NO ORDINARY FAMILY: Advance screening of the pilot
Julie Benz stars as Stephanie Powell, a scientist, wife, and mother. Oh, and she also has super speed. Photo Credit: ABC.com.
Good news: if you’re in the U.S., you can view the No Ordinary Family pilot in its entirety, though only for a limited time. Just go to No Ordinary Family Advanced Screening and enter the case-sensitive password: Extraordinary. Thanks to No Ordinary Family Online, for posting the info. [Update: KSite TV posted about this advance screening yesterday, and the password was originally discovered by The Stitch Kingdom.] The series doesn’t actually premiere until September 28th, at 8/7c on ABC, so it is a nice treat to watch more than a month in advance.
Not sure if it’s worth 44 minutes and 15 seconds of your time? Well, here’s the concept. The show centers on an oh-so-stereotypical nuclear family: dad, mom, teenage daughter, and teenage son. Dad is unfulfilled at his job, and just wishes he could make a difference. Mom is super successful at work, but struggling to balance her duties at home. Teenage daughter texts all the time and has a teenage boyfriend, who she’s worried might break up with her because she’s not ready to sleep with him. And teenage son is struggling with school and whines a lot. But things take a turn when the family’s plane crashes while on vacation. They survive, but not unchanged, as each soon discovers startling new abilities. How will each of these characters deal with their newfound powers? And how will these new powers affect each family member’s relationships with one another? These are the questions that the pilot explores, and that the series promises to continue to explore.
Comparisons are inevitable, so let’s just get that out of the way. There are some elements to remind us of Heroes and The Incredibles, but there is also a lot of everyday family drama. The tone and scope of No Ordinary Family is drastically different from Heroes. For one thing, it is far less epic than Heroes ever tried to be, which could work in its favor. No Ordinary Family is more concerned with Stephanie and Jim’s rocky marriage than destiny and saving the world. It is about one family, one story, not 15 or so different ones, conveniently combined into one show. This could allow for greater depth of characters and story lines, as the plot is not constantly shifting to take on new and shiny powers. However the No Ordinary Family pilot is in no way as strong and moving as the Heroes pilot was. Heroes started out spectacularly, but couldn’t sustain the momentum. No Ordinary Family has a less brilliant start, but there is a lot of potential for growth, and not as far to fall and disappoint. We shall have to wait and see what the series becomes.
All in all, I enjoyed the pilot. It was heartfelt, while also remaining light and entertaining. Julie Benz and Michael Chiklis are great in their roles, and I also really enjoyed their respective sidekicks, played by Taylor Townsend and Romany Malco. The kids are probably the weakest link, so hopefully their characters will become less annoying in the future. While annoying teenagers are realistic, they are hard to watch every week. Another problem is that some of the writing is just clichéd and unoriginal. The dialogue attempted to be witty at some points, but it never quite got there. The humorous moments ran a little flat. Still, a show is just starting to find its feet in a pilot, so there is a lot of potential here, and I will definitely keep watching.
Now for the details. Here is where things get spoilery, so if you haven’t watched yet, you should wait to read. The episode begins with a voice over by Michael Chiklis, who plays Jim Powell, husband, and father of two. He talks about how ordinary his family. Well, if you can call a nuclear family–complete with father, gorgeous blonde mother, one daughter, and one son–ordinary. It seems more like an orange juice commercial to me than anything resembling normal. But apparently Americans still like to think that the 1950s ideal is normal, rather than a rarity. Still, a clear contrast is being set up. Jim proposes a family vacation, arguing that they never spend any time together.
Next thing we see, the family is boarding a small chartered plane, in Belem, Brazil. They are going to take a sunset tour of the rain forest, but they encounter terrible weather. Uh oh. As the plane is in distress, there is some corny dialogue, as the Powell’s bewail their predicament. Jim’s voice over then comes on, where he romanticizes the past. Apparently everything used to be perfect, but the family has been growing apart. In a series of flashbacks we see that the kids are growing up, and don’t want to spend time with their dad like they used to. We learn that Stephanie (played by the lovely Julie Benz), has a high-powered career as a research scientist, and was recently promoted to executive vice president of research. She is very busy with her job, while Jim feels all alone. Oh, and see how I didn’t call Stephanie “Darla” there? I’m so proud of myself.
But back in the present, the plane crashes into the water below. The entire Powell family survives, but the pilot “wasn’t as lucky.” As Jim’s voice over shares, they held each other close and vowed a new beginning … promises that lasted about 30 seconds. When the Powells arrive home, Jim is disappointed that the crash didn’t change anything. Stephanie tries to comfort him, and they make plans for a nice dinner that night.
