And If You See Them...

[rionaleonhart]

Yesterday, I watched the first two-and-a-half episodes of Misfits with reipan and hippyjolteon.

My main impression so far (apart from 'the opening credits are gorgeous'): it's a bit like Torchwood, in that it's about a group of generally-unadmirable characters dealing with weird things, but the execution is about eighty million times better. Also, seeing the first episode of Misfits shortly after watching the first episode of Dead Set is an incredibly weird experience, because the scene in which Misfits Kelly barges in to warn them about Tony is more or less exactly the scene in which Dead Set Kelly first breaks into the Big Brother house to get away from the zombies. TONY'S EYES EVEN LOOK THE SAME AS THE EYES OF THE DEAD SET ZOMBIES.

Conclusion: the Misfits need to find themselves trapped in a zombie apocalypse.

Kelly is probably my favourite character at the moment. Nathan is a brilliant creation but a difficult man to love.


Prior to our Misfits-watching, I discovered a typewritten note, addressed to my dad at a place he lived before I was born. It began thus:

Dear Mr [Riona's Dad]
I hope you will forgive me for approaching you in this manner but it has been brought to my attention by a reliable source that you have a serious interest in Freemasonry and that you are of sound and trustworthy character.
I therefore wish to invite you to our next meeting in which potential members of the Brotherhood will be invited to ask questions and we will have the opportunity to meet each other and perhaps consider taking things a step further.

Highly amused, I asked my parents about it. It turned out that my mum actually sent it to him when he was reading a book about Freemasonry. She insists that he was fooled and went around telling people about it; he insists he wasn't. Regardless of whether he was tricked or not, I sort of love that.

Comments

[lotus0kid.livejournal.com]

Could you please tell me what the heck Misfits is about? I've heard wonderful things about it, but all I've seen are pictures of five photogenic young actors in orange jumpsuits. I think superpowers might be involved, but I can't be sure.

[rionaleonhart]

So far, the plot seems to be 'five young offenders get superpowers, fail to become superheroes'. They're far too busy dealing with their own problems to bother with saving the world.

[lotus0kid.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'll take your word for it since none of the pictures I've seen have looked like they're using superpowers. Maybe I got spoiled by Heroes where every promo pic had actors with glowing hands and whatnot.

[rionaleonhart]

They're fairly visually unspectacular superpowers (mindreading! invisibility!), which might explain it. (And then there are the minor characters with incredibly rubbish powers. One character has the power to turn people bald.)

[lotus0kid.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. (Okay, so there are characters besides just the five- I honestly thought there might have been some kind of apocalyptic event that wiped out everyone but them, because none of the pictures ever had so much as an extra or two hanging out in the background.)

[derryderrydown.livejournal.com]

My main problem with Nathan is that I keep calling him Simon in my head, because he reminds me of Simon Amstell. And then I get confused as to what Simon's called, because there can't be two people called Simon, because this is fiction.

[rionaleonhart]

He does rather resemble Mr Amstell, doesn't he?

What I tend to do, because I'm terrible with names, is learn one name and then unthinkingly apply it to everyone in a group. In my head, all of my friend Amy's housemates are called Amy. For a long time, I thought of both inappropriately and anewcitylife as Chris.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Me too - and Simon-in-Misfits played Simon Amstell's love interest in Grandma's House, which only confuses the issue more.

[wanttobeatree.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reminding me I need to watch Dead Set. EXTREMELY BELATEDLY, I KNOW.

[rionaleonhart]

It's good! Also incredibly depressing, but as a Supernatural fan I imagine you'll be able to brace yourself.

[wanttobeatree.livejournal.com]

I marathoned it all yesterday and went 8DDDDDD Not that it wasn't immensely depressing, but, yknow, SUPERNATURAL. Zombies are a nice refreshing break from that.

(I think the part that distressed me the most was Patrick shitting in the bin.)

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

I keep being told by one person to watch Misfits, but then I've seen Heroes, and er, is it enjoyable?

Also, LOL at your mother :D

[rionaleonhart]

Well, I'm enjoying it so far, but I am only three episodes in. (I never watched Heroes, so I'm quite curious about what this programme did to put everyone off superhero shows for life.)

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

It started out good, and then became shit.

[rionaleonhart]

Well, so far Misfits has managed half of that!

