Marvel’s The Inhumans has been criticized for a lot of reasons, but one key problem that a lot of fans are noticing is that the show may expect viewers to be rooting for the wrong team.

The two-part debut of Marvel’s Inhumans, “Behold...The Inhumans!” and “Those Who Would Destroy Us,” saw Maximus (Iwan Rheon), the more-or-less human prince of the Inhumans, stage a coup against his brother, King Black Bolt (Anson Mount), and the rest of the Inhuman Royal Family.

The show presents this as a kind of populous uprising. Maximus is leading the literally powerless in Inhuman society, who have been forced to work in the mines of Attilan because they have no other skills that Inhuman society, as dictating by the Royal Family, deem useful.

The metaphor is most obvious during the Terrigenesis ceremony that takes place in the first episode. In the scene, two Inhuman youths are exposed to the Terrigen Mists. One emerges with wings and the Royal Family openly celebrates the birth of a new flier. When the other child emerges with no discernible powers, his family mourns the lack of transformation and the fate their child has now inherited.

Considering the blatant caste structure in place here, many are left wonder why they should feel bad when Maximus leads a revolution again the monarchy. As far as Inhumans show us, the coup is even almost entirely bloodless, with the only ones put out by the change in the balance of power being the royals themselves, at least until Maximus decides he needs to kill a member of the genetic council.

And that’s part of the problem. It feels like the Inhumans is banking on viewers hating Maximus because he kills and because he’s kind of creepy. And yes, he is kind of creepy. Wanting a character to be at least kind of creepy is why you hire Iwan Rheon, the actor who played the sociopathic Ramsay Bolton on Game of Thrones, to play the character in the first place.

But while Maximus killing a member of the genetic council may make some feel conflicted towards him, it does nothing to make viewers sympathize with the Royals. Not to mention, the victim was a member of the genetic council. His job was literally to judge people and place them in a caste based on their genetic makeup. In most other works of speculative fiction, the genetic council would be the mustache-twirling villains of a dystopian society that audiences couldn’t wait to see overthrown.

And there's also that whole "we should invade the Earth" thing, but that seems like such a distant, empty threat compared to the actual oppression of Inhuman society that the show fails to make Maximus' point of view feel out of balance. In the end, the show seems to be trying to inform us that Maximus is the villain of the piece because his motivations don't do that job for us.