Cut to Jim explaining his feelings of inadequacy to his friend George, played by Romany Malco. He played Conrad on Weeds, and I thought that he was one of the best parts of that show, before I quit watching. Jim explains that as the plane was crashing, he thought “The world needs her.” As in his wife. George says that he should tell Stephanie how he’s been feeling, but Jim doesn’t think he can. George gives him a card for couples therapy, and as it turns out, the voice overs are actually Jim and Stephanie talking to this therapist.
We then follow Jim to work, where we learn that he is a sketch artist for the police department. He feels ineffectual, and wishes that he could help people. However, as he’s telling this to a female detective, one of the suspects in the precinct gets hold of a gun. Jim jumps to block the detective, and the bullet hits him, but it doesn’t harm him. Man of steel? Hmmm …
Cut to Julie Benz’s voice over, as she talks about how she never has enough time. That will be a recurring theme in this episode. She works at Global Tech, and her current research deals with a flower that has unlimited potential. It would be interesting if her work as a scientist uncovered the source of her eventual powers, which it almost certainly will.
Meanwhile, the daughter, Daphne, returns to school only to see some other girl flirting with her boyfriend. She kind of over reacts, however, and seems very possessive. Clearly her relationship with Lucas is not solid.
Cut to Jim, who goes to a batting cage to test out his new powers. He pays the guy who works there so that he has the place to himself, and starts catching 90mph balls with his bare hands. He then messes with the control box to go over 100mph. Craziness.
At school, Stephanie stops by to talk to her son, J.J.’s teacher. The teacher recommends that J.J. be tested for a learning disability, but Stephanie will not hear it. She seems to think that having a learning disability is something terrible, which (PSA alert), it totally is NOT. J.J., however, hears every word, as apparently no one ever thinks to close doors. Sigh. Not that he shouldn’t know about the learning disability, but that is really not the way to present the idea to the kid.
Back at the batting cages, George shows up to see Jim’s ball catching skills. George seems to think it’s a magic trick or something. But the humor is knocked out of him when Jim tells him to shoot him.
Cut to Stephanie with Reverend Camden. Yep, Stephen Collins from 7th Heaven plays Stephanie’s colleague/ boss. He tells her about having drinks with some bigwig, so she calls her husband to cancel their plans. Jim takes this surprising well, however, as he now has some purpose in his life.
Meanwhile, Jim tries to convince George, whom we learn is a D.A., to shoot him. He says: “Something extraordinary’s happened to me. Something impossible.” As terrified George tries to get up the nerve, the gun goes off by mistake, and Jim jumps to catch the bullet. And again, he is bullet-proof.
Then Stephanie’s voice over comes on, discussing “unexplained phenomena.” She is telling the story of “when it happened” to the therapist. As she is running late, she breaks out into a run, and suddenly she is going at super speed, and running on the freeway. In fact, she shatters someones’ rear view mirror with how fast she’s running. So now we know her power.
Cut to Jim and George on the top of a building. George is trying to convince Jim that he can fly. He tells him to just jump off the building. Jim decides to listen, stupidly, and he crashes on the sidewalk. Luckily, he gets right up. ”Okay, you can’t fly. [Jim then jumps from the street up to building, in a single bound.] But you can jump.” See what I mean about the dialogue?
Back at the lab, Stephanie decides to confide in someone, selecting her assistant Katie. Katie is played by the lovely Autumn Reeser, who played the hilarious Taylor Townsend on The O.C. We don’t learn too much about Katie yet, other than the fact that she’s in therapy and is a comic book fan, but I’m excited to see more from her. Her love for Kitty Pryde is a good start. The two go out to a track to test Stephanie’s speed, and Katie asks questions on the part of the audience, about how her clothes and body can safely handle the speed. Some type of “charged plasma field from the kinetic energy” possibly. Her new powers will also not affect her clothing size, despite the need for “massive caloric intake.” Also due to her speed, Stephanie has the time to race home and work with J.J. on his homework.
Meanwhile, Jim is also at work, and it seems that his increased strength has been breaking his keyboards. Oops. It also seems that the police have not really made any progress in catching the Obama-Mask killer. Jim sadly tells the detective from earlier, “You can’t catch ‘em and I can’t draw ‘em.” Side note: the Obama-Mask killer is an extremely disturbing idea. I hope that was not one culled from real life.
Cut to George and Jim talking about his new abilities. They don’t know his limits yet. George repeats that he needs to tell Stephanie. And speaking of Stephanie, she calls her husband at that moment for an afternoon booty call.
