Tv.com News

Misfits S02E04: "Four"

The newest addition to the ASBO gang, Ollie, may have been cut down in his prime, but his superpower lives on in Nikki, so that's a win for Curtis's love life at least. Apparently powers can be acquired through organ transplants, as long as the donor was one of the numerous Londoners affected by the storm, like Ollie and his power to teleport.

Ollie found himself unceremoniously murdered by one of the oddest Misfits villain to date, mostly because we received no explanation about why he seemed to think that he was living a video game, right down to seeing the world in 3-D rendered glory. Crappy superpower? Drugs? Mental illness? Who knows. I personally went with crappy superpower because, well, more often than not that's the way Misfits baddies work. Besides, his hallucinations were so vivid and extreme that anything less than superpowered storm action would be kind of a letdown.

After witnessing Ollie's execution, Alisha confronted Super Simon about why he didn't stop the murder if he knew it was going to happen—a fact that he admitted to. He said that if he had saved Ollie, someone else would have died instead. It was apparent that he meant Nikki, the recipient of organ donor Ollie's heart, but judging by Super Simon's ultimate endgame, I don't think it's out of the question that he could have been referring to Alisha as well.

Present-day Simon continued to make strides toward becoming his badass future self. He voiced a desire to go after crazy hallucinating Tim in order to avenge Ollie—a pretty grand gesture considering no one in the group really knew Ollie beyond their awkward introductions. When Tim kidnapped Kelly, Simon played an integral role in the rescue effort, using his invisibility—which he's developed some impressive control over—to rob an armored car for the ransom money. Outside of the mortal peril matters, when the gang debated whether or not to tell Ollie about their powers and discussed what to do with him if he discovered them, Simon joked, "Kill him," which amused everyone except Nathan, who feared losing his funnyman status to Simon as Simon crept out of his "weird little shell."

All of these nods toward Simon's eventual identity were needed to bridge the two individuals. Alisha struggled with thinking of Future Simon and Present Simon as the same person, which made Future Simon's sacrifice, when he leaped in front of Tim's bullet, all the more devastating. As he died, Future Simon consoled Alisha by reminding her that in a way, he's still alive for her. Alisha argued that it wasn't the same (it wasn't), but Super Simon assured her that Present Simon would evolve and flourish as Alisha fell in love with him. He would become his future self because of her.

That's touching (and yes, the Las Vegas picture down in the Hoodie Cave brought a bittersweet smile to my face), but it also raises a few questions:

1. Is it really a positive thing for Simon to become Super Hoodie? I mean, it eventually gets him killed.

2. If Simon went back in time to save Alisha, and succeeded, does that mean that there's a Future Alisha mourning his absence?

3. If there isn't a Future Alish, then where is she? Does she die regardless, in some other way?

4. Or is it an alternate-timeline deal? Simon came back to save Alisha because her death at Tim's hand destroyed him to the point that he became Super Hoodie. By saving her, he ensures their future together will happen and be awesome.

5. Or will it? If it was Alisha's death that motivated Simon to become Super Hoodie, and she doesn't die, then doesn't he theoretically avoid becoming Super Hoodie?

6. And if he doesn't become Super Hoodie, and it was Super Hoodie whom Alisha loved, then how does everyone live happily ever after?

Whew. Enjoy those mental gymnastics.

Meanwhile, Nikki and Curtis made a great deal of progress in their own relationship. Curtis and Alisha ended things amicably, content with their respective partners. Nikki discovered her teleportation powers in the hospital as she recovered from her heart transplant, when thoughts about who her donor was zapped her straight to the morgue where Ollie's body rested. Freaked, she begged her doctor for another heart, but they don't just give those things away, so she was basically stuck with Ollie's. An encounter with Curtis at Ollie's memorial had her spilling the beans about her weird new ability, which in turn inspired him to share his own secret power with her. It was a surprisingly drama-free affair and Nikki dove right into being a "misfit" when Tim ended up taking all of them hostage after their attempted rescue of Kelly fell apart.

My gosh, they're really the worst super team ever, aren't they? I say that with love, but seriously, there was one Tim and four of them, and of the four of them, one of them possesses the ability to go invisible and one of them is immortal. Honestly, even just throwing Alisha at him and having her grab his arm would have probably provided enough distraction for someone to take his gun away. It kind of makes me extra bummed about Super Hoodie's death just because if you think about it, there's really no reason why the group, eventually totalling SIX super-powered individuals, should have been overpowered by a single crazy dude, requiring Hoodie to step in and take a bullet for Alisha. Bad form, you guys. Bad form.

