A quirky, dark, funny show about juvenile delinquents with super powers should totally be on your watch list. (E4)
Remember the first season of Heroes? The only really good season? The premise was that a group of ordinary people somehow gain super powers that enhance long dormant personality traits, which they then use to do good or to do evil depending on the person. The conflict comes when these two groups of people interact, and the inevitable power struggles emerge.
Misfits has a similar premise, though it rises above Heroes by adding sharp, biting stories that keep it fresh. But where as Heroes allowed ordinary people to do extraordinary things, Misfits allows deeply flawed people to do deeply flawed things, and not a one of them is using their powers to save the world. Indeed, the characters are more likely to use their powers for personal gain than anything else.
The series, from England's E4 channel, and now in it's fourth season, started off strong, giving five juvenile delinquents serving community service sentences super powers after a strange electrical storm passes through the area.
Each power is a reflection of some sort of desire hidden within the character. The shy kid can turn invisible, the insecure one can read minds, and so on. The series is very funny, and often borders on the ridiculous, but it is also very dark and can become quite scary at the drop of a hat. There are also moments of extreme awkwardness that make you cringe, but also add to the believability of the characters. These kids have no idea what happened to them or why, and for the most part, they do not look upon these new powers as gifts or curses, but rather just as something that happened to them.
Through the course of trying to figure out what these powers mean, the gang inadvertently kills their probation worker, which becomes a running gag throughout the series, much like Spinal Tap killing off their drummers, or the Hogwarts getting a new Defense of the Dark Arts Teacher every year. This bonds the group together in the way that only a deeply held secret can. It doesn't mean they like each other, but it does give them a certain amount of respect for each other. That's what makes this series work. These people are stuck together, like it or not, and they have to deal with a lot.
While the show has it's fair share of "Freak of the Week" episodes, it also has enough nuance and direction to not fall into repetition. This was a definite possibility when cast members started leaving the show after season two in order to move on to bigger and brighter things.
Cast changes often kill a show as viewers who have invested in the characters they know and love get upset when those characters leave. In this case, it has only enhanced the show. New people coming in and out of community service only makes sense, and for the most part the replacements have been just as good if not better than the characters they replace.
The complaints I've heard mostly from Americans are mostly about the accents. Although I have never had a problem understanding the dialog, I can see where some people might. I also hear complaints about the insanely dark and awkward places this show has a tendency to go, and I can see that as well. Make no mistake, this is a show for adults, and would probably never get made in America, even if they did dumb it down, but that is exactly why I like it so much.
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