George goes home and the two have sex, but the happiness doesn’t last long. The two proceed to fight, and it is clear that they both have some deep-seated issues with each other. The argument is interrupted, however, when Jim gets a call from George, telling him about chatter on the police scanner. Jim rushes off.
Jim confronts the Obama Mask criminal, but ends up shot in the back of his neck by a second guy in a mask (or so it seems). This time, the bullet does penetrate, but it doesn’t seriously injure him. The variable seems to be that the gun was far closer this time.
Cut to Jim waking up in bed. George brought him there, and told Stephanie. Jim is upset, but then it turns out that Stephanie does, indeed, understand. The two share info on their powers, and they decide that “the only possible variable” was the plane crash. Jim notes that the whole family was in the water, and at that moment Daphne calls with an emergency.
Stephanie goes to meet Daphne and hears all about it. At a basketball game, Daphne was fighting with the girl who was hitting on Lucas, when she starts to hear her thoughts: “I can’t believe I actually feel sorry for you.” Then when the game starts, she also hears everyone else’s. And the thoughts? They are not pretty. Hopefully she can learn to control it, so that this doesn’t become an “Earshot” situation. It will drive her maaaaaaaad.
We move into a family meeting where the Powells discuss their new abilities. Daphne doesn’t want to hear it. She’s in denial about her powers, and she is a total brat to her parents. J.J. just whines, since he doesn’t have any powers. Daphne yells some more, and instead of punishing her, her parents agree that she’s right. Whatever.
Later, Jim goes to work and sketches the Obama Mask guy that he saw. He covers, saying that a witness saw the guy fleeing one of the crime scenes. The detectives go off to explore the tip, but don’t let Jim tag along. Instead, Jim jumps from building to building, presumably on the way to the suspect’s house.
Cut to Daphne and her boyfriend Lucas, and she quickly learns why the girl felt sorry for her. It turns out that Lucas is sleeping with Emily, Daphne’s best friend.
Meanwhile, the detectives arrive at the suspect’s girlfriend’s place and she lies that she hasn’t seen him. However, as they exit the building, they run into the guy, who pulls out his gun and fires. This criminal is very mustache twirly and arch so it’s all a little over-done.
Cut to Daphne telling her mom about Lucas’s betrayal. Aw, their powers are already bringing mother and daughter back together. J.J., however, is still being whiny and bitter.
As the masked-killer loads the female detective into his trunk, for insurance, Jim confronts him. As the two fight, we learn that the bad-guy has powers too. He can disappear and reappear in a puff of smoke, much like Nightcrawler in X-Men. Interesting. The existence of others with abilities provides potential for some interesting story arcs. Ultimately, however, the detective revives enough to shoot the masked guy, saving Jim. Instead of thanking Jim for his help, she tells him to get out of there.
Later, Jim and Stephanie talk through their problems. Stephanie tells him, “You were extraordinary before you could ever catch a bullet.”
Meanwhile, J.J. is at school, taking an algebra quiz, when suddenly different numbers and symbols on the board start to light up. Suddenly he can figure out quadratic equations. Seriously, show? A bit convenient. I mean, all the other powers did also conveniently help the other three with their problems, but this is just a bit too on the nose. So far this character is the weakest on the show, but we shall see where the writers go with him.
Cut to George, showing Jim his new LAIR … with wi-fi. Hilarious. These two are kind of adorable together.
Then we see the whole family at a shrink’s office. They have been telling their story to him throughout the episode, with the voice-overs. The Powell’s therapist is played by Tom Amandes, the beloved Dr. Abott from Everwood. I love him, so I hope that his character sticks around.
The episode closes on a Powell family football game, echoing the one in Jim’s flashbacks. They are one big happy family, but this time they use their new powers while playing. Jim concludes, “And so, we’re no longer ordinary, but after everything, we are a family.” Super cheeeeeesy ending, but it is a pilot. Hopefully the show will find its voice as it moves along, and I look forward to more.
What did you guys think about the episode? Comment below
Great article. I’m loving seeing what others thought of the pilot.
I agree, the tone difference between this and Heroes was VERY dfferent.
I’m not entirely sure, though, why people are crediting “No Ordinary Family Online” with revealing the posting when both KSiteTV and The Stitch Kingdom had it up yesterday. Kind of a frustration of mine, because EVERYONE seemed to hop on it today with the wrong source.
Thanks for reading. One of my twitter friends linked to the post on No Ordinary Family Online today, so that’s how I found out about the screening. So it may be the “wrong” source, but it was my source. You know how Twitter is, you’re in and out, and it’s easy to miss stuff when you follow a lot of people. Bummer that I never saw your post yesterday, or I would have been able to watch it even earlier!
I’ll update my post accordingly.