Misfits Moving On

Season 3’s second half saw some stories drawing to a close...

The second half of the series sees the show take on the familiar genres of both zombies and ghosts in separate episodes giving something of an interesting and irrelevant spin on them. The zombie episode is the most straight forward, outrageously fun episode of the show so far. The scenario does recall the gory humour of the first season with bodies everywhere, lots of running about and wise cracking. It’s a glimpse of what the show has lost to some extent. Director Will Sinclair pulls all the expected tricks out of the bag to good effect – especially involving the cat- but it’s the actors that sell it.

Just an average sort of day for the Misfits...

There are ghosts aplenty in the last episode which revisits some familiar first season characters in a new light. The talking point is undoubtedly the fact that two regulars are written out- one in an especially brutal way and this seems to point to something of a reset for the confirmed season 4 as the denouement removes one of the main storylines for good.

There’s still plenty of room for near the knuckle humour, notably in episode 6 which gives us the double headed plot of Curtis managing to get himself pregnant and Rudy’s rather dramatic STD, which ends up being quite a clever comment on male and female attitudes. In both cases the resolution to these problems is ingenious and rather amusing.

Episode 5 is perhaps the most accomplished of the season and a superb re-statement of what makes Misfits such an interesting show. It uses all the characters to their advantage built around a central story of a girl in a coma being able to take over Kelly’s body. Whereas this might have been used for comic effect, instead the focus is on the ramifications of such an act.



Kelly reacts with joy at her episode's good review

Lauren Socha shows why she won a BAFTA last year, her subtlety when portraying someone different in her body is impressive. The episode has a heart, which the series has been accused of lacking, yet unfurls at a leisurely pace, allowing the season’s best character work to date. Unfortunately this episode is where we say goodbye to Craig Parkinson’s droll Shaun whose occasional wandering into odd goings on and not really caring have been one of the season’s highlights.

Though more wayward than its predecessors season three has shown Misfits remains an inventive, fun series that in some ways defies serious analysis. The writers have started moving into and playing with more conventional genre plots than before with mixed results but you have to applaud their willingness to do so.  

Words: John Connors