This week on TV
Teenagers take on their evil parents in Marvel’s Runaways, new Grey’s Anatomy spin-off Station 19, and Johnny Vegas in Home from Home
NEW SCI-FI Runaways wednesday, Syfy HD, 9pm
MOST TEENAGERS GO through a phase when they are embarrassed by their parents – but for the six young friends in Runaways, it gets much, much worse than that.
Based on the Marvel comics, the new Syfy series, which begins this week with a double-bill, centres on a group of students – Molly, Chase, Alex, Gert, Nico and Karolina – who attend an elite
Los Angeles high school. All the teens have gone their separate ways following a recent tragedy, having once hung out together because their parents were friends.
When the nerdy Alex organises a reunion at his house on the same night as their parents are holding a meeting there for their charity, called the Pride, the youngsters are shocked to spy the adults in a secret underground room, dressed in red robes, and carrying out what appears to be a human sacrifice.
‘Finding out your parents are evil is very complicated, not just in terms of what you are going to do about it, but how it makes you feel emotionally,’ says co-creator Stephanie Savage. ‘A lot of their conflict is about coming to terms with what is happening. They are thinking, “Our parents wouldn’t really do that, would they?”’
THE EVIL WITHIN
The series features a largely unknown cast of youngsters, plus more familiar faces as the parents, including Buffy the Vampire
Slayer’s James Marsters as Chase’s genius dad, Victor, and 24’s Annie Wersching as Karolina’s mother, Leslie, one of the leaders of the cult-like Church of Gibborim which has links with the Pride.
As the teens begin to investigate what they’ve seen, they start to develop their own special powers – from super-strength to flight. But will they eventually need to make their escape from their family homes in order to defeat their super-villain parents?
TEEN TALK
Savage and co-creator Josh Schwartz were the team behind teen dramas The OC and Gossip
Girl, and they admit that one of their biggest problems in filming wasn’t the special effects or action scenes, but keeping up with the ever-changing world of teenagers.
‘Well, obviously a lot of the lingo and technology has changed since we made The OC, and we had to reflect that,’ smiles Savage. ‘But kids today still grapple with identity, with fitting in, with understanding their place in the world. All that stuff is timeless and universal.’
‘As you watch the show, there are probably long stretches where you wouldn’t know you’re in a Marvel show,’ adds Schwartz, who also created the action spy series,
Chuck. ‘There are no masks in this show, no capes. But when you’re in high school, you do create an identity for yourself. So it’s about these kids taking off those masks and becoming more in touch with who they really are.’