1068 replies to this topic

[The Mad Maple]

ABC just picked up No Ordinary Family for the Fall 2001 season. The show stars Michael Chiklis and Julie Benz as the Dad and Mom of a family who suddenly develop superhuman powers after a plane crash.

And long-time comic geek that I am, this is one of the pilots from this season that I was definitely looking forward to. Glad to see it got picked up for the Fall. :)

[caper24]

Wow.It's so sci-fi it's premiering 9 years ago!

Sorry Maple, sorry. Just couldn't resist!

Anyways, it sounds interesting. I'm a huge fan of super-hero stuff, so I'll be looking forward to this. Besides, Chiklis is great.

[Paul O Regan]

I'll try this. I like the cast, even if Berlanti can be hit or miss.

[Soleil]

I'm a sucker for ordinary people developing superpowers stories (*sniff* Heroes season 1!), even if this does sound like a live-action The Incredibles.

Also, don't get me wrong, Chiklis is a badass, but doesn't the casting seem a little The King of Queens?

[mustbekarma]

They had me at Michael Chiklis and Julie Benz. I'll have to give it a shot. I love Chiklis and Julie Benz.

Also, don't get me wrong, Chiklis is a badass, but doesn't the casting seem a little The King of Queens?

Chiklis is definitely a badass; didn't he star in The Shield as Vic Mackey? I think that gives him badass credentials there. I know I loved him in The Commish and in The Fantastic Four. I think I'm going to like Chiklis in this.

[redshirtx]

Yeah, all I had to hear was "new Michael Chiklis show" too...Julie Benz doesn't do much for me, but Christina Chang (the late Rebecca Nevins on CSI: Miami) doesn't hurt.

Oh, and look--ABC put up a promo trailer. It's probably a little snarkier than the show will turn out to be, but I like it.

[patriotickid]

I find it hard to imagine this being a must sit down and watch show, but I liked the trailer.

[just watching2]

I'm a sucker for ordinary people developing superpowers stories (*sniff* Heroes season 1!), even if this does sound like a live-action The Incredibles.

To be honest, it does sound like what Heroes would've been like should they have stick with families - instead of retcon all over the place - so I'll give it a chance, with any luck this could be as good as Medium only with active powers.

Edited by just watching2, May 19, 2010 @ 2:15 PM.

[Teen Titan]

So invulnerability/super strength, super speed, mind reading and super intelligence?

Wow, they really dug deep for new super powers there.

Who am I kidding. I'll still be watching.

[ZeroForce]

Wow, they really dug deep for new super powers there.

Why should new powers be necessary? The old classics are fine with me. And Chiklis gets to play the Thing again, basically. If they're anywhere close to "live-action Incredibles" with this, I'll be happy, since that was the best translation of the Fantastic Four to moving pictures ever.

[ScribblerGuy]

After seeing the preview, I'm getting a very family-friendly vibe from the show.

Here's a brief pilot script review that positively compares the show with The Incredibles. Plus, the review does give some good insight into the show's likely themes. The review does have some spoilerly excerpts (though if you've seen the preview, there's nothing all that new, and definitely no twists are revealed).

***
Cast photo and a quick summary available, here. A longer summary is here. (both links: thefutoncritic.com) And, via Movieweb.com, some info about Autumn Reeser's character (who I didn't see in the preview at all, but she is in the cast photo and listed in the series synopsis).

[hazza123]

All the new Fall offerings look pretty dull this year, but this show definitely stands out. I'll certainly be giving it a look come this Fall.

Although, I'd be super cut if I was the youngest kid. All the powers in the world, and he gets super-intelligence?

[Last Time Lord]

Although, I'd be super cut if I was the youngest kid. All the powers in the world, and he gets super-intelligence?

Kind of reminds me of that Family Guy viewer mail episode with the short when the family gets superpowers.

Peter can shape shift, Lois had super strength, Stewie had telepathy, Brian had super speed, and Meg... could grow her fingernails long.

