Julie Benz

The Powells were an ordinary American nuclear family, until one day they weren’t. Up until their trip to Brazil, there wasn’t anything particularly distinctive about them as a unit. Dad, Jim, a police station sketch artist played by Michael Chiklis (The Shield, Fantastic 4), was feeling dissatisfied and unfulfilled in life. Meanwhile, son, JJ, was having difficulty in school stemming from a learning disability, whereas daughter, Daphne, was suffering from the typical teen malaise, stemming from social pressures. The only quote unquote successful member of the family, mom, Stephanie, played by Julie Benz (Dexter, Angel), a highly important and scientist, was so busy with work that she was rarely home and hardly had any time to nurture her marriage or family. That is until a family vacation during which the private plane in which the Powells are flying crash-lands into oddly phosphorescent waters during a lightning storm. It’s not long thereafter that their lives and physiologies start to change.

Jim, who had been feeling useless and impotent, is suddenly imbued with super strength, super-fast reflexes, and the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound, just like the big guy with the S and the cape. Stephanie, who had been feeling guilty about the lack of time in her day to focus on her family along with her career, suddenly discovers that she can run at least as fast as the Flash. Daphne, who had been feeling disconnected from her friends and family, suddenly learns that she has the ability to hear peoples’ thoughts and to thus learn the full truth about them. Meanwhile, JJ had been feeling less intelligent than the rest of his family, and when he doesn’t manifest a power right away, worries that he might be such an inferior specimen that he wasn’t even able to get super powers when everyone else in his family did. Whether or not he does eventually match the rest of his family will be up for you to discover yourself when No Ordinary Family premieres on ABC on Tuesday, September 28th at 8 PM eastern time.

No Ordinary Family‘s pilot is an extremely enjoyable hour that manages a practically effortless blend of comic book and family drama. While many have been comparing the show’s plot to that of The Incredibles, it distinguishes itself from that beloved Pixar film through tone. Whereas The Incredibles was a broad satire of costumed superheroes with the gimmick being the heroes of that film were all members of the same family–mom, dad, kids–No Ordinary Family starts out with a greater degree of verisimilitude. The Powells are going through a messy time. As a couple, Jim and Stephanie’s marriage is dangling by a thread in many ways, which is not to say that they are fighting. For that to happen, they would have to be communicating at all. Their kids are similarly closed off from them and one another, each locked in his or her own world. The superpowers they acquire then act as a catalyst for the family to find one another again.

Each power seems to spring directly from the character’s personality. Jim’s buried, inner strength provides him with outer strength. Stephanie, always running around from one commitment to the next but never having enough hours in the day to manage them all, suddenly has the power to zoom like a bullet from place to place. Daphne’s perceptiveness opens up to an even deeper level of perception. As for JJ, what he is or is not able to do says similarly interesting things about him as a character. The question remains throughout the pilot, whether he is going to be a metaphor for the kid in a family who feels he can’t measure up, or if he is simply a later bloomer, so to speak.

Now, while No Ordinary Family does have a more “real world” tone than The Incredibles, it is still very much a work of fiction. It does attempt to present an honest depiction of how a real family behaves, and there is definitely the ring of truth in things such as Jim’s mid-life crisis, and the longing both he and Stephanie feel to reconnect with one another even as neither has any clue how to go about it. At the same time, the drama has a vaguely homogenized sheen to it that sometimes makes the story and metaphors feel slightly obvious and moralistic. Particularly after just having seen The Kids Are All Right, one of the most realistic, no-holds-barred depictions of a marriage in crisis I’ve ever seen on film, the Powells’ marital problems can’t help but seem a bit manufactured by comparison. There are also a few moments that do seem to be a bit of a stretch. For example, if you were a DA, and your best friend told you to shoot him but that he would catch the bullet, even if you trusted him implicitly, I highly doubt you would actually consider it, and nor do I think you would encourage him to run off the roof of a building to see if you could fly, and yet both of those things happen here.

With that said, however, there is such boisterous life and a genuine awe of discovery to the fantasy elements of the show that it is difficult to treat it too harshly. Yes, there have been countless superhero stories depicted on film and television and in comic books before, and we have seen powers like theirs before, but these powers are still new to them, and watching them each discover their abilities makes for truly fun, engrossing, and often hilarious television. Some superhero stories that place comic-book-like characters in an otherwise realistic world have tonal problems. Some err on the side of being too campy, while others come across as too ponderous, draining much of the fun out of the genre. No Ordinary Family avoids both extremes with impressive dexterity. The family drama angle doesn’t overwhelm the zippy comic book fun, and the zippy comic book fun doesn’t invalidate the drama.

A great deal of credit for this has to be bestowed upon the actors, whose performances are never anything short of utterly believable. Michael Chiklis never minimizes his character’s recent existential crisis but also manages to imbue him with a sense of wonder, awe, and delight at his new powers. Meanwhile, Julie Benz again proves herself to be one of the most lovable and empathetic actresses working in film today. She sells every aspect of her character–her ambition, her regret, her newfound glee–making Stephanie the true heart of the show. Additionally, as Jim’s best friend and self-appointed Alfred-of-sorts, George, Romany Malco is funny and charming, adding an additional, entertaining dynamic to this already exciting series.

So far, so super. And now that the “origin story” has been told, I’m most eager to plunge into the rest of the season, to see what sort of plots the writers can cook up, and to see if No Ordinary Family can maintain such a fantastic balance between gee whiz comic book action and involving family drama. What is in store for the Powells? Super villains, conflict from more mundane forces, or both? I’m hoping for the third option myself.

No Ordinary Family airs Tuesdays, starting September 28th, at 8 PM eastern time on ABC.