Chris Sims reviews Alphas

[james_davis_nicoll]

I'm linking to it less for the review and more for the slapfight that develops in the comments, although the observation about origins is one I hadn't made. It's not strictly true, because the episode is the origin of Koordination King, as he joins the ranks of Social Parasite Woman, Angry Black Man, The Annoying Nerd and Hostage Girl to fight crime.

Interesting that they've split the passive powers between one man and one woman and made one of the three heavy hitters female (I was going to compare her to Saturn Girl but SG was a receptive telepath, wasn't she? The classic Legion leaned towards giving the girls non-combat or at least non-damaging powers, like precog, gravity reduction and shadow-casting).

Less boring than No Ordinary Family without actually being interesting.

Spoiler for a show foreignlanders may not have seen:


Vincent Nigel-Murray died for this?

Comments

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Drawbacks: the strong guy has Dynamo's problem that the human body can't do the super-strong thing for too long. The coordinated guy has trouble getting into the right frame of mind. The woman with enhanced normal senses seems to shut the senses she is not enhancing off or at least mutes them. The guy with the ability to sense EMR normally outside the regular visible spectrum seems to be a high-functioning autistic.

What's the drawback the woman with mind-control stuggles with?

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

No one in their right mind would voluntarily associate with her?

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Unknown but present, given what she talked about with Hicks; one imagines that, if nothing else, she's probably on the team as a form of parole (given her conversation with Rosen about Hicks's situation being possibly similar).

Incidentally, Gary (Wifi Guy) is listed in that "page from his file" introduction as explicitly high-functioning autistic.

One thing I liked about the show was that all the families (well, of the existing team) were aware of the ability; Bill's wife was helping him calm down because she knew what would happen otherwise, Rachel's family fretted about her bad marriage prospects because of her "condition," and Gary's mom told him to please stop watching TV at the breakfast table. It's not about secrets, which is good.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

You would think part of parole would involve, I don't know, not using her power to make people give her stuff (although maybe what she does isn't covered by existing laws; it could be legally the worst they can get her for is panhandling).

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

You would think.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Although that would prevent the whole "please do not think of Dr Who as I flash this pamphlet at you while convincing you it is a warrent" violation of the suspect's civil liberties thing.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Actually, one of the most frustrating things I found about the show was Bill's "everybody, follow procedure" hangup. If he hasn't realized by now that he's not dealing with a Quantico-trained FBI team, then he's kind of hopeless.

And as pointed out by Rachel, he's a dick, to boot. He thinks he's dealing with, frankly, well-adjusted agents (which is why he can just grab some of Rachel's muffin, because he thinks "she doesn't mind, or she'd say something"), despite that their team leader is their shrink, and despite that he has (hell, takes advantage of) anger management issues. And really, who goes out of his way to antagonize a high-functioning autistic just for shits and giggles?

(Also, I wonder whether the information Nina was trying to get out of the front desk at the hotel was even warrant protected, or whether they could have gotten it on exigency. Question for Law and the Multiverse, maybe?)

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

despite that he has (hell, takes advantage of) anger management issues.

It would be interesting if it turned out that in this show the Alphas are less Homo Superior and more people rendered borderline dysfunctional by the necessary preconditions of their enhanced abilities. Like, you don't see a lot of people with Bill's power because it's eventually lethal to the person who has it and they tend to die before having kids. Although Bill is the only one in a successful long-term relationship that we see...

It may be that Kindly Old Doctor is deliberately seeking out people who are isolated because it's easier for him to manipulate them into accepting the team as a substitute for all the things they are missing in their lives.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

I didn't read them as Homo Superior, more Homo Munchkin: Min-maxed for one skill, but the GM was smart enough to provide drawbacks.

For all that, I did enjoy the show; if nothing else, I didn't feel it beat us over the head with introductions, explanations, or dumbing-down. Also, the actual scheme by the Ghost was kind of clever, and the characters didn't have to be idiots for it to work.

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

Not having watched more than the trailer, I suspect that she is guilty of "solicitation" under US law. According to wikipedia, there are three elements:

1. the encouraging, bribing, requesting, or commanding a person
2. to commit a substantive crime,
3. with the intent that the person solicited actually commit the crime.

Making that cop eat the ticket would be the underlying crime required in elements 2 & 3: "perverting the course of justice" or "obstruction of justice", in that she used her powers to prevent an officer of the law from his duty.


Sure, normally solicitation is used to convict johns. But the law fits!

[http://users.livejournal.com/krin_o_o_/]

> What's the drawback the woman with mind-control stuggles with?

It's not specifically said, but the implications with the Street Cop and later with Angry-Black-Guy is that it's some form of impulse-control. Maybe outright nyphomania (that would fit the stereotype tropes) or possibly just she becomes progressive amoral the harder she uses her power.

*edit* Yeah.. I think that's it. The more she controls other's actions, the less control she has over her own.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Dissocial personality disorder?

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

It took me five sittings to get through it, and then only because nothing else was on, and I was too tired to read or program.

[bwross.livejournal.com]

I just left it on in the background. The fact that it wasn't until this post that I realized that Bill wasn't just an ordinary FBI agent assigned to watchdog the team shows how much it grabbed my attention.

Although I did notice that this world is remarkably clean in the electromagnetic spectrum, with the communications travelling direct point to point and not just blatted all over the place in a blinding whiteout of flashes for EM sense boy (or maybe they did whan I wasn't paying attention?). As usual, I'm always impressed with how these characters can decode signals in their head.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Less boring than No Ordinary Family without actually being interesting.

Although for some reason what it reminded me of wasn't NOF but Human Target. Not sure why (aside from "I could be watching paint dry (http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1489) instead of this" angle).

[alyxyn.livejournal.com]

I didn't watch the show, but the trailers I've seen remind me of Mutant X. Although that may be because I misinterpreted Wifi guy's ability to see the EM spectrum as Brandon's lightening power.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

There's a lot less voguing than on Mutant X.

[sillymagpie.livejournal.com]

Nah, Saturn Girl could take people over with her powers--sometimes lots of people. I don't think it was something she used much in the classic Legion, tho'.

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

I chuckled mightily at the guy in comments who said "I am constantly bothered that writers today are so enamoured with their own witticisms that they've already written the review in their heads before the first ten minutes of the program/move have finished." Because, as much as I love Mordaunt Hall, film reviewer 80-odd years ago, he did the same thing. I seem to recall a critic of Poe's who did the same in the 1870s. It's not a "writers today" situation at all, but the desire to scream some variant of "GET OFFA MY LAWN" on the internet is apparently too great for some to resist.