Fox’s family-driven X-Men show The Gifted is one of the few promising pilots of the fall TV season. While The Gifted’s opening episode has its flaws and is not as good as the things it will remind you of (most glaringly in this pilot, the wonderful Sarah Connor Chronicles), it’s an entertaining hour that keeps the suspense high and drops just enough references to the rich world of X-Men canon to keep fans intrigued.

In this first hour, we meet The Struckers, a “normal” family with a lawyer dad, doctor mom, and two fair-haired children.

Patriarch of the family Reed (Stephen Moyer), a mutant prosecutor who claims he is not targeting mutants, but rather “criminals,” has some cognitive dissonance to deal with when he finds out his two children are, in fact, “muties” (sorry!) themselves and are being hunted by Sentinel Services for endangering humans.

I would have liked to see this opener play Reed a little more conflicted, or at least ambiguous. While we know he loves his kids, he is also actively part of a system that de-humanizes mutants and seemingly has been for a while. It seems like it would take Reed a little longer to work through this new reality. Perhaps we will see more of this as the 10-episode season progresses. Though, with Reed ending up in Sentinel Services by the end of the episode, maybe a stay with the scary government agency will give him a new perspective on his problematic job.

The other pillar of the Strucker family is Caitlin, played by a criminally underutilized Amy Acker. Caitlin, whose main hobby seems to be berating her children for arguing (you should try it — it’s so much fun!), spends the entire episode reacting to what everyone else is doing rather than making any klnd of decisions for herself. Though this show reminded me of Sarah Connor, Acker’s Caitlin was far from the badass maternal warrior who drove that narrative with decisive action and insightful voiceover. With a more-than-capable actress like Acker in the role, I hop Caitlin gets more to do moving forward.

So far, the most likable member of the Strucker family is easily Lauren (Natalie Alyn Lind), the teen daughter of Reed and Caitlin. When Andy (Percy Hynes White) accidentally earthquakes an entire school dance with his burgeoning mutant powers while a gang of boys are bullying him, it is Lauren who steps up to protect her brother and many of her classmates.

While many of the characters here feel predictable, Lauren is someone who could have been a mean girl or a shallow, boy-crazy teen, as teen girls are so often depicted in pop culture. Instead, Lauren is smart, socially-aware, and a great big sister, encouraging Andy to practice his powers so that he can gain control of them. Lauren has her own mutant abilities, a sort of bubble wrap wall she can put up with the wave of her hand. It’s what saves the Strucker family time and time again. In an episode with arguably too many characters and not a decisive enough perspective, Lauren stood out.

Finally, we have Andy, the tween who inadvertently outted the Struckers and sent them on the run. We get some hints that Andy’s abilities may be more powerful than most mutants, especially in the pilot’s climactic, creepy fight scene that saw Andy explode Sentinel Service’s attack spiders into smithereens. However, as a character, Andy is less impressive so far. His relationship with his sister, Lauren, is a standout, but I’d like to see more specific characterization for him.

From the promotion of The Gifted, it seemed like the Strucker family are the only main characters in this X-Men narrative. In reality, they are actually one half of a larger storyline. The other half features the members of the Mutant Underground, a gorgeous group of 20-something mutants who spend their time helping other mutants escape the clutches of the government from their post-industrial lair.

I would have liked to see a bit more age diversity from this group, who look like they just stepped out of an Urban Outfitters photo shoot, but there are some familiar X-Men characters here to keep me interested.

Emma Dumont plays Lorna, aka Polaris, aka Magneto’s canonical daughter. Like her dear old dad, Lorna can manipulate metal. During a Mutant Underground mission, Lorna gets captured by the Feds and thrown into a Magneto-like cell made of plastic. It’s here she meets Reed Strucker, when he is put on her case prior to his run for familial freedom. It’s here where Reed comes off the most dick-ish, using the knowledge of Lorna’s pregnancy in an attempt to convince her to sell out her friends.

Lorna’s friends include the presumed father of her unborn child, Marcos Diaz (Sean Teale). Marcos, also known as Eclipse, is a brand new character to X-Men canon. I’m glad to see The Gifted trying to make some additions to the world, though Marcos’ light-based power can come off pretty tacky at moments. So far, Marcos’ main personality trait seems to be his love for Lorna, which drives him to offer the Struckers help in exchange for information without consulting the rest of the Mutant Underground. So much for any kind of Urban Outfitters Mutant mission.

Next up we have John Proudstar (Blair Redford), aka Thunderbird. John has the power to track pretty much anyone, I guess? It’s not really explained in the pilot, though we do get a visual of him seeing around corners to notice when and where the bad guys show up. Thunderbird doesn’t last very long in the comics. On the one hand, it’d be a bummer for The Gifted to kill the seeming leader of the Mutant Underground off. On the other hand, there are too many characters on this show.

Finally, we have Clarice Fong (Jamie Chung), aka Blink. You may recognize Clarice’s teleporting powers from X-Men: Days of Future Past, where the character also made an appearance in the future storyline. Blink not only has an awesome power, but she’s one of the only other characters, besides Lauren, who seems to get much of a personality.

At one point, she fixes the dog toy she massacred in a powers demonstration because it is a dog’s favorite. In a pilot this crowded, that’s more characterization than most characters get. Clarice also has the benefit of being an audience surrogate character, of sorts. She is the character we first see in the pilot, on the run from the police for her powers, and she is the character through whom we meet the Mutant Underground. Like Lauren, she is also a character who makes decisive action, like telling John that Marco has gone off to meet the Struckers without telling anyone.

It’s a good thing she does, too, because Marco and the Struckers are in way over their heads when Sentinel Services, led by Agent Jace Turner (Coby Bell) track them down. Honestly, Jace comes off as less of a dick than Reed, but also seems to have no problem actively hunting two scared teenagers with spider robots that look like they could claw a leg off. Who is Agent Jace Turner really? Why does he believe in his mission? Some big questions to explore as the series continues past its pilot.

All in all, The Gifted pilot was an entertaining hour, one often held back by underdeveloped characters and predictable plot beats, but propelled forward by some genuinely suspenseful scenes of mutants (and the people who love them) on the run from the law. There’s enough to like here, including the rich themes of the X-Men universe, to keep me interested — especially given how pilot episodes are notorious for their clunkiness.

With Reed separated from the rest of his family and Lorna separated from the rest of hers, I’m eager to see what kinds of new alliances form as this first season moves forward. The Gifted may not be the best of on-screen X-Men stories thus far, but it’s far from the worst.

Ranking: ★★★ Good