Each week, I take a look back at a pilot from the 2010-11 season, first reviewed on my blog during that season. This week, I am looking at ABC's promising but failed No Ordinary Family!
The Details:
Premiered: September 28, 2010 on ABC
Starring: Michael Chiklis, Julie Benz, Christina Chang, Kay Panabaker, Jimmy Bennett, Autumn Reeser, with Tate Donovan and Romany Malco
Created by: Greg Berlanti and Jon Harmon Feldman
What I Thought Then:
"This is a stellar effort for a new and different drama series."
"It has the feel of a movie and once it got past some early canned dialogue and an abrupt cut to plane turbulence, it found its groove."
"Yes, the premise is similar to the Pixar film The Incredibles, but this, as a serialized drama for adults, can explore deeper themes and problems that come with super powers."
"The first rate cast and the few twists at the end of the pilot give it enough to be an intriguing start to the series. I will be coming back for more."
What Others Said:
"No Ordinary Family is no comic book kiddie show but a perceptive and engaging comedy-drama about domestic dysfunction." - Glenn Garvin, Miami Herald
"Chiklis and Benz fit together like bioluminescent water and oil, but somehow the show is still surprisingly entertaining in a Heroes meets The Incredibles sort of way." - Michael Starr, New York Post
"Again and again, the show takes what should be subtext and turned it into stilted dialogue that grows repetitive very quickly." - Maureen Ryan, Huffington Post
"The pilot is entertainingly lighthearted, but in a twist that I won't spoil here, a serialized back story begins to surface that could push the show down a more convoluted path." - Matthew Gilbert, Boston Globe
"Ordinary just feels too crowded, as if it's straining to serve too many genre masters at once. Still, there is pleasure to be found, much of it provided by Chiklis." - Robert Bianco, USA Today
What I Think Now:
It's a little hard to have perspective on this show after a decade and a half of tons of superhero shows (not that I've watched a bunch of them). But back in 2010, Heroes had just come to an end and that was about it as far as superhero shows on TV. So, I remember this show feeling pretty fresh back in the day even with the obvious comparisons to The Incredibles. But surprisingly, I think I was more positive about the pilot this time around than I was in 2010. Just like some other pilots like The Event, I miss how big and different some broadcast shows used to be. There was clearly money spent and network shows were still taking pretty big swings. Sure, there were some predictable plot points and some pretty lame dialogue but there was also something I haven't seen on a broadcast drama in years - ambition. I appreciated just how much the pilot wanted to get through: they had to introduce each family member and then introduce each family member's superpower. It certainly wasn't a perfect pilot but it sure was entertaining. I enjoyed Michael Chiklis quite a bit here while the rest of the family was solid but didn't stand out quite as much.
What Happened to the Show:
No Ordinary Family was ABC's big hope for the Fall 2010 crop of new shows. As mentioned above, a superhero show wasn't a common thing on TV back in 2010. This was before the Marvel and DC world really permeated mainstream culture and made what were previously nerdy topics cool. So the uniqueness of this show got it a lot of attention before the season kicked off. There was hope it could be a four quadrant show and it was given the Tuesday 8pm slot leading into the reliable Dancing with the Stars results show. The show got a lot of promotion and premiered to solid numbers and decent reviews (a 65 on Metacritic). But the pilot proved to be the high water mark for the show. It started dropping off pretty quickly and there also seemed to be a consensus that it couldn't really follow through on its premise. The show was limping along by the time the fall came to an end. Although it received a full season order, it limped along through the winter months and even had one episode banished to Saturdays. It was cancelled after one season in a year where every new ABC drama except for one (Body of Proof) failed. I definitely watched a few more episodes but like so many other viewers, dropped off before too long even after the promising pilot.
Final Episode: April 5, 2011
Episode Count: 20
Where to Watch: Available for Purchase on Amazon, YouTube and DVD
I'm excited to be contributing to The TV Ratings Guide! You can read my regular work at Benjamonster's TV!
