and I have had quite an interesting first season. Before the season started, I had high hopes for the show. It sounded like everything that made Heroes interesting, except with more heart being built around one family. But then the show started and it was just... okay. Not terrible but it definitely did not draw me in either. The cast was well chosen and all the characters were likable with Michael Chicklis as the father, Julie Benz (Darla from Buffy!) as the mom, Kay Panabaker (usually annoying) as the daughter, a well chosen son in Jimmy Bennett, Autumn Reeser (who I adore from her OC days!) as the mom's sidekick and Romany Malco as the dad's sidekick. Great cast!But... it all still sort of fell flat. I recorded each episode on my DVR and waited weeks before watching the episode. The show felt lackluster and I could not, still cannot, quite put a finger on what it was missing. Maybe it needed added dimensionality to the characters, especially the villains. Maybe it just needed more interesting challenges. Maybe it needed not to have killed off so many potentially interesting good guys right in the beginning. I have NO idea. In any case, of the first 15 or so episodes, I do not think I could name any particularly memorable episode.
However! This somehow changed the final few episodes. I'm not sure what the exact change was, but Katie's fiance/boyfriend added so much to the show and I was sad when he left. Or maybe I liked that the family finally figured out how to better use the kids' powers (uh, hello Dr. Stephanie Powell, you're trying to figure out this complicated formula and you don't think to borrow the superbrain powers of your son?!). Ooh, or Daphne's annoying boyfriend came and left in a few storylines (THANK YOU). But somehow there was more to enjoy and be glad about in the show and less to be bored by. The Powells spent less time being stupid and more time trying to stop the bad guys and bad things from happening. The powers started to evolve in interesting ways, ie. super speed became time travel, pulling thoughts from others' heads became pushing thoughts into others' heads. Lastly, the season finale twist was interesting (both plane crash and Katie's super baby) and set up perfectly for an interesting season 2. Well, if there is a second season of No Ordinary Family gets renewed, which I now do hope gets renewed! One final note, it'll be nice not to have Reverend Camden come back in future episodes.
2 comments:
Wow, impressed that you stuck with it. I liked the premise too but I gave it up pretty early on. I probably won't go back and catch up though...even if it's renewed (which I think might be unlikely).
I actually was a fan of the show and prefer it that they spend the time to develop characters, plot and a story lines that have the possibility to sustain it for a few seasons. If they went right to wearing suits and being a crime fighting family, they would have had to go to resort to plots that got lame fast, cheesy lame gadgets and quickly tiring fighting bad guy plots (see The Cape) and it wouldn't have survived more than a couple of seasons either
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