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

I may have to give it a shot, then. And I've always felt that Heroes didn't utilise Ridiculous Superpowers enough.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I hope BBC America shows it.

And yes, zombie apocalypses are a good crack!trope to throw at many situations. (Except the ones that already have zombies in of course.)

[rionaleonhart]

It's from Channel 4, rather than the BBC, but - hang on, Wikipedia informs me that BBC America does indeed broadcast Channel 4 and ITV programmes sometimes. What madness is this? Good madness, but I'm still puzzled. (Then again, Channel 4 seem to film quite a few of their programmes at the BBC Television Centre. Apparently, all of our channels are friends.)

[strangefrontier.livejournal.com]

Your mum's a bit of a legend for pulling that prank!

[rionaleonhart]

I was delighted to learn about it. I laughed so much when I read the note, and then I learnt that it was a trick and it became even better. (And I told her about this comment. She was amused.)

[amy-wolf.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't get me drawn into The Misfits. I've heard things that really put me off (which I won't discuss, as I don't know if they're spoilery or not), and I didn't like Torchwood all of that much with the "generally-unadmirable characters doing weird things" aspect (I can enjoy a book or a movie centered around characters I don't like, but not a series of anything). And I've actually ordered Mentalist DVDs, so you're very good at drawing me into things.

....Dead Set, I may just give a chance. Even though I think Simon Pegg has a point about fast zombies.

[rionaleonhart]

Torchwood didn't really work for me, either. Misfits seems a lot better so far, but I don't think it's going to become one of the things I talk about a lot*, so I don't imagine I'll be drawing anyone in.

Ooh, I hope you enjoy The Mentalist! And Dead Set is rather good. I'm not generally a fan of fast zombies, either, but I felt it worked in Dead Set. (The premise couldn't have worked without a rapid outbreak, so I have to forgive it, really. Plus Brooker originally planned to set it over a longer period of time and show how the zombies slowed down as they decayed, so he's obviously thought the speed of the zombies.)

* I've said this in the past about Glee and David Mitchell, admittedly.

[amy-wolf.livejournal.com]

I hope so. At the very least, it'll allow me to write that Mentalist/Psych crossover I've got stuck in the back of my mind (does Red John still target fake psychics in general?).

Yeah, I think slow zombies are generally a better idea, but I'm not completely set against stuff with fast zombies.

[svz-insanity.livejournal.com]

I JUST STARTED WATCHING MISFITS. Ahaha, it makes me so happy.

I think it would be awesome if they were in a zombie apocalypse. (It's one of my favorite Glee fic premises; so imagining the shenanigans of these five in a similar scenario makes me giggle. Simon would probably be all ~knowledgeable~.)

[rionaleonhart]

The more I watch, the more convinced I become that those five in a zombie apocalypse would be amazing. Nathan would taunt the zombies and endanger them all, naturally.

[emmarrrrr.livejournal.com]

I KEEP HEARING ABOUT MISFITS and am unsure if I want to watch it. As it is, I rather fail at keeping up with TV shows that are currently being aired so...

[rionaleonhart]

There are only six episodes to a series, so it shouldn't be too tricky to keep up with. Also, it's really good, or at least the first series has been. But don't check it out if you don't want to!

[emmarrrrr.livejournal.com]

In fact I bought the first episode off iTunes and watched it in class yesterday and have now seen the first five episodes!

Nathan is my favourite. Although I do seem to be going OH, SIMON quite a lot. Especially at the end of episode five.

[anamour.livejournal.com]

Eee Misfits! I love Kelly as well. Zombies seems to be one of the few things they haven't dealt with yet. I think it's due.

[rionaleonhart]

Zombies would fit in so well! Although the mindless 'be virtuous, beeeee viiiiirtuous' group they have to deal with at the end of the first series are possibly even more frightening than actual zombies.

[invisiblecake.livejournal.com]

Yay Misfits! I hope you like it as it goes on. I really like it a lot, although I'm very impatient and hate waiting for each series. :P

I think Nathan has become my favorite, he's so adorably unlikeable. I love it.

[rionaleonhart]

I've finished the first series now, and it's so good! (And there are so few episodes per series! I fear I've been spoiled by American television.) Nathan does sort of grow on you, doesn't he?