Misfits S2 - episodes up to and including Xmas Episode.

[shadowkat]

Have pretty much decided not to go to the church concert tonight - it's cold, and I need a day and night just with me, before I deal with the apt search tomorrow - which is always exhausting.

Finished watching Misfits. Season 3 apparently will air in Fall 2011. Although I'm not sure how I'm going to see it - hasn't made it here as of yet. Nor am I certain, BBC America will pick it up. Wish it would - it's more entertaining than Being Human. Don't get me wrong, I like Being Human, but I also agree with crossoverman's review in which he stated that they talk things to death. They actually out-do American Daytime Soap Operas in this respect, and believe me that is saying something.

Before watching the Xmas special/Season finale of Misfits S2, I watched No Ordinary Family - which is so filled with comic book cliches...I found myself rolling my eyes. And thinking, these writers need to stop reading Marvel and DC comics for source material. Misfits in comparison reminds me of edgier comic books. There was one done by Marvel during Warren Ellis run of the main title - during 2000-2002. Can't remember the name of it - but Misfits reminds me a great deal of it - both in conception and language.

Misfits for those who haven't seen this little gem (I saw it courtesy of the wonderful flake_sake.) - is a story about six juvenile delinquents (I'm guessing early 20s) who while doing community service get hit by an electrical storm which gifts them with super-powers. The super-powers aren't exactly what they bargained for. In some respects this series does what Heroes should have done - which is explore how people handle power. And they are quite innovative about the types of power you could get.

Examples:

1. a gorilla gets the ability to become human
2. a boy gets the ability to manipulate dairy products - he can telekinetically move and control compounds in milk, yogurt, cheese, and cream. At first this seems relatively innocuous. I mean who cares if you can move milk. But if you drank any - he can kill you.
3. a guy gets the ability to become a walking talking video game - he thinks like a video game and kills people like he would in a video game.
4. an old woman gets the ability to be young
5. a woman has the ability to make others want to be chaste and pure and good

It's satirical in its humor, but not quite as mean or sharp as say Glee is. Also the characters remain the focus.

There's six main characters:

Nathan, Curtis, Barry, Alisha, Kelly, Niki.

And like most of the Brit shows that I've seen - it really dissects class cast system. Goes after it with a vengeance. More so actually than most American shows do. Which is the only major cultural difference that I see between US and Brit television series. The US doesn't quite have the same class consciousness as the Europeans do. I'm guessing it may be because we don't have an aristocracy or royalty. The closest we come is old financial wealth - such as the Hiltons, Rockerfellers, Hearst, and Vanderbuilts. But even that...isn't well, the Kennedy's got into that group, as did a lot of
Hollywood celebrities. So no, we don't have titles over here. In the US - education and money are the main indicators. While overseas - as Downton Abbey got across, there's something else going on.
I see it the movies and tv shows - particularly Merlin which I've been watching. Merlin spends a lot of time critiquing the English class system. When the US does a Merlin, that isn't really a focal point, which is why it sticks out. Same with Misfits - compare Misfits with Heroes, No Ordinary Family, Smallville, The Incredibles, and the Marvel comics - and what hits me is that Misfits is focused on class, difficulties of class consciousness and the fact that neither super-powers nor money will ever change that and you are basically stuck, also there's an old-world nihilism/cynicism that exists at the core of Misfits, which isn't really in US supernatural/super-hero tv shows. It's subtle, and you really have to have seen a lot of US super-hero tv shows and movies to pick up on it. But it is there.

People have commented on how difficult it would be for the US to do Misfits or a version of Misfits, and for lots of reasons, but I think the main problem transferring it - and I'm not really explaining this well, I know, is the cultural differences regarding the class theme and the angst of no longer being a super-power or king of the world. The UK used to be back in the Victorian Age and prior to WWII - a major contender. Now, it is a bit of a has-been, and at times, in watching its media - I sense a cynicism and wisdom that comes from having it all, and well, losing it. Which I don't think most Americans can wrap their minds around. Reminding me how incredibly young my country is in comparison to the rest of the world. When the US does super-hero shows - there's this profound sense of patriotism at the core, pride of country, and the American dream. But in the British version - it's more sarcastic. The tones are greyer. The powers more painful. Being a hero seems to come with getting one's hands dirty and often soaked with blood. A great line in the series is: "So, hypothetically speaking if we went public with our powers, what would happen if we say killed a few people. Probation officers. No one important. Or would be missed?" Response:"Well, we could either say that you acted in self-defense and they were clearly evil, bad people. OR...just hide the bodies and pay people off."

