Tomorrow night is the series premiere of No Ordinary Family, a TV drama about a family on the brink of collapse that suddenly finds itself with super powers.
Helpless-feeling Jim Powell (Michael Chiklis) suddenly finds himself super-strong, near-invulnerable, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Always on-the-go Stephanie Powell (Julie Benz) gains super-speed. Their self-involved daughter Daphne becomes telepathic, and their learning-disabled son JJ becomes a super-genius.
I got to see the pilot episode at Comic-Con, and it was really promising. There’s an Incredibles-meets-season-one-Heroes vibe to it. The special effects are great, particularly Stephanie’s first super-speed run. (Later scenes rely a lot on the standard vanishing/reappearing act plus wind.) Here are my thoughts on the episode as screened at the convention. They’ve reportedly added a scene or two to set up one of the ongoing storylines.
The Flash movie writing team is heavily involved in this series as well. Greg Berlanti co-created the show with Jon Harmon Feldman, and Marc Guggenheim is involved as a consulting producer.
No Ordinary Family premieres Tuesday on ABC at 8:00pm / 7:00 central. Update: Hulu has an extended trailer.
Heroes had such a great first season and so much promise going into the 2nd season but it just fell flat. By the final season I stopped watching because it literally felt like a chore to watch it. It was no longer a show I looked forward to watching. It didn’t help that they killed off their speedster, Daphne (Brea Grant) in season 3.
I really hope No Ordinary Family doesn’t suffer the same fate as Heroes.