The TV Show Thread - General Discussion Forum - Page 205

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My friends recommended chasing Supacell with another British superpower show called Extraordinary. This one is more of a sitcom / comedy than Supacell is. On the surface, Extraordinary is fantastic, a genuinely laugh out loud, lovely and feel good story, that manages to find the ordinary magic in a world where everyone has a super power.

However, what really made it special for me — and this is gonna sound so morbid — is this ever growing reflection on loss that runs through the show. I am fascinated by the presentation of grief on screen. Grief is unique to everyone, but at the risk of sounding like I am gatekeeping being sad — which is absolutely not my intention — anyone who has experienced true grief knows the difference between a genuine presentation of grief on screen and someone writing grief without having experienced it.

Light spoilers here — protagonist Jen is initially introduced as this quite chaotic figure. She is messy, bratty, rude, just generally quite unpleasant and unlikeable. We learn she has lost her Dad, and crucially this isn’t initially used as a tool for sympathy, it's just a part of her fabric. In a fun use of the show's twist, rather than really facing that grief, Jen gets to push it aside as her best friend’s power is channelling the dead. This means Jen can act like her Dad is still alive, and just sort of live in that lie, even though its stunting her growth (quite literally in the mechanics of this world) because this means she never really has to face what happened and let go.

The show touches on this throughout, a few poignant scenes like when she is reminded she still has a parent, alive, right there she is pushing away for the one who is gone, but it is always so carefully woven into the overall fabric of the show, so the show never gets lost in the misery and drama. It really helps us slowly learn why Jen is the way she is, and grow to organically appreciate the person she is, without it just cheating our sympathy with a dead