Misfits - Why not?

Misfits is a British series broadcast from 2009 to 2013. And oh boy, is it Bri'ish! No American series could handle such a great amount of adult topics. Certainly, Americans have no problem with violence. But since this series tells the story of a bunch of horny teenagers, it cannot live without a drastic amount of sexuality, and viewers are granted more than a peek through the keyhole. 

The series indeed reminds me of a title of a weird, weird zombie movie – Dellamorte, Dellamore (literally translates: Of Death, of Love). Each episode features at least one death or one explicit sex scene, I swear (and they do, too). The plot revolves around five teenagers who are forced to do community service because of minor offenses, but everything gets much worse when a supernatural thunderstorm strikes them (and, as the viewer is to find out, many other people, too) and they suddenly get superpowers. These superpowers are meant to be the fulfillment of wishes in the Freudian sense: Even the paradoxical and bad ones, nightmares, everything. 

Simon, Kelly, Alisha, Curtis and Nathan - hitting puberty while struck by lightning. Source.

The message of the series is thus similar to the story of The Monkey’s Paw by William Wymark Jacobs (†1943): Be careful what you wish for. You’d better be happy with what you are, even if you are a miserable young delinquent. These could have been Alisha’s thoughts exactly when she found out that everyone who touches her immediately wants to have sex with her, taking her desire to be desirable much too far. The only one who really profits from the supernatural thunderstorm seems to be Nathan (Robert Sheehan), but I will let you find out on your own what happens. 

Speaking of Nathan: Many started to miss him once he was replaced at the beginning of the second part of the series. Nathan is a young man who clearly has daddy and general authority-related issues, is constantly horny and a true pain in the ass to the rest of the group. Many fans have argued that from the moment he left the series went downhill, but I don’t think so. Rudy is more than a worthy replacement, and Joseph Gilgun does a good job portraying a character who couldn’t be more self-contradictory. During the mysterious thunderstorm, his soul was split, and now he has to deal with a Doppelganger of himself. Ultimately, it is hard to tell who the real Rudy is – the constantly cursing jerk or the nice chap who chooses his words carefully. As a matter of fact, the slow replacement of the main roles brings a much-needed breath of fresh air into the series (fellow time travelers agree).

Misfits - Trailer

As you can tell by now, one of the series’ greatest virtues (if you can call it that) is that it is really, really weird. A guy who can control the flow of milk becomes a raging murderer? Why not. A zombie cat infects a group of cheerleaders, resulting in a fatal killing spree? Certainly. Nothing seems impossible. By the end of the series, Rudy starts visiting a support group where the creators seem to have deposited those ideas which were not worthy of an entire episode, which doesn’t mean that they aren’t absolutely adorbs (One guy is just a turtle. Brilliant!).

So there you have it: A series which offers (almost) everything, be it love, be it tragedy, be it all the awkwardness in between. Life ain’t easy, but it is all the drama that makes it worthwhile. Go and watch Misfits, I dare you.