Forgotten Television: No Ordinary Family

Police sketch artist, Jim Powell (Michael Chiklis) feels his family is falling apart, his wife, Stephanie (Julie Benz) is a brilliant scientist whose job gives little time for the family, daughter Daphne (Kay Panabaker) is worried about losing her boyfriend and son JJ (Jimmy Bennett) has a learning disability but doesn’t want to let down his brilliant mother.  Stephanie is flying to the Amazon rain forest on a research trip and Jim arranges for the entire family to go to bring them closer together, however an intense storm causes their plane to crash, but the family all survive.  Once back in the states, Jim is the first to notice he has super abilities, when he catches a bullet in his hand and realizes he has superstrength.  Stephanie discovers she has super speed and Daphne can read minds.  JJ is the only one who doesn’t initially appear to have powers, but they eventually manifest as super intelligence.  Their new abilities light the spark between Jim and Stephanie that had been missing, but Jim wants to use his powers to fight crime where Stephanie is afraid, she would lose him.  It is also revealed that they are not the only ones with powers and that the company Stephanie works for may be involved.

No Ordinary Family is an American television series which aired on ABC and CTV in Canada from September 28, 2010, to April 5, 2011.  It lasted only one season with a total of 20 episodes. The series was created by Greg Berlanti and Jon Harmon Feldman.  Berlanti would go on to create the hit CW series, Arrow, and spawned what is fondly called the Arrowverse.  No Ordinary Family initially got good reviews for its combination of a family drama with a superhero action series, but there were concerns that the show may not be able to sustain interest.  Benz and Chiklis also received praise for their performances especially compared to the roles they have had in the past, although some believe that Chiklis was miscast.

I don’t remember why I didn’t watch this show when it came out, probably had some scheduling conflict, but I did not see this series in its initial run.  There were aspects of the show I liked, and there were things I didn’t. The pilot is narrated by the two leads as they tell the story to a marriage counselor, this was sort of a novel and fun approach to the storytelling, but this framework is dropped after the first episode. In addition, the pilot felt a bit rushed at times, with a lot of time setting up the dysfunctionality of the family, but little time spent on some plot details.  For example, the whole plane crash where they got their powers was barely even shown and we don’t even see how they were rescued. They crashed. They survived. They were home. And everything seemed to go back to normal, until their powers kicked in. I did like that they introduced bad guys who also had powers.  I think the downfall of many superhero shows is that those with powers are so often fighting those without.  This aspect adds a level of severity and evens the odds.  I didn’t like that they never wear costumes.  For the longest time, it seemed like everyone wanted to do a superhero show, but no one wanted them to be “suited up”. This happened in show after show. Just looking at the poster for the series you want to see this family of superheroes looking super in costumes. Overall, the show was mildly entertaining with a good mixture of comedy, drama, and action.  The family dynamics were well executed, and the plot was intriguing.  With all of that, the series still felt a bit bland. It just didn’t have the edge to take it to the next level and really pull in audiences.