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Mix The Incredibles, Heroes, and Modern Family together and what do you get? Arguably, a bloody mess, particularly if you use one of those Magic Bullet blenders. Fortunately, No Ordinary Family escapes this fate. Although the pilot is bit too facile, the adult leads are likable and sympathetic in their roles, and the show has a buoyant energy, which honestly, is more than I expected. The jury's still out on the kids, though.
The Powells are drifting apart -- an all-too-ordinary tale. When scientist-mom Stephanie (Julie Benz: Darla, Angel; Rita, Dexter) has to travel to Belém, Brazil for work, unfulfilled police sketch artist-dad Jim (Michael Chiklis: The Commish and The Shield) decides the whole fam-damnily should go with her. Son JJ (Jimmy Bennett) and daughter Daphne (Kay Panabaker) comply only because they must. Their trip goes as expected, with everyone ignoring everyone else -- especially poor old dad, so he insists they take a prop plane to the rain forest for a little family time. Of course, they then crash into a phosphorescent phlebotinum-rich section of the Amazon River. Their pilot, Mitch, is presumed dead, but the Powells swim safely to shore. We don't see how they get back home from the rainforest, which I found disappointing. It might have been interesting to see their powers emerge while they were lost in the wilderness. Since they're even more lost in suburbia, though, perhaps this way is better.
Their near-death experience inspires the Powells to tighten their family ties, but as soon as they're back home, that dream goes up in smoke, faster than you can say "Tommy Chong." As they go about their daily business, they find things aren't quite back to normal. Jim, who has been struggling with feelings of inferiority, develops super-strength and the ability to leap tall buildings (and other distances of up to 1/4 of a mile) in a single bound. He finds he's also adept at stopping speeding bullets with his hand (his neck -- less so), and is generally invulnerable. Harried and hurried Stephanie now has super-speed, for which any mother would trade her eyeteeth. Virgin Daughter (I know, but the show dearly and clearly cares) Daphne, who has been suspicious of the wrong people, can now read minds, and learning-disabled son JJ turns into Good Will Hunting, just in time for a math test.
Their powers are, for now, a boon to everyone but Daphne. Thanks to her brand-spanking-new telepathy, she learns her "your-love's-worth-the-wait" boyfriend Lucas has been patient because he's been hooking up with her BFF. This results in the expected, including some WHINING that the writers better dial down a notch if they want the audience to stick around.
The whining is balanced out by Stephanie and Jim's respective sidekicks Katie (Autumn Reeser) and George (Romany Malco), who don't waste our time pretending the Powells' super-powers don't exist, and are genuinely delighted and amazed by them, like actual people would be. George even builds Jim a hi-tech lair, with Wi-Fi. Still, even super-powered marriages hit a few bumps, so Jim and Stephanie decide to go for marriage counseling and end up telling the counselor everything. He finds it all hard to swallow. I find it makes the show narration-heavy, and hope the writers will use a lighter touch with voice-overs, now that all the pilot exposition is out of the way.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Mix The Incredibles, Heroes, and Modern Family together and what do you get? Arguably, a bloody mess, particularly if you use one of those Magic Bullet blenders. Fortunately, No Ordinary Family escapes this fate. Although the pilot is bit too facile, the adult leads are likable and sympathetic in their roles (although the jury's still out on the kids) and are blessed with dynamic, pleasant sidekicks. Here, let me show you...
We open with police sketch artist-dad Jim Powell (Michael Chiklis: The Commish and The Shield) giving a talking-head segment about his wife, kids and life. Oh, Ricky Gervais, what hath thou wrought? Have we now forgotten how to do scripted television without this sort of device? It was so fresh when The Office (UK) burst on the scene. It was still fun when the U.S version of The Office debuted, but as that was years ago, I'm still trying to figure out why the sitcom Modern Family is doing it. Now, if you've read any couple of my recaps, you know I'll employ the occasional aside (or parenthetical)...(see). It's not like I don't get the why this is fun. And hey, I'm a child of the 80s. I still get a kick out of Ferris Bueller breaking the fourth wall, but I think I'm ready to watch a show where the characters don't assume someone is paying attention to their lives. Why can't they think they're floundering in obscurity? You know, like the rest of us. In the case of No Ordinary Family, we'll later learn Jim Powell and his wife mostly do think they're floundering in obscurity. They are just giving their backstory to a couples' therapist. Thank goodness for small favors, but I still spent the lion's share of the episode feeling otherwise, and was not at all happy with it, which is why I'm revealing the set-up, right up front for you. I am grateful there's no docudrama premise here, so I'll end this digression, and get back to the Powells. I just want TV to know I'm ready to welcome non-narrated fictional TV back into my life with arms, eyes and ears wide open. Anyhow...
