Extraordinary, the new British superhero comedy series coming to Hulu this week, has an apt title. After watching the entire first series, I found myself – on more than one occasion – calling the series extraordinary when mentioning it to friends and family. It’s absolutely better than anyone would think it would be. After all, at this point we’re all pretty burnt out on superhero stories, right? Well, Extraordinary takes that feeling of malaise and turns it into a smart, sharp, and emotionally resonate story of four friends – well, two friends, a live-in boyfriend, and someone who is . . . I don’t want to spoil the interesting story that is Jizzlord (played by a brilliant Luke Rollason) – living in a world where almost everyone has a superpower and yet everyone’s lives remain relatively mundane.
In the world of Extraordinary, at the age of 18, each person gains their superpower, which runs the gamut from traditional ones we might see in an X-Men story (flight, super strength, ability to read minds, teleportation), to the more obscure (ability to mess with technology, ability to commune with the dead, being a human lie detector, being able to make anyone orgasm just by touching their skin). Unfortunately for Jen (Máiréad Tyers, who proves to be a perfect leading lady for the series), she’s made it all the way to 25 without gaining her power – rare, but not unheard of. There’s a company that claims they can help her power appear, but it costs a ton of money – money that a struggling twenty-something definitely doesn’t have – so she’s out of luck unless she can find a way to raise the funds.
This need sets up a number of hi-jinks throughout the season for the character – her desire to fit in and prove she’s not broken of course masks a deeper layer of insecurity that stems back to her childhood and her meddling mother – the great Siobhán McSweeney – and her hyper-competitive younger half-sister, Andy – Safia Oakley-Green, who is great as a teen who both craves her sister’s approval but who wouldn’t be caught dead asking for it. It’s a lot of psychological complexity for a half hour comedy, but trust me, it all works. Jen’s closest confidante is her roommate Carrie (Sofia Oxenham, who provides one of the deepest performances in the series), who has the ability to allow any dead person to speak through her. This lands her a plumb job in a law firm – it makes it easy to determine the intent of a will when you can just ask the deceased what they wanted, after all – but it also means she can be exploited by others for their need to connect with those recently (or in some cases, long) dead. Jen also takes advantage of Carrie’s abilities by using her to speak with her deceased dad throughout the series – something Jen needs, but also a crutch that prevents her from fully connecting with those currently around her (like, say, her mom and sister). Again, the series could have taken the easy route with this piece of Carrie and Jen’s arc but doesn’t shy away from exploring how a power like Carrie’s is a blessing and a curse.
Throw in Bilal Hasna’s Kash – Carrie’s loveable loaf of a boyfriend whose power is rewinding time about 15 minutes, something that is shown to be a positive (save yourself from an embarrassing situation!) and possibly devastatingly awful (don’t want to have a hard conversation – just erase time to tell the person what they want to hear!) – and Rollason’s Jizzlord (whose arc is both hilarious and heartbreaking), and you have the makings of a great comedy series. There are enough laughs per episode to keep things light while still providing more than enough character development – and commentary about the double-edged sword of superpowers – to elevate the series above many of the comedies currently airing. The humor is definitely more adult than child-friendly (if the existence of a character named Jizzlord didn’t tip you off there), and my one minor complaint is that the series could use more of McSweeney (although I suspect a second season would increase her appearances). This gem of a show exceeds expectations in nearly every way and I whole-heartedly recommend it for your winter viewing pleasure.
Extraordinary premieres on Hulu (Disney+ in the UK and abroad) on January 25. All eight episodes of the first season were provided for review.
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