Misfits Review after a personal encounter with Nathan

If you know me at all, you know that last night I met Robert Sheehan in the shops. How do you know this? Well possible because I texted or rang everyone I could think of that likes misfits, then updated my facebook status and would have tweeted if I could remember my password in work. Inspired by this my Wednesday post is a review of the show Misfits.

Misfits is a British science fiction drama comedy produced by E4. It follows the antics of 5 juvenile ex-cons doing community service together when they get hit by lightning. This lightning occurs during an unusual storm and the lightning gives the whole group and their probation officer super-powers that are very specific to their personality types (e.g. Nathan Stewart-Jarrett plays an ex-running star who lost out on his dreams when he is caught using drugs but after the storm he has the power to turn back time). The fun begins straight away as it appears that the probation worker was turned into some evil monster and thus starts a running joke of killing probation officers, which to someone in my industry is not funny, but in this context it is so outrageous that it is.

The main characters are Simon (Iwan Rheon), Kelly (Lauren Socha), Alisha (Antonia Thomas), Curtis (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) and Nathan (Robert Sheehan). These five are joined in seasons 2 and 3 by  Nikki (Ruth Negga), Seth (Mathew McNulty) and Rudy (Joseph Gilgun). Well one of the five is replaced and unfortunately it is not an improvement.....at all. The acting is very strong and considering some of the other shows produced by E4 (not naming names but I may have reviewed a certain season of a certain show very negatively before). No spoilers but there is one point in season 2 where the same actor plays two different versions of himself and I was blown away. I genuinely thought that one version had a better body than the other, entirely based on his depiction of confidence levels.

Overall Misfits is one of the most interest exploration of the phrase 'With great power comes great responsibility.' Here we are presented with complex characters with a variety of histories and problems who are now faced with powers greater than they could have previously dreamed of. The classic image of a superhero frequently entails someone who has faced hard-times but who perseveres with a unyielding set of morals that guides their treatment of this power, an underlying passion to conquer evil and fight for the greater good. Now we are presented with a set of characters who are inherently capable of bad choices and have all done things that have landed them in trouble.

I'm not saying that all superhero stories are completely two dimensional or that this show presents only multidimensional villains that challenge our notions of right and wrong. The lines are drawn throughout the show and the basic decider of who's good and who's evil appears to be based on the underlying reasons for people's decisions. This creates an interesting universe where the lines of good and evil aren't always straight and our heroes aren't always understood for what they are but eventually good can prevail and it frequently does.

Needless to say I would recommend this show to anyone and I am counting the days til season 4.
Although I don't like the idea of more new cast members but that's life ;)