In our modern, technologically driven culture super heroes have come to occupy the exalted position traditionally held by the Parthenon of gods and demi-gods found in mythology. Although we no longer require these figures to explain the mysteries we perceive in the universe around us they still serve a very real function in our society. Primarily they provide a means to morality plays to demonstrate the ideals in admirable behavior. These super human beings also give us a means to dream, to let our imaginations soar. As kids we all imagined ourselves as our favorite comic book hero donning a make shift cape, drawing an emblem on our chest and pretending to have the powers that set these people far above the common throng. Many films and television series have attempted to incorporate this almost primal infatuation with super powers into their offerings with mixed results. Films based on comic books are at an all time high representing record breaking box office and critical acclaim but on television the outcome is traditionally bleak for this type of program. No matter how well constructed the life space of a super hero TV shows is abysmally brief. One of the most recent examples of this trend of ‘super power’ oriented shows biting the dust prematurely is the one season wonder from ABC, ‘No Ordinary Family’. While the series had an amazing amount of potential the network failed to give it a chance to gain the traction necessary to securely build a fan base. Typically any super hero story takes longer to unfold that the usual action series. The origin portion of the story is by its nature slower in pacing mostly due to the amount of exposition necessary to explain the nature of the abilities, initiate the base line character personalities and develop the requisite mythos necessary to lay the foundation for the rule set that will control the situations and character actions. The first episode started out with acceptable rating but immediately dropped. Network executives should keep in mind that the most culturally significant science fiction series ever shown of television, ‘Star Trek’ was a late bloomer not reaching its potential until long after cancellation. True, this series did not have the possibility to approach that degree of success but it did possess the elements that could have made fir a fascinating show has the network executives exhibited the foresight to nurture this series properly.

The Powell family starts out like most marginally dysfunctional families depicted on television. The head of the family, Jim (Michael Chiklis), earns a reasonable income as a sketch artist for the police department. This position does not garner him any respect from other members of the department or, for that matter, from his family. His wife, Stephanie (Julie Benz) has a doctorate in molecular biology and is engaged in genetic research for the Global Tech Company. Their eldest child is sixteen year old Daphne (Kay Panabaker) who is socially awkward high school student; not the type to move within the cool kids circle. Also barred from the popular cliques is her younger brother, JJ (Jimmy Bennett), who is at best a marginal student. Initially, the family dynamic is strained with Jim envious of his wife’s better education and career and the kids feeling left out from the upper echelon of their schools social hierarchy. Even Stephanie feels other researchers at work are getting better career opportunities. In short, the entire Powell family feels all too normal. All of that changes when in hopes of uniting the family they all accompany Stephanie on a research trip to gather specimens in the Amazon. She is after obtaining a plant, Trilsetum Coroni, whose chromosomes hold vast potential. There is a plane crash that almost kills them all but once they get back home they discover they have super powers. Jim is exceptionally strong and resistant to injury, Stephanie is incredibly fast and heals very quickly, Daphne is telepathic and JJ is endowed with a super intellect. The series also provides the necessary archetype, the side kick, which not only knows about the super powers but lends a hand as a support system. Jim has his best friend, Assistant district attorney George St. Cloud (Romany Malco) who helps Jim set up his hero’s ‘Lair and Stephanie is aided by her research assistant, Katie Andrew (Autumn Reeser), a major Sci-Fi and comic book fan. A super hero is only as good as the villains they face and here the main one is Stephanie’s boss, Dr. Dayton King (Stephan Collins). In comic book terms he is considered the master mind dispatching a number of ‘solider villains’ who are ultimately dispensable. They are typically fodder for the heroes and perfect for the ‘freak of the week’ format. The main one used here is Joshua (Josh Stewart) who imitates a romantic relationship with Katie in order to keep an eye on Stephanie’s research. His powers are artificially induced by a serum that King controls.

This series was built more along the format utilized by Marvel comics where the super heroes are plagued by emotional issues in common and readily identifiable to the audience. The Powell family is not tight knit by any standards; they certainly exhibit more than their share of emotionally distancing issues. Their powers eventually form a foundation of commonality that pulls them together but it is flimsy especially with so little time to develop the circumstances. Usually a super power motif takes a slow pace but one of the downfalls here is they ramped things up too quickly. It is not unusual for super powers to grow over time but within the space of a few episodes each of the Powells experiences massive alterations to their abilities. Instead of giving the audience sufficient time to become acclimated to the characters the writers move things along too quickly. The audience has no opportunity to become emotionally invested with the character due to the constant rewriting of the ground rules governing the internal universe.

The cast is excellent and works well together. Chiklis had played a super strong character before as Ben ‘The Thing Grimm, in the ‘Fantastic Four’ movies. He is playing against type after a lengthy run as the dirty cop on ‘The shield’. Balancing him perfectly Benz is also taking a new sort of role after a highly dramatic role on ‘Dexter’. If properly developed this series could have offered a unique view of superheroes that would have been fascinating to watch. Unfortunately ‘ the Cancelled before its time list’ has claimed yet another victim.