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Credit: Comingsoon.net |
When some freak accident in mother nature impregnates and
induces labor in countless women across the globe on the same day, a shady
rich man travels the world to adopt as many of the kids as he can. He ends up with seven (six of whom are still alive) then
trains them in an ornate mansion to use their superpowers, but what else is
new? There’s a parody on the internet by the wonderfully film literate You
Tuber Patrick Williams: “What if Wes Anderson directed the X-Men” which hits this show right on
the nose.
The found family here feels like a near facsimile of the co-dependently
depressed “Royal Tenenbaums”; the adult sibling who’s trapped in a kid’s body
(character’s name on IMDB is listed as “Number Five”) is dressed exactly like
Max from “Rushmore”; and the lavishly delicate interiors recall any number of
Anderson’s films.
But as you’re thinking the show is just ripping off one of
the most idiosyncratic auteurs of the 90s (although technically “Tenenbaums”
was 2001), the penultimate act of the pilot, Number Five goes into a diner and
casually murders (and rewatch this clip, it’s not self-defense but rather
gleeful brutally) five SWAT team members
while lights flicker, fast edits ensue, the victims’ last gasps fill the soundscape and the song ”Istanbul Was Once Constantinople” plays in the background.
The sensory overload and the glorified violence recall Tarantino and it’s even
more jarring here.
From the pilot, the show has a lot of questions left
unanswered and Mary J Blige, supposedly the season’s villain, hasn’t yet made
an appearance. The other recognizable name in the credits, Ellen Page, works
well as a cog in the ensemble.
Despite the stylistic “been there done that” feeling, there
are moments of inspiration that come from sheer stylistic boldness. The
montage of Ellen Page’s character playing the violin, for example, while the
other protagonists are introduced is endlessly rewatchable.
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