Not all heroes wear capes – or wear pants over their tights
While super heroes – the fictional kind at any rate – have certainly become much more commonplace in our world in recent years, they have at least had the decency to stay on our screens or in comic books.
Outside the worlds of Marvel and DC there have been a few attempts at tinkering with and subverting the standard formula, most notably in the not-for-the-kids The Boys (Amazon Prime).
Extraordinary (first two seasons available now on Disney+) similarly plays with the tropes of the genre in a distinctly grown-up manner.
It also has far lower stakes – don't expect massive space battles, Earth-threatening scenarios or half of all life blinking out of existence with a click of the fingers.
Set in a parallel modernday London where almost everyone gets a superpower on their 18th birthday, when everyone is superpowered it's those without who stick out like a sore thumb.
These powers can range from the cool and useful
– great strength, flying, telepathy, controlling time – to the downright weird and frankly useless. We see a guy whose butt is a 3D printer, another who can turn anything into a PDF.
But our protagonist,
Jen (Máiréad Tyers), is a 20-something in a dead-end job at a fancy dress shop who is one of those who failed to gain a power on her birthday.
Most of her family – apart from her bratty younger stepsister who treats her with outright disdain – view her with a mix of pity and disgust, as it seems does wider society.
Oh, and she regularly communicates with her dead dad through her best friend and flatmate Carrie (Sofia Oxenham) who can, naturally, channel the spirits of the deceased.
Jen adopts a stray cat and names it Jizzlord – except it soon transpires that the cat is actually a shapeshifting human who got stuck in feline form for too long and forgot to change back. Being around people again precipitates his return to humanity.
Carrie and Jen decide to let him stay with them as he has lost all memory of his former life and still displays cat-like traits that are hangovers from his extended stay on four paws. And in lieu of knowing his real name, he stays as 'Jizz'.
Luke Rollason is excellent as Jizzlord – his wide-eyed, jumpy portrayal of a man who can't quite let go of his time as a cat is hugely entertaining.
Oxenham also gets to have plenty of fun with her character's abilities. She works in a law firm which exploits her talents and makes, say, will readings far more interesting...
Jen's father is voiced by Ardal O'Hanlon of Father Ted/ Death in Paradise fame, and while his voice coming out of a young woman's mouth is disconcerting, the scenes between father and daughter can often be surprisingly tender.
These scenes give a pleasing emotional grounding to all of the other crazy exploits.
Jen's developing relationship with Jizz and her attempts to finally access her superpower form the main plot.
Tyers manages to pull off a character who isn't always sympathetic. Like the best sitcom leads, she's flawed (beyond her lack of superpower) and can't always see why her behaviour does her no favours.
There are also numerous amusing asides in a world where super is the norm – like Jen and Jizz visiting a restaurant called Little Italy on a date and walking straight past it because it is literally knee-high between two buildings – the proprietor's power is to miniaturise others, which he does so they can enter.
And policing these powers in the workplace proves to be an HR nightmare.
The show's creator Emma Moran is a sharp writer, but there are plenty of silly, grossout moments too.
The first season ended on a cliff-hanger that you could probably see coming, but
Creator Emma Moran is a sharp writer, but there are plenty of silly, gross-out moments too
two episodes into the second season seeing how the scenario is playing out is faithful to this world's mechanics – and laced with the biting wit of just how messed up humans can be – powered or not.