Television Review – No Ordinary Family

by Donald Hanson • December 7, 2010 • Entertainment • Comments (0) • 1604

No Ordinary Family is no ordinary TV show… but it should be. It has good characterization, acting, writing, pacing, and plot development. It achieves what every show should strive for but very few achieve. It combines a one-hour family drama and super-hero show.
Think “Heroes” done right. This show has a manageable cast of 4 leads, each with supporting characters. And unlike Heroes, these people behave the way anyone who got superpowers would. They treat it like a new toy that they are curious about and want to test and figure out how it works and see what they can do. No wishing they didn’t have them or brooding over them and only using them when forced into a situation like in Heroes. How about the idea of becoming a vigilante? Not one character in the huge cast of Heroes attempted it except Hiro and only to a mild extent, when the situation was very personal to him. Here, the spirit of becoming a vigilante is alive and well and done in a logical and believable style..

Michael Chiklis, (The Shield) the father of the family, is ironically like the Thing character he played in the two Fantastic Four movies, but without the orange rocks. Julie Benz (Rita from Dexter) plays the Mother, has super-speed like The Flash. The daughter can read minds, and the son has genius mental abilities. The cast rounded out with a strong supporting cast of friends and associates of the main characters.
This is a good solid, if not spectacular TV show, that is sometimes a little light and could stand to be a bit more edgy. But that also allows it to have a universal appeal to all ages. It lends a lighter tone to a genre that tries many times to be too dark. This show deserves a look, and it deserves better ratings than it has been getting. It airs Tuesdays at 9:00 PM on ABC.