This kid is the Meg.

[ZeroForce]

This kid is the Meg.

Oh, come on. He's not that ugly.

*ducks*

But seriously, super intelligence could be a pretty useful power. It's definitely more passive/applied than the others (invulnerability/jumping, speed, telepathy), but Reed Richards does pretty well out of his intelligence, at least as much as he does out of the stretching.

[Last Time Lord]

But seriously, super intelligence could be a pretty useful power. It's definitely more passive/applied than the others (invulnerability/jumping, speed, telepathy)

This is true, and honestly one of the things that I really want to see more about when the show airs.

I'm also glad to see Conrad from the first three seasons of Weeds, because he's a real good actor, and he was great on that show.

[Vega01]

I'm liking the promos for this show. It looks more simple than the average superhero stories in tv these days (*cough*Heroes) but I like that. It's like the early days of spiderman when he was busting robbers and stuff. Plus, I like family dynamics so it'd be cool to see them start getting their powers and slowly becoming the live-action incredibles.

[Temis the Vorta]

At first glance, it doesn't seem like it has the potential of Heroes, which had a wide-ranging, global, epic feel early on, due to its variety of characters. But Heroes might have gone off the rails because it was beyond the abilities of Kring & co to corral into a single, coherent story.

There were too many major characters, scattered all over, with no obvious organizing principle to give them a natural motivation to stay in the same story, plus you had mega-popular Sylar to continually shoehorn into the plot. By comparison, No Ordinary Family is starting out nice and simple - and if they can build out from there, they might have the show that Heroes should have been.

Edited by Temis the Vorta, Jul 25, 2010 @ 3:23 PM.

[Nosleepforme]

I'm kind of sceptical when it comes to this show. The cast is great, the concept interesting, if not a little bit too family-friendly for my taste, but Jon Feldman is the executive producer of the show and I think he's a terrible writer. He wrotes duds like "Big Shots" and "Tru Calling" and ruined "Dirty Sexy Money" in its second season by turning it into a badly-written daytime soap opera aired in prime time. So, I'm kind of prepared for the writing of this show to be horrible. If he is the showrunner, we might get into "Heroes" territory rather quick.

But I love Julie Benz, Michael Chiklis has these amazing eyes and judging from the trailers, Romany Malco, who I always thought was bland on Weeds, seems like a real scene stealer on this show, so I'll be there for the pilot, but I am very, very sceptical.

[UncommonSense]

This is the fall show I'm most looking forward to. The characters seem very well cast and while I understand Nosleepforme's reservations about Feldman I am slightly more assured since they brought Ali Adler over from Chuck to serve as a writer (and maybe Producer?), she did some great stuff over there and this show also seems right up her alley (no pun intended).

The reviews I've seen were almost all very positive (though not perfect) so we'll see how it all plays out.

[Bruinsfan]

But seriously, super intelligence could be a pretty useful power. It's definitely more passive/applied than the others (invulnerability/jumping, speed, telepathy), but Reed Richards does pretty well out of his intelligence, at least as much as he does out of the stretching.

Consider that human beings did not become the dominant species on this planet due to being stronger or faster than any other animals...

[Bussy]

I loved The Incredibles and I love the regular lives of superheroes (ex., loved Lois & Clark in the 90s, am more interested in Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker than Batman or Spiderman), but it was the sight of Romany Malco in the previews that had me completely sold. Love him!

I agree with Temis the Vorta that this smaller scope will probably help to keep this show in check rather than spiraling into the mess that became Heroes. What worked best for me in Heroes were human interactions and relationships that sometimes happened to feature super-powers to solve regular problems, and it seems that with this premise, we'll get more of those moments rather than soapy retcons of horror.

Strangely, the only thing I'm not looking forward to (and really, it is a small thing) is the way it's filmed. It has the same washed-out look of the Vegas and New York scenes that I really hated in Heroes. It looks family-friendly, so I wish it had a warmer "look."

