[4.5/10] Hoo boy. I tend to focus on storytelling in my reviews, since it’s usually the thing that drives the most of my enjoyment as a viewer. But my goodness, I have to talk about the accents here. Gambit himself has a bit of a cheesy Cajun accent but mixed up in the wider milieu of the X-Men, it’s not too distracting most of the time. It’s a colorful show and the over the top vocal tones are an organic part of that.
But man, having a whole Gambit-foused episode where almost everyone involved taks like that, with varying degrees of success, is reaeeeeeealllly distracting. At some pint it felt like self-parody. If I have to hear another faux-Cajun refer to the “teefs” one more time, I might implore the state of Louisiana to file a formal complaint. It makes it almost impossible to take anything going on here seriously.
But even if you can compartmentalize that part of the story, this is no great shakes. There’s nothing wrong, in principle, with Gambit having been part of some Romeo and Juliet style feud/romance between two warring Cajun clans. But the addition of the eponymous “X-Ternal”, some sort of god-like being who demands mysterious “tithes” from both sides and rewards and punishes accordingly, feels silly even within the confines of this outsized show.
The cloak and dagger routine with the Assassins trying to doublecross the Thieves and the jilted Bella Donna using a magic ring to command Gambit as her ex-lover are all tiresome as hell. The only mildly interesting part of any of this is the fact that Rogue is clearly affronted about Gambit’s attachment to another woman, showing that deep down, she cares about him.
Granted, while iI was a Gambit/Rogue shipper as a kid, I’m less on board with that now. He basically sexually harasses her on a regular basis, and it’s supposed to come off as charming. Likewise, I’m now leery of tropes that suggest, “Women put up a tough front, but deep down they really like you despite rejecting your advances.” So the 10-year-old part of me is enthused to see Rogue’s true feelings come out. The grown-up part of me is much more discomfited by it.
Oh yeah, and we get more nonsense in the Savage Land. Xavier and Magneto come across a “mutate” who looks like Goro from Mortal Kombat, and there’s a silly confrontation involving bees. Sigh. Of all the subplots to focus on across multiple episodes, I don’t know why they landed on this one.
Overall though, in a wave of interesting backstory episodes, Gambit’s is a clear low tide.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-04-23T15:38:36Z
[4.5/10] Hoo boy. I tend to focus on storytelling in my reviews, since it’s usually the thing that drives the most of my enjoyment as a viewer. But my goodness, I have to talk about the accents here. Gambit himself has a bit of a cheesy Cajun accent but mixed up in the wider milieu of the X-Men, it’s not too distracting most of the time. It’s a colorful show and the over the top vocal tones are an organic part of that.
But man, having a whole Gambit-foused episode where almost everyone involved taks like that, with varying degrees of success, is reaeeeeeealllly distracting. At some pint it felt like self-parody. If I have to hear another faux-Cajun refer to the “teefs” one more time, I might implore the state of Louisiana to file a formal complaint. It makes it almost impossible to take anything going on here seriously.
But even if you can compartmentalize that part of the story, this is no great shakes. There’s nothing wrong, in principle, with Gambit having been part of some Romeo and Juliet style feud/romance between two warring Cajun clans. But the addition of the eponymous “X-Ternal”, some sort of god-like being who demands mysterious “tithes” from both sides and rewards and punishes accordingly, feels silly even within the confines of this outsized show.
The cloak and dagger routine with the Assassins trying to doublecross the Thieves and the jilted Bella Donna using a magic ring to command Gambit as her ex-lover are all tiresome as hell. The only mildly interesting part of any of this is the fact that Rogue is clearly affronted about Gambit’s attachment to another woman, showing that deep down, she cares about him.
Granted, while iI was a Gambit/Rogue shipper as a kid, I’m less on board with that now. He basically sexually harasses her on a regular basis, and it’s supposed to come off as charming. Likewise, I’m now leery of tropes that suggest, “Women put up a tough front, but deep down they really like you despite rejecting your advances.” So the 10-year-old part of me is enthused to see Rogue’s true feelings come out. The grown-up part of me is much more discomfited by it.
Oh yeah, and we get more nonsense in the Savage Land. Xavier and Magneto come across a “mutate” who looks like Goro from Mortal Kombat, and there’s a silly confrontation involving bees. Sigh. Of all the subplots to focus on across multiple episodes, I don’t know why they landed on this one.
Overall though, in a wave of interesting backstory episodes, Gambit’s is a clear low tide.