Are we sad to see Super Hoodie go? Was it a worthy sacrifice, or should the rest of the gang have been more capable of holding their own? I mean, it was SIX to ONE.

View the original article here

Misfits S02E03: "Episode 3"

Super Hoodie's alter ego was revealed and a mind-controlling tattoo gave Nathan the hots for Simon—it sounded like a typical day on Misfits, but when all was revealed, it turned out to be much more than that.

So, Super Hoodie and Simon are one and the same. Sort of. Who knew? Actually, quite a few of you knew. I knew too, just because sometimes I have to do some research and double-check that what I think happened in a particular episode, actually happened. Also names. I'm terrible with names. And sometimes over the course of those fact-checking adventures, I end up reading things I probably shouldn't read if I want to preserve the organic unfolding of the story, but these things happen. It was still a pretty awesome reveal, right? Right.

Super Hoodie saved Alisha from certain death yet again and after hauling her back to the Hoodie Cave, revealed his true identity. He claimed to be Simon from the future, sent back on a mission to make sure that "certain things" happened at "certain times." He was hesitant to reveal too much, but made sure to let Alisha know that they totally hook up in the future.

And then they had sex. Somehow, Future Simon is immune to Alisha's powers.

My brain says that I should be creeped out by Future Simon and Present Alisha. Alisha herself even pointed out that by telling her they'd end up together in the future, Hoodie Simon made things weird and put undue pressure on her. especially since she's still with Curtis.

Granted, I don't think that her relationship with Curtis will be an issue for too much longer. Curtis tracked down Nikki, the woman whose apartment the gang broke into in pursuit of Super Hoodie last week. Nikki also has the honor of being the hot chick from the rooftop in Curtis's accidental trip to the future. It was heavily implied then that THEY were an item. So that's convenient.

Already smitten with Future Simon, Alisha reached out to Present Simon. Future Simon warned her that she couldn't let the others, especially Present Simon, know who Future Simon was or why he was there, so it got awkward when Present Simon asked Alisha why she was being so nice to him all of a sudden. Unable to truly explain herself, Alisha fumbled around and finally just went with apologizing for being a bitch. It was a great way to bridge the gap between their future and present relationship, both for giving us a more sympathetic look into Alisha's usually prickly personality and for giving us a peek at the perceptiveness that we see in Simon's future incarnation.

Present Simon is sensitive, but he's not a delicate little flower who needs to be coddled and protected and doted upon. His invisibility power stems from feeling ignored by society and by people he hoped to be friends with. His volatile anger isn't in response to that social invisibility, but in response to people who DO see him and then wrong him: the old friend who humiliated him at the bar and Sally, who used him to get to the others. Present Simon doesn't enjoy being ignored, but he doesn't see it as a deliberate wrong so much as a simple fact of life. Simon is invisible because people don't notice him and sometimes it's better that way because often, the people who DO notice him only hurt him in the end. Furthermore, Simon's place on the fringe of society has enabled him to become an excellent observer. We saw hints of that through his videos last season, but his attention to detail extends to understanding his peers on an subconscious level as well. Simon knows them better than they know themselves. He can see through their facades with ease, which is why he continues to call them friends even though, on the surface, they all appear to be rather sucky friends.

So when Alisha apologized for past wrongs, Simon was puzzled. He never perceived any malice from Alisha and went on to explain, "Sometimes I think it's hard for beautiful girls...no one can see past their looks."

I don't care if they got off to a kind of creepy start. Alisha and Simon are my new favorites. Sorry, Nathan, here's another addition to your pile of rejections.

Future Simon got the girl this time around, but Present Simon proved himself worthy after figuring out why Nathan was suddenly smitten with him and why Kelly randomly started dating her tattoo artist. Hint: Their sudden bouts of lovesickness coincided perfectly with the appearance of heart tattoos on their shoulders, which also coincided with a trip to Kelly's tattoo artist to get her tramp stamp touched up. Nathan just HAD to open his mouth and make fun of the artist's ink. You don't make fun of someone else's tattoos, bro. You just don't do it.

So Kelly's artist got his revenge for a time, but when the gang confronted him and demanded that he remove the tattoos, he refused. That probably wasn't the best decision he made that day, especially since Present Simon had brought his A game and had Future Simon backing him, handily supplying a bag of dry roasted peanuts to use against the super-powered artist's terrible nut allergy.

Our little Simon is growing up. I'm so proud.

– Alisha watched a newscast that seemed to confirm that the ASBO Five's superpowers would be revealed to the world three months after the storm. Does anyone have any idea where we are in that timeframe?

