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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

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Why is it that the UK has all the great televised sci-fi these days? (Except for Fringe. We have Fringe, and I love Fringe!) No, I’m not talking about Doctor Who. I’m talking about Misfits, which has just finished broadcasting its third season (its first without actor Robert Sheehan) in the UK, the episodes of which are being made available on Hulu beginning today!

Never heard of Misfits? Well, you might remember Emmet Asher-Perrin’s piece on the show from last year, where she makes an interesting comparison between the characters on the show and the characters in The Breakfast Club. Really, though, the best way to get to know the show is to bookmark the Misfits page on Hulu and watch all the episodes from the beginning. The entire series is available there.

Misfits tells the story of five teenagers — Nathan, Simon, Curtis, Alisha, and Kelly — who are doing community service. Not because they’re upstanding citizens, but because they’ve all been arrested. After a freak storm, they develop super powers. When people are looking to describe the show quickly, they inevitably say something like “It’s Heroes meets [insert any remotely-related sci-fi property here].” Comparisons like these don’t do the show justice, however, because it is unlike anything you’ve seen on American television.

Howard Overman, writer/creator of Misfits, has given us a show that, like its protagonists, refuses to follow rules. The characters are hugely unlikable, and yet you root for them every step of the way. The superpowers are besides the point. So much so that many people have them, not just the lead characters, which makes sense since a storm wouldn’t just affect five people in a clump and no one else. In a world where everyone has powers, the stories are forced to go beyond “good guys” and “bad guys.” Also, it’s the first television show I’ve ever seen that not only mentions afterbirth in a scene where a character gives birth, but shows it.

And can we talk about the fact that there are two black characters in a main cast of five? And it’s not even a “Black show!” It’s just a show! *gasp*

Misfits isn’t about fighting crime (the protagonists with powers are themselves criminals), nor is it about starting a superhero team (they don’t), it’s about struggling to find your place in the world even as the world continually shoves you down. Misfits is grounded in real characters for whom superpowers end up being a way to work through other problems they have. For example, Simon has no friends and continually feels ignored. His power? Invisibility. Alisha is an attractive girl who uses sex to get everything she wants. Her power? People desperately want to have sex with her when they touch her, which is not as cool a power as one might think. Misfits has the most realistic depiction of the implications of powers I’ve ever seen. With every episode, I go “Yes, that’s exactly how a real person would react to that!” These characters are brought to life by some of the most amazing young actors I’ve seen in a while, and the show has been racking up awards in the U.K..

Apparently, Overman is in the works to help co-create an American version of Misfits, as the British version has gotten increasingly popular on this side of The Pond because of its accessibility on Hulu. While I’m glad that the creator of the show is involved, I can’t help but think it highly unnecessary. I don’t understand why they can’t just sell the show as is to a network here. The British version of the show is the thing that’s doing well here. I don’t understand why everything has to be Americanized for us.

And that, kids, is the final reason why I’d encourage you to watch Misfits on Hulu. To show them that we think the show is perfect just as it is! If you’ve never before watched Misfits, get ready for a new addiction!


Teresa Jusino has a huge crush on Simon. She can be heard on the popular Doctor Who podcast, 2 Minute Time Lord, participating in a roundtable on Series 6.1. Her “feminist brown person” take on pop culture has been featured on websites like ChinaShopMag.com, PinkRaygun.com, Newsarama, and PopMatters.com. Her fiction has appeared in the sci-fi literary magazine, Crossed Genres; she is the editor of Beginning of Line, the Caprica fan fiction site; and her essay “Why Joss is More Important Than His ‘Verse” is included in Whedonistas: A Celebration of the Worlds of Joss Whedon By the Women Who Love Them, which is on sale now wherever books are sold! 2012 will see Teresa’s work in an upcoming non-fiction sci-fi anthology. Get Twitterpated with Teresa, “like” her on Facebook, or visit her at The Teresa Jusino Experience.

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Teresa Jusino

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Teresa Jusino was born the day Skylab fell. Coincidence? She doesn't think so. A native New Yorker, Jusino has been telling stories since she was three years old, and she wrote a picture book in crayon in nursery school. However, nursery school also found her playing the angel Gabriel in a Christmas pageant, and so her competing love of performing existed from an early age. Her two great loves competed all the way through early adulthood. She attended NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where she majored in Drama and English Literature, after which she focused on acting, performing in countless plays and musicals in and around New York City, as well as short films, feature length independent films, and the one time she got to play an FBI agent in a PBS thing, which she thought was really cool, because she got to wear sunglasses and a dark suit and look badass. Eventually, producing was thrown into the mix. For four years, she was a company member and associate producer for a theater company called Stone Soup Theater Arts. She also produced a musical in which she also performed at Theater For the New City called Emergency Contraception: The Musical! by Sara Cooper, during which she ended every performance covered in fake blood. Don't ask. After eight years of acting, Jusino decided that she missed her first love – writing – and in 2008 decided to devote herself wholly to that pursuit. She has since brought her "feminist brown person" perspective to pop culture criticism at such diverse sites as Tor.com, ChinaShop Magazine, PopMatters, Newsarama, Pink Raygun, as well as her own blog, The Teresa Jusino Experience (teresajusino.wordpress.com), and her Tumblr for feminist criticism, The Gender Blender (tumblwithteresa.tumblr.com). She is also the editor of a Caprica fan fiction site called Beginning of Line (beginningofline.weebly.com), because dammit, that was a good show, and if SyFy won't tell any more of those characters' stories, she'll do it herself. Her travel-writer alter ego is Geek Girl Traveler, and her travel articles can be followed at ChinaShop while she herself can be followed on Twitter (@teresajusino). Her essay, "Why Joss is More Important Than His 'Verse" can be found in the book Whedonistas: A Celebration of the Worlds of Joss Whedon By the Women Who Love Them (Mad Norwegian Press). In addition to her non-fiction, Jusino is also a writer of fiction. Her short story, December, was published in Issue #24 of the sci-fi literary journal, Crossed Genres. A writer of both prose and film/television scripts, she relocated to Los Angeles in September 2011 to give the whole television thing a whirl. She'll let you know how that goes just as soon as she stops writing bios about herself in the third person.
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