No Ordinary Family

There's a gentle charm to ABC's new drama, No Ordinary Family.  The show is at heart a family drama despite the fact that the titular quartet all mysteriously gain super-powers during the first episode. 

The dad, played with relish and winking fun by Michael Chiklis, a mopey police artist finds new purpose as he experiments with his new powers (he basically has the original powers that Superman had in his debut issue:  he is super-strong, partially invulnerable, and he can leap about a quarter of a mile) with the help of his best friend. 

(Mom (Julie Benz), a workaholic with not enough hours in the day, gets super-speed.  The daughter, a high school student with boy issues, gains the power to read minds.  And the son, an underachieving student, becomes able to sort out complex problems.)

There is a conspiracy (of course) and much family angst (of course) and they even playfully name-check one of the X-Men at one point.  It's fun and breezy and the connections of family and friendship are kept in the forefront and, given time,  it could grow into something really engaging.

But it probably won't get the chance.  It will probably be swamped in the ratings by Glee and The Biggest Loser and (if it manages to hang on that long) by American Idol in January but I'm glad that the network took the chance anyway.

Thursday Night TV

Wonder of wonders, with the help of my handy remote control Thursday night turned out to be a pretty good night of television (a big change from most days since the new season started.)

Started on ABC with the intriguing FlashForward (you can view the episode at the link to the left), a spooky mind-bender keying off the premise that everyone on the planet goes unconscious at the same moment (for just over 2 minutes) and experiences an apparent glimpse of the future (six months hence.) The first episode moved right along despite the need to introduce the sprawling cast of characters. It obviously is going for that Lost vibe (even to the point of having Lost alum Dominic Monaghan join the cast soon...and then there's the enigmatic kangaroo...) and I'm not sure how this plays out in the long run if it becomes a hit (the date everyone sees happens in April of 2010) but I'm interested enough to give it shot (while fully realizing that something like this can easily slide off the rails and become a frustrating mess...yes, Heroes and Lost, I'm looking at both of you.)

At 9 I moved over to CBS for the season premiere of the original (and still the best) CSI which began with a trippy slow motion action scene and then flashed back to show how it got to that point. One old friend came back, another cast member was gone (not really a big loss), and the plot was convoluted, occasionally silly, and helluva lot of fun (in other words, a good way to kick off a new CSI season.)

Capping off the night with Project Runway and Models of the Runway over on Lifetime made for an entertaining evening of TV watching...gotta take those when you can get 'em :-)

Eli Stone

Eli Stone , ABC's new Thursday night "dramedy", tries hard to achieve a state of profound whimsy…there’s a definite Ally McBeal vibe (complete with random production numbers and quick cuts to exotic locales in dreams) to the proceedings…and sometimes it reaches that state.

But the word that too often encapsulates the show is cute. I haven’t decided if that’s a good thing.

The titular character is an ambitious shark of a corporate lawyer…he is successful and engaged to his boss’ daughter…who finds a new direction in life due to an inoperable brain aneurysm which causes him to have vivid (and, yes, whimsical) hallucinations which show him the way to do the right thing. There is some stuff about Eli perhaps being a “prophet” though one would hope that modern prophets aren’t seeing George Michael dancing and singing “Faith” :-)

The show is visually remarkable and the cast…led by Jonny Lee Miller as Stone and featuring the always wonderful Loretta Devine and Victor Garber…is solid but the pilot still wasn’t engaging enough to turn me into a fan. I’ll give it another viewing or two to see if it grabs my interest.