The Inhumans: Something Inhuman This Way Comes review S1 E5
Something Inhuman This Way Comes had me rooting for Inhumans to get a second season. Within every episode, there’s some elements that would make for a decent show. Inhumans is in a worse shape than Agents of Shield prior to The Winter Soldier twist, but I finally now believe it has potential, which is a major victory for a show that was practically DOA. But there’s still the little matter of this season…
This episode finally saw most of the Royal Family unite. Gorgon bailed out Karnak from an apparent drug cartel beat down. Auran returned from yet another fatal encounter and Crystal learned how to kick back and relax.
One of the biggest problems with this season is how the writers have made the Inhumans privileged one-percenters. It’s hard to make the characters likable when everyone can so easily call them out for their royal B.S. caste system. A superhero monarchy is actually a great premise, but the writers are trying to apply Western logic to it, making the main heroes come off like the detached upper class. It’s hard to root for characters when the ‘bad guys’ make better sense.
Showrunner Scott Buck had a similar problem trying to get the audience invested in the Danny Rand and Meechum clan subplot in Iron Fist. Few audience members can get excited about the prospect of rich folks getting their money back.
Karnak’s subplot with Jen was a major focus this episode. She helped him grasp the dos and don’ts of pillow talk and how to stop thinking and just act. And when Karnak reunited with the gang, Jen struggled through her bullet wound to give him the ‘we’re going in different places break-up’ speech. Considering how much time was wasted on their ‘relationship,’ this subplot’s resolution was incredibly frustrating.
Every episode it seems has to have some goofy completely out of place segment. Last week was Karnak’s Big Hot Summer moment and this week it was Crystal on the beach with Dave. Of all the characters, Crystal can be forgiven for having the eye-rolling scenes. To be fair, Dave isn’t obnoxious, but at this place in the season, having him show her how to hang loose feels like a waste of time.
The show’s minuscule budget reared its ugly head throughout Something Inhuman This Way Comes. Gorgon was either fighting underwater or in very slow motion against the cartel. Karnak’s was equally disappointing even with some bo staff melee action. At least we saw some of that as Black Bolt & Medusa’s big rescue took place off camera. Now showing how formidable Medusa would be in a fight without the benefit of her hair seems like a missed opportunity.
But the biggest indicator of the small scale budget is the scenes on Attilan, which seems to have only three rooms. If this is an indication of the kingdom it’s no wonder Maximus wants to relocate to Earth. Maximus’ scenes this week were underwhelming again. I’m starting to wonder if Iwan Rheon had a limited shooting schedule as all of his scenes are so brief and barely connected to the main plot.
His big scene this week revolved around childhood pal, Tibor (Ptolemy Slocum), and his ties to the genetic council. For a second, Rheon managed to sneak in a trace of Ramsay Bolton into his line delivery — suggesting that just maybe Maximus will go mad this season after all.
Something Inhuman This Way Comes again fails to show why the Inhumans are cool. Instead, we get scene after scene of awkward interaction with random humans. But there was reason for some optimism with Locus calling out the royals for how they run the kingdom and challenging him to be a better king. If the writers could take that to heart as well, Inhumans could finally get on the right path.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Photo Credit: ABC