Alphas

It was the season finale last night, on 5*. Alphas takes place in a world where certain humans have undergone mutations which enable them to have certain abilities (ultra-acute senses, the ability to manipulate data without needing hardware and so on). Naturally, some of them are good, and some are evil. So, it’s a bit like X-Men or Heroes (the creator was one of the writers of X-Men 2, the best of the three films, I think).

I did miss the first episode (must admit I’m hardly an avid viewer of 5*) but saw the rest. I rather liked the series. My favourite episode was the penultimate one, which involved the non-Alpha team leader Dr. Rosen and the Alphas being accused of harbouring (unwittingly) a double agent.

It did take me a little while to get into it. The first two (well, episodes 2 and 3) didn’t grab me right away, but unlike the exercise in hopeless masochism which was the viewing of Outcasts I am glad I kept watching.

There wasn’t a single antagonist throughout the series, but there was a collective one: the terrorist Alpha organisation Red Flag. I thought that the treatment of terrorism (given the psychological aftermath of 9/11) was well-balanced, with the ‘good guys’ often in disagreement about whether hard or soft power was the way to combat terrorism and Red Flag itself portrayed as a violent but not unthinking group.

The basic formula behind Alphas is tried and tested (as above, X-Men and Heroes have done similar things) which does create a problem: how do you make powers that aren’t identical to other shows and how do you add some originality?

Alphas does a reasonably good job of not copying and pasting powers. Yes, there’s a chap who’s very strong, but if he weren’t there it would be a glaring omission. Gary, an autistic chap, and his ability to manipulate wireless communications is perhaps the most original and interesting. Generally, the power level is less than X-Men, and far less than the sometimes over the top Heroes. The series is about people (rather flawed people, as Dr. Rosen doubles as their therapist as well as boss) with powers, rather than cool powers who happen to have people attached. Sometimes the episodes were not as engaging as they could have been and some more special effects would’ve been nice.

I intend to watch the next series, assuming it gets made and filters through to freeview. I think Alphas has room for improvement but is pretty good.

Thaddeus

Alphas, on 5* at 10pm

A while ago I saw a discussion about this programme, but, as is often the case, it wasn’t on Freeview. I don’t watch 5* often, but yesterday caught some of the 2007 CGI Beowulf film and saw an ad for Alphas.

The next episode (airs tonight) is number 3, and the second can be seen (for a few hours anyway) on the Channel Five website. Unfortunately I didn’t see the first episode, but there we are.

The premise is not all that original (people suddenly start developing cool mutations that give them strange powers), and will be familiar to anyone who watched the excellent X-Men films or Heroes.

Episode 2 was a little hit and miss, but it is a new series and I’ll probably give it a go for a few weeks and see how it progresses. Some of the powers do look to be a little more interesting than usuak (one chap has a sort of rational predictive power, not quite prophecy but similar to it), although there is the obligatory strong man and persuasive woman.

I hope it ends up better than Heroes. I watched almost all of series 1, but missed series 2 (it clashed with House) and didn’t really feel the need to watch it later. People not getting killed (in both books and series like this) is something I dislike and (Isaac, I think his name was, aside) Heroes was pretty bad at that. It’s hard to build up dramatic tension or feel worried for someone if you know that the man next to them who has just been introduced and is wearing a red Star Trek uniform is going to be the one taking the bullet.

The Walking Dead has also made a return, but has jumped from Channel Five to FX (not Freeview) so hopefully, like Alphas, it will make a free-to-air appearance in a little while. I enjoyed the first series, but was surprised by how brief it was (just six episodes) given the American habit of mega-series with 20 or so episodes.

I hope the next time a British firm tries making something they spend a little less on special effects and a bit more on writing. I tried to like Outcasts. I did. It even had the (occasional) good moment, but you can’t transmit a virus by vibrating air molecules and even if you could the virus wouldn’t stop being there when the transmission halted.

Last (but very much not least) The Big Bang Theory returns this Thursday at 8pm on E4.

Thaddeus