Sunday night was the fifth episode of 'Misfits' series 3. As usual I raced back from the quiz (we came 5th, an improvement on last week’s 9th but still not up to our usual standard…), watched it on E4+1 and this is what I thought.
This one was a Kelly focused episode… or was it? This week the ASBO 5 are doing some community payback outside a Hospital, Kelly wanders inside and comes across a Coma patient, Jen. Kelly touches Jen and the two swap bodies so Kelly is in a Coma and the Jen is running around in Kelly’s body, trying to pick up her life where she left off. This leads to a whole heap of trouble and Kelly misses the date she had arranged with the gorgeous Seth. Meanwhile Rudy starts his anger management course and his clone starts sharing rather too much with the councillor…
I know what you’re thinking, this is ‘Misfits’ does ‘Freaky Friday’ and you’re right, that’s exactly what it is. What’s good about it is that, instead of making a carbon copy of every other body swap storyline in history, they decided to create some tension by putting one of the characters in a Coma. This totally changes the dynamic of the story and shapes it into something quite emotional. Kelly is totally helpless; her consciousness is stuck in an inert body, no one knows that this has happened except Jen and she doesn’t want to give up her new found freedom. In one scene Jen threatens to turn off the life support machine that’s keeping Kelly alive, my heart was in my mouth! There’s a genuine sense of ‘I’ve no idea how she’s going to get out of this’ which they maintain throughout the episode.
Lauren Socha is the centre of this episode and she has the unenviable job of portraying two different characters. She kind of succeeds, she does Kelly’s gobby charm with ease but I felt like the delineation between Kelly and Jen was a bit wishy washy. I would have liked Jen to have been noticeably different but all they did was put a jacket and a dress on her and have her hair down. She didn’t even change her accent that much and I would have liked her to have had a slightly different way of speaking, if only so it was easier to differentiate between the two characters.
One actor that clearly doesn’t have a problem with taking on two different roles is Joe Gilgun who completely comes into his own in this episode (and looks set to carry on that trend into next week). I thought they’d have to ditch the cloning power because of limited scope but it’s proving to be a very useful plot device. Gilgun tackles both elements of Rudy’s personality with the greatest of ease; I really enjoy watching him.
There seems to be a bit of a plot developing between Curtis, Simon and Alisha of which I’m not massively fond. It started the other week when Curtis was asking Alisha about what he was like when they were together. This week Alisha walks in on Curtis seeing to himself in a cupboard and Simon jumps to the wrong conclusion. I’m not massively fond of this new direction, in fact I actively dislike it, I can’t see it amounting to anything and if it’s not going anywhere what’s the point (so true in so many situations)? I also didn’t’ like the fact that Curtis turned himself into a girl in order to play with himself. Why exactly? Because when a girl does it, it doesn’t make a mess? Or because we needed reminding of what Curtis’s power is because it’s useless and therefore has to be shoehorned into an episode? I’ll let you work out from that why I think they included that quick gender swap…
Speaking of powers there’s a distinct lack of power usage in this episode. I think that may have been a conscious decision due to last week’s power-heavy episode; it’s not a good thing or a bad thing, just something I picked up on. Aside from Curtis’s sex shift for self gratification, Rudy’s power is played for laughs which works really well and Alisha’s proves its worth when she sees through Kelly’s eyes and helps the gang work out where she is.
It’s really nice to see Seth being integrated into the show as a full time character, he totally steals this episode. He is one of the more interesting characters; his redemptive storyline adds quite a lot of depth to the role which is nice. Matthew McNulty is doing a fantastically moody performance and, I may have mentioned this before, he is completely and utterly gorgeous! He and Socha are so endearing in their scenes, it warms the cockles of your heart to see them get together :-)
Alas as one character becomes a fully-fledged main part another bows out. We say goodbye to Shaun the Probation officer in this episode! I’m so sad! I was beginning to like him!
Not a classic ‘Misfits’ episode but it’s notable for two , very different but equally great turns from McNulty and Gilgun and a nice twist on the usual body swap story. Let me know what you thought in the comments below!
Now, who wants some…
Reasons to be Cheerful :-)
1. The BBC TV Christmas Trailer. It’s made of AMAZING! If this doesn’t get you in the festive mood there’s no hope for you! I want to play twister with a Cyberman whilst wearing a Christmas jumper!
2. Gary Oldman has hinted at a sequel to the critically acclaimed (and NerdyRachelMay approved) ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’. I’m reading the source novel of ‘TTSS’ at the minute and I’m enjoying it. I don’t know anything about ‘Smiley’s People’ but as I loved the first film I’d hope it was just as good if not better. There’s no official line yet so watch this space.
3. Alice Eve has joined the cast of JJ Abrams ‘Star Trek’ sequel! I like Alice Eve, she was in the underrated ‘Starter for 10’ (a film about University Challenge… what’s not to love???) and is, of course, the daughter of Trevor Eve. Brits breaking
4. ‘Horrible Histories’ have won a Children’s Bafta! I’m slightly obsessed with ‘Horrible Histories’ at the moment. The other night I got caught in a YouTube loop just watching clip after clip from the show. My favourites are Historical Paramedics, Bob Hale with the History report and A Shouty man :-) It’s just the best, if you’re watching telly and see it on the CBBC channel give it a look, I promise you’ll know the songs before you ever realise… “LITERALLY!”
That’s me done for today!
Goodbye till next time
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