'The Misfits - Season One'
(Matthew McNulty, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Iwan Rheon, Joseph Gilgun, et al / 2-Disc DVD / R / 2012 / BBC Home Video)
Overview: Though they wear the orange jumpsuits associated with community service, there's more to the trash-talking juvenile offenders of the BBC's 'Misfits' than meets the eye. While on their first job, lightning strikes the gang, and all five of the delinquents find they've developed superpowers!
DVD Verdict: The premise of this wonderful new British TV series is that whilst five early twenty-somethings are doing community service (for mild crimes), during a freak electrical/hail storm they are all thrown into the air (comic book style) - and upon landing (eventually) one by one they learn they now have superpowers!
The immediate trouble is though that their Probation Officer is also effected by the strike and turns into a rabid zombie! And is soon afterwards, well, ... killed before he kills the gane of five. Essentially a zombie flick for the first episode, four of the five discover their powers quickly, the other, main joker of the group left to try and figure his out throughout the entire first season.
And so, as the pace slows into the second episode, their special powers are brought to the fore: such as invisibility, turning back time, hearing people's thoughts, and the fact that if anyone touches the pretty young girl they instantly become intensely sexually attracted to her!
In one of the funniest moments from this episode, Nathan Young (Robert Sheehan), the mouth of the group finds out his mum's boyfriend has also been afflicted by the storm - and has changed into a puppy dog at night, out on the prowl to lick everyone he meets ... NAKED! So, he confronts him, punches him in the nose, and when his mother shouts that he broke his nose, Nathan responds quickly with "It's not like you can enter him in Crufts!" It also features a weird, but funny sex scene!
In episode three, we find out who has been leaving them 'I know what you did' messages, the bodies once buried now have to be unearthed, and another slow episode continues thereafter. Episode four features a comical dual-masterbation scene, and primarily focuses on Curtis Donovan (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) as he flashes back to try and change the course of his drug-caught history. It's here that you see the 'Crash' effect of our five gang members, as in his flashbacks you see another of them, and then another.
In the fifth episode, another slow one, Curtis is learning to live with the way he had to leave things in his last flashback, and Simon Bellamy (Iwan Rheon) is starting to break out of his shell - and even starts 'dating' their replacement Social Worker. Nathan things he has developed his super power, but as Chav Kelly Bailey (Lauren Socha) points out, the baby has a power of its own! The ending is sudden ... and sad.
In the final episode, a New Age Christian Group is mind-altering everyone around them, but Nathan and Simon (after the others, including sexpot Alisha Bailey aka Antonia Thomas have already fallen under their spell) do all they can do to save the situation ... which, aside from introducing a mystery orange-hoodied biker, also brings the season to a close on a sad note (or does it?!). And, being that there are already three more seasons in the can over in England, and not all characters have appeared in them all, I would guess that this successful series has a lot more twists and turns to provide all American watchers/fans. This is a Full Screen Presentation (1.33:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:
Making of Misfits
Cast and Crew Interviews
Simon's Films
www.BBCamerica.com