lokifan_import (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lokifan_import) wrote2010-07-16 05:07 am
lokifan_import) wrote2010-07-16 05:07 am
Misfits
I am so painfully behind on my fic masterlists, you guys. I haven’t updated them in months.
...Oh well! I am going to rec some telly. Which is, to my knowledge, only on in the UK (Channel 4, Saturday night) and very new. Never mind.
It’s called Misfits and I think it’s the new Being Human. The set-up is thus: five young offenders on community service get caught in an electrical storm and they end up with supernatural powers. Their parole officer is caught in it too, basically goes nuts and tries to kill them, getting the sixth YO – conveniently, the one without powers. The Misfits kill him off in self-defence, and agree to hide what happened.
I’ve never been much into the whole We Must Give The Young People Characters They Can Identify With thing, tbh – probably because I don’t do the whole identifying-with-characters thing myself. This is not to say that the importance of having queer characters in mainstream programmes or BME characters everywhere has passed me by, just... the idea that having characters who ‘lived my life’ was necessary for my entertainment as British Youf makes me snort in disgust.
That said, recognising the characters as people I went to school with, was friends with – am still friends with in a few cases – was actually hugely enjoyable. I spent the first fifteen minutes going Oh my god, that accent! I hear it all the time and I’ve almost never heard it on telly! I know someone who looks just like him! Etc. Now I watch almost no telly so maybe it’s just me, but my sense is that having a totally, stereotypically chavvy girl on British television as the hero instead of the comic relief is unusual at the least. We’re beyond Vicky Pollard here, folks.
Seriously, the chav girl – Kelly – is my favourite. She’s very brave, she’s altruistic – she runs to warn the others of their danger despite mutual scorn – and she’s the most actively ‘heroic’ too. When they’re all being threatened by their psychotic parole officer, the other four stand in frozen fear. Kelly grabs a chair and cracks his skull. He’s still not dead, so she smacks until he most emphatically is.
Not great, but her physical abilities are undoubted – and not supernatural in nature. She is just a natural and talented pugilist.
I wince a bit from some elements of it. The impression I get so far (unconfirmed) is that their personalities/emotions inform their particular powers: the famed athlete who’s likely wrecked his career over ‘a little bit of coke’ gets the ability to turn back time, the quiet, strange kid gets the ability to be invisible and unheard, the girl who uses sex appeal for everything gets the ability to make men desperate for her with a touch.
Yeah, you read that last one right. It’s presented as wholly negative and frightening, and makes an attempted rape scene, at the least, inevitable. :( Besides which, while the boys can’t control their powers, the girls are victims of their powers – Kelly’s mind-reading makes her worry she’s going mad and loses her a boyfriend she says she loves.
(The fact that there’s a rampaging, violent black man – the parole officer post-electrical storm – isn’t great either, but helpfully one of the Misfits is a young black man. The impression is that the arbitrary difference between the murderous-crazy-power of the parole officer and what happens to the Misfits stems from the fact that he is an adult authority figure, rather than from his ‘blackness’.)
I really like all the characters so far: they were almost all instantly charming. The girl with sex-appeal powers is a gorgeous mixed-race girl who’s done for a DUI. She’s social and charming and so entirely recognisable to me – the part where the parole officer confiscates her phone and she laughs at him anyway happened every day at my school – that I was instantly rather attached. There’s Kelly, who I mentioned earlier. Seriously, the amazingness of a heroic chav on British telly really can’t be overstated. It’s a class thing.
There’s also a black athlete who’s respectful of the ladies and bitterly regretful of the crime that’s got him banned from athletics for two years. If this becomes a little fandom, he will inevitably be slashed with theinevitable woobie sarcastic, smart-mouthed white boy with curly dark hair and vulnerable eyes who got chucked out by his mum. Said woobie is icky about women and a bit of a bully, but not bad.
Hilariously, it’s the third boy who I strongly suspect is gay or bi (there was a significant shot of him glancing at a boy in the pilot). He’s a bit of a weirdo – quiet and intense with the classic staring blue-green eyes. He tried to burn a house down, and my feeling is that he has a very strange home life. *intrigued*
So, yes. Ensemble cast, pretty people in a British sort of way, interesting characters and supernatural powers. I love those things! Also the possibility of watching slashers ignore the slightly strange gay character in favour of slashing the pretty ones, which will be vaguely annoying but funny. More importantly, television I actually want to watch! Huzzah!
...Oh well! I am going to rec some telly. Which is, to my knowledge, only on in the UK (Channel 4, Saturday night) and very new. Never mind.
It’s called Misfits and I think it’s the new Being Human. The set-up is thus: five young offenders on community service get caught in an electrical storm and they end up with supernatural powers. Their parole officer is caught in it too, basically goes nuts and tries to kill them, getting the sixth YO – conveniently, the one without powers. The Misfits kill him off in self-defence, and agree to hide what happened.
I’ve never been much into the whole We Must Give The Young People Characters They Can Identify With thing, tbh – probably because I don’t do the whole identifying-with-characters thing myself. This is not to say that the importance of having queer characters in mainstream programmes or BME characters everywhere has passed me by, just... the idea that having characters who ‘lived my life’ was necessary for my entertainment as British Youf makes me snort in disgust.
