What I’m currently watching is Being Human — the UK version, naturally. But I will save my thoughts on that for next week, because this week we need to talk about Misfits. Every so often, there comes a show that takes your expectations and just blows them to smithereens, and that’s what happened with Misfits and me. A friend of mine recommended it, and while the premise was not necessarily something that intrigued me — it sounded a bit cliche, to be honest — it was a British show, and I am always willing to give those at least a one-episode shot. Well, that’s all it took. One episode, I was hooked. Before the same night was over, I had binge-watched 3 more. And then again the next evening. And so on. I haven’t been this sleep-deprived, or so in love with a show, in a long time.
The best way I can describe the premise is as the bastard offspring of The Breakfast Club and Heroes, except with a wholly British sensibility. Which is to say, irreverent to the nth degree. The plot follows 5 young adults, each of them a misfit in his or her own way, who meet on their first day of community service, get caught in a bad storm, and acquire strange new powers. What they go on to do with those powers, over the next 3 seasons (there are 5 in total, but I haven’t watched the last two yet) will never be what you expect. What does it involve? Lots of swearing, sex, drugs, and gore. The show has a mordant sense of humour, but it’s also laugh out loud funny.
The storylines are bonkers (in the best way), so I won’t bother trying to explain them, but let’s talk about the characters for a minute. As in any good John Hughes movie, the “ASBO 5” start off as archetypes: the jock (Curtis); the hot girl (Alisha); the tough girl (Kelly); the weirdo (Simon); the joker (Nathan). But there are layers to each of them, and the show does an amazing job of revealing them slowly without turning maudlin or losing its sarcastic bite. The cast (main and supporting) is diverse and excellent across the board. Each of them left me convinced that they were their respective characters. Based on my own experiences as a painfully shy introvert prone to over-thinking, I identified the most with Simon. But I also hard-core loved Kelly and Nathan. The latter, in particular, walked a very, very fine line between being endearingly off-the-wall and being just, well, a total d*ck. I would imagine that’s a tough thing to play, so kudos to the actor. It helped that he had the best comedic lines, and the chops to deliver them convincingly. After Nathan’s departure at the end of season 2, I really felt his absence (even though I also enjoyed his “replacement”, Rudy) and it seemed like the show never quite fully recovered. I loved season 3 for other reasons, but the team dynamic was weaker.
So, yes, let’s talk about this now:
For Game of Thrones fans out there, Simon will look familiar. Listen, if you had told me last year that I would find myself cheering for Ramsay-effing-Snow to get the girl — any girl, EVER — I would have laughed and laughed and probably puked in my mouth a little. And yet, by season 3, there I was, ugly-crying my makeup off watching Simon Bellamy, romantic hero. I won’t say more about the Simon-Alisha plot except that it’s basically one of my fave fictional love stories ever, and it is an example of incredible character development. Even if you don’t come to the show with Ramsay baggage like I did, Simon starts off as an utterly unpromising character; the creepy weirdo that everyone overlooks or forgets, literally. You can almost see that, at the beginning, the writers toyed with the idea of sending him to a dark, Ramsay-esque side. Instead, they took him in the complete opposite direction, and Simon ends up being the closest thing to a real superhero that this show gets. He is also possibly the sweetest TV boyfriend ever written; if his relationship with Alisha does not warm the cockles of your heart … well, you have no heart. So, yes, friends; Misfits is the show that gave me a Iwan Rheon problem, and I have zero shame about it. As Nathan would say: Save me, Barry!
Have you watched Misfits? Join me in the comments and let’s geek out together.
P.S. I haven’t had time to read anything in weeks, but if you have book recc’s, please send them my way.
Robin watched this and Being Human. And GOT…. I basically watch nothing it turns out, ha ha!
I absolutely LOVED s1 of Misfits, but by the last episode of s2 it had gone downhill so far that I don’t even think I watched s3 to the end. 🙁 And I was upset by how Simon’s creepy behaviour was just brushed off in later eps, while Alisha’s promiscuity was a problem? Feel myself getting a bit mad about this now, again, haha.
I’m going to stan here because I disagree on both counts. I think the show toed the line on Alisha’s sexual history and I was uncomfortable with some of the overtones in S3e1 but I don’t think Simon was ever a part of that, in fact the opposite which I appreciated given their dynamic. Two, I think a lot of Simon’s obsessive behaviour later on stemmed from what Alisha told him about his future self and the sense of responsibility he felt about what he thought he was meant to do. It was a bizarre situation when you think about it.
It was very bizarre but to me the whole thing jumped the shark. I know I’m not alone in feeling that how they treated male and female sexuality was weird, esp in the context of how nbd it was in the first season. I might try revisiting the series and see how I feel now.
I’m the type of person who almost always likes the first season where thinks are wild and irreverent/fresh and charming. As soon as things are a hit and they start looking at ratings and consciously making things a hit there’s always a drop in quality, and the characters become charicatures (not even archetypes). Q.v. Friends, Seinfeld, and (in agreement with you) this last season of GOT. 🙁 I watched Crazyhead and enjoyed it – but am worried about s2 if there is onw – will the concept survive?
I watched this and totally binged!! It was pretty awesome. I agree that Season 1 was definitely the best.
I haven’t watched the Misfits yet. However, I watched both the UK and the US version of Being Human and enjoyed them both. I liked the UK version a bit better, but the US version did grow on me. I might actually need to revisit them… =)
I didn’t see it on Netflix or at my library but thanks for the rec, and I’ll have to add this to the mental queue for the future!