The Tomorrow People Review
Oct. 14th, 2013 10:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatJust watched the pilot The Tomorrow People, which feels like a better cast not to mention better plotted version of Agents of Shield except with a male protagonist as the "Skye" character and from the perspective of the X-men.
It's a simple enough plot...high school boy, Steven, thinks he's nuts. He keeps waking up in the neighbor's beds or other odd locals. And hears a female voice in his head talking to him.
One night, the female voice tells him to meet her at the subway and a guy pops up in the train he boards and he's magically whisked to an underground safehouse, where various people live who also have paranormal abilities. The gal, named Cara, who is kickass by the way,
with the assistance of her boyfriend and second, John, explains to Steven that he has paranormal abilities and is one of the so called human superiors or Tomorrow People. His abilities are just beginning to develop. In exchange for teaching him how to use his abilities and protect himself from the evil "ultra" who wishes to eradicate them, they want him to help them locate his father - who was the leader of their cause. Steven thinks they are nuts, and his father is a dead-beat shcizophrenic who left his family to pay for his psychiatric bills. But they do manage to convince him otherwise - with a vid that his father left for him. This group comes complete with it's own personal "computer" or AI, which they jokingly call their HAL.
Steven pulls the usual - you guys are crazy and I'm outta here routine. He wants no part of their crusade nor is he remotely interested in finding Daddy. But, he runs into trouble with
first a bully at school - who had been stealing his prescription drugs (he substituted laxatives and gave the bully a bad case of the trots) and his best pal Astrid who refuses to believe he has any powers. Then Ultra grabs him and the head cheese, portrayed by the same guy who played Lucifer in Supernatural and the founder of the island on Lost, attempts to give him an injection that would remove his abilities. But the Tomorrow People lead by Cara, who kicks her way into the facility show up. They don't exactly save him - he sort of saves himself by doing the impossible, teleporting out of the facility. No one has powers inside Ultra, except for Steven. So he stops the head guy from killing John and teleports everyone the hell out of dodge.
Later, when he returns home. Personally I would have stayed put. Because what would keep Ultra from showing up at my house? Turns out I'm right - head cheese pops up at Stephen's house. Apparently his Steven's long lost uncle Jedisiah, who took up evolutionary biology to study and understand his brother - Steven's father, better. The two had a major falling out. Steven's Dad blew up Jed's lab and destroyed his research, Jed blew up the Dad's car with Dad still in it. (Now that's brotherly love if I ever saw it.) Now Jed's proposing that Steven work for him - to protect his family, Mom and kidbro from people like himself. Help me find a way to cure you. And he provides proof of the problems - kids stealing 70 million, terrorists, yaddah, yadda.
Steven decides to take him up on his offer - because it will provide him with the ability to a)figure out what really happened to his father (his father told him not to always trust what he sees) and b) keep tabs on what Uncle Jed is up to and possibly stop it. So he convinces the Tomorrow People to trust him and his plan to infilterate the government organization. (This part reminded me a lot of Agents of Shield, with Jed as a far more charismatic and far more interesting leader. Coulson is a bit too...bland. He's need more edge.)
The nifty thing about The Tommorrow People is that it is definitely not a superhero series.
And real people don't believe these kids or people exist. It's sort of "a reality based" X-men.
I've never seen the original UK series, so have no clue how close it is to the original. You'd have to tell me based on the above. I will state that while it is far from stellar, lots of pretty 20-30somethings playing teens. It is compelling and the actor playing Jed is fun to watch. But he always has been.
It's basically what Agents of Shield would have been like if Marvel still had the film and television rights to the X-men and didn't have to rely on themore facist less interesting Avengers.
If you like paranormal abilities and stories about people infilterating well-meaning but corrupt government organizations with sadistic tendencies - in order to overthrow them or at the very least keep them in check? This is for you. Also it too has a kick-ass female fighter, who can read minds - although she's not the core character. Unfortunately it's hunky Steven...who looks like a far more animated Wade from Agents of Shield.
