Fairly Ordinary

After a jam-packed week of pilots (a higher volume than I've ever experienced before), I thought I was finally done with the review of Blue Bloods rounding out the week on Friday. Well, silly me, I forgot that No Ordinary Family was bringing in the rear last night. Sigh. I love reviewing new shows, but this year has been a veritable deluge of shows, most of which were pretty mediocre. As such, I might not be giving this show a fair shake due to simple fatigue... Take review with grain of salt.


No Ordinary Family focuses on the Powells, a clan of dysfunctional suburbanites who develop superpowers after their plane crashes in the Amazon. Apparently the water had some iridescent glow of some sort that's tantamount to a radioactive spider. My mum came in a few minutes into the pilot and asked me what it was about, to which I said, "There's this family that crashes in the jungle and the water gives them magical powers or something..." My mom thought I was joking and actually asked me to hit "info" on the satellite so we could read the description. "No really, Mom, that's what it's about." After a quick look of incredulity and a "Seriously?", she settled in to watch. Yeah.

I honestly don't have a problem with the concept for this show. I watch a lot of programs with equally ridiculous conceits. I think the main reason this show wasn't an all-out success for me is how they went about it. The pilot employs the annoying common narrative device of the therapy office. Jim and Stephanie Powell tell the story of how this all went down to a couples counselor. In general, voiceovers and narrators kind of drive me nuts. Sure they work sometimes, and can even add a lot to a show (on Dexter, it's essential, illuminating the dark thoughts beneath his banal daily routine, and on Veronica Mars, it lent itself incredibly well to the pseudo-noir style), but I'm generally of the opinion that if a show is being done right, they don't need someone telling the audience what's going on and how characters are feeling. It just seemed unnecessary, and what's worse, the thought that they'd be telling anyone about their new superpowers seemed utterly absurd.

The writers made a very conscious choice to make the tone of the show very different from a serious drama like Heroes, to varying degrees of success. This show is not Heroes, and I think we can all agree that that's a compliment, but No Ordinary Family seems to have gone out its way to avoid the comparison, thereby eliminating the elements that made the first season of Heroes such a success. The Powells suddenly realize they have these fantastic powers and rather than being perplexed or frightened by them, they're positively giddy, even when their children start exhibiting similarly bizarre abilities. In a way, it was a welcomed relief not to have to watch people be tortured and horrified by what's happening to them, but it also took away a lot of the tension. There just doesn't seem to be anything weighing on them at all and none of them seemed to be concerned for how these powers might affect them in the future. Surely they've seen enough TV and movies to know that with great power comes great responsibility, right? It made watching them tell their friends, random colleagues, and their therapist all about it seem like an incredibly stupid idea. Don't they know the government will try to destroy, contain, or exploit them? Any logical person would have been a lot more cautious with that information, it seems. I realize that the show is aiming for a lighter tone here, but that doesn't mean it has to be nonsensical. Indeed, with a base concept that's off-kilter, I would have hoped that the show would have been a bit more grounded and realistic in other areas.

The show seems to be trying to find its anchor to reality in the trivialities of family life and it just didn't quite work for me. Michael Chiklis stars as Jim Powell alongside Julie Benz as his wife Stephanie, with a teenage son and daughter in tow. Here we have yet another case of shlubby guy/hot girl, only this time, even the hot girl is pretty loathsome. I have never been a fan of Julie Benz and have pretty much hated every role I know her from. I couldn't stand Darla (she wasn't even fun to hate like a respectable villain) and Rita has to be one of the worst characters ever conceived. To her credit, her turn as the super-speedy matriarch of the Powell clan appears to be Benz at the nadir of her annoying-ness. I didn't love her or anything, but she wasn't a nagging bitch either, so that's an improvement. But, then you combine her barely tolerable-ness with Micheal Chicklis and we're back to loathsome again. They didn't have much chemistry together, and Chicklis could not possibly be less appealing or less convincing as a big softy who likes to draw. I hear he's amazing in The Sheild, but here? I'm unimpressed. His newfound superstrength (sort of), near invincibility, and tremendous jumping ability (there's a constellation of powers for ya) should have made him a lot more interesting as a character, but I was pretty underwhelmed. The basis of the show is that this family had lost touch with each other and now they're reconnecting through these extraordinary circumstances. Much like Undercovers tried to rekindle relationships through supposed awesomeness, once again, I was kind of bored.

