Mutant X SE01 EP01 - "The Shock of the New (Part 1)"

Mutant X is a show I know very little about, despite being a fan of Marvel comic books most of my life, along with a rather large fan of their films from 2000 upwards. I've never seen Mutant X, though, and like I said, came into this series knowing next to nothing about it. The first episode had it's ups and downs, and was definitely unique. I'll hit on many of these points, but first, the episode summary.

Episode Name: The Shock of the New (Part 1)
Original Airdate: October 6, 2001

We open with mysterious men pursuing a mysterious young woman named Emma through a bar, who runs into a man and asks for him to help her; while doing so, seemingly sending him some psychic flashes. The pursuit continues undisturbed from the man, and end only when two figures are able to tackle and take them down using their superhuman abilities in a back-alley.

One of the individuals, Jessie, can turn his body both intangible and as hard as steel, both of which come in useful insofar as protecting the girl being pursued. The other, a female named Shalimar, has moderately high athletic ability and also apparent super strength, though the extent to her powers are not something discussed within this episode. A third man by the name of Adam, introduces themselves as Mutant X.

Adam reveals to Emma that those who were chasing her were part of the security wing of Genomex, a bio-technology firm which is also a "secret branch of U.S. intelligence." At their secret base, he fills her in more. Years back, Genomex conducted secret genetic experiments on people, which led to as many as 1,000 people out in the world to gain powers or abilities. Some of them know what they are - others don't. Mutant X's job is to help protect these people from Genomex, who has aggressively been tracking down these people for their own purpose. When asked how Adam knows this, he admits he was a chief bio-geneticist at Genomex.

Meanwhile, at Genomex, one Mr. Thorne lets Mason Eckhart know about the activities of the previous night. Echkart bemoans the fact that Adam and his team were able to secure the girl, and let's Thorne know that their security forces have to try harder.

Mason Eckhart

Emma, despite being told the purpose of Mutant X and the history behind it, denies still that she possesses any type of special powers or abilities (thought by Adam to be tele-empathy). During one such denial, she refers to Jessie and Shalimar as "freaks" which Jessie takes personally, being a more sensitive individual.

We then go back to the man Emma tries to get help from at the beginning of the episode, being a thief named Brennan, who meets up with Tony and Michael, and discuss moving "to the big leagues" tomorrow. Before meeting with Mr. Carter, Brennan takes a car out for a joyride, showing that he has powers to manipulate electricity, with one of his partners, Tony, happens to notice. During the meeting with Mr. Carter, they are given a key which, paired with another key, will allow them to steal millions of dollars in securities, providing they can do so in two minutes. The next day, they do exactly that, and steal a total of ten million dollars; twenty million, if you count the insurance that Mr. Carter will receive also. Tony, party disgruntled over the fact the three made "chump change" while Mr. Carter got millions, and also possibly looking for a payout, uses a hotline on ProxyBlue.com to inform the site about Brennan, who he suspects to be a mutant.

Mason Eckhart has a quick meeting with Dr. Paul Breedlove, also a scientist at Genomex, who wants to make amends for the "horrific mistakes" they made and provide full disclosure of their actions to the press as well as pay reparations to all of those genetically tested and experimented on. He also displays an affinity of sorts for Adam, which Mason cannot understand, given that Adam betrayed him years back. Following the meeting, Eckhart confides in Thorne that he should have killed Breedlove when he had the chance, and states that he needs to be taken care of prior to the press being notified of the project. This is done shortly thereafter, and it's revealed that one such child of Genomex happens to be Mr. Thorne, who uses his powers to dispatch of Breedlove.

Adam takes Emma to a lair in a library, where she meets telepath Ruby, along with Alison and Vince, two mutants who seem to prefer to be off the field, as opposed to Shalimar and Jessie. The plan, Adam says, is to give Emma a new identity and make sure that Eckhart can't find her, as to this point, she's shown no desire to be a member of Mutant X. While that meeting is going on, Jessie is working back at the base on erasing Emma's identity, and conversing with Shalimar about how they both wished Emma would have joined the team.

Due to the death of Breedlove, which Eckhart claims was committed by one such mutant created by Genomex, Eckhart becomes the head of the program and changes up how they operate, mainly by increasing funding and also creating a covert squad, the goal being to capture mutants and bring them into custody. After the announcement, he is informed by Throne about the existence of Brennan, whom he would like captured first.

Alison takes Emma to a drop-off point where she is supposed to get onto a boat that takes her to her new life, but Emma tricks her using her powers, and runs off, somehow running right into Brennan at an empty bar. She admits her powers to Brennan, and Brennan does the same, showing her his electrical abilities. Thorne than shows up to speak to Brennan, but tipped off from Emma via her abilities, fights back, all the while Mutant X are trying to track Emma down after she ditched Alison.

The chase and conflict brings them to an empty train depot (potentially - I'm not sure what else the building could be), and even though Mutant X catches up, Thorne and additional Genomex agents are able to subdue Brennan. Leaving Emma with Mutant X, Adam, who is on the scene, let's her know that it's not over yet.

To be continued.

From left to right: Shalimar, Emma, Adam and Jessie

I had quite mixed feelings about this introduction. In fact, I watched the first thirty minutes twice, and even then, my perceptions aren't fully formed yet.

All-in-all, I enjoyed what I saw, but it was in the same way I enjoy the 1960's Batman series - portions are so bad, you just sort of have to laugh at them. It worked for the Batman series as it was intentional, but the same cannot be said here.

I feel a large portion of my problems with this comes from a few things, firstly being the dated feeling of the show. The early 2000's industrial/club music (during the opening chase and the bank robbery) got quite grating. The special effects leave much to be desired, though I cannot really fault the creators for that - they did what they could at the time period.

Specific scenes don't feel right, though. Mainly, why and how did Emma get from stealing Alison's car to finding the exact bar that Brennan was in? Is locating people she had a mental connection with part of her powers? We don't know, and at least in this episode, the how and why simply aren't explained. And then there's the empty rooms - I can understand why few people would be at a bar in the afternoon, but only Brennan, Emma, and Throne? Not a single other background extra? And the same thing at the what I suspect is a train depot. That was a large piece of land, immensely so, and yet the only people around, midday, are Thorne, his agents, and Mutant X. That's it. Not a single other character in the background. It just looked off.

Lastly, many of the camera angles were odd. Perhaps they were any for unique shots, but perhaps less experimentation and more focus on the story at hand, explaining in better details some portions, would be recommended.

All of that said, there was a certain charm to this pilot. I wouldn't necessarily classify this episode as good, but I do find it overly unique, and I feel that this series is likely to stick with me. Again, a large reason for this might be the time period in which this show was made, but regardless, I do get the feeling that this will be an interesting ride.

The characters are a mixed bag also. I liked Breedlove, but you see where that got him. Thorne is okay, if not a bit one-dimensional, but I am interested in learning more about Mason Eckhart and his relationship with Adam. Speaking of which, Adam is about the only character on the "good side," save Emma, I much care learning more about. Shalimar is attractive, sure, but her powers thus far are pretty undefined, and comes down to she can fight well. Jessie is a bit more interesting - seems a very sweet guy, and his powers are definitely the most unique displayed in this episode (though when he solidifies his body, the effect it has does look quite odd, again mainly due to this being early 2000's special effects). Other characters, like Vince, Ruby, and Alison, simply don't stick out much, and I don't suspect any of the three will be big players as the series progresses.

Overall, this was something else. Not sure if I completely liked it, but for an opening to a series on mutants, you could probably do worse.


Rating: Above Average


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