A lazy journalist would refer to E4’s latest teen comedy-drama Misfits as Heroes for the ASBO generation given the nature of the storyline, the cast line-up and the target demographic. But ultimately that’s a stupid comment to make as it’s altogether too obvious and Heroes is still in production so is still part of the current generation. No points are awarded for spotting the irony in that opening statement either.
No, more accurately this falls solidly into the Inbetweeners/Skins bracket with the added dramatic device of giving the central characters superpowers to control (mind reading, invisibility, the usual post-X-Men traits) and a visual presentation that eludes more to Charlie Brooker’s brilliant zombie Big Brother saga Dead Set than anything else on E4.
Misfits has more Character than Heroes
The Heroes link is hard not to fall back on as many of themes Misfits deals with relate to the tribulations facing the unexpected superheroes in that except that here it feels more real given the gritty urban setting. Instead of seemingly normal people using their abilities to stop evil megalomaniacs five youngsters on their first day of community service get caught up in a freak storm and soon have to learn how to cope with the aforementioned superpowers they have gained.
However, if it’s lazy for writers to label this show easily for the sake of a brief review the same can also be said for the creators of Misfits banding together a group of teenage stereotypes typically reserved for US high school dramas. Thankfully the young cast manage to add a bit of personality to what could potentially have been one-dimensional characters. The stand-outs so far are cocky Nathan (Robert Sheehan, impressive as BJ in the bleak Red Riding) and shy boy Simon (Iwan Rheon).
Super power Teen Drama on E4
Unlike Heroes, which frankly lost its way towards the end of its first season and went rubbish, Misfits underplays the sci-fi aspect and decides that the people involved are far more important. It certainly does fit into comedy-drama bracket as it is funny at times, which goes beyond weird with a gratuitous "bottle necking" or when Kelly (Lauren Socha) suddenly hears what her dog is thinking, and does have a plot that pulls you along for the ride.
At first there seems like not very much is going on, that is until they all realise something odd is going on and their probation supervisor develops psychopathic tendencies. All-in-all the opening episode of Misfits is coy about what the series arc will reveal itself to be yet divulges enough to show that so far it has barely scratched the surface of the bigger picture.
For a while it seemed like E4 and BBC Three have been in competition with each other to see which one could produce the most brain meltingly brash, patronising and downright awful yoof content for the last few years but with this and Being Human to bolster their respective rosters things might start making a turn for the best. It’s doubtful but it could happen.
Misfits is on E4 every Thursday at 10pm.
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