This show wasn't without merit, and I do think it has some definite room to grow, but it just wasn't as fun or exciting or fascinating as you might assume given the concept. It all just seemed kind of perfunctory. Plane crashes almost killing us all? No problem. Bizarre physical changes that will have untold effects? Excellent. No knowledge of how this happened or why? Okeedokee. Daughter has unsettling Sookie-style mindreading power that she can't seem to control? Why not?! It all just seemed a little too convenient, and, well, a little too ordinary. It's fine for the show to take a fun, light, enthusiastic approach to this concept, but without any real emotional impact, none of it carried a whole lot of weight.

As you have probably surmised, this show has some obvious similarities to The Incredibles, right down to basic family structure, only, you know, not as good. Hell, after finding he has superpowers, Chiklis' character starts listening to police scanners so he can intercept crimes in progress. Familiar much? In the promotional push for the show, the creators were adamant that this show isn't aiming to be the live action version of the Pixar hit. While I give them credit for trying not to steal, I think I'd have liked a live-action Incredibles a whole lot more. The Incredibles managed the theme of suburban blase and the mundaneness of everyday life with mastery and allowed the characters to be excited about their powers without eliminating the suspense or gravity of the situation. In fact, The Incredibles was a pulse-pounding thrill that blended it's serious and light aspects seamlessly. No Ordinary Family simply didn't have me on the edge of my seat or giddy over the superhero awesomeness. They seem to have gone out of their way to make the extraordinary seem kind of humdrum, and not in a good way.

I was feeling pretty "meh" about the show, but the final scenes have me intrigued for more. Apparently the Powells aren't the only supers out there. Predictable yes, but still intriguing. The shadowy powers-that-be have ominous plans for the Powell clan (just like they should have assumed themselves and kept their mouths shut) and I'm interested in seeing how that all plays out. Seriously, I had a hard time caring about anyone in the Powell family, but the bad guys, who were in a few fleeting moments of the pilot, have my interests piqued. It might be due to the fact that one of the baddies, some sort of enforcer I'm guessing, is played by the delectable Josh Stewart, a guest actor on Criminal Minds (he played JJ's New Orleans boyfriend Will), but I'm already a lot more invested in his team than in the Powells... What say we just make him the center of the show, mmkay? (Such thoughts probably aren't a good sign.)

All in all, it wasn't a bad pilot, it just didn't really push my buttons either. Everything seemed like it was 2 or 3 times more sedate and banal than I was hoping for. Maybe this is the beginning of a slow build to more thrilling things, but I'm apprehensive. If they were aiming for this to really be a family drama about people who happen to be superheroes, then the family needed to be a lot more engaging. Perhaps I was the only one who didn't find much to latch onto with the Powells, but as the core of the show, I needed more. If it's supposed to be a show about superheroes how happen to be a family, then the powers really could have been more original and interesting. I've seen this all before and even with the same special effects (although the effects were very well done, even if not all that innovative). The powers were all disappointingly familiar (Nightcrawler? Is that you?) or incredibly lame. Suffice it to say, if I were the teenage son of this clan, I'd be pretty pissed. "You're telling me my father can catch bullets, my mother has super-speed, my sister can read minds and I get... Math!? Seriously? Intermediate Algebra? That's my glowing-water-induced ability?!" For his sake, I'm hoping there's more to it than that...

The pilot wasn't especially strong, but it did set up a foundation that I think could turn into something special. It's a Greg Berlanti production, so the creative team is solid, even if the on-air talent is a turn-off. Heh, when Harold Abbot was finally revealed onscreen as the therapist, even my mother was like, "Oh, so this is a Berlanti production." Ha! I couldn't believe my ears! My mother, the woman who guesses that Chuck is the show that'll be on that night every single night, recognized a Berlanti alum. I didn't think she even knew his name! I was so proud. Anyway, he generally fares better with relationships than flash, so I can see where they're trying to make this more about family than powers, but I think that might be the show's downfall for me. I just couldn't bring myself to care about any of them... I'm hopeful that if I give it a few more episodes, they'll grow on me.

The preview of things to come this season has me hopeful for this show. A lot of my quibbles with the pilot will be addressed and some much needed gravity will be added (or at least so it seems). I can't say the pilot bowled me over, but I'm hopeful this will be the kind of show that starts off kind of weak and gets better episode-to-episode, Chicklis and Benz notwithstanding...

Pilot Grade: C+