MARVEL’S INHUMANS

MARVEL’S INHUMANS is an ABC-TV series set in the same fictional world as MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. It’s about a royal family of super advanced humans.

Attilan is a secret city hidden on the earth’s moon and populated by Inhumans. Inhumans, as explained in earlier seasons of MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D are humans who, when exposed to an ancient Terrigen Mist, are transformed into an Inhuman with some kind of super ability. Not every person when exposed to the mist transforms, so many have no changes, and many even die. Humans on earth fear that the Inhumans will eradicate all the humans, so many Inhumans are hunted. Though not well explained in the pilot episode, it is said that many Inhumans fled to the moon, where they built a civilization and cloaked it from any humans on earth.

The city of Attilan is controlled by the Inhuman Royal Family, which consists of Black Bolt, the king who doesn’t speak because the sound waves from his voice are so powerful that they can kill, his wife Medusa, an elegant Queen with extremely long and powerful hair controlled with her mind, and some other members of the family, one of whom has a enormous dog named Lockjaw that can transport anybody to anywhere in the world instantly.

Black Bolt’s brother, Maximus is just a regular human with no powers with a desire for all the Inhumans to go back to earth, but Black Bolt knows that that would only start a war. So, in an act of betrayal, Maximus leads a military coup against his brother and family. Black Bolt, Medusa and others are forced to retreat to earth, specifically Hawaii, to get away from Maximus.

The first two episodes of MARVEL’S INHUMANS were shot on IMAX cameras, and were released in IMAX theaters for two weeks before its debut on ABC with the idea of giving it a cinematic feel. However, the hokey, futuristic production design for the city of Attilan is stagey rather than grand. Plagued with too many unappealing characters, the show misses the mark of keeping the “Human” in the “Inhumans.” Like many shows, there’s always potential for a series to improve as it continues to ground its characters, but, problematically, there’s little moral value in the first two episodes, other than the fact that Black Bolt clearly doesn’t want to start a war with the humans. There’s also an unexplained element in that the main hero, Black Bolt, runs his city on an immoral caste system where the Inhumans are treated well, but the humans are forced to hard labor in mines. Thus, viewers may find themselves sometime sympathizing with the villain rather than the king and his cohorts and family.

The first two episodes of MARVEL’S INHUMANS have a brief sex scene that’s cut short and some moderate violence, so caution is advised.

CONTENT:  (B, Ev, L, VV, S, N, A, M) Light moral worldview, royal family wants to avoid war with humans and want to protect the lives of their loved ones, but the show’s premise contains one or two references to evolution; two light obscenities; moderate action violence includes people getting shot, a man’s head is smashed off screen on rocks, a man falls off a cliff, a man’s neck is snapped, woman is stabbed, hand to hand combat; a couple are shown in bed kissing and are about to engage in sexual relations when the camera cuts away; upper male nudity and undressed woman lies in bed, but her private parts are covered by her long hair; light alcohol consumption; no smoking or drug use; and, the main characters’ society is based on an immoral caste system that isn’t explained.