No Ordinary Family is a new series from ABC about the St. Cloud family, a typical dysfunctional family with an unhappy dad (Michael Chiklis; The Shield, Fantastic Four), Overworked mom (Julie Benz; Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Dexter), peer pressured daughter (Kay Panabaker; CSI), and son with a learning disorder (Jimmy Bennett; Shorts).  They go on a vacation to Brazil and wind up in a plane crash.  All of them survive and they make it back to their normal lives.  Until they slowly learn that they all have superpowers, which they think are from an odd substance in the lake their plane crashed into.  The series is from Greg Berlanti (Eli Stone, Brothers & Sisters) and Jon Harmon Feldman (Tru Calling, Reunion).  Christina Chang (Live Free or Die Hard) is in a supporting role as a cop at Chiklis’ precent (he’s a sketch artist).  Also in supporting roles are Romany Malco (Weeds) as Chicklis’ best friend and the always awesome Autumn Reeser (The O. C.) as Benz’ lab assistant.

First let me just restate what I always preface these types of reviews with, this is just a review of the pilot and the show could change wildly which is why we at Media Decay have a 3 episode rule for reviewing tv series, but this is an advanced look at a pilot so here you go.

Basically I could have forgone most of that plot description above by saying, “Did you like Heroes but wish it had more family drama?” If you said yes then this show is for you.  I hate saying this but I really hated this pilot.  It was bland and unoriginal and everything was extremely generic.  But let me go into some detail.

First there’s the powers.  They’re standard powers.  I’m sure ABC will ruin them in a promo but I’ll only reveal 3 since one isn’t given away till late in the episode.  There’s super speed, super strength, and mind reading.  Nothing really special there.  Seen it all a billion times.  This wouldn’t be a complaint if it was done the least bit originally but it’s predictable.  The guy who feels weak gets super strength and the woman who feels like she never has enough time gets super speed and of course the high school girl develops the mind reading.  It’s super cliche.  Even the reveals and the discovery of the powers is entirely boring.

Then we get to the acting.  Like everything else, it’s just bland and nothing special.  There is absolutely no chemistry between Benz and Chiklis and the family never feels at all related or familiar.  Just like cardboard cutouts.  I’m not really blaming the actors though because it seems like they were given very little to work with script wise.  You could tell Benz was trying pretty damn hard to break through the limited material.

We only see the supporting cast pretty briefly in this first episode, they’re basically the ones who know about the abilities, because they’re told in all but one case, which is another thing I had an issue with.  Why were these people so cavalier about revealing their secrets to these outsiders?  In the case of Autumn Reeser’s character she’s a virtual stranger to Benz.  Anyway all the supporting cast pretty much steal whatever scene they’re in, Malco especially.

I do have to give some credit here for the effects.  The effects are movie grade and feel natural and well done.  But we’ll see how this continues as the series goes on and they have a more restrictive budget and schedule to work with.

Anyway I don’t have much hope for the future of this show but I’ll try giving it another 2 episodes to grab me after it premieres.  Speaking of which No Ordinary Family premieres September 28th at 8pm on ABC and will air Tuesdays at 8 after that.