Josh: No Ordinary Family: Episode 1&2 (recap)

"You can't fly but you can jump." George.
Plot: 'No Ordinary Family' is an American television series from the company - ABC, which is a sci-fi, comedy drama which began airing last year in September over in the USA. But, on British channel; Watch (part of the BBC), it began last week with a double-bill.

Episode One sees the Powell Family, who are dysfunctional family living in fictional Pacific Bay, California. Father and police sketch artist; Jim (Michael Chilkis) decide to take the family on a holiday to South America as they do not talk much to each other anymore and he feels left out. But, all goes wrong when their plane crashes into a river in Brazil, which seems to give them supernatural powers. Jim is first when he saves his colleague Detective Yvonne Cho (Christina Chang) from a gunman in the office, by catching one of the bullets. So along with his friend and comic book fan; George St. Cloud (Romany Malco) he develops his new abilities by trying to fight crime and discovers he can jump miles at time and is super-strong. He does this and is able to successfully draw perfect images of the offenders for his superiors.

Meanwhile, his wife; Stephanie (Julie Benz), discovers she can run incredibly fast, can heal quickly and has a really fast metabolism which helps her keep slim. So, with her friend and lab-assistant (Katie Andrews -Autumn Reeser) at her company; Global Tech, she uses her powers to her own advantages. This includes getting a sample of the water in the river that her family were subjected to in Brazil but she finds nothing in it. But at the same time she is in the middle of a project about an amazing plant which intrigues her boss. But her boss; Doctor Dayton King (Stephen Collins) is more or less the bad guy, who employs 'The Watcher' (another 'super'(Josh Stewart) to keep an eye on other supernatural humans, which leads up to the murder of Yvonne in episode two.

And then we go back to Jim and Yvonne's children; JJ (Jimmy Bennett) and Daphne (Kay Panabaker) who also have powers, but JJ keeps his secret as the powers he owns make his parents proud. You see JJ, has gained a 'super-brain' and is now highly intelligent unlike his previous self which was rather 'dumb'. But this causes his disbelieving teachers to doubt him and accuse of him of cheating, which makes Jim upset. On the other hand we have Daphne, a rebellious teenager who is dating the bad boy of her school, who is now telepathic. This new power is hard for her to handle at first but then she controls and is able suss out her boyfriend is cheating on her with her best friend.

Opinion: An exciting and addictive double-bill of this US drama has intrigued me to review it because I think that it is so good. In comparison to other US super-hero shows like Heroes and Smallville, which I never watched as I think them not good, this is a feel good family show. It has all the basic elements of a normal superhero themed programme and all the original abilities you get with it but this show has a nice twist to it. The show has light-hearted humour, strong fantasy action and an interesting adult take on both the parents and children's lives. It also has a good focus on topics such as teenage sex, dyslexia and relationship problems. If people reading this haven't already tuned in then do, you haven't missed much important plot because I've summarised all here. Tune in tonight at 8pm on Watch, I urge you, this is a great show that I'll be reviewing here every Wednesday starting tomorrow.
Thanks, Josh.