About the Powells: they are drifting apart on the sea of post-modernity. Mom Stephanie (Julie Benz: Darla, Angel; Rita, Dexter) has a successful but demanding career as a scientist. Son JJ (Jimmy Bennett) struggles with a learning disability, when he's not lost in the boob-tube, and the Most Blessed Virgin Daughter Daphne really likes text messaging, her boyfriend Lucas, and holding fast to her virtue while bitching about it. And Jim? He needs to read some Betty Friedan, acknowledge his struggle with The Problem That Has No Name and get a life.
Stephanie has to travel to Belém, Brazil for work, so Jim proposes a family get-away. The kids truly suck so they don't want to go to freaking Brazil, but they're going and that's it. We cut to Belém, and as the Powells head across the tarmac to a propeller plane, Jim hollers that they're going on a sunset tour of the rain forest and they're going to have a good time whether they like it or not. Heh. There'll be no sunset tonight, though. Their pilot Mitch (reportedly played by Tate Donovan, but who can tell with this lighting and camera work) flies them straight into a storm of bad CGI. When one of the engines bursts into flame, Our Maiden of the Hymen cries "We're going to die and I haven't even done it yet" (no really, she does). After some Meaningful Looks between Jim and Stephanie, we're subjected to more narration. At that moment, Jim can't figure how his family ended up not only endangered, but so fractured.
We flash back to some washed-out scenes of a family touch football game, long ago and far away, when the kids were little and had no whiny, petulant dialogue. And somehow the film editors manage to shave 50 pounds off Jim's beefy frame. Once upon a time, the Powells were perfect, you see. Flash forward to a brief talking-head in which Jim confesses he was happier during those days. Now there's more voice-over narration: "If there is a downside to your family being the center of your world, it's that eventually, all families grow up." We watch as Jim's kids reject his invitation to toss the football around, and then to scenes of Stephanie's professional success. Narrator Jim says he's happy for her, but he misses "us." They may all live under the same roof, but in different rooms and that is how they got here (which we'll later learn is the therapist's couch). It's also when I first thought of telling my editors my TV blew up and I would be unable to complete this weecap. I'm glad I changed my mind, because it gets better, but this first stretch of the show is killing me.
Back in the present, the plane crashes in the water. Mitch is presumed dead, but the Powells find one another. Jim: "Fortunately, we all survived. [...] We held each other close, vowing a new beginning to things -- sincere, heart-felt promises." Promises that evaporate by the time the family returns home. Jim is noticeably discouraged, so Stephanie makes a half-hearted promise for a romantic date night, to remind them of how good they are together. Jim nods, but his smile never reaches his eyes.
Alone at the batting cages with his friend D.A. George St. Cloud (Romany Malco), Jim praises Stephanie's success while bemoaning his failure as an artist, dissatisfaction with his transition to police sketch artist, and the fact that they're now (cue Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin) living separate lives. The twice-divorced George gives Jim a business card which turns out to be for a divorce attorney, but that's just a mistake. He then hands Jim a card for a couples' therapist -- one both of George's ex-wives wanted him to see -- one George refused to see, both times. Jim takes it, because he "gets" it.
Police station: Jim interviews a widow whose jeweler-husband was killed by a man wearing a President Obama mask. Jim so wants to help her, but since there's no sense drawing a composite of a guy was wearing a mask, Jim goes to talk to hot chick cop, Yvonne Cho (Christina Chang), who praises him and how much he cares. Are we heading into affair-ville? Nope. We just need to set Jim up for his first big moment. Across the room, a suspect grabs a gun from a uniformed cop, a scuffle ensues, and the gun goes off before the perp is wrestled to the ground. Jim and Yvonne who had hit the floor thanks to Jim's reflexes, stand back up, and Yvonne wonders where the bullet went. Jim, who looks like he's going to lose his lunch, says he needs some fresh air. As he walks off, he opens his fist to reveal...the bullet. Now we're cooking with gas. Or we will be, after this commercial break.
