Misfits | The Power of Community Service

I’m something of a TV piranha – constantly on the hunt for great TV shows, and when I find them, I gorge myself on every episode I can get my hands on until I pick its bones clean. (I suppose it seems a lot like a TV crack habit too, but I prefer the colourful animal imagery.) My appetites lead me to falling in and out of love with a lot of different shows, some of which I can recall, others I’ve since tried to forget. The latest victim of my voracious appetite is a UK series of fermented authenticity set to pop off in a fit of comedy at any moment called “Misfits”. UK series succumb quickly to my gluttony as they tend to range around 6 to 8 episodes per season and are therefore consumed in a matter of days, or hours even. “Misfits” took me two days to complete, but that was mostly due to my compromised TV screening time while my in-laws are in town. Had I unfettered access , it wouldn’t have lasted more than the four and a half hours that comprise its six episodes.

I recently spoiled a couple scenes for the guy who actually suggested this show to me, so I’m gonna be extra careful in explaining what this show is about, just to make sure I don’t blow it for anyone else. So rest assured, you’re entering a spoiler free zone.

What’s it all about? A group of young offenders gather at a community located in an area strikingly reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange where they’ve been assigned community service for various offenses. Despite all being young lawbreakers, they represent a Breakfast Clubby cross-section of society. There’s the handsome jock, the sexy vamp, the shy freak, the short-tempered tough girl and the obnoxious smart-ass. While they’re out white-washing benches, a freak storm with hail the size of basketballs breaks out and knocks the troupe senseless and when they awake, they find they’ve developed super powers. It all happens so fast, and it’s not more than a few minutes after burying a pair of bodies (the details of which I won’t spoil for you) that the word “superheroes” comes up, and despite that they’ve already got matching orange jumpsuits, they’re even less the superhero type than Tony Stark, clearly.

There’s not much here you haven’t heard somewhere else before, but this show excels in the style department. In fact, I would say that the look of the show would be its strongest suit. The dank surroundings of Thamesmeade belie a talented DOP and clever crew of post-production compositors creating a look that’s kind of “dirty enough of eat off”. It’s for this reason more than any other that I’m not the slightest bit interested in seeing an American remake of this show. It’s perfect just the way it is.

It reminds me a lot of a short lived comic book series I collected called DP7. It was about a loosely affiliated group of adults with little in common other than their quirky superpowers. Over time, a theory emerged about why certain characters manifested in certain people which was dubbed the Pinocchio effect. The idea was that your powers were manifestations of your deepest desires, usually to the point where those desires are finally turned on their heads. Not to give away too much, but we have a character who clearly regrets the one stupid decision that ruined his life and landed him doing community service. His power: Turning back time enough to undo one lousy decision, but only one that he really regrets. The catch: He learns that he can’t use this power to get his life back the way it was. We have another character who derives her self-worth from people finding her attractive. Her power: Enticing a powerful sexual response form merely touching her. The catch: The reaction is so powerful that things escalate to a potential rape situation in a matter of seconds. This kind of apropos pairing of powers is a welcome change from the willy-nilly way “Heroes” approached its characters. It’s just such an efficient way to foster character development, and you can almost make it like characters are suing their powers even when they’re not – you can save millions on your effects budget! (A lesson learned far too late, I suppose.)

The capable cast of actors that I’ve never seen before are supported by witty scripts, and despite it being a series with a sequential plot, making sure the bodies they buried stay buried, it also retains an episodic format so you can just drop in and drop out if you’re just looking for some casual entertainment.

It’s funny, dark, compelling, and best of all a second season has already been commissioned. It’s more than just “Heroes”, except good (and not cancelled), and more than just “Welcome Back Kotter” with superpowers. It’s a highly innovative reconstitution of familiar elements with the gravitas of a feature film - which bubbles to the surface when you peel away everything else and reveal the pounding music in the closing credits, mashed up against the playful antics of a British teen adventure. in a package that’s so super cool without the pretentiousness that usually comes with a soundtrack as cool as this.