Pilot? B-
It's a simple enough plot...high school boy, Steven, thinks he's nuts. He keeps waking up in the neighbor's beds or other odd locals. And hears a female voice in his head talking to him.
One night, the female voice tells him to meet her at the subway and a guy pops up in the train he boards and he's magically whisked to an underground safehouse, where various people live who also have paranormal abilities. The gal, named Cara, who is kickass by the way,
with the assistance of her boyfriend and second, John, explains to Steven that he has paranormal abilities and is one of the so called human superiors or Tomorrow People. His abilities are just beginning to develop. In exchange for teaching him how to use his abilities and protect himself from the evil "ultra" who wishes to eradicate them, they want him to help them locate his father - who was the leader of their cause. Steven thinks they are nuts, and his father is a dead-beat shcizophrenic who left his family to pay for his psychiatric bills. But they do manage to convince him otherwise - with a vid that his father left for him. This group comes complete with it's own personal "computer" or AI, which they jokingly call their HAL.
Steven pulls the usual - you guys are crazy and I'm outta here routine. He wants no part of their crusade nor is he remotely interested in finding Daddy. But, he runs into trouble with
first a bully at school - who had been stealing his prescription drugs (he substituted laxatives and gave the bully a bad case of the trots) and his best pal Astrid who refuses to believe he has any powers. Then Ultra grabs him and the head cheese, portrayed by the same guy who played Lucifer in Supernatural and the founder of the island on Lost, attempts to give him an injection that would remove his abilities. But the Tomorrow People lead by Cara, who kicks her way into the facility show up. They don't exactly save him - he sort of saves himself by doing the impossible, teleporting out of the facility. No one has powers inside Ultra, except for Steven. So he stops the head guy from killing John and teleports everyone the hell out of dodge.
Later, when he returns home. Personally I would have stayed put. Because what would keep Ultra from showing up at my house? Turns out I'm right - head cheese pops up at Stephen's house. Apparently his Steven's long lost uncle Jedisiah, who took up evolutionary biology to study and understand his brother - Steven's father, better. The two had a major falling out. Steven's Dad blew up Jed's lab and destroyed his research, Jed blew up the Dad's car with Dad still in it. (Now that's brotherly love if I ever saw it.) Now Jed's proposing that Steven work for him - to protect his family, Mom and kidbro from people like himself. Help me find a way to cure you. And he provides proof of the problems - kids stealing 70 million, terrorists, yaddah, yadda.
Steven decides to take him up on his offer - because it will provide him with the ability to a)figure out what really happened to his father (his father told him not to always trust what he sees) and b) keep tabs on what Uncle Jed is up to and possibly stop it. So he convinces the Tomorrow People to trust him and his plan to infilterate the government organization. (This part reminded me a lot of Agents of Shield, with Jed as a far more charismatic and far more interesting leader. Coulson is a bit too...bland. He's need more edge.)
The nifty thing about The Tommorrow People is that it is definitely not a superhero series.
And real people don't believe these kids or people exist. It's sort of "a reality based" X-men.
I've never seen the original UK series, so have no clue how close it is to the original. You'd have to tell me based on the above. I will state that while it is far from stellar, lots of pretty 20-30somethings playing teens. It is compelling and the actor playing Jed is fun to watch. But he always has been.
It's basically what Agents of Shield would have been like if Marvel still had the film and television rights to the X-men and didn't have to rely on the
If you like paranormal abilities and stories about people infilterating well-meaning but corrupt government organizations with sadistic tendencies - in order to overthrow them or at the very least keep them in check? This is for you. Also it too has a kick-ass female fighter, who can read minds - although she's not the core character. Unfortunately it's hunky Steven...who looks like a far more animated Wade from Agents of Shield.
Pilot? B-
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Date: 2013-10-15 03:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-16 02:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-15 04:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-16 02:19 am (UTC)I'd have to agree. I thought - oh, of course, the nasty guy is his uncle.
(Before that I was convinced he was John's father - because he said to John, welcome home - which I think would have been more interesting. Although he could still turn out to be John's dad, who knows...John's the more animated blond haired guy, with the stubble and the curly hair who was kissing Cara.)