Ugh, that's it for me. The show was even worse than I expected. It was exactly the type of drab, boring, formulaic cop show with sci fi window dressing that I expected, but David Straitharn and Keith Callum Rennie didn't manage to salvage things as I'd hoped.
Straitharn's character was too much of a cliche (like all the other characters) - a kindly, doddering old professor type - I really was hoping for someone with a bit more of an edge. He's being completely wasted. I guess things must be tough for older actors when they have to slum like this just to make a paycheck. (Maybe he suggested something more sinister towards the end of the show - after 40 minutes, I was so bored I just gave up on it.)
Rennie was wildly miscast. The lines he was given suggested an actor with a knack for comedy, which Rennie clearly doesn't have. His delivery was painfully off. He's been great in everything I've seen him in, but come to think of it, I've never seen him try to play a character with a comic side, and he shouldn't ever try to do that again. It's out of his range.
The fact that the characters are boneheadly obvious cliches was a real problem. You have your angry black cop, your cute, nerdy girl, your sexy bad girl, your scrawny white nerd boy who acts practically autistic, and the tragic loner-hero type. Even good actors would struggle to make characters like that come alive, and this show isn't cast nearly that well.
Malik Yoba as the angry black cop does manage to break through and feel like a real person. The cute, nerdy girl might have potential. Sexy bad girl and nerd boy are gratingly obnoxious and kill every scene they're in. Tragic loner hero is just boring.
But I'd hate to see better actors in those roles because good actors deserve better than such uninspired writing. Compare these character types to Heroes, which at least put some effort into not doing the most obvious thing. The cop wasn't an angry, macho type with super strength powers. He was a schlub with a "girly" power - mind-reading. The super powered character was the sexy bad girl. The tiny little teenage cheerleader had Wolverine's power. See how that mixes things up from the expected? I appreciated that about the show. Alphas does exactly the kind of stupid thing than Heroes pointedly avoided.
SyFy continues to be a disaster. They should stop trying to do sci fi at all and just become The Wrestling Channel.
OK forgive my ignorance, anyways, movie and TV audiences know the Canadian location that stands in for NYC better these days than they know the actual NYC.
Plenty of shows are shot in NYC, but they have to have a decent budget that a SyFy show shouldn't afford. I've been to NYC once in my life but I can damn well tell when they're not shooting there, and it's another demerit against the show.
