Well, this is an odd one. Generation X wasn’t exactly a TV series, but it was supposed to be one. Instead, it’s a failed TV pilot episode re-packaged as a TV film. As far as I can tell, it aired only once on February 20, 1996, and it was never released on home video. Perhaps most notably, it’s the first live action attempt for the X-Men franchise, predating the first live action X-Men film by 4 years and the first live action X-Men TV series by 11 years.
If you aren’t familiar with the Generation X comic series, you’d be forgiven for thinking this wasn’t part of the X-Men franchise, that is if you just missed the few incredibly short references to the Xavier School for Gifted Children. All of your fan-favorites are here! Banshee (Jeremy Ratchford), The White Queen (Finola Hughes), Jubilee (Heather McComb), Skin (Agustin Rodriguez), M (Amarilis), Mondo (Bumper Robinson), Buff (Suzanne Davis), Refrax (Randall Slavin), and Dr. Russell Tresh (Matt Frewer)! Not ringing any bells? Yeah, I understand. In fact, Buff and Refrax are totally new characters subbing for Husk and Chamber due to special effects budget concerns. The standout is of course Frewer as Dr. Tresh, as there is an incredible eccentricity to his portrayal that makes Jim Carrey’s Riddler look tame.
Despite a cast of mostly industry unknowns, there are actually no bad actors in this TV film, just bad choices. To name just one, there are so many Dutch angles that I wondered if the production could only afford a broken tripod. I’m not sure what director Jack Sholder’s goal was here, but if he wanted to disorient the audience for almost the entire TV film, it worked! Roger Ebert once said of Battlefield Earth, “The director, Roger Christian, has learned from better films that directors sometimes tilt their cameras, but he has not learned why.” I’m getting the same feeling here.
Generation X is not a terrible TV film, it’s actually one of the more entertaining TV films I’ve ever seen. If you’re looking to fill an hour and a half of your time, get some friends together and watch it! You can watch Generation X via the YouTube video embedded above or download it from The Internet Archive.