[GeneParmesan]

ABC.com has posted the pilot online for an early screening. If you want to watch it, go to: http://abc.go.com/wa...dinaryscreening

I'm not sure how long they're keeping it up, so don't wait. I just finished watching it and was very pleased. I'll definitely give it a shot this fall.

[DEM]

I get a sticky (and annoying) login popup. Is there no way to get around that?

Edited by DEM, Aug 22, 2010 @ 4:05 PM.

[luthiendasani]

I think that is the only way to watch the pilot. Sign up/Login and watch the episode.

[Wyldemusick]

They also want the promo code EXTRAORDINARY to view the episode.

After watching the pilot...big meh from me. It feels ponderous, even with the powers explanation coming down to "we had a handwavium bath!" while the throwaway bad guy a) had inconsistent powers (in the first encounter he apparently dupes himself, in the second he's Nightcrawler) and b) does not bode so well for the show if there's more powered types around -- what, they all got a bath in the handwavium?

Kid sister is WAYYYYY whiny. I do like that both husband and wife get sidekicks although the speedster stuff seriously swipes from the Wally West version of the Flash.

Still, it felt like it should have been a half hour show.

[3headedmonkey]

I thought the pilot was a bit clunky but has potential. Not as bad as most of the other new shows coming out. ABC is super obsessed with voiceovers though.

I'm really liking the dynamic with Julie Benz and Autumn Reeser.

[Kaoteek]

I agree with Wyldemusick.

It seemed like a pot-pourri of everything that has been done in the superhero genre, only heavy-handed, weaker, and with less originality.

Too bad, cos I like the cast.

Edited by Kaoteek, Aug 23, 2010 @ 12:10 PM.

[Snark Shark]

Okay, I'm mixed.

On one hand, its totally unpretentious. I like that aspect. A lot. Both superhero stories AND family dramas tend to pile up the pretensions like cordwood, and this one didn't.

On the other hand, parts are pretty silly. Not "it's to be expected because its Superheroes" kind of silly, but just lame-ass silly like "she's a superscientist/he's Mr. Mom!". Like she couldn't have been a business executive or something? There is indeed a heavy-handedness to some of it, then again maybe that's the other extreme from being pretentious. They're clumsy instead.

The cast is another strong point. Chiklis is always watchable, and Julie Benz is ridiculously gorgeous. The kids are very very annoying, but the "friends", Autumn Reeser and this Romany Malco guy, who plays Chiklis' friend, are both totally hilarious.

I'm not sure where exactly they're headed with other people have powers though. I mean they can't go too gung ho on the Superhero thing, because well... the show could go "dark" so easily then (after all, nobody except Chiklis is bulletproof, certainly not the kids), and that's not the vibe I get them wanting.

Kid sister is WAYYYYY whiny.

Yikes. And talk about actors being cast older. The actress is 20. TWENTY. Geez. She looks 14. I DO recall her though from that mondo-lame show Summerland, on the WB, with Lori Loughlin. That was YEARS ago, and she looked 14 then too (and she probably really WAS 14).

And the boy? He was the younger version of Kirk in the Star Trek movie. Talk about a let-down from that.

[3headedmonkey]

The teen angst stuff was definitely cringe-inducing. They'll need to either tone that down or write it better. Or do teens really talk like that now?

[Senator X]

I only made it 14 minutes before the ABC viewer crashed. I liked the tone, hate the kids. It's not the actors, but the way they're written like TV teens. Insufferable, awful human beings. While actual teens do spend more time with their faces glued to portable screens than having conversations, no teen goes "Brazil? Gross!" Other than that, it's engaging. I didn't get to Autumn Reeser. I love Romany Malco in anything and I love how improbably awesome the house of a police sketch artist and scientist is. I'll give it a couple of episodes to iron out the cliched teen writing.