Last night, I dreamed that I could fly. And while I do have that kind of dream often enough to know that avoiding power lines is a pain in the ass, this one felt different in that it was a direct result of having viewed No Ordinary Family last night.
In the dream, I was going around doing who knows what - I forget most of it - and I found out that somebody was going to be able to find me, so I needed to get far away quickly. I flew up high and started hauling ass. About 5 minutes later I found out that I was in Jackson, Mississippi. But before I could continue flying, this time on a more northerly tack, my alarm went off. That's probably the only reason I remember that part of the dream.
Anyway, No Ordinary Family. It's a new take on Heroes, with which I have no problem. Heroes started sucking when the writers' strike cut season two short, and after the disaster that was the beginning of season three, I stopped watching entirely. Sylar was an awesome villain, but they needed to let him die rather than make him a good guy. I think more TV shows need to allow main characters to die.
So, about No Ordinary Family. I'm liking the show so far despite Dexter Morgan's wife. It's obvious now why she wanted to leave Dexter: she had an opportunity for a role with much larger exposure. And instead of being the main character's wife, she's the co-star. And it's a network show rather than a showtime show, and one more role for her resume. But although my wife finds her far less annoying in this show than in Dexter, she still bugs me a bit. Maybe that will change in time. One thing for sure: she looked better in the earlier seasons of Dexter, before the boob job.
But I seem to have gotten sidetracked again. Boobs will do that. No Ordinary Family. I can predict the plot of the whole first season. Superpowered bad guys continue to pop up, and at some point, wifey gets the clue that her boss is involved if not behind it all. Enter the superheroes. What's that? That South American flower is what's giving people their superpowers? And that's why the plane crash in the river gave them to the family? Okay. Wow. What a crazy coincidence.
I do like the fact that the parents' powers lend themselves to direct confrontation with the baddies whereas the kids' powers are less direct, allowing the parents to keep their kids out of harm's way. It wouldn't pass inspection for dad to let little Billy go up against gun-toting baddies. And I really like the fact that the dad isn't bullet proof per se. He's just bullet resistant. Nice touch. Also, the special effects on the superspeed are likewise very nice.
But there are a few touches they could have added which would really have made a difference. For example, when the mom is running on the track, it really didn't look like she was going upwards of 700mph. It took her 10 seconds or so to get around the track, which I assume was a quarter-mile track. Even were it a mile long, 600mph gets you around that in one second. Do the math, writers! Also, I'd really like to have heard a sonic boom. And when she stopped, if she were at all concerned with or even noticed the big pit she dug in the track, it'd be nice. That's the kind of thing that ordinary people notice and feel a need to correct. If I left a big pit at a public venue, I'd feel bad. Maybe sprint home for a shovel to fill it in.
Next up: the dad. He catches bullets, and somehow his hands can stop them whereas his skull barely stops them. Fine. Whatever. He's moving his arms to better absorb the impact or something. But that bullet is travelling something like 3000 miles per hour. You can't even perceive a bullet while it's travelling that fast. By the time you hear it, it's already hit you. So he's got superfast reflexes and some kind of super vision. It would be really nice to have some demonstration of that. He catches bullets by putting up his hand and palming them. It looks boring and anything but dynamic. At least once, when his friend shot at him for the first time, it looked downright clumsy. It could have been done way better.
Complaints aside, I've got high hopes for the show, and I'll keep watching.