It's time for Stephanie's talking head, but these things are too tedious to recap and this is only a "weecap" anyhow. Suffice it to say, after the bullet catching incident, she notices a (positive) change in Jim, but at the time she is so hurried and harried, she doesn't have the time or energy to figure out what's going on.
School: Stephanie drops off the kids. JJ gets right out, but Stephanie tries to talk to Daphne, but she's too distracted to listen to mom. She's distracted because boyfriend Lucas (Chord Overstreet) is chatting up Lindsay (Nadine Crocker) who Daphne says is a whore. Nice. The girls exchange some bitchery, with Our Maiden of the Hymen actually citing when Lindsay allegedly lost her virginity. Lindsay snarls as she leaves Lucas and Daphne alone. The young almost-lovers smooch, but he has to get going. When Daphne's BFF Emily catches up with her, they watch Lucas walk off and Daphne says, "I can't tell what's cuter, the fact that Lucas has no idea Lindsay is hitting on him, or that he's too into me to see it." BFF and I laugh and laugh, because Daphne has just unwittingly foreshadowed the end of her romance.
Stephanie's Office: Her colleague Katie (Autumn Reeser) scurries alongside Stephanie trying to help her maintain her high-paced life. Katie will make the Powells' dinner reservations. "Someplace romantic?" she offers. Stephanie: "Someplace they won't give the table away if I'm late." Tsk. Sad. In the board meeting, Stephanie makes a presentation on a wonder-plant found in the Amazon Basin: the Trilsetum Coronis (which Google doesn't recognize, but my spelling taken from her slides). A cocky colleague mocks her for wasting the board's time on a plant, because he's never taken a science course, apparently. Let's ignore him. Oh look, there's RevCam. Here though, Stephen Collins plays Dr. Dayton King -- Stephanie's boss. He puts Cocky back in his place and Stephanie continues her presentation with King's encouragement and some prompting from their teleconferencing corporate overlord.
Batting Cages: Jim bribes the attendant to rent him the whole place for an hour and take a break. Instead of batting though, he's catching the machine's tosses at speeds between 90 and 140 miles per hour. Gloveless!
Stephanie's Office: RevCam King invites Stephanie to give an in-depth presentation to the corporate overlord who is flying in tonight for that express purpose. There goes date night.
Cages: George joins Jim who gleefully shows off his mad skills. The ball is going so fast it disintegrates in Jim's palm. This is the moment I started liking the show. Because yo, if you could suddenly catch speeding bullets and baseballs, you would tell your best friend, and being your best friend, he would be fascinated, delighted and thrilled! Thank you Show for being real despite your fantastic premise. , Jim asks George to shoot him. Hee.
Stephanie calls Jim to cancel date night and is taken off guard when he's fine with that.
Cages: George, being a DA, is having doubts about shooting his friend, but Jim tells him that something extraordinary and impossible is happening to him and he needs his help in figuring out what it is. George is not anxious to kill his friend, because he's his friend and because he doesn't want to end up in the joint with a bunch of guys he put away. He refuses, and thank you for that too, Show -- because I would have lost all respect if a DA willingly shot at his friend, just because he could catch some blistering fastballs barehanded. It doesn't matter anyhow, because the gun accidentally discharges and Jim catches the bullet. George faints dead away.
Stephanie leaves to meet her boss and the chairman and there's more talking-headishness and narration, but the point is this -- the security guard tells her that traffic is really bad, so she exits her building at a trot, which becomes a run, which turns into a supersonic dash down the freeway. "In a life short on time, I suddenly found myself... fast." Covet.
George encourages Jim to fly. He finally agrees and takes a not-so-flying leap off the top of a building, but crashes to the ground far, far below. He's unhurt, but the street beneath his feet is going to need some major resurfacing. George hollers down to Jim, who suddenly has a revelation. He leaps up, up and away back to the top of the building and an amazed George. The guys hug in celebration. Meanwhile, Stephanie shares her abilities with Kitty Pryde-fan Katie, who is as adorable and awesome as George. We are so keeping them. They test Stephanie's speed the way George and Jim having been testing Jim's strength. The writers know what they're doing here, because they have Katie voice all the sorts of questions that fans more science-minded than I might ask. The ladies also conclude that Stephanie now has a super-metabolism. COVET MOAR! With her new speed, Stephanie now has time to fulfill the promises she's always making to her family, like helping JJ with his schoolwork.
