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MUTANT X |
Shalimar Fox – Victoria Pratt Brennan Mulwray – Victor Webster Jesse Kilmartin – Forbes March Lexa Pierce – Karen Cliche 
OTHER MUTANT X SEASONS SEASON 1 SEASON 2 OTHER SUPERHERO SHOWS Batman Birds Of Prey Blade - The Series Heroes Misfits No Heroics 
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Season OverviewThe final season of MUTANT X rings in the changes with both leading light Adam Kane and telepath Emma both apparently killed in the tumultuous events of the last episode. This brings into play one Lexa Pierce, a mutant who has the power to control light. This means she can become invisible, dazzle people and fire lasers beams from her fingers. She immediately takes over Mutant X and starts to work in concert with a shadowy group known as the Dominion. The loss of two series regulars shakes up the pattern of the show, but doesn't do anything to deal with the underlying problems. With Adam gone, Jesse becomes the de facto science whizz and spends most of his time typing on keyboards. Lexa's appearance means that there are even fewer people to trust and the number of episodes that hinge on team members going off on their own instead of having a chat with their team mates is depressing. The acting remains fairly basic, but the scripts don't do much to help and action sequences are rarer and shorter than in either of the other seasons. Given this threadbare situation, it is no surprise that the third season was the last for MUTANT X. TopInto The Moonless NightEmma is dead and Adam is missing. The remaining members of the team are stunned by their losses, but newcomer Lexa appears to take command in the face of Mason Eckhardt's demand for some of Adam's research in exchange for the man himself. It's all change for the MUTANT X team as both John Shea and Lauren Lee Smith depart the scene in the destructive aftermath of the climax to season 2. At least they are mourned because Shalimar completely forgets about the fact that her father was in the destruction with them. The big change is the arrival of Karen Cliche as Lexa, a woman with the power to control light and therefore able to become invisible, blind people and create laser beams at will. She is abrasive and evasive, but not a real replacement for Shea's Adam. Only time will tell if the changes are for the better or not. At least Tom McCamus is back to white hair as Mason Eckhart, a look that much better suits him. TopWages Of SinThere's a new biological weapon on the market and the Mutant X team have to go undercover in a casino to track it down. Brennan pretends to be a terrorist that no-one has seen in order to infiltrate… yes, we've all seen this plot before. It's a poor man's James Bond routine with the tuxes and roulette chips to prove it. For all its familiarity, though, it is slick and smooth and doesn't cause any pain as it passes by. In terms of the show's mythology, it introduces a new major villain called Dominique and the lure of a cure for the unstable mutations that the characters are all suffering from. If only it weren't so damned predictable. TopThe BreedThe staff at a military base are being turned into bloodthirsty zombies by an unknown plague. A desperate plea goes out to the Mutant X team. The military are willing to let the team in, but they aren't going to let anyone out until everyone is cured or the order comes down to immolate the whole place. George A Romero's THE CRAZIES is mixed up with OUTBREAK to create the scenario for this, but for a story that is about zombies and dark corridors it is neither claustrophobic nor scary. That's because the zombies rarely make an appearance and the main threat is seen to be the military masters who started the project and the ones who are willing to turn the whole place into an inferno. It's inevitable that one of the team is going to get infected and just as inevitable that this will lead to the final salvation. TopWhere Evil DwellsA personal heroine of Shalimar's asks for help when a serial killer with a penchant for leaving clues to the next killing at the scene of the last starts a killing spree again. The main problem is that the killer is safely locked away in prison and the detective's psychic scans aren't revealing the answers. This could have been called the SILENCE OF THE MUTANTS since it steals everything from that story right down to the cell where the evil killer stands and manipulates those around him. The performance by Joseph Scoren isn't a patch on Sir Anthony Hopkins, of course, and it is easy to work out where the plot is going and who is responsible almost from the beginning, but at least it has the will to take the story right up to an ending that doesn't cop out. TopThe Taking Of CrowsLexa is searching for her missing brother when she is slipped a new drug by an ex boyfriend. The drug is non-too-friendly to mutants and Lexa is left with only hours to live. The antidote exists, but the person who knows where it must be happens to be in a woman's prison. This episode trots out all the clichés of women's prison films and serves them up like they're something new. The only thing missing is the shower scene. The plot is utterly unbelievable even before you factor in the fact that the woman who is dying is the one going in undercover. Absolute nonsense. TopShadows Of DarknessBrennan goes to the aid of an old mentor at a psychiatric institute where patients and doctors are doing strange things, including killing themselves. There is talk of ghosts, but it is more likely to be a mutant, a mutant who has reason to want to revenge himself on the hospital. A ghost story set in a mental hospital? Involving children? And bugs? There really is nothing here that hasn't