In Misfits - people get money, but they have no idea how to spend it, and they are always broke. The actors aren't clean and neat and pretty. The sex certainly isn't. The show has a rawness to it, as does Being Human - that you just don't see on US tv shows. Partly due to the fact that the US throws a lot of money at tv shows and I mean a lot of money. Writers on US shows whine about having a budget of a million, maybe two million and having to cut. In the UK - it's a lot less than that. They also make less episodes. So, the writing is often tighter.

Misfits fascinates me - because it is so endemic to England and London, and while several themes have universal appeal, a few feel central to that culture. I try to imagine what it would be like to live in a country that had a Queen or a King, that worried about and provided for a King or a Queen. I remember when I visited Wales collecting stories in the 80s, and wandering about talking to people.
The conversations were rather fascinating. They did not understand my politics. Because liberal in the US isn't quite the same as it is in England or Wales. They hated the English - which is very different than a New Yorker disliking well New Jersey. They felt the English were taking away their income, encroaching on their land and had been to some degree trying to ignore them and keep their culture and ancient language, which they told me predated English by several thousand years, alive.
This was in the 1980s and my memory of it is admittedly hazy. But by the same token, they loved their Prince of Wales and a had a picture of him in the pub, also loved their Queen. Just didn't like the Prime Minister all that much.

In the US - our Queens and Kings tend to be celebrities, actors and actresses such as Elizabeth Taylor or performers such as John Lennon. In the US - Paul McCartney can be treated like Royalty, Michael Jackson certainly was. It's a cultural difference that is slight, but you notice it watching tv shows from other countries. That ever so slight adherence to class system, old wealth, which...while existent here, is quite different.

The humor in Misfits...is both crude and absurdly funny. There's a hilarious bit in the Xmas episode, which is immediately followed by a touching scene of the gang singing an rather obscure Xmas carol.
It's actually not as critical towards religion as many US shows are - Glee has actually been far sharper in its criticism, as has True Blood. But it does provide sarcastic commentary on how people handle and seek out religion and how others capitalize on it. Which is very different from how I've seen US shows satirize religion. But it's hard to explain the differences.

Comparisons aside, sorry do this for a living hard to get myself to stop, Misfits stands on its own as a rather innovative depiction of what it is like to be 20 in a world where you can't get a job, can't afford a higher education, and just want to somehow survive. Living in depressing concrete buildings, with little trees, and an industrialized office park - the show has an anti-utopian contemporary feel to it. It's colors drab, orange often being the brightest. And the cast is amongst the most varied, multi-ethnic and multi-shaped. The women aren't skinny models off the cover of a fashion magazine, and neither are the guys. The look and feel real. And how they handle their weird powers is also real. Each power a metaphor for a personal issue they have to overcome. Often ironically so. Nathan has to overcome his fearlessness. And he does, eventually get hit with the horror of immortality. Curtis - racing backwards. Rewinding time only when someone he cares about needs him to. Alisha - a sexual tease, having the ability to elicit those feelings in everyone - making everyone want to shag her, violently so. Barry - wanting to hide, now able to, in plain sight.
And Kelly - wanting to know what others think of her, now able to do it without any problems.

At one point, Alisha says: "At least we never used our powers to hurt or rape anyone.." And Curtis replies, "well, except for you raping me with your power, and all those people we killed."

It's not a clear cut show. The characters screw up royally. But there's oddly enough a lot of hope in it. More than you'd expect. These are characters who don't have a lot, and drive each other nuts, but somehow ...seem to find something worth living for and keep struggling forward. The show seldom falls into sappy sentimentality like so many US versions do. Nor melodrama. Nor easy telegraphed jokes.
Yes, it is astonishingly crude in places - Nathan is a bit, ahem, rude - or rather he can give the cast of the Hang-Over a run for their money. But he's also oddly adorable and you realize that's well just a defense mechanism.

Well worth a view, if you get the chance or have access. And far better than any super-hero show that I've seen on this end of the pond.

Comments

[paratti.livejournal.com]

The main terrestrial players are the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5, most of which have several seperate channels, some of which are digital and/or cable. Then there's the Sky channels on cable and a load of other cable channels. Shows you see on BBCAmerica may or may not (such as Primeval which is ITV) have been born on the BBC. I would guess that BBCA buys shows from whichever UK companies it wants/is cheap enough.