No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Discuss

[Aragorn]

(New cast photo: plus one, minus two)

Spoiler: 1x02: "No Ordinary Marriage"

The Powells keep secrets from each other as JJ hides his new ability from everyone, and Jim and Stephanie secretly break their promises to the other not to use their powers. Meanwhile, Jim takes on bank robbers and Stephanie attempts to determine the source of their powers.

 

[eastman23]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

Remember kids, don't text and run at super-speed!

 

[Owain Taggart]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

I loved this. I forget who said something about name dropping in the other thread, but they were right. They've already mentioned Batman, and that book the kid was reading, he had disguised as an X-Men comic book. Good episode.

 

[Vendikarr]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

I'll bet in the moments before being shot, the detective was thinking "Damn You Jim, I hate that you were right."

 

[stj]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

Domestic comedies are easier to sustain over a half hour than an hour. Still, the sidekicks are developing personalities. Julie Benz the scientist is drawn kind of shaky, which is not a good sign for JJ the superbrain. The math teacher is completely rabid, however, so even that might be funny.

If they get all confused like the Stargate producers and think comedies aren't good and try to turn this pig's ear into a silk purse, the whole thing should be good.

 

[FordSVT]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

Stargate was never a comedy, and this is not a comedy either. Just because there are some comedic elements to some of the shows does not mean it's a comedy.

Jack's character lost his son to an accidental gunshot wound. LOL!

 

[Agent Richard07]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

This episode was better than last week's premiere. The training stuff with dad was good and the ending came as a surprise. Didn't think they'd kill off whatsherface. Actually, I didn't think dad would reveal his secret to her so soon. And yeah, I noticed the X-Men comic. I also noticed that they're toning down the kid's super brain power so that he's not too much of a genius who could figure out everything in no time.

 

[DarKush]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

I didn't enjoy this one as much as the pilot, but I still liked it. I think this show had to do some necessary character building/development now that the Powells have to figure out what to do with their powers. I hate that the cop got killed. She was very cute. I was hoping she would be like the Jim Gordon to Jim's Batman.

 

[Checkmate]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

We don't know that she's dead. Hell, the telekinetic doesn't even know if she's dead. He did the classic Bond supervillian thing and walked off, assuming his murder was successful.

 

[Caliburn24]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

I liked the episode a lot, except for the Mom doing the whole, "Once I figure this out I'll return us all to normal..." line. I also want the Mom to get more involved in the fun stuff. When the Dad was leaving to go to the bank robbery she should have gone along.

I like the pacing of the show, it feels tighter than a lot of hour long shows.

 

[sojourner]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

So. who in the production company is getting fired for the fucked up sound?

 

[Checkmate]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

Sounded fine to me.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

Is this show an experiment to see how boring you can make a show about superheroes? Ugh, I hope the whole dramatic conflict is not going to be family angst (snore) + Stephen Collins creating an army of supervillians for Our Heroes to fight (snoresnoresnore) + trigonometry and muffins.

The Watcher villain reminded me of Sylar, but played by a far less interesting actor. Not a real good sign when your show looks bad in comparison to Heroes.

Stargate was never a comedy, and this is not a comedy either.

I generally expect my comedies to make me laugh out loud at least once. I sure hope comedy isn't what their shooting for.

 

[Peter the Younger]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

It was fun, upbeat (ya know, except for the murder at the end), and actually fun for the whole family. Just what I want in an 8 PM show. The show won't win any points for originality, but as long as they keep hitting their marks, I'll keep tuning in.

We don't know that she's dead. Hell, the telekinetic doesn't even know if she's dead. He did the classic Bond supervillian thing and walked off, assuming his murder was successful.

Presumably he was holding her in place, otherwise it would a pretty piss poor murder method. And I was glad they did it off screen, I was getting ready to tell the kids to leave the room there.

 

[Checkmate]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

Presumably he was holding her in place, otherwise it would a pretty piss poor murder method.

Just like the majority of Bond villains, or Batman villains, or pretty much any over-the-top villainy ever produced. The fact remains: We have no idea if she's actually dead.

 

[Christopher]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

So every episode title is going to be "No Ordinary _____?" Arrgh, I hate formula titles.

However, I liked the episode. It was better than the pilot. I like the focus on the characters discovering the use and limitations of their powers. I particularly liked the implicit acknowledgment of the laws of physics; no matter how strong Jim is, he doesn't have as much mass as a car or van and therefore couldn't stop it in its tracks. Although they bent the laws a bit when he held onto it from behind at the end there. Maybe that could be possible if his shoes had amazingly good traction, but it's a reach. At least he didn't keep it up long.

I like it that they're not being religious about keeping the secret. Jim letting Cho in on his powers was nice -- or so I thought. I'm really disappointed that she got killed off.

Still not crazy about the kids. And I'm not crazy about Stephanie teaching her daughter that it's right to consider herself the most important thing in the world to her. That's kind of egocentric.

And yeah, I noticed the X-Men comic.

A Wolverine comic, actually. And last week the lab assistant had a Kitty Pryde figure complete with Lockheed. Since this show is on the Disney-owned ABC, we're bound to get plenty of Marvel references and only more oblique DC references (like Jim insisting on referring to "a single bound" rather than "jump" last week). Which is ironic, since as someone pointed out in a review I read, Jim's powers are virtually identical to Superman's original 1938 power set, before his abilities started getting magnified. Superstrength, bullet-resistant but not invulnerable skin, and the ability to leap considerable distances.

I also noticed that they're toning down the kid's super brain power so that he's not too much of a genius who could figure out everything in no time.

It strikes me as very similar to the powers of the Marvel character Amadeus Cho, right down to the visual representation of the computations he performs.

And I don't think they toned it down so much as clarified it. All he was shown doing in the pilot was gaining a sudden grasp of mathematics. There was no suggestion of any super-intellectual powers beyond that.

 

[LitmusDragon]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

Saw this episode but didn't see the premiere. I thought it was fun but a tad derivative. The big bad has Sylar's power, the girl has Sookie's power, the dad is basically Mr. Incredible. Was strange seeing Julie Benz in something so soon after her stint on Dexter. I'll tune in next week to decide if I like this or not.

 

[Derishton]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

That seems like way too much set-up for a character who was going to die in the second episode - if she's really dead, that looks clumsy, if she isn't then it's a cheap cliffhanger.

The episode wasn't bad, but I don't care about the teenagers so far, and the pilot was a little better. The revelation at the end was nicely done - there's a sense that the show might not drag it's feet on everything.

 

[melancholymecha]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

was ok but please less teen & soccer mom drama...

 

[Checkmate]

Re: No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Marriage" - Oct. 5 - Grade & Disc

It's a show about a family who gains superpowers. It's not a show about a superhero family. Some of you seem to be assuming the latter, even though everything (right down to the title) points at the former.

Maybe you should try watching it for what it is, rather than what you expected it to be?