MovieChat Forums > No Ordinary Family (2010) Discussion > What do you see as the pros/cons of the ...

What do you see as the pros/cons of the show?


And what would you like to see on it.

Spoilers below.. keep reading at your own risk.

I started watching this because it stars a few actress which I adore (Amy Acker and Rachel Miner although Julie Benz, Kay Panabaker, Max Greenfield & Amy Gumenick are always delightful to watch although I do wish Kay would update her IMDB photo and Amy Acker had a super power).

+ I do like parts of the storytelling. The whole actions have consequences (I loved the heartbreaking moment where Daphne erases Chris' mind of his memory of Daphne's family only to find that she has erased the love he had for her as well.
+ Loved how Stephanie was told to go "save the world". Because Jim always seems to act as it's the man's job to do certain things like that.
+ Love the complexity of the characters. Even if they fall in love they have their own agenda and reasons for doing things.
+ Fantastic job on special effects. I'm not sure what their budget was for it but they made them look superb.
+ I'm glad Katie got super powers even if it's for a small period of time. She also got to see how they could be annoying if you couldn't control them. I did suspect right away that she might be pregnant once she got them and I'm really glad they didn't draw out her getting powers to being pregnant too long.
+ Never really sure on where I stood with Mr Litchfield. Love him or hate him for his ways but he played it well.
+ Loved the scenes between Katie & George. Kinda cute.
+ Loved the interaction between the Powells. Not too sappy and Jim & Stephanie despite the rough patches kept the magic alive after 18 years and other parties trying to break them up. Also liked JJ & Daphne interaction and how they stood together when the other needed them and protected each other as well as ratted the other out when they had to (like when JJ told their parents that Daphne hadn't done the dishes in 2 weeks).

On the fence about:
* Love being the driving force for so much. While I understood the reason for love being the driving force for the Powells, George & even how Joshua could find love being a valid reason for change it did get a bit overdone when applied to Victoria, Dr King.
* Didn't like the cliffhanger ending. If the show was going to end I would have prefered a way to round it off in the finale.
* Joshua's abilities: He had telekinesis and could erase people's memories. I wish we got to see how he had two very different abilities.
* Didn't like how JJ made the footy team by using math. There are a few things you can't always account for (like a muddy patch you could slip in) and it felt like one of the writers was an absolute geek in high school but decided to make up for it by making the geeky kid a cool footballer. It was nice that it tied in with how JJ threw the syringe at Dr King. I was glad that he missed at the dog track though.
* Some of the powers seemed sterotypical to gender. The guy is super strong, the girls are super fast and can mind reads. Come on..

Cons:
- Hated how Jim always seemed to go "superhero" without thinking out of the consequences. He always seemed to rush in head first (for the majority of it) and then stress and worry about being caught. I would have thought that he would have gotten some sort of disguise by the 3th episode especially since he works with cops and should know how cops operate.
- I wish the actors were more twitchy when they were Victoria was pretending to be them. A little verbal slip, something done differently that was pointed out. When Katie realised that Victoria was pretending to be Joshua I wish she could back it up with reasoning.

Would have liked to see if there was a series 2:
* Wish we got to see George's superpowers. Since George gave Jim such a hard time when he wanted time with the family or even a day off from playing superhero I would have loved to see Jim give George a hard time for the same thing (turnabout is fair play afterall).
* Exactly how would Joshua & Katie look after a baby with superpowers especially since it's going to be hard hiring a babysiter (maybe Daphne could do it sometimes but JJ wouldn't have as much luck).
* The heartbreaking decision of Joshua telling Stephanie that he wants his powers back because they can't raise the kid otherwise.

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The interaction between the Powells was the number one reason I loved watching this show so much. The actors had fantastic chemistry as a family and it was always so much fun to watch their scenes together.

I do agree with your cons- It might have been a bit much to give Jim a full out costume, but it's strange he didn't get something to at least hide his face or taken a little more care in not being seen. As for Victoria- she did seem to slip into personalities very easily. Could be chalked up to just how much practice she had (and she was following the Powells, so she'd have seen them firsthand) or just not an avenue they decided to fully explore. They did touch upon it a bit when she had shapeshifted into Daphne and ran into JJ. Their interaction is appropriately awkward and one of my favorite moments is when she tries to move past him without making any physical contact whatsoever.

A season two would have been fantastic. There were so many places that they could have gone with the story between George's powers, Katie's and Joshua's baby, working with the government to catch the new super villains. I could even see them going deeper with the characters, maybe exploring the temptation that can turn someone from super hero to super villain. I remember hearing that when they filmed the finale, they didn't realize that there wasn't going to be a season two so that is probably why it remained a cliffhanger. It's sad that it'll forever be in cancelled show limbo now when it had so much potential. Makes you wonder if it had come out just a season or two later, once the superhero hype had really ramped up and the internet had become a bigger part of promoting new series, if it would have faired any better.

MFC's RPGs: OUAT, No Ordinary Family, Firefly, Walking Dead, LOST http://mfcsrpg.proboards.com/

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My bloke and I have only watched as far as episode 6 so far and, honestly, it's just bloody good fun. So much fun that I'm going to keep watching even though I now spoilt beyond the telling of it!

I came on here to check how many series I needed to get from Amazon and couldn't quite believe it only got 1. It has a great main cast, great supporting actors, good writing (George giving the dozy cop a massive smack down was laugh out loud funny), and fun, if not massively original, one off plots. The overarching plot line was shaping up to be really interesting too.

I'm really hoping that the end of season finale gives a decent amount of closure (items listed above excepted).

Being a genre fan is so bloody hard on the nerves. Half of me says... don't bother getting invested until you know it's a runner. Half of me says... get in early before the bastards cancel it. Thank god for print.

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