E4 have commissioned a six-part comedy-drama called Misfits from writer Howard Overman (Merlin, Hustle). The show concerns a group of delinquent teenagers who are caught in a freak storm while on community service and gain superpowers...
Party-girl Alisha (Antonia Thomas) discovers she can send people into a sexual frenzy with one touch; tough girl Kelly (Lauren Socha) can hear people's thoughts; one-time sporting hero Curtis (Nathan Stewart Jarrett) discovers he has the ability to rewind time; introverted nerd Simon (Iwan Rheon) can turn invisible; and smart aleck Nathan (Robert Sheehan) discovers he's... well, totally unaffected.
They're clearly jumping on the Heroes bandwagon, but hopefully Misfits will overcome a derivative premise with clever plots, funny scripts and good acting... but nothing about it has me excited. I'm braced for a Heroes knock-off, although the spiel from E4 claims it'll resemble a super-powered Skins, which sounds more promising. There's certainly potential in the idea of teenagers coping with super-powers that embellish their own personalities (the shy geek literally turns invisible, etc.), so I still say it's one to keep an eye on.
Filming on Misfits begins next summer, for a late-2010 transmission.
