This review may contain spoilers
Give 'The Gifted' A Chance People!
Didn't know much going into this, other than that it involved high school students with powers. This series definitely exceeded my expectations I can proudly say! Love the use of individual episodes for each student/students so we learn more about them. The plot keeps you engaged as to what's going on in the school and who to trust. Even though the visual effects are nothing outstanding, they use clever camera tricks and lighting to help with the illusion of powers or "potentials". I hope the second season got a bigger budget though because it deserves it!
Some deep and dark themes in this, including mental health and unfair treatment/bullying. Also using students as guinea pigs essentially to help the "gifted" ones accel past them. I love that they actually discuss the idea of since the "gifted" students are treated better how the other "normal" students feel about it and take out their anger on those kids who literally had zero choice in the matter. Its corrupted and very interesting. So my favorite characters were Gun as Punn, I knew him going in and he didn't disappoint. His episode was my one of my favorites hands-down, I love anything having to do with psychological effects on a person and he played the various emotions perfectly. His potential is the one I would personally like to have in real life, without the psychological side-effects though of course! I also really like Sing as Ohm, his character had me cracking up especially in his episode. Nanon as Pang was really solid too, the leading up to his discovery of his own "potential" was great and I noticed the hints along the way. His potential is honestly to me the scariest and the most powerful. Everyone did a great job though in their respective roles, I just have my faves.
So I think the individual episodes are where the series is at its peak and the episodes involving the teacher (Mr.Pom). Holy crap did his background get dark, we knew the "non-gifted" students were treated unfairly...but damn this is when we really LEARN how messed up the misaligned treatment really is. His character had so much buildup of being a cliche villain with poor intent, but he ended up being just another pawn in the heads plan. I ended up really feeling terrible for him, it gave him that added layer that he needed to be a character you can latch on to. The only critiques I had in this show were the pacing sometimes was slower, the headmaster was too stereotypical evil for me and the ending felt copoutish. I know there's a second season now airing, so its clear they were planning that from the start but still. I hope the second season gives more background to the headmaster and doesn't end in such a jumbled way.
Random thoughts during the show; The best friend character Nack looks straight up like Bam Bam sometimes in this show from Got7, it threw me off so much lol. Also I feel stupid for not knowing the twins Jack and Jo were played by actual twin actors. I've seen them both in so many shows and I thought it was one person! But nope, this show also taught me that it is two actors who are twins. Go figure.
Finally, don't not watch a show just because you see BL actors in it and it's not a BL. That's stupid period, watch it because it's a good show!
Some deep and dark themes in this, including mental health and unfair treatment/bullying. Also using students as guinea pigs essentially to help the "gifted" ones accel past them. I love that they actually discuss the idea of since the "gifted" students are treated better how the other "normal" students feel about it and take out their anger on those kids who literally had zero choice in the matter. Its corrupted and very interesting. So my favorite characters were Gun as Punn, I knew him going in and he didn't disappoint. His episode was my one of my favorites hands-down, I love anything having to do with psychological effects on a person and he played the various emotions perfectly. His potential is the one I would personally like to have in real life, without the psychological side-effects though of course! I also really like Sing as Ohm, his character had me cracking up especially in his episode. Nanon as Pang was really solid too, the leading up to his discovery of his own "potential" was great and I noticed the hints along the way. His potential is honestly to me the scariest and the most powerful. Everyone did a great job though in their respective roles, I just have my faves.
So I think the individual episodes are where the series is at its peak and the episodes involving the teacher (Mr.Pom). Holy crap did his background get dark, we knew the "non-gifted" students were treated unfairly...but damn this is when we really LEARN how messed up the misaligned treatment really is. His character had so much buildup of being a cliche villain with poor intent, but he ended up being just another pawn in the heads plan. I ended up really feeling terrible for him, it gave him that added layer that he needed to be a character you can latch on to. The only critiques I had in this show were the pacing sometimes was slower, the headmaster was too stereotypical evil for me and the ending felt copoutish. I know there's a second season now airing, so its clear they were planning that from the start but still. I hope the second season gives more background to the headmaster and doesn't end in such a jumbled way.
Random thoughts during the show; The best friend character Nack looks straight up like Bam Bam sometimes in this show from Got7, it threw me off so much lol. Also I feel stupid for not knowing the twins Jack and Jo were played by actual twin actors. I've seen them both in so many shows and I thought it was one person! But nope, this show also taught me that it is two actors who are twins. Go figure.
Finally, don't not watch a show just because you see BL actors in it and it's not a BL. That's stupid period, watch it because it's a good show!
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