– While Simon and Alisha got closer and Curtis and Nikki got to know one another, Kelly and Nathan decided to stop their relationship in its tracks and go back to just being friends. I was kind of sad to see them break up, but really, they always had more of a friend vibe about them anyway.

View the original article here

Misfits S01E02 & S02E02: "One" & "Two"

Editor's Note: Hey everyone! Logo has started airing Misfits again on Thursdays here in the U.S. (and they episodes are all on Hulu anyway), but we've been a little bogged down with fall premieres and unable to get these reviews posted. And be "we've," I mean *I* have been a little bogged down with fall premieres, and even though MaryAnn wrote these reviews over the last two Thursdays, *I* wasn't able to get them posted. So here they are now, and we'll return to a regular schedule of weekly Mistfits reviews next week! — Jen

A mysterious note sent via paper airplane (clever!) had our gang gathering around not-so-dead Nathan's grave just in time for Kelly to overhear him wanking off in his coffin because he's classy like that. Also, being buried alive probably gets really boring after awhile when you're immortal. That's why vampires always end up out of their minds after a couple decades underground, right? And I'm talking about Anne Rice vampires, not the sparkly ones. I'm also possibly talking about the Being Human vampires, but I'm pretty sure Suren was nuts before Mommy Dearest locked her up a few decades, so she might not count.

Anyway, Nathan was eventually freed from his grave, went home to visit his mother, and apparently shocked her so badly that she fainted and knocked a few teeth loose. I guess that means he'll continue to be homeless in the community center for the foreseeable future, then?

Catching up with the other ASBO kids, we learned that Simon is still pining for Sally the Corpse Bride, Kelly is really bummed about her almost-boyfriend getting impaled in the Season 1 finale, aaaand Curtis and Alisha are still the golden couple. With Sally on ice, Simon and the others have yet another probation officer, but at least this time he's full of dry sarcasm and general crotchety awesomeness. The third time's the charm, though, and someone—Sally's friend at the police station—has finally noticed the alarming frequency with which this particular ASBO group's probation officers seem to disappear.

The gang's new probation officer made them hang out in an art therapy class where Nathan made the mistake of mocking one of the girls, Lucy, and Simon made the mistake of pretending he didn't spend some quality time with her in a psych ward before landing his community service gig. So I wasn't at all surprised when Alisha appeared to come on to Simon. I mean, I was surprised, but I didn't think for a second that it was actually her, especially after her lips touched Simon's danger zone and he didn't go crazy with superpowered lust. It's all in the details, kids.

However, Simon didn't catch that minor detail and as though it was the blow job that blew his mind (and knowing Simon, it probably was), Simon decided to bury Sally once and for all.

Then everything got a little bit crazy. Stories with shape shifters tend to do that. Still rocking Alisha's face, Lucy went to Curtis and accused Simon of beating her up. Curtis was, understandably, not happy about that and intercepted Simon as he was moving Sally's corpse. Simon protested, saying that he didn't beat Alisha up, but that she totally went down on him, shifting Curtis's ire to his ladyfriend. Lucy's machinations started to fall apart when the real Alisha showed up completely unharmed and insisted that not only did she not hook up with Simon, but he didn't punch her either... by which time Lucy had morphed into Nathan.

Oh, and everyone found out about Sally the Dead Probation Officer. It was a bonding experience, though. Hiding a dead body tends to bring people together, for better or for worse. Usually worse. The realization that Lucy was rocking her Nathan costume and suddenly knew all about the pile of dead probation officers led to, well, ultimately another dead probation officer. But Curtis fixed that. "If I could tuuuuurn back tiiii-ime..." Yup, I'm still singing Cher to myself every time C-dog does this thing.

Lucy impaled Nathan, but now that we know he'll be fine my reaction was more LOL than OMG.

Letting all her crazy hang out, Lucy finally donned Simon's face and devised a plan to confess to the killings of Tony and Sally. She was certain that Simon would end up back in their old unit at the psych hospital, where they would rekindle their friendship and live happily ever after. Working his invisibility mojo, Simon followed Lucy to the police station, where he apologized for having ignored her earlier and made a case for his freedom. No, things weren't perfect with his group of friends, but he HAD a group of friends. Simon admitted to finally being happy and being content with who he was. He couldn't go back to the psych ward with her because he just wasn't that Simon anymore. He's come a long way, hasn't he? We should all be very proud.

