Broken Frontier

As I write this review, it’s been announced that ABC has picked up No Ordinary Family for a full season, which I’ll admit, makes me really tired. I’ve been watching this show for over a month now, and though the last two weeks have seen improvement, that’s like saying it’s OK to eat the entire bag of potatoes even though the first few were rotten.

Episode 1.05 again sees a bit of improvement from previous episodes, and is more successful in building on the pre-established elements of the series, including the “conspiracy” plot that involves Stephanie’s boss and other superpowered people. It’s still nothing remotely interesting in terms of characters or plot, and certainly nothing fresh, but at least we’re reminded that the writers are aware they started this overarching story and plan to continue to build on it.

Other than that, this episode suffers from another rendition of “freak of the week," a formula we’ve seen time in and time out, and a syndrome that often plagues sci-fi TV of this nature in its first season (or four, i.e. Smallville). This time around, there’s a mysterious set of targeted earthquakes that occur in conjunction with robberies of pharmacies, the first of which the Powell family is, of course, present for. Through another set of absurdly coincidental happenings, Jim is dead set on a mission to find out who is causing the earthquakes and why he is robbing pharmacies. Really, it just made me sigh loudly and groan.

Meanwhile, the rest of the family gets to do more interesting things, though none of them ultimately contribute anything. Stephanie is forced to help Jim on his mission by stealing a tape from police evidence, JJ tries to fake a pee test so that his parents won’t find out he’s lying about not having powers, and Daphne tries to determine if one of her friends is sleeping with her English teacher. Obviously, these are the things you do as an average modern family with totally awesome powers.

The real problem in this episode as far as the characters are concerned is that any progress they were making is brought back to square one. Daphne is nothing more than a tattle-tale, Jim is self-centered, Stephanie has a one-track mind concerned only with discovering the root cause of their powers, and worst of all, JJ’s arc is brought to a screeching halt when Jim and Steph find out about his powers. It’s like the characters are thrown against the wall to see what sticks, week after week.

The episode had its moments, but with five episodes down it still feels directionless. The pacing is off kilter, and at this point, I’ve accepted that the tone of the show (besides melodramatic) is whatever suits the scene at the time. If it’s a humorous situation, the show is a family comedy. If it’s Daphne spying on her friend and teacher, it’s an after school special—which, by the way, Daphne actually acknowledges, another instance of the show recognizing its cliches in an effort to cover them up. To a certain extent, I’m willing to give the show some leeway considering that it’s only the first season, and it’s certainly not the first show to flounder around before finding its footing.

The issue is that No Ordinary Family too often shoots for the sky and misses. It tries to incorporate superpowers into real-life, every-day problems, but sometimes forgets that superpowers are anything but real life or average. Believe me, I “get” what they are trying to do, but this episode, along with every one previous, fails to make its point clear. Despite all this, I’m genuinely looking forward to the next new episode (in two weeks, November 9) as Jim’s in-laws come for a visit. Hopefully, the show can resist making it a special effects episode and give us some character development.