been done before, and better. The supposed scary bits aren't really scary and the mystery isn't really much of a mystery either. It is, at least, a bit of a change of pace and it doesn't wimp out at the end. TopThe Hand Of GodIn the jungle there is a small group of people who cleave to a man who has the power over life and death. Some bad guys are after his power and the Mutant X team want to save him from them. Unfortunately, Shalimar is fatally injured and there is a traitor in the man's camp. So, Shalimar Foxx can fall out of a plane and survive. That's just the start of the unbelievable things that happen in this story. Jesse is left alone to fix the Double Helix (again!) and someone is closing in on him, but it takes the pursuit the full running time to get there. The traitor is so obviously a bad guy that it's impossible to understand how he is not unmasked in seconds. Lexa apparently thinks that turning invisible to walk only a few feet in front of Brennan is a good security measure. The only thing of interest in the whole thing is the dilemma that the mutant they are all after is faced with. He cannot create life, only take it from those who do not deserve it and then bestow it once again on someone who is dying. For one to live, one must die. Now that's an interesting dilemma. Shame it doesn't make for a more interesting episode. TopWastelandLexa's contacts warn the team of a new genetic disaster about to take place. That disaster turns out to be a plague of genetically modified locusts about to be released by an evil corporation. Jesse was once engaged to the head of that company. Locusts and fields of corn just don't add up to much of a global threat in this small scale story that harks back to the bad old days of Season 2 with its involving at least one member of the team personally with either the victim or the villain of the story. In this case it is not initially clear whether Jesse's old girlfriend is victim or villain, but it really doesn't matter since the character is so broadly sketched as to be uninteresting and Jesse's response to her and their situation could have been compiled from any number of previous examples from other shows. Even the locust effects are poor. TopNo ExitThe computers in the Sanctuary are taken over by a mutant with the ability to interface directly with technology and a thirst for revenge against the team. Brennan and Jesse are left to tackle the base's self-defence mechanisms whilst Shalimar and Lexa try to identify who is behind the attack. This is a rather dull episode that takes a neat starting point (the attacker is paralysed and confined to a bed) and then does nothing much with it. The trapped pair manage to do not a lot to outwit the attacker and the rest of the plot then unravels in a rather unimaginative and hackneyed fashion. Even the final scene cliffhanger payoff is predictable. TopBrother's KeeperLexa joined Mutant X for one reason and that was to help in the search for her brother, a mutant who has the ability to change his body to mimic anyone else's. That makes him a perfect donor for body parts that won't be rejected and he is targeted by a group of organ harvesters. Because Lexa's brother can change into anyone at will what fun there is in this episode comes from guessing who he has changed into and who is not whom they appear to be. Apart from that the team spend their time chasing him whilst being chased by a group of interchangeable goons. And then there is an ending that is rather surprising. TopPossibilitiesA bomb is about to go off that will devastate a building and kill many people. The Mutant X team go to the aid of a woman who has warned them of this, but she is a time traveller who has tried to prevent the disaster many times and failed. Perhaps now that she has Brennan on her side she will have more luck. This is GROUNDHOG DAY done MUTANT X style. If we could care enough about the potential disaster to be interested then the repeated variations on the day might be fun and interesting, but in the end we really can't. Also, for a man who is hung up on his co-worker, Brennan falls for the time traveller in super quick time. TopConspiracy TheorySomething bad is going to happen in less than 24 hours and the team have no idea what. Their only lead is Eddie, a once respected journalist who is now convinced that everything strange in the world is being organised by aliens. Eddie is a nutcase and a picture that he took of Brennan was the catalyst that started his fall from sanity, but he electricity-wielding mutant doesn't take much persuading to feel no real guilt about it. What then follows is a standard mystery plot that doesn't have a lot going for it. TopArt Of AttractionA formula that could unbalance the whole world is contained in three paintings and the Mutant X team are not the only ones targeting them. Lexa is attracted to a mutant with the power of darkness and a game of cat and mouse starts. Wow the people in Mutant X fall in love at the drop of a hat. In this case at least the man is devilish and charming and her equal, which makes her bedding him for the team a little less salacious. The relationship between them is fun and has a spark that the show hasn't had in a long time, but the rest of the plot is predictable. TopA Normal LifeAdam comes back into Shalimar's life, telling her that the man Mutant X thinks is a rogue scientist responsible for killing people is being set up. She immediately sets out to save the man and falls in love with him, but Brennan being frozen by the killer's paralysis process means that she has to choose between two men. It's good to see John Shea's Adam back, if only for this episode, and it is good that he is up to his old tricks of giving nobody the