And in the span of one episode, Lucy made some progress herself. Despite the obvious obsession with Simon that led to her antics in the first place, Lucy managed to reach an understanding with her former target and maybe even an understanding with herself. Simon said that he liked the person he became during their time apart, a concept that Lucy initially didn't seem to understand, asking Simon if he REALLY thought the other ASBO kids would want to be friends with someone like him. Simon nodded. It was small and a little bit uncertain, but it was there, which speaks clearly to how far his social ineptness and basement-level self-esteem have come.

If the powers on Misfits are meant to reflect an aspect of an individual's personality, then the fact that Lucy can take another individual's (or animal's) shape and essentially become someone else for an extended period of time fits well with her disbelief that Simon could have changed, grown, and evolved into a happy and healthy person who is comfortable in his own skin. Simon essentially outgrew her, which is sad for both of them, but it's one of those things that happens. Relationships change as the people in them change.

So of course I have to ask, does this mean that powers can change too? Or is that just crazy talk?

– Will we see Lucy again? Do we WANT to see Lucy again? (I kind of want to see Lucy again.)

– Is impaling Nathan for laughs the new thing? I can't decide if that would be hilarious or annoying. I'm leaning toward annoying.

– I really like the new douchebag probation officer. Tell me this one doesn't meet (another) untimely demise.

View the original article here

Misfits S01E05: "Five"

With confirmation that the superpowered Breakfast Club had something to do with her fiance's disappearance, probation officer Sally pulled out all the stops on the train to Creepster-ville to get Simon to roll over on the others. It didn't work out quite as planned, but really, do these sorts of things ever go as planned on Misfits?

She started out well enough; sensing Simon's social anxieties and insecurities, she offered him the attention and care that he so desperately craved. She cultivated a romance in a matter of days, and just in case that fell apart, she had her Shygirl18 online persona waiting in the wings. So of course, when her deception came to the surface, Simon took it about as well as any other maladjusted mutant would and accidentally bashed her head in. Or rather, the door handle bashed her head in after he gave her a good shove. After all, she WAS trying to escape with a cell phone full of damning evidence and she DID seduce him AND slam his head into a lady's room mirror. It's all fun and games until someone gets murdered by an emergency exit.

Sally's seduction was hard to stomach, not so much due to the age difference, since really, she can't be that much older than Simon, and not entirely due to their authority figure/underling relationship (though that was certainly alarming), but really, I just didn't want to see Simon get hurt. Out of all the ASBO kids, Simon might just be the least deserving of his punishment. Despite his hurt at being humiliated by a childhood friend in front of people he very badly wanted to accept, Simon still had to get himself good and drunk to go through with his plan to burn the guy's house down. He made sure there were no humans at home when he tossed the flammables through the mail slot, and even though that doesn't make his attempted destruction okay, it at least points to a sense of morality, of right and wrong. He ultimately abandoned his plan and put the fire out (by peeing on it—THERE'S a classic drunk idea) when he realized that there was a cat inside, rationalizing that it wasn't the cat that hurt him.

Despite clearly being a few sandwiches short of a picnic, Simon has generally tried to be an upstanding member of society. The problem is that society doesn't seem to have a place for him. So imagine his delight when Sally came along, took a real interest in his admittedly creepy (someone needs to talk to him about boundaries) films, offered him rides, drinks, dinner, and even the possibility of sex. I don't think she could have gone about a crueler way of trying to turn Simon against the others and Simon's final refusal to join Sally in selling out his ASBO mates, "They're the only friends I've got," speaks to both the depths of that betrayal and Simon's continued search for acceptance. Despite his past experiences and the new heartbreak with Sally, Simon would still prefer to be a part of the world than not. While the fact that he considers Curtis, Kelly, Alisha, and even Nathan to be his friends despite their casual mistreatment of him is touching, it's also a sad commentary on his desperation that he would be willing to accept so little.

– When asked if he learned anything from his community service experience, Curtis answered, "Yeah, don't get caught." I know he mostly meant it as sarcasm, but really, that's the best lesson you COULD learn, isn't it?

– The third time is the charm. Or the sixth, seventh, and...how many times DID it take Curtis to finally break up with Sam? And do we think that's the last we've seen of her?

– While Nathan and the mind-controlling baby was a cute distraction from Simon and Sally's Worst Romance Ever, it felt kind of like a shoehorned plot just for the sake of getting some Nathan screen time. It was nice to see everyone teaming up to track him down after he kidnapped the infant, though. They even included Simon!

– Kelly and Nathan might just be the most sarcastic couple ever, after Scrubs' Dr. Cox and Jordan. I like it.

