Misfits: Episode One

March 2, 2023 9:14 AM - Season 1, Episode 1

[SERIES TRAILER] When a group of young adults on court-ordered community service gets caught in a freak storm on the first day, some of them discover they have superpowers. It's like X-Men, if instead of struggling with the responsibilities of their powers, they all just sort of went on with their crappy lives.

Starring Iwan Rheon, Robert Sheehan, Lauren Socha, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, and Antonia Thomas.

Created by Howard Overman.

Currently streaming in the US on Hulu, The Roku Channel, Pluto, and freevee. JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (13 comments total)

This is one of my all-time favorite series. Kiddo hasn't seen it, so we just started a rewatch. They're loving it, too.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:16 AM on March 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

Oh, I loved this show back in the day. It was quite good and fun! It lost momentum for me after Robert Sheehan left, but Joseph Gilgun was still a delight to watch.
posted by Kitteh at 9:28 AM on March 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

I loved this show -- IIRC there was a bit of a slump in the middle as some cast members left and it looked like the writers were at a bit of a loss, but the last season was pretty good again.

This series also spoiled me for the Ramsay Bolton reveal in Game of Thrones, because as soon as the character was introduced (incognito) it was obvious that they would not have wasted Iwan Rheon on some random bit character.
posted by confluency at 10:42 AM on March 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

I appreciate that Robert Sheehan has found success in not one, but two groups of dysfunctional people with weird super powers.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:41 PM on March 2, 2023 [10 favorites]

Robert Sheehan does charming asshole so well.
posted by Tabitha Someday at 5:07 PM on March 2, 2023 [5 favorites]

This show was such a launching pad for so many actors. Apparently this got optioned for an American remake, which I'm glad did not happen. Part of the joy of this show is the fact that the characters make very realistic bad decisions.

There are some REALLY ENORMOUS plot holes, but *handwave handwave*.

I liked seasons 1-3, was disappointed by the bits I saw of 4 and did not go any further.

There are some webisodes that are still on YouTube (like the Las Vegas one that comes after the end of S2). Each of the characters also had a Twitter account for the first couple of seasons. Simon's had a lot of interesting extras, like short videos and such.
posted by rednikki at 6:40 PM on March 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

It took me less than a second at the 0:14 mark to mentally go “Hey, a Saab C900! One of the joys of having a strange older car is spotting them in movies and shows! Oh wait, this is a British show isn’t it? So the production team probably bought that cheaply from someone who lives in a ULEZ. That can’t bode… yeah, nevermind.”
posted by MarchHare at 9:30 PM on March 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

This will probably be my next bingewatch, since I loved Extraordinary and don't know if/when it'll be back.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:05 AM on March 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Just finished the first episode, and it's definitely got a more serious vibe than Extraordinary, but scratches the same itch. (And I wonder if some of the resemblances--the one who can rewind time a short bit, the one who doesn't know what their superpower is--is intentional.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:41 PM on March 3, 2023

The Nathan character is really annoying.
posted by porpoise at 7:59 PM on March 4, 2023

Apparently this got optioned for an American remake, which I'm glad did not happen.

This actually kinda sorta looks like a remake of an American series. Am I the only person here who remembers NBC's Misfits of Science?
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 4:31 PM on March 6, 2023

I never watched Misfits of Science, but I remember hearing about it. I think that there's sort of a mini-sub-genre of TV SF that's "a group of people with superpowers, but not really a superhero team"; Mutant X and Generation X, although both kind of derived from Marvel Comics (Generation X started as an X-Men spinoff in the comics), were like that.
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:33 AM on March 7, 2023

I happened on this on FreeVee. This first episode, rude and crude, didn’t think I would continue because Nathan, such an ass, but by the third episode I was hooked.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:14 PM on October 22, 2023 [1 favorite]