No Ordinary Family followed their most promising episode with a 14 year old overseeing major and complicated surgery, the introduction of lip gloss-as-kryptonite and even less Amy Acker plus more procedural-type nonsense. Not good.How does one take the show seriously following a 14 year old overseeing major surgery while his mother, who hasn't performed surgery since med school, does the heavy lifting? Stephanie Powell isn't Andy Brown. On Everwood, Ephram did help Treat and his beard deliver a child. Greg Berlanti created the show and had a large part in that particular story. And the story worked because Treat portrayed a doctor and his son merely held blankets and water. I'm aware that No Ordinary Family focuses on people with superpowers. J.J. became the smartest man in the world with his superpowers; however, MAJOR SURGERY?!?
The injured character is none other than the evil Mr. Litschfield, the math teacher who resented the improvement of J.J. Litschfield opens the arc by failing JJ's friend because he suspects blatant cheating. JJ deems the grade unfair because he only tutored the friend. JJ decides to hack into the school system so that he can change his friend's grade. Of course, he gets caught. Later, Jim argues that his son made a mistake and the crime should be forgotten, even though JJ should be punished for hacking to the school system and attempting to change someone's grade. But the writers must spend as much time developing characters as they do eating pastries in the writers room so the math teacher remains a bad guy despite the fact that he should report JJ to the school and the police. Nevertheless, Jim treats Litschfield as the villain, Litschfield drives off and gets hit by the nefarious carjackers who've gripped the town with fear.
At the hospital, we learn surgery is impossible and that Litschfield will die with or without surgery. JJ decides to use his powers for good so he studies medical books for about 45 seconds, fails to convince his parents to help him with the surgery and goes to the hospital himself. Steph discovers an empty room and takes off for the hospital where she eventually preps for surgery. The duo, plus Jim, manage to bypass the multitude of nurses, doctors and other staff members in the hospital so this must be the worst hospital in America. JJ and Steph engage in the most cliche-ridden surgical procedure until everything works out and Litschfield lives. Post-surgery, he tells JJ that the near-death experience taught him to let JJ's crime be forgotten.
The story didn't resolve the issues between Litschfield and JJ as much as it delayed the issues until the writers need to fill ten minutes with a useless plot. JJ, of course, becomes a selfless hero because of his daring and courageous decision to perform major surgery without experience. I know that isn't it. It is because he saved the life of a man trying to ruin his. Oh, ABC, you are nothing without LOST. NOTHING.
Meanwhile, Jim dealt with the possibility of losing his powers forever. I had high hopes for this particular story. Unfortunately, the story fell flat on its face. Throughout the episode, Jim would lose his powers and then regain the powers. Katie's hypothesis was that Jim had a virus that messed with his immune system and, naturally, his abilities. The loss of powers frustrated the man as a gang of carjackers terrorized drivers all over the city. Eventually, Jim stopped the bad guys because this is network television and the show has embraced its procedural-ness, and we learned that lip gloss temporarily messed up his powers. LIP GLOSS. Katie then remarked that lip gloss is the man's krpytonite.
Daphne continued to change her identity because of the boy from last week until she realized that she needs to be herself, and not someone else, if she wants an honest, healthy relationship with the boy. She realizes she needs to figure out who she is before that happens. By far, this was the most natural story of the episode so, naturally, this was the C story.
Sylar II continued to charm Katie and Dr. King injected the man with a green liquid. Sylar II also met Steph face-to-face. The plot thickens.
Sonny Postiglione and Leigh Dana Jackson wrote the episode. Tom Verica directed it.
Obviously, I didn't like the episode. Can a show 8 episodes into its first season jump the shark? If that's possible, No Ordinary Family did it with JJ overseeing major surgery. What a disaster.
SCREENPLAY OF THE DAY
Hannah and Her Sisters--Written By Woody Allen--http://www.awesomefilm.com/script/hannah.html
THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK
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