No Ordinary Family Season 1 Episode 2

Very unfortunate episode that did a good job displaying the two different extremes to this show. On the one side (majority of the show) we were tortured with ridiculous/unrealistic reactions ONCE AGAIN from ORDINARY people and of course there were the silly lines and poor humor.





We have the teacher who initially thinks JJ is cheating (makes sense) but you still thinks he's cheating when he is able to confidently EXPLAIN a problem in YOUR FACE...a cheater only would know the SOLUTION. This continues poorly I guess to bring about something negative against the powers.





We have the detective who witnesses someone PICK UP A CAR and reacts as if she sees that all the time. Then instead of the NORMAL human response/curiosity shes on to slamming the guy and warning him of arrest (????)





There's the silly school fair which is use to allow for so so-called humor with the dumb scenario using the fair to slam the family (yeah okay). Of course this gives the writers a chance to have Jim show his powers again (I hate when superpower shows/movies do this). Then we have NO ONE react to see a ball blow through the backdrop of the game.





Then there's also NO ONE who sees Jim taking on the getaway van when just SECONDS ago it was in TRAFFIC. I'm sorry but there is too many unbelievable situations in this show that shows signs of SLOPPY/LAZY writing.





Sad thing...the last FIVE MINUTES got serious, tense, and good with the villian dealing with the female detective. Why can't the whole show be like this and keep the humor/cheesy stuff to minimum?





There's another show having this same problem..."UNDERCOVERS" It won't to be serious but when you spend most the show being silly, corny, and cheesy, it's hard to take the other couple of minutes seriously or to give a crap about what happens.

* * * S P O I L E R S A H E A D * * *





Whoever thought that having awesome superhuman abilities wouldn't come without a catch-22 obviously hasn't read enough comics or seen enough superhero shows to know there's always a trade off. Sometimes that means having to be extra careful not to break stuff, or never ever losing your cool.





What's great about the way the writers handled that on the show is that they placed it in the context of everyday family life. Only instead of breakin' out the melodrama, they decided to keep it balanced with a fair bit of humor and reasonable intensity.





Jim has to train to be able to use his powers more effectively. Steph learns the hard way that losing focus at superspeed can have painful consequences. Daphne learns how to shut out everyone's thoughts. While JJ's new affinity for mathematics arouses the suspicion of his teacher.





So they've set-up the problems to be resolved for the episode quite nicely.





What about the overarching plot for the season? They set that up nicely too, and also threw in a string of bank robberies. After all, superheroes gotta work their way up the supervillain ladder right? What's cool, is they also managed to reveal two potential main antagonists for the season.





I particularly enjoyed how they managed to keep the powers fresh, yet avoid making them seem too powerful. It will be interesting to see whether or not they move in the direction of costumes. Or masks at least, because the writers have already established certain premises about the realities of using powers for crime fighting when Jim is spotted by his lady cop colleague who freaks out when he reveals his powers. Again a reasonable response.





The funny thing is I kept thinking, this is exactly how I wanted "Heroes" to have developed. Beyond all the hype and needless soap opera antics, "Heroes" was supposed to be about ordinary people dealing with extraordinary abilities. Somehow I felt that they would eventually have to use them for more than just solving everyday stuff. Only that show ended up being too serious and seriously convoluted.





I remain hopeful "No Ordinary Family" will stay true to the continuity being established. Clearly there is a whole lot more to reveal, and premises to explore. I am definitely looking forward to the next episode with great anticipation.





Oh, Michael Chiklis is playing Jim brilliantly. He's strong, but without the need to act all macho. It's an interesting contrast to his role on "The Shield". Julie Benz is also pulling off another brilliant performance. Such an interesting departure from her previous role as Rita Morgan.





Clearly, there is much more to explore, but thus far the cast and crew have managed to keep up what they have established in the first episode. Here's hoping they can maintain that for the rest of the season.





Time will tell.

So far, "No Ordinary Family" has certainly exceeded my expectations. It's a harmless TV show for families, fans of drama, fans of comedies, fans of superhero shows and fans of a mix of all of those. Now, if they could find a way to make each of those genres equally interesting throughout the show for the full 43 minutes, the show would be even more impressive to me. As of right now, there's a mythology arc that seems like something I would really want to follow, but it's getting all tied up in the family drama and lame high school drama stuff. Tightening up on the writing would cure that problem right away.





Overall, the episode wasn't bad. It was more build-up from last episode, and next week's episode looks to be quite interesting and action-packed. But there's all of these pointless scenes with characters who don't matter as much, and while I'm certainly intrigued about these villains, a lot of shows suffer from introducing them too early and making us not care about them at all. In Lost and other shows (I swear I won't compare every show to Lost...), the villains are slowly revealed and are fleshed out over time. These villains don't seem to have any interest in becoming actual characters. Hopefully that will change as the show moves forward.





That being said, the show had some excellent moments. The cop being shot at the end by a man who has telekinetic powers was quite the surprise, and I enjoyed seeing Jim's wife mess up while running. It shows that this family is not perfect with their powers, and it'll be nice to see the show show us more of this.





I just ask that they improve the writing. Just a little bit, and it will definitely help.

I missed the pilot, so this was the first episode I saw, and I must admit, it was a good one! I like the conept of the show, even though the whole 'superheroes' idea is a cliche. They still made it quite original, and the show is interesting thus far!





I really enjoyed the humor aspect of things as well! Most notably, when th e Mom (sorry, I'm not 100% on the names yet) asaied that "I'm at.. you know the drugstore down the street - about 500 miels west from there!"





So far, it is just early days, but this show has proved so far that it had a great concept and good humor too! The end of the episode was great, and this will be something I look forward to netx week! I definitely recommend it!