4 out of 5

Creator: Howard Overman

‘Misfits’ never fails to veer away from any real emotional commitments and plays at deeper plotlines that end up getting resolved either astoundingly simply or within an episode or two… and yet, the show is as addictive as anything on TV, the intelligence of the writing and great representation of all the characters – even if they aren’t our favorites, they get a fair shot – and simply the sheer AMOUNT of cool ideas tossed at us is absolutely enough to boost this to the upper tier of television.  Howard Overman (creator and at least co-scripter of almost every episode) wrings the most out of the formula – teens get super powers after a strange storm – by deciding, really, to not so much focus on the powers.  Or rather not to hold us to cliffhangers and pithy reveals about what someone can do.  Nor is it a “with great power…” moral lesson show, though.  Mostly, we’re just playing it straight, giving some ASBO kids variations on classic comic powers (telepathy, cloning, TK, etc.) and then recognizing that the first thing real people would do isn’t necessarily to save the world or come up with devious schemes, but to… go back to work.  But “playing it straight” gets a jolt from how well the characters interact with one another.  …Which, yes, makes it a bit sad when the cast gets shuffled and the tone changes, but there’s value to that as well – Overman makes it clear that many people got powers, and it follows that a show’s makeup SHOULD change with a rotating cast, and thus once you get used to seeing some new faces, you come to accept that the goofy, weird, smart, hilarious and crass heart of the show remains gorgeously intact for four seasons, each episode never failing to bring some dosage of insane ideas.  Coming to a close this year with Season 5, Misfits has, on the surface, changed quite a bit.  But it hasn’t yet succumbed to all of the tropes one associates with our modern fascination with heroes, and oddly, for all its sci-fi, brings incredibly human characters to the screen.