ALPHAS on SyFy Channel

By Michael Vass | July 12, 2011

What do you do if you need a mutant based television series, but you don’t want to pay Marvel Comics a bunch of money? How do you make a show sound original, as you steal elements from a variety of sources? The answer to these questions is ALPHAS on the SyFy Channel.

The concept seems interesting at first glance. A team of exceptional people working quasi-with the government, go out and deal with issues that are beyond the capabilities of the normal world. It’s been done before, and often of late, but it has potential.

What we get is a watered down series that is firmly in grasp of the mediocre – exactly where the execs of NBC (the parent of SyFy) loves to keep their sci fi television shows.

The concept is that Dr. Lee Rosen, the health nut and walking version of Professor X, has gathered a team of Alphas. People that possess extreme abilities that are enhanced versions of those we all have. Besides being the leader, and phychiatrist to all these people, he is also the liason to the Government (which would prefer to lock up all the alphas). He might have an ability, to determine a diagnosis for any issue a person might have.

Dr. Rosen, David Strathairn, is well meaning and sympathetic. He is also not above blackmail when he needs a result done. It is hinted that he is leading the fight against Red Six – an evil organization of Alphas akin to the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Don’t be surprised if the leader of that organization is an Alpha that is directly related to Dr. Rosen, and pissed off due to dad’s experiements on him at a young age.

Bill Harken, Malik Yoba, is the seasoned member of the team. He appears to have been in a seperate government agency prior to being identified as an Alpha. That experience leads him to question the ability of every other team member, even as he makes radically noobish mistakes himself.

He has a wife, who is apparently clueless to his abilities. He can increase his strength massively due to consciously activating his adreanal glands (which may be larger than normal). This give him phenomenal stregth for a while, though not speed which should also be a by-product of adrenaline. Prolonged use will kill him though. Oh, and it seems he has a thing for one of his teammates as well – hinted at in the result of the fist episode. How nice. Since he sweats profusely about 50% of the time onscreen (side effect of his ability) you would hope he has underarm deodorant as part of his team package.

Cameron Hicks, Warren Christie, is the new boy to the team. An Alpha who cannot control his power and just as often resents it as anything else. He is the biggest ripoff, his character is molded from the theme of Wolverine. An outsider, loner, with a past that is filled with disillusionment and miliatry service of some sort. In an attempt to make him more appealing to the masses he is a failed baseball star – though with his ability to see, shoot, and/or throw at angles and riccochets lends itself more to pool and billiards and makes more sense.

Hicks is the moody, bad boy, reluctant hero stereotype. It is obvious he is meant to be a draw for women viewers.

Nina Theroux, Laura Mennell, is the femme fatale. She is sexy, and as most women would wish can get people to do what she wants (used almost exclusively on men). Her power is useful but seems to be used badly. Mostly to get people to open doors and stand still. Pretty boring. Though there is a backstory that is far less kind to her involvement with Dr. Rosen’s group. She may well be in a gilded cage.

Gary Bell, Ryan Cartwright, is a near autistic, possibly savant, kid that can tap into electronic communications. He literally can see/hear anything that travels via airwaves – except from Nokia (I can’t imagine how much that plug about Nokia cellphones cost but it sure wasn’t a little bit). His character is mostly unused so far, and plays a close line on being cartoonish and over-the-top.

Rachel Pirzad, Azita Ghanizada, can isolate each sense and amplify it hundreds of times. She can read a newspaper from miles away. She can see blood cells in a pool of blood. She can isolate the smell of a pheremone in a room of people. She can ear the words of a single person in a crowd in a noisy workplace from yards away. And her character is equally unused in the opening episode. Though it is clear in trailers that she will have at least one episode focusing on her abilities. Generally she stands around, explains enough of the plot to get the team to a new location, and then sits in a car watching over Gary.

Don Wilson, Callum Keith Rennie, is the grizzled and jaded government operative assigned to watch over the Alphas. His job is to incarcerate the most dangerous, and provide the rest jobs as the government needs. He holds his leash on Dr. Rosen tight. He also may be very involved with a place called The Compound – likely a gulag just for Alphas deemed to dangerous or too uncontrolable for Dr. Rosen’s team. Wilson has no love for, nor bias against, the Alphas. They are simply a tool, that he is willing to lock up when no longer useful.

That’s the main lineup. Not exciting, and many predictable. The storyline is not compelling. You don’t get a sense of concern for most of the characters. The outcome of the episode was hardly ever in doubt. Other than the casting to ensure that target groups (women, men, minorities) have something to watch, there really isn’t much there there.

Will this be the next Heroes? No. It won’t be the next Mutant X either (thankfully. If you never saw it, you didn’t miss anything). It’s just another program that SyFy threw against the wall to see if it sticks. Considering the quality of the other programs on the cable network it should last far longer than The Cape (embarrassingly bad), maybe even longer than Stargate Universe (not really that hard to do).

But if forgetable television programing, with mildly entertaining plots and silly abilities is something you can watch and forget, this will keep you mindless for a while.

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