information that they need to be sure that they are doing the right thing. Less welcome is Shalimar falling for a man she met barely ten minutes before. Especially since she is supposed to be smitten by Brennan. Convincing it is not. TopDivided LoyaltiesWhen bank robbers steal information that Mutant X need to recover, Brennan is forced to team up with an old friend from his criminal days and help out a gang that has no compunction about killing innocent people. This is the usual going undercover episode with all the usual stages, Brennan having to prove himself, Brennan having to face killing someone, Brennan saving his pal and having to face up to the big evil leader of the gang. It's cliched from start to finish and there is never any doubt how it's going to play out. Seeing Karen Cliche decked out as a cheap street chick might be considered worth the price of admission, though. TopAge Of InnocenceA decades old programme of experiments to reverse the ageing process resurfaces and the final test subject just happens to be Jesse's grandfather. Is this a second chance for them to bond or ill it be the end of their time together? The show's incessant need to make some sort of personal connection between one of the team and the victims of whatever is going on comes back to haunt this otherwise perfectly acceptable episode. The fact that Jesse's grandad is the only remaining test subject, or is a test subject at all, is ludicrously coincidental and utterly unbelievable. The relationship between the grandson and his newly regenerated grandad does work, however and the scene where he tries to reconnect with his still aged wife is nicely played. TopShe's Come UndoneLexa wipes out a facility and all its staff, making the shadowy Dominion determined to kill her. She is acting under impulses from an implant put into her head by Genomex and her only chance of survival is for Adam to come out of hiding and attempt a risky medical procedure. Seeing Karen Cliche in full on MATRIX outfit killing everyone in slow motion makes for a startling opening that is actually better than most of the things that the show has put together to date. More sequences like this might have improved things quite dramatically. In fact, this is one of the best episodes that the show has put together with action, character drama and tension all wrapped up into one neat package and then topped off with the promise of a war between Mutant X and the shadowy Dominion. TopIn BetweenJesse is shot by a bullet that is designed to use his own powers to protect itself whilst slowly killing him. Lexa and Shalimar set out to find out who is responsible whilst Brennan enters Jesse's mind and tries to help him fight for his life by summoning up images from the past. Yes, it's a clips show, recycling old bits from earlier episodes to save on filming new ones, but at least the framing device shows some ingenuity and the flaming pit of death that Jesse and Brennan find themselves in is impressive enough. TopDream LoverA friend of Shalimar calls from a club where women are being copied by a mixture of cloning and nanotechnology to provide rich men with the ultimate female plaything. Shalimar, Lexa and Brennan go in undercover, but it soon becomes clear that the women are not themselves. It's the Stepford Mutants. Apart from putting Karen Cliche and Victoria Pratt in seriously tight, and rather ludicrous, outfits (they were going for sexy and cheap but only got the second half) and displaying a whole load of other women dressed in very little gyrating in slow motion there is very little to justify this story. There's a stab at making a feminist statement about the relationship between men and women, but it's half-hearted at best. There is, however, the sight of Victoria Pratt fighting herself. TopThe ProphecyEven though Ashlocke is dead, his spirit lives on in a child who will either turn to the light or to the dark. Brennan teams up with an attractive bounty hunter to get him back, but as the four signs of the prophecy come to pass it's hard to know if he can trust her. Gabriel Ashlocke died in the show so long ago that it's hard to recall who he even was, something that undermines the effectiveness of the plot. Also undermining it is the spider/scorpion/man Guardian who never once convinces as being real and who is never presented as a genuine threat. This episode does, though, set up a story for the big finale coming soon. TopCirque Des MerveillesThe search for an agent with information about the Dominion takes Shalimar and Brennan undercover to a creepy circus where mutants are being transported through distorting mirrors into alternative dimensions, but who is the ultimate authority? Circuses are creepy and one that is full of mutants is even more creepy, but once the team go undercover the show really doesn't know what it wants to do with the set up. It meanders about getting nowhere fast and finally boils down to a jealous lovers' tiff. Ultimately very disappointing. TopThe AssaultThe Dominion sets its sights on getting hold of one of the team so Lexa takes them on in a full on assault. The rest of the team tracks down Adam and together they go in search of answers as to who is the mysterious Creator who runs the Dominion. Karen Cliche's Lexa has always been at her best when in full on action and here she gets some good moments as she battles her way through Dominion headquarters. The plot has twists and turns, but is never really convincing. If Lexa was really so dangerous then why does nobody just put a bullet in her brain? The revelation about the Creator hardly comes as any surprise and the show finishes on a cliffhanger never destined to be resolved. Top |
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