Somnopolis

Misfits

Channel 4’s late 2009 yoof show Misfits arrived on screens in November under a hail of publicity. Twitter channels were created for five of the characters on the show. There were also Facebook profile pages and video blogs on youtube delivered by the respective actors. Produced by Clerkenwell Films, Misfits was said to be the new Skins, another show courting controversy by featuring teenage sex and  substance abuse. Oh, but with superpowers.

It’s so much more than that though. Howard Overman’s scripts (in keeping with the American television writing tradition, he is the lead writer for the show) do not fall into the trap of slavishly imitating yoof argot. The premise of young offenders on ASBOs gaining superpowers due to a freak storm, manages to combine the best traditions of classic comic book origins (cosmic rays, radioactive spiders, spaceships landing in Kansas) with a sharp comment on how teenagers are treated by British society today. Superhero comics once played with popular fears regarding the effects of radiation, or the dangers of the atomic bomb. Now teenagers themselves are treated like some dangerous element. Adolescent foul mouthed polonium.

Our ‘heroes’ are Simon (an introvert who gains the ability to turn invisible); Alisha (’gifted’, with the ability to make anyone desire her simply by touching their skin); Kelly (the stereotypical chav who can hear what people are thinking); and Curtis (an aspiring Olympian whose sporting career is in ruins and has the ability to turn back time).

You may have noticed that’s only four out of the five. There’s also gabby Irish lad Nathan, whose power is left unrevealed, much to his annoyance.

Every superhero origin needs a dose of tragedy thrown into the mix. The Misfits (as good a team name as we’re going to get, although thankfully never used in the show) are forced to kill their probation officer when the effects of the storm transform him into a rage-fuelled monster. The first six episodes of the show (with a second season promised in May 2010) deal with the consequences of the group’s decision to cover up the death. It soon becomes clear, however, that they were not the only ones changed by the storm.

Thankfully Misfits avoids the cliches of ‘freak of the week’, shows like The X-Files, or Smallville. Each episode is focused on a different member of the cast and while the script does sparkle with great one-liners (especially where Nathan is concerned), it also succeeds thanks to the talent of the actors featured. Antonia Thomas as Alisha has perhaps the most difficult character, given that her character’s ‘ability’, inevitably raises the issues of rape and the sexualisation of women in popular culture. Her relationship with Curtis evolves due to their coming to an arrangement that allows them to both equally express their desire for one another, without coercion (and isn’t it nice to have a teenage show that promotes mutual masturbation, instead of the be-all and end-all of genital sex?). As for the failed Olympian, because he is a young black male caught on a minor drugs charge, he is unfairly been made an example of. Curtis (Nathan Stewart Jarrett) has the weight of a whole community sitting on his young shoulders. His feelings of powerlessness in the face of this pressure even extend to his own ability, which can only be activated unconsciously when he is feeling deep emotional stress. This gives Overman something of a neat out, as otherwise Curtis would have become somewhat godlike. Much like Hiro in Heroes. Kelly ‘the chav’, presents an overly aggressive front, but her power forces her to hear what people really think. Even her dog has an inner monologue, supplied by Phil Daniels in a brief cameo. Finally Simon the true outcast realizes his greatest fear – he becomes truly invisible to the people in his life. His habit of filming everything on his camera phone allows him to distance himself (but also incriminate the gang in their crime).

While Nathan’s power is not revealed until late in the series, he presents as an almost meta-character, commenting on the action as it happens. In the final episode he insists on finding the right kind of music track to ‘tool up to’, when the group are about to march into danger. His romantic advice to Curtis turns out to be a quote from Spider-Man. Even when burying the corpses of their probation officer, and one of his axe-murder victims, Nathan feels he has to quip: ‘I’m pretty sure this breaches the terms of my Asbo’.

But the coup de grace is his true ‘origin’, the much hinted at theft of Pick ‘n’ Mix which landed him with an ASBO. It starts with a parody of The Big Lebowski, escalates into a riot and then features a cameo from British actor Dexter Fletcher as his estranged dad (who does uncannily resemble Sheehan).

Nathan is also refreshingly unsympathetic. He is aware that the ’script’, calls for him to find some kind of Breakfast Club-style redemption in his community service, but he refuses to bow to the John Hughesian logic of the situation. “This is a chance to network with other young offenders, we should be swapping tips, brainstorming!”

In the end Overman is not looking to ape Skins or Heroes as some of the press have tried to suggest. The failure of New Labour haunts the show, with the next generation being frog-marched into a right-wing future that will accept nothing less than complete obediance to the state. If anything Misfits is more reminiscent of early 2000AD, railing against the rise of Thatcherism and the government sanctioned attack on working class Britain, attracting the likes of Pat Mills, Robert Wagner, Alan Moore and Garth Ennis. This show is a call to arms if you like, eschewing yoof voyeurism in favour of genuine anger against a generation disenfranchised and abandoned on the shores of the 21c.

Oh it is something special.