I am – Hercules!!
Yet another unfunny hourlong greenlit by (thankfully) departed longtime ABC entertainment chief Stephen McPherson, “No Ordinary Family,” is a soft, banal and imagination-starved new superhero dramedy created by veteran dramedy writer-producer Greg Berlanti (“Dawson’s Creek,” “Jack & Bobby,” “Everwood,” “Young Americans,” “Eli Stone,” “Brothers & Sisters”). It follows a family of four that gains superpowers after its tiny vacation plane crashes into a unusually glow-y section of the Amazon.
It feels like a hundred other screen superhero stories, if more obvious and ham-fisted than most. The dad (Michael Chiklis, back in “Daddio” mode) is as happy as a Hiro Nakamura when he discovers his new powers. The teen daughter (Kay Panabaker) is as (inexplicably) horrified as a Claire Bennet when she discovers her own useful new ability. The big difference is I found reasons to follow Hiro and Claire. The "No Ordinary" family members are more broad, dull archetypes than characters; it’s difficult to muster much concern for or interest in any of them.
The pilot jumps from scene to scene with an unusual rapidity, yet I always felt I was at least three steps ahead of the story. Even children, weaned on so many years of big screen super-, spider-, bat- and x-men, are likely to find themselves wishing the storytellers would just skip over a few of the clichés already.
Digression. The scariest thing? The ever-underwhelming Berlanti was once hired to write the screenplay for the big-screen superhero saga “Green Lantern” (happily, director Martin Campbell subsequently ordered it rewritten by a better writer with more big-screen experience). Berlanti was also recently hired to script a movie based on The Flash, another iconic DC superhero.
I can’t say I care much what Berlanti does to an ABC dramedy that “Glee,” “NCIS” and “The Biggest Loser” should obliterate with little effort. But the idea of him penning the big-screen adventures of beloved DC Comics characters leaves me queasy. End digression.
The “No Ordinary” pilot was screened at Comic Con and then online this summer, so I feel like I’ve already talked about it way too much. But I’ll add this.
If you’re going to satirize superhero conventions, kindly try to find a route that offers at least a tiny chunk of new. The scene in which a “lair” is created for the Michael Chiklis character was far more entertaining, original and effective when Hiro and Ando did it on “Heroes” two years ago. Poking fun at the word “lair,” candidly, has been fucked-out for decades thanks to “The Tick,” “The Venture Bros.” and a legion of actual comic-book writers.
Like “Defying Gravity,” an ABC sci-fi dramedy from a summer or two ago, “Ordinary” seems destined to repel the viewers most likely to seek it out.
USA Today says:
… an as-yet clumsy hybrid that wants us to follow its battle of good vs. evil while worrying about the parents' estrangement, the daughter's boyfriend problems and son's self-esteem issues. Granted, that's a mix Buffy pulled off brilliantly, but Buffy generally avoided piling adult problems on top of high school traumas and had a slashing wit tonight's premiere can't match.… if you're looking for incredible, you'll have to rent the cartoon.
The New York Times says:
… it’s not clear whether this series — a hybrid of family drama and graphic novel — can sustain interest once the premise is fully established. Tim Kring, the creator of “Heroes,” set his show in the modern world but used the stylized aesthetic and imaginative sweep of graphic novels to create his own universe. “No Ordinary Family” tries to insert comic-book characters and predicaments into everyday Los Angeles. Yet its social structure is closer to Batman’s Gotham: the bad guys are not insurance executives or pension fund managers; they are fiendish supervillains who use their paranormal gifts to rob banks and kill people.
The Los Angeles Times says:
… Some scenes are not quite thought through (Jim jumping off a skyscraper to see whether he can fly), some of the dialogue too stale to be emotionally convincing. ("I missed … us"), but the show does have possibilities. Still, if it's going to work as a family drama, the characters are going to have to show themselves to be more than just poster children for depression, overwork and teenage anomie. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
… disappoints with its slow-moving plot and whiny characters. By now, viewers have seen enough superhero origin stories that they don't need everything spelled out, and yet that's exactly what "No Ordinary Family" does. … after the pilot, some viewers may be hard-pressed to give this less-than-super "Family" another chance.
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
… If it all seems a little silly and light, well, that's because it is. But there are very few series that families can watch together these days and "No Ordinary Family" looks like it can be one of them. …
HitFix says:
… seems to be testing its limits just as much as Chiklis and Benz are, and there are definitely weaknesses that creators Greg Berlanti and Jon Harmon Feldman will need to be careful of getting hurt by. … Berlanti and Feldman have for some reason chosen to over-explain everything … It’s all very redundant (if ABC had to ditch the talk-to-the-camera gimmick from one of its new dramas, I’d rather it had been this than “Detroit 1-8-7”), as these two good actors have to repeatedly come right out and tell the audience about feelings that they’ve just portrayed within the flow of the story. Everything in the family stories are underlined and in bold face, and the focus of the pilot is so heavily on the parents that the kids barely register as more than types. … Obviously, a high-concept show like this has to get a lot of exposition out of the way early, and it’s not a surprise that the creative team would lean on their two adult stars at the beginning. But if we get a few weeks in and the balance continues to be off - both between the hero and family parts of the show, and between the adults and kids - then that’s a problem super strength or speed may not be able to fix.
TV Squad says:
… The show's blandness is a disappointment, given that its premise seems sturdy enough. … 'No Ordinary Family' gives the proceedings an almost therapeutic air, and the ABC show also presumes that we'll care about whether these characters reconnect. But it's hard to buy into the origin stories of four almost-superheroes when the characters are vague types, not specific people. … 'No Ordinary Family' may yet soar, but viewers might need to call on their super-patience before the promising concept behind this disappointing drama begins to pay off.
The Washington Post says:
… cheesy but likable … But why must the "real-life" superhero story adhere to that demand for special effects, archenemies, laboratories and dark alleys? I'd be more content to watch the Powells figure out ways to help the middle class, defy recessionary economics and kick The Man in the pants. Turns out they're too white bread for that.
The Boston Herald says:
… super at capturing a middle-class family suffering from self-imposed Kryptonite poisoning. … In “No Ordinary Family,” you’ll find folks who need the crisis of superpowers to discover how extraordinary they are to each other.
The Boston Globe says:
… pleasant … The pilot is entertainingly lighthearted, but in a twist that I won’t spoil here, a serialized back story begins to surface that could push the show down a more convoluted path. I’m thinking of the ugly specter of “Heroes,’’ and the way its writers strained to create a Big Mythology and wound up with a meandering jumble. …
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… For Chiklis, the role is a neat blend of previous roles in "The Commish" and "Daddio." Viewers who know him mainly as crooked cop Vic Mackey from "The Shield" will marvel at how adroitly he reveals his softer side. The other roles are more one-dimensional, though that might simply be the result of constraints placed on a pilot that bears the burden of explaining the premise. …
Variety says:
… has fun with its premise but unevenly blends family drama with adventure. Fertile as the concept might be, then, the first tall building to leap will involve motivating enough viewers to keep the show airborne. … doesn't completely burst out of a dramatic mold that ABC has almost single-handedly overdone, and the shadow of "Heroes" lingers uncomfortably over the whole affair. So is it super? Not yet. But there's enough spinning around these extraordinary visitors to at least provoke a second visit.
8 p.m. Tuesday. ABC.
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