View the original article here

Misfits S01E06: "Six"

New girl Rachel, sick of being made fun of for being a virgin and gifted with some sort of mind control power thanks to the lightening storm, utilized her power for what she perceived as good when she founded a khaki and cardigan clad group called "Virtue."

The hard part about judging Rachel was that even though her methods were terrible and her motivation not entirely altruistic, the results of her brainwashing DID have their positives. Sort of. I guess. Okay, not really. The ASBO gang was horrified to realize that the local youth they typically hung out with were suddenly no longer interested in drugs, drinking, or sex; which wouldn't have been a bad thing had the affected individuals made their own decisions. Unfortunately, Rachel's brainwashing effectively took away their autonomy, which negated any of potential good her group could have done. Would it be great if Kelly applied herself and furthered her education? Absolutely. Is Alisha's promiscuity a possible symptom of low self respect? Sure. But not necessarily. Not every woman who rocks a push-up bra is compensating for something and to imply otherwise reeks of slut-shaming.

With that said, don't make fun of virgins. They're people too.

With Curtis and Alisha firmly under her spell, Rachel and her God Squad overtook the community center and set their sights on converting the youth of London to their cause, kind of like fleshy Cybermen. Simon, Nathan, and Kelly armed themselves with rubber gloves and iPods to escape her influence and restore the natural order of debauchery to their formerly degenerate peers. The plan fell to pieces pretty quickly, ending with a converted Kelly and a possible new face in the form of Nathan's masked bike rescuer.

Simon disappeared, literally and figuratively, possibly to pine for his popsicle probation officer, Dead Sally, in the freezer of an unused store room. He's such a headcase. We'd be, like BFFs if he was an actual super powered person, even with his pet corpse and creepy videotaping. He just wants to be loved, man, and right now, Dead Sally is the only game in town.

Progress was made though! After Nathan took his unfortunate swan dive from the roof of the community center, the surviving ASBO members went for drinks, including Simon. They even conversed with him! He offered Kelly a DVD and told her to watch it later and while I was half-expecting one of her traditional defensive retorts, Kelly was kind and later, clearly touched by the clips of Nathan that Simon had pulled from his files.

Nathan ended up all cozy in his coffin when he took it upon himself to don a suit and save the day, motivated largely by guilt over Kelly's plight and, I like to think, some tiny shred of loyalty toward the others. It's very small, Nathan's loyalty, like maybe the size of a fennel seed or a dust bunny, but it's there. After a rousing speech celebrating our individual right to be screw ups, Nathan inadvertently revealed that the heat he had been packing to take Rachel hostage was actually a water pistol. Did anyone else sigh with relief there? Sure, his leverage was gone, but the idea of Nathan actually wasting the Virgin Rachel was a bit of a stretch for me. The death of Tony was, really, self defense, and Sally, an unfortunate accident, manslaughter at most. We can cheer for the Misfits gang, even when they're less-than-ideal human beings because at their core, they're all genuinely good people. While Nathan's glorification of the rebel's lifestyle was flawed in places, "Yeah, a few of us will OD and a few of us will go mental...," (those aren't details to gloss over there, pumpkin) it offered a largely hopeful message. Getting plastered and falling asleep on a park bench, the morning wake and bake, having no real direction in life...these things don't make you bad people and they aren't the things that define who you are. When Nathan previously spoke with the brainwashed Kelly alone, he made note of her suddenly modest appearance, but pleaded with her to "be herself" again, meaning her attitude.

Kelly was restored to her sassy self when Rachel fell from the community center, her influence on the Virtue kids severed upon her death. Unfortunately, in their struggle, Nathan also fell, despite a surprise rescue attempt from Simon, and wound up impaled because OMG OUCH.

Cue the funeral, where a weepy Kelly left an iPod in Nathan's casket. Cue the mourning drinks and the montage of Simon's stalkery Nathan footage that managed to be hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time. Cue...Nathan waking up in his coffin?

I don't know if Nathan has the best of the Breakfast Club's super powers or the worst. On one hand, YAY IMMORTALITY! On the other hand, that has the potential to get real sad and angsty later. I mean, I've read Tuck Everlasting, and Forever, and Interview with the Vampire and...yeah, immortality gets sad and awful later. I'd even argue that it's kind of awful at present, with Misfits' resident loudmouth trapped in his coffin with no apparent rescue in sight. He seems content for now, but just wait until that iPod's battery needs to be recharged.

Questions

1. Bike dude is important, right? I bet he's important. *wink wink*

2. What's the expiration date on frozen corpse ladyfriends?

3. Where on Earth did Curtis find that sweater?

View the original article here