That said, recognising the characters as people I went to school with, was friends with – am still friends with in a few cases – was actually hugely enjoyable. I spent the first fifteen minutes going Oh my god, that accent! I hear it all the time and I’ve almost never heard it on telly! I know someone who looks just like him! Etc. Now I watch almost no telly so maybe it’s just me, but my sense is that having a totally, stereotypically chavvy girl on British television as the hero instead of the comic relief is unusual at the least. We’re beyond Vicky Pollard here, folks.
Seriously, the chav girl – Kelly – is my favourite. She’s very brave, she’s altruistic – she runs to warn the others of their danger despite mutual scorn – and she’s the most actively ‘heroic’ too. When they’re all being threatened by their psychotic parole officer, the other four stand in frozen fear. Kelly grabs a chair and cracks his skull. He’s still not dead, so she smacks until he most emphatically is.
Not great, but her physical abilities are undoubted – and not supernatural in nature. She is just a natural and talented pugilist.
I wince a bit from some elements of it. The impression I get so far (unconfirmed) is that their personalities/emotions inform their particular powers: the famed athlete who’s likely wrecked his career over ‘a little bit of coke’ gets the ability to turn back time, the quiet, strange kid gets the ability to be invisible and unheard, the girl who uses sex appeal for everything gets the ability to make men desperate for her with a touch.
Yeah, you read that last one right. It’s presented as wholly negative and frightening, and makes an attempted rape scene, at the least, inevitable. :( Besides which, while the boys can’t control their powers, the girls are victims of their powers – Kelly’s mind-reading makes her worry she’s going mad and loses her a boyfriend she says she loves.
(The fact that there’s a rampaging, violent black man – the parole officer post-electrical storm – isn’t great either, but helpfully one of the Misfits is a young black man. The impression is that the arbitrary difference between the murderous-crazy-power of the parole officer and what happens to the Misfits stems from the fact that he is an adult authority figure, rather than from his ‘blackness’.)
I really like all the characters so far: they were almost all instantly charming. The girl with sex-appeal powers is a gorgeous mixed-race girl who’s done for a DUI. She’s social and charming and so entirely recognisable to me – the part where the parole officer confiscates her phone and she laughs at him anyway happened every day at my school – that I was instantly rather attached. There’s Kelly, who I mentioned earlier. Seriously, the amazingness of a heroic chav on British telly really can’t be overstated. It’s a class thing.
There’s also a black athlete who’s respectful of the ladies and bitterly regretful of the crime that’s got him banned from athletics for two years. If this becomes a little fandom, he will inevitably be slashed with the
Hilariously, it’s the third boy who I strongly suspect is gay or bi (there was a significant shot of him glancing at a boy in the pilot). He’s a bit of a weirdo – quiet and intense with the classic staring blue-green eyes. He tried to burn a house down, and my feeling is that he has a very strange home life. *intrigued*
So, yes. Ensemble cast, pretty people in a British sort of way, interesting characters and supernatural powers. I love those things! Also the possibility of watching slashers ignore the slightly strange gay character in favour of slashing the pretty ones, which will be vaguely annoying but funny. More importantly, television I actually want to watch! Huzzah!
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I did not even know there was a first season already!! This is what comes of not having a telly during university terms, I suppose. AWESOMESAUCE.
Hmm... if I watch on Youtube it'll be all blurry and annoying... on the other hand, I'll have the episodes NOW NOW NOW.
I have much love for Robert Sheehan - he's one of those young Brit actors who pops up everywhere for a while pre-big break. Nice to see him about looking hot. :)
And hey, FTW that you know and love it! If I end up writing Misfits porn, I shall have at least one flister who wishes to read it :)
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I thought you had watched the whole thing already. Good thing I didn't give anything away^^. The 1st season is EPIC. WATCH IT! It's so worth it :D:D
Oh yes, Rob Sheehan (and his hot self;)) is the reason I found out about the show to begin with, through him being in Cherry Bomb with Rupert Grint.
*nods* though I rarely stray from my beloved HP, I can already imagine some angsty Nathan/Simon porn. *grin*
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LOL. Good times :)
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Have you heard Dave Mitchell's rant about the entertainment industry insisting everyone only be shown things they're already familiar with? He makes the point that if you do that with kid's tv you're quickly going to run out of stuff to show, as kid's haven't experienced much yet.
The class thing? I still don't understand it really. *strange non-Brit is strange* We think we have it in NZ, but we don't. Not like it is here.
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*nods* The British class system is inexplicable to outsiders, because it is perverse and strange. I often think there needs to be another term for either our version or the NZ etc kind - because class is largely not about money. I often think some of the weirder interpretations of the Malfoys come from misunderstanding class.
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Will be interested to see some more of it. Would never have watched it in the first place if you hadn't done the heads up post here, so thanks for that.
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I somehow ended up watching an episode of big brother when I was still at my old house and was really pleased to see there was a total chav woman in there - bright orange, fake boobs etc. who is bi and in a long-term relationship with a woman. You do not see chavs who are bi or gay, or if you do see bi chav woman it's all titillation, rather her being in a long term relationship is totally not what you see. I was quite pleased by that.
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Oh, cool! I approve muchly. This particular chav is chavvy in that inner-city way - pale smoker with scraped-back hair and a bulldog rather than an orange blonde. And srsly, class system fail, I has it. *sighs*
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I also laughed out loud when she overheard her dog's thoughts in ep 1, followed by her boyfriend's thoughts, and they were so similar.
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Oh God, that dog. *shudders*