Police Station; Exterior: George reviews his list of Jim's abilities. "You can jump just over a quarter of a mile in a single leap." Jim: "Single what?" George stops and shrugs. "Fine, single bound." Hee. On foot, Jim's no faster than average, but he can lift about 11,000 pounds and catch speeding bullets (which must involve some speed, yeah). George encourages Jim to share his new skills with Stephanie, but he's reluctant. He's not reluctant to use his new-bilities for truth, justice and the American way, though. He's swiped a police scanner and intends to help stop the crime wave washing over their city. George tries to talk him down, but they're interrupted when Stephanie calls. George keeps nudging Jim to tell his wife what's going on, but he doesn't.
Stephanie called to invite Jim home for a little afternoon delight. And their afterglow pillow talk is at first sweet and warm, but their problems soon bubble up. When Jim praises Stephanie for doing it all, she criticizes herself for always falling short. Jim laughs and says, "Honey, who could keep up with you?" Laying her head on his chest, Stephanie says, "Well, you couldn't, because you stopped trying." Yeouch. They move apart in bed, and Jim says they both stopped trying. He turns to her and engages in a little parental one-up-manship, disclosing that Our Maiden of the Hymen is afraid she'll lose her boyfriend to a girl who will sleep with him. No! Really? Huh. Why are we just finding this out now? , he tells her their son is struggling with school because of his learning disabilities that Stephanie refuses to acknowledge because she hasn't the time. Jim says she'd have known all this stuff if she was home more. Them's fighting words. Stephanie snarks back about how it's been her dream to work 80 hours per week to support the family. Thankfully, this extremely well-done, realistic and depressing little interlude is broken up by George, who calls Jim with a tip on a crime in progress.
Jim takes 1/4 mile jumps the whole way there and lands on the criminal's car, stopping it cold and wrecking the roof. He pulls the Obama-masked guy (OMG) out of the driver's seat, throws him against the wall, pulls off his mask and says, "You're going away for a long time." Just then a shot rings out. Jim turns to find the OMG now behind him with the mask back on (so it seems like two guys -- I'll explain, later), laughing his ass off, because he's just shot Jim in the less-than-bulletproof nape of his neck. Jim reaches into the wound and pulls out the bullet. He tries to grab teleporting OMG, but instead collapses in the alley. He calls his friend. "Help me, George. I've been shot."
Powell bedroom: Jim wakes and George tells him that he and Stephanie stitched Jim up and that the bullet only penetrated 1/4 of an inch. So while he's not exactly bulletproof, it's good enough. Jim is upset that George has let Stephanie in on his secret and says she'll never understand, so of course Stephanie enters, begs to differ and shows off her new super speed. George: "You two are freaky." George, you're freaking cool.
Later, Jim asks Stephanie how this could have happened. Stephanie recalls the phosphorescent phlebotinum that was in the water where their plane crashed and chalks it up to that. Who cares, girl. You can eat anything you want and never gain weight. Just then, Daphne calls home, upset.
School: Daphne is disappointed that Stephanie is picking her up. She's used to confiding in him, but she comes clean with her mother about the telepathic experience she had during gym class. We flashback and see Emily revving Daphne up to confront Lindsay about her pursuit of Lucas. When she does, Lindsay smiles smugly and says, "Maybe if you weren't so concerned with losing Lucas, you'd realize you already have." But then Emily hears Lindsay's thoughts: "You're so clueless, I actually feel bad for you." Later, during their basketball game, Daphne starts hearing everyone's thoughts. It's all very "Earshot" and reminds me why I don't really want to know what people are thinking. Back in the present, Daphne says she knows her mother is going to think she's crazy, but Stephanie says she believes her.
Home: the family confronts JJ to see what super powers he has. He has bupkis and feels totally ripped off. And Daphne wants to ignore it all as a one-off. "Why are we having this meeting anyhow, so you two can convince yourselves you're different?" She gives them some more shit. Jim orders her to her room. She makes her typical teen stance, closing with, "This family isn't broken; you two are." Once the kids stomp off, Jim and Stephanie admit their daughter isn't wrong. Maybe not, but she still needs a big time out.
