conclude, leaving the team on a cliffhanger of a sort, but not one that really inspires great desire to find out what happens next. Top |
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