Misfits

Misfits is a television series made up of five seasons which were created between 2009 and 2013. The series was created by Howard Overman and there were a total of fourteen directors with the most common ones being Tom Green and Jonathan Van who directed six episodes each. Starring Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Curtis), Joseph Gilgun (Rudy), Iwan Rheon (Simon), Lauren Socha (Kelly), Antonia Thomas (Alisha) and Robert Sheehan (Nathan), Misfits is about a group of teenagers doing community service who get struck by lightning during a mysterious storm which then enables them to develop superpowers.

I believe that Misfits falls under the genres of urban drama, sci-fi and comedy. The fact that it is an ‘urban drama’ is immediately recognisable in the first episode mainly due to the director’s choice of mise-en-scene and sound. In the opening sequence, the audience are introduced to the six teenagers who are getting ready for their community service. There is diversity within these characters regarding their race, gender and also the way they choose to wear their orange overalls. Urban areas are known for having higher crime rates so community service can be seen as a stereotype of these places and they are also known for having diversity. The opening theme song is ‘Echoes’ by The Rapture and it is in the genre of dance-punk which is another stereotype of urban areas and is likely to be popular amongst teenagers, additionally indicating that the target audience is teenagers/ young adults. The colloquial register used by the teenagers is another convention of an urban drama, with the use of lexis such as “you’re a prick man” and “dickhead”.

The sci-fi element is shown through the supernatural focus which develops from the powers that the teenagers gained in the storm. These powers include immortality, invisibility and the ability to turn back time which of course meant that special effects had to be used in the production of the show which is a convention of the sci-fi genre. The character of Nathan makes the comedy genre much more apparent in the show as he is very sarcastic and is constantly seen making jokes, often to annoy the other characters and this is amusing for the audience.

The narrative of Misfits is mostly linear as it follows a ‘beginning to end’ order and I believe the majority of the episodes could be placed into Todorov’s narrative theory because the equilibrium at the beginning of the episode is most often returned to at the end, with disruptions in the middle. In the first episode, Curtis uses his power to have a flash forward which provides himself and the audience with an alternative narrative which does not fit into the linear structure and instead, is a split narrative for that short period of time. As the episodes develop, the audience begin to understand that the power each character has received reflects their personality. For example, Simon has the power of invisibility and this reflects his characteristics because he is very shy and wants to hide away from the other characters as he does not fit in with them. Curtis used to be a runner but after getting caught with drugs, he was banned from the sport and we learn that he misses it immensely so he was given the power to turn back time because he wishes he could run again and regrets what he did.

There are three main representations in misfits which revolve around age, gender and regional identity. Youth is represented very negatively because the stereotypical characteristics of teenagers are used such as carelessness, violence, laziness, rudeness and being disruptive. The themes of crime and community service portrays teenagers as menaces in our society, particularly regarding theft, alcohol, drugs and the gang also have a habit of murdering their probation workers. There is also a focus on the problems teenagers are likely to face regarding how they are viewed by others, family issues and sexual relationships which should be relatable for the audience. The character of Alisha portrays females in a negative and sexual light as they are represented as always wanting male attention and the power Alisha is given means that if someone touches her, they will immediately want to have sex with her. She is quite often wearing low cut tops, exposing her breasts and her two main relationships throughout the series usually focus on her sex-life. An example of how regional identity is represented is through the character of Kelly who is a Northerner. At the beginning, the other characters make fun of her accent and this, along with her clothing and attitude, portray her to be a ‘chav’ which is quite a negative identity to have.

In conclusion, I loved the series Misfits because the strong character development enabled me to become emotionally attached to the characters however, I only watched up to series three because I did not like how they changed the cast for seasons four and five as I had grown to really like the original characters. Each episode has a new plot twist and a different situation the characters have to face which kept me interested throughout the seasons and from what I watched, I would rate the show 9.5/10.