At work Jim is able to give Yvonne a detailed sketch of OMG, claiming he got info from a "witness." He's found him in the database and tries to tag along with Yvonne and her partner, but she tells him to leave the crime-fighting to them.
Daphne and Lucas are alone together at last. He knows she's out of sorts so he asks her what's wrong, but she tries to shrug it off. Then she hears his thoughts. He's cheating on her all right, but it's not Lindsay he's hooking up with -- it's her BFF, Emily, who shall now be referred to a fBFF(as in former). jbreckenridge in the forums puts it thusly: "At the moment Daphne is fresh out of confidants. Her BFF and her BF are F'ing." Effing fBFF.
Yvonne and her partner go to question the woman who bailed out OMG. She says she hasn't seen him since then. As they turn to leave, OMG gets off the elevator, shoots at the cops, kills the partner and takes Yvonne hostage, which seems unnecessary since he can teleport.
Home: A tearful Daphne tells her mother about Lucas and Emily's betrayal. Ouch, she's so hurt, I can't keep calling her Our Maiden of the Hymen. She needs something more chipper. Let's go with Cherry Pie. When her mom comforts her, Cherry Pie whines, "It's not fair. I can't be a virgin and a freak." Then JJ walks in, still moping about his lack of ability. Sigh.
Parking Garage: This is the scene where we actually find out that OMG can teleport. Up until this time, it had seemed that there were two OMGs in the alley when Jim was shot, but I didn't have it in me to keep up the pretense. So yeah, there's that reveal and while Yvonne is mouldering away in the trunk of OMG's car (so she can't see Jim in action), he and Jim face off. Jim's all tough now, but OMG just scoffs at him and asks if he thought he was the only super-powered guy in the place. OMG teleports hither and thither, shooting at Jim. He finally gets behind our hero and holds the gun to Jim's less than invulnerable nape. As OMG indulges in the typical villainous monologue of hubris, a shot rings out. Yvonne got herself out of the trunk and shot OMG dead. She chases Jim off so he won't have to answer any questions from Internal Affairs.
Jim arrives home and Stephanie asks him if they can talk, telling him, "While I was racing to be the perfect spouse -- the perfect parent -- you were it. You were extraordinary before you could ever catch a bullet." All the wacky hijinks are making them grateful for what they have. Stephanie extracts a promise from Jim that he'll give up the bullets and crime fighting, but he looks pained as he makes his pledge.
School: Mopey JJ is mopey because he has to take a math test, but then he turns all Good Will Hunting/Beautiful Mind and aces the sucker. Super-intelligence and less moping for the win!
Jim visits George who has turned his own garage into super hero command central for Jim. There are computers, TVs and all manner of techno-goodies. George: "It's what every single crime-fighter needs: a lair. With wi-fi." The men high five each other with manly super-geeker glee. Look, up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's that promise to Stephanie waving bye-bye.
Therapist's Office: Stephanie talking-heads, we cut to Jim and then to the therapist, whose reveal I've already spoiled. The implication seems to be that they've told him all about their new abilities because Dr. Allen's voice is shaky and stunned as he stutters out that they've got their work cut out for them. He takes a beat and then... "Might I suggest we start with twice a week." Jim and Stephanie smile with warm resolve and we cut to a modern-day montage of the Powells again playing football, as Narrator Jim blahs about how their problems may no longer be ordinary... "But then again, neither are we." Jim sends the football sailing blocks away. Stephanie super-speeds to get it and super-speeds back. The couple kiss and we cut to...
Creepy Dark Industrial basement: Dr. RevCam King stalks down the corridor to find a minion watching over the corpse of OMG. King says, "Find out who knows about [OMG] and...Take Care Of It. Minion-Man nods silently, the lights flicker and scene.
In the recaplet, I said I wasn't dying to see what happens , but now I kind of am. At any rate, I'd watch again, even if I weren't paid to do so. I love the realistic yet loving Powell marriage and George and Katie already own me. I just hope the kids become more tolerable. So far, I think this is a light, energetic series and may well be one I can watch with my kids if Cherry Pie stops carrying her sexual status like a cross. How about you? Join the discussion in our show thread, shoot me an email at CynthiaMcLennan[at]gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter.
Check out a teaser for the episode below, discuss this episode in our forums, and see why this show seems so familiar.
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