The "misfits" are taken by probation worker Sally (Alex Reid) to assist and entertain the residents of a nursing home, who appear to spend most of their days slow-dancing in near-silence. Telepath Kelly (Lauren Socha) finds her ability to read minds come in useful when dealing with taciturn old men who wants cup of tea, but Nathan is more distracted by gorgeous blonde volunteer Ruth (Amy Beth Hayes), whom he starts a lustful relationship with back at her grandmother's house. In one of many amusing sequences, Nathan and Ruth have sex on a sluggish stair-lift on their way upstairs to a bedroom, before Nathan learns the awful truth mid-coitus when youthful, buxom Ruth is transformed into a climaxing, wrinkled 83-year-old woman! It's Jack Nicholson's nauseating smooch with an old hag in The Shining, given an American Pie twist.
It turns out Ruth was affected by the thunderstorm that rolled across town, as it granted her a desire to be young again -- setting up the likelihood that other people in Misfits' universe have been blessed/cursed with extraordinary abilities -- meaning we have a readymade supply of "supers" to meet, befriend or defeat, a la Smallville. Indeed, a subplot concerned Nathan's would-be stepdad Jeremy being spotted running around the streets naked at night -- bizarre behaviour Nathan believes is evidence of a "perversion" he can use to get rid of his mother's new boyfriend, before realizing Jeremy's likewise been transformed by the storm into believing he's a yapping Jack Russell.
Ultimately, this episode was all about Nathan developing maturity in how he deals with old people and his mother's need for a relationship. Commendably, there wasn't a radical transformation of opinion in the boy (he still ran a mile when craggy Ruth approached him on a Zimmer frame), and his acceptance of Jeremy was still grudging, but that made it all the more believable. Credit too for writer Howard Overman taking a dark turn, as Nathan eventually got over the pain of beautiful Ruth lying to him (or rather the disappointment she's old enough to be his great-grandmother), only to find her dead in her armchair when he came over to apologize -- a photo album chronicling her early life by her side. Still, at least Nathan gave Ruth a few days of good memories and a feeling of being wanted, which is pretty much what the probation office hoped would be achieved. It's quite a delight to have a superhero drama where a "mission" reflects real-world generational concerns of modern times.
Unusually, both of the main subplots both revolved around the same charater, so everyone else only had a few choice scenes and moments to leave an impression. We saw that Simon (Iwan Rheon) has an internet chat-buddy who is refusing to send him photos of herself, and that someone knows the group killed their previous probation worker and is now taunting them via flyers stuck to the inside of their lockers. Beyond that, there wasn't much going on to get excited about, although I'm enjoying how the writing manages to undercut your instinctual reactions to certain developments -- best evidenced here by the derision everyone shows when a clichéd "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID" flyer was discovered. The best thing about Misfits right now is how the characters all act more realistically than their coevals on Heroes (where the writing would undoubtedly have ensured Nathan planted a kiss on dead Ruth's cheek), and the amount of acerbic putdowns, profanity and nudity goes some way to giving Misfits the edginess its smallscreen, American contemporaries lack.
19 November 2009
E4, 10pm
written by: Howard Overman directed by: Tom Green starring: Antonia Thomas (Alisha), Lauren Socha (Kelly), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Curtis), Iwan Rheon (Simon), Robert Sheehan (Nathan), Alex Reid (Sally), Amy Beth Hayes (Ruth) & Nicholas Burns (Police Officer)
