Chances are, the title "Mutant X" reminds you of something, and for good reason. When you consider the fact that it's a television series about young mutants with superpowers who have a secret base, supervised by a wise older mentor, it's pretty clear that it's "X-Men" with the serial numbers filed off. And not filed off particularly well, either: Marvel Entertainment, the production company for Mutant X, was sued by Fox for violating their film rights for the X-Men franchise. As a result, some of the elements of the show were changed to distance it from the X-Men, such as the characters not having code names. I'm actually surprised that it's acceptable in its current form: what with the "X" in the title combined with many elements of the series content, Mutant X is still blatantly an X-Men clone.

So what's this show all about? On the one hand, we have a bunch of "new mutants" apparently created by top-secret genetic experiments. (I started with the third episode; it doesn't seem like I missed much, though.) On the other hand, we have a government agency called the Genetic Security Agency that wants to hunt down and destroy (or at least do evil things to) these new mutants. It's not too hard to figure out which side gets tapped as the "good guys" here: our heroes are a bunch of mutants who have banded together and formed an underground to rescue other new mutants. And have adventures, of course.

When it comes to the quality of the show... let's face it: Mutant X is extremely cheesy. The story lines are silly, and the acting is pretty terrible, too. You'll only find it entertaining if you have very low expectations for complexity and depth of a story. Oh, and if you have any fondness for the "science" part in science fiction, the storylines in the two episodes of Mutant X included on this DVD will have you either laughing your head off or grinding your teeth. I'm willing to run with the idea of genetic mutations giving the characters super powers... but when the characters start spouting off stuff about "reversing genetic mutations" as if they were something that could be turned on and off like a switch... that's just too much. Admittedly, one point in Mutant X's favor is its overall polished appearance: this is no low-budget, cut-corners production, but one that looks good in all respects. Sets, costumes, and special effects are all handled very well, giving Mutant X a film-like level of production values.

I can't help but think that I'm just not in the target audience here... Mutant X certainly seems to be trying extremely hard to appeal to the teenaged and young adult audience, as far as I can tell. Just look at the cast: you know there's something going on when almost every character appears to be in their twenties, and when the token "wise old man" (John Shea) who advises the young, active members of the group looks like he's in his 30s. (Actually, the Internet Movie Database reports that he's in his fifties; it's amazing what the camera and makeup can do, I guess.) In addition to being young, the mutants are also uniformly physically attractive: is it that people who are ugly, overweight, or need glasses don't mutate, or that they don't get recruited into the underground team? Considering how much bare skin, manly muscles, and womanly cleavage gets shown off even in just two episodes, clearly the physical assets of the cast are as important as their acting ability. Or more important...

The DVD

Mutant X: Season 1 Disc 2 has two, count 'em, two episodes: "Russian Roulette" and "Fool for Love." Frankly, I am not thrilled at all with ADV's handling of its series packaging; even while most other studios have shifted to season sets, ADV continues to dribble out its series in multiple volumes.

Video

The Mutant X episodes are presented in a lovely anamorphic widescreen transfer (1.85:1 aspect ratio). Colors and contrast are superb, with the picture always looking lush and vibrant. The image is also extremely clean and sharp. I did notice a few instances of pixellation at various times throughout the episodes, which was the only element detracting from an otherwise extremely solid transfer.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack for Mutant X is reasonably good, offering a clean and clear foundation for the dialogue and special effects, though not really adding much punch to the latter. On occasion, the dialogue sounded a bit flat, but overall it's fine.

Extras

Of most interest to fans will be the audio commentary track for the second episode on the set, "Fool for Love," by actor Victoria Pratt (Shalimar) and director T.J. Scott. For other special features, we get a photo gallery, text information on the character of Shalimar, and a biography of Victoria Pratt. Trailers for the episodes, and some previews of other ADV releases, are also included.

Final thoughts

I've suggested Mutant X: Season 1 Disc 2 as a rental for two reasons. Number one is that it's really cheesy, so it's the sort of thing you really ought to try before you buy; number two is that I don't think we should encourage ADV's trend of releasing its shows in such small packages (only two episodes are included here). I'd suggest holding off on buying this set even if you like the show; if ADV handles Mutant X like Andromeda, it might repackage the one-disc releases into two-disc sets with four or five episodes apiece, which is far from optimal, but better than this.