Why I Love To Hate “The Tomorrow People” – The CW’s Version Of X-Men

You know, I am a HUGE fan of sci-fi, and a HUGE fan of superheroes, so it stands to reason that I should be a HUGE fan of CW’s latest sci-fi/superhero series “The Tomorrow People.”

But I’m not.

Lord knows I’ve tried to be.  I watch every episode dutifully, but there is just SO MUCH WRONG with this show.  However, the fact that there is SO MUCH WRONG with it makes it strangely even MORE entertaining.  It’s a lot like dating a hot chick you can’t stand, just because she’s totally hot.  Sure, her attitude is awful, but you’re willing to forgive a lot just because she’s so dang sexy.

Make no mistake, The Tomorrow People is a pretty dang sexy show.

How sexy, you ask?

Well, it’s got some ridiculously hot actors/actresses on it, particularly when it comes to Peyton List, who is so ridiculously hot, she constantly looks like she wants to have sex with you, just from the way her eyes are shaped.

See?  SEE?  I’m not exaggerating.  She totally wants to do me.  I can tell just by the way she looks at the camera.  But beyond that, there is a lot of eye candy for females on the show as well in the form of Luke Mitchell and Robbie Amell.

So obviously the show is not difficult to look at.  The cinematography is slick, and the special effects are generally well done.  Plus, it has Mark Pellegrino, who’s so awesome of an actor he pretty much steals any show he appears on.  Seriously, this guy manages to turn in nuanced and engaging characters no matter how thinly they are written.  His role as Gavin Baker on The Closer was one of the most scene-stealing characters I’ve ever seen on TV.  Forget the fact that he’s essentially playing the EXACT SAME character he had in Alphas – this guy could act the phone book and I’d be entertained.  Plus, the CW has dumped some major advertising behind this show, and has given it a lead-in with its hit show Arrow (starring Robbie Amell’s cousin, Stephen Amell).  So there is a lot going for this show.

But despite all that, you have a lot of lackluster acting, and really, REALLY bad writing.

Like, REALLY bad.

And that’s the show’s major Achilles heel.  The writing is just really poorly done.  And the issue I have with the show basically boils down to the fact that the show has a lot of cool concepts shoehorned into bad plotting and stilted dialogue.  In fact, the biggest issue with this show is the fact that characters don’t ever seem to follow any type of real-world logic concerning their situation.

I have a HUGE problem with shows that force their characters to act illogical simply for the sake of the story.  I see this in numerous books and movies as well, and it is beyond frustrating because it zaps away any of the joy one could possibly have simply because it takes you out of the story.  Maybe if it happened occasionally, it wouldn’t be too bad, but The Tomorrow People takes illogic to a whole new level of retarded.

So, the basic premise of the show, which is based on a British sci-fi show of the same name from the 1970s, is that there are certain humans known as “The Tomorrow People” who are entering the next phase of evolution.  This means they cease to be Homo Sapiens and evolve into Homo Superiors.  Basically, it’s the same idea as the X-Men, only instead of being mutants, they’re the next logical evolutionary leap – which means that all Tomorrow People basically have the exact same superpowers.

These superpowers fall into three categories, they call the 3T’s.  Teleportation, Telekenisis, and Telepathy.  So basically, every Tomorrow Person is like Professor X if he was starring in the movie Jumper.  Also, apparently evolution has decided “survival of the fittest” no longer applies once you reach “Homo Superior” stage, and all Tomorrow People have something in their brain called the Prime Barrier, which prevents them from willfully killing people.  (I don’t know if this inability to kill extends to animals as well.)

However, this is where the big problem with The Tomorrow People lies.  The show never really defines what the limits of these powers are, or how the Tomorrow People use them.

For instance, the biggest culprit of this is the Teleportation power.  In the show, the TPs can pretty much teleport anywhere they want at will.  During fights, they can teleport all around in short ranges.  Or, they can teleport miles and miles away (hey, beats taking the bus!).  In one episode, the character of John Young – the leader of the Tomorrow People – actually teleports so quickly, he’s in 5 places at once.

Okay, got all that?  Basically, TPs can teleport anywhere they dang please, no matter what they’re doing.  And they can teleport people along with them if they are touching them in some way.  There are no other limits placed on this power.  It’s not based on line of sight, it’s not based on destinations the TPs have been previously, it doesn’t really exhaust them or seem difficult to do, or have any adverse side effects.  They can just teleport anywhere they want any time they want.

Now, with that in mind, the Tomorrow People are being hunted by a shadowy government organization (is there any other kind?) called ULTRA.  This is a group dedicated to wiping out the Tomorrow People either by killing them, or neutralizing their powers and making them “human” again with the help of a serum that turns back the genetic clock (apparently).  ULTRA also recruits other Tomorrow People to help them hunt down their own kind.  So the “good” TPs are constantly being chased down by the “bad” TPs.

So here’s my issue.  If you’re a TP, and you have the power to teleport pretty much anywhere you want at any time you want, why in the WORLD would you ever hang around long enough to get your ass captured by ULTRA agents?

This show is full of scenes where the TPs fight ULTRA agents in hard-core hand-to-hand combat.  But their goal is to evade capture and stay hidden, so logically, it would make sense to just teleport away at the first sign of an ULTRA trap.  Seriously, the minute you see you’re in danger, why not just teleport away and avoid a fight all together?  Let alone avoid the possibility of being captured by the enemy?

The ability to teleport with no consequence basically zaps any type of dramatic tension this show has.  Every time the characters in the show get into trouble, I practically shout at the screen “Just teleport away, dummy!”  Episode 2 had the main character, Stephen, almost fall off the roof of a skyscraper.  However, the fact that the dude can teleport pretty much negates the idea that falling from tall buildings is a bad thing.

Now, if the show established that teleporting was hard, unpredictable, and extremely dangerous, so it should only be used sparingly, then I could see a reason to actually experience some dramatic tension when danger arrives.  It would make the fact that they fight ULTRA agents logical, because teleporting away could be just as deadly as getting captured.  However, there are no limits to this power in the show.  As it stands, the characters just seem ridiculously stupid for fighting and running when they don’t have to.  And if they DID teleport constantly, as logic would dictate, it would mean the ULTRA agents would have to be so much better and well-prepared to capture them, which would actually make them a real threat.

But no.  None of that happens.

Next up is Telekinesis.  The ability to move stuff with your mind.  In the show, this power is basically used to either shoplift small items or as a “force push” which shoots out an invisible barrier to hit people like a mac truck.  However, none of the TPs seem to have thought of using this power to, oh, I don’t know… stop bullets or disarm adversaries?  What about throwing heavy objects at them from behind?  Or tearing holes in the floor beneath bad guys?  There is literally SO MUCH one could do with telekinesis, and yet, this is the least used power by the Tomorrow People.

Finally, there’s Telepathy.  The Tomorrow People tend to like to use it to talk with one another, even over large distances.  It’s not clear on how they’re able to use this power or who they can use it on.  It just seems to be at the mercy of the plot most of the time.  The character of Cara (basically Jean Grey) used this power to communicate with Stephen for months with no issue.  And yet, during an important mission in ULTRA HQ (which is designed to prevent TP powers from operating, btw), Cara is in constant communication with Stephen mentally, until a critical point where she conveniently gets “overwhelmed” by the thoughts of all the civilians around her, leaving Stephen on his own in enemy territory.

But beyond the TP ability to have psychic conversations, they can see other people’s memories and uncover their darkest secrets.  Of course, apparently a trained TP can block another TP from reading their mind if they have enough skill.  How they do this isn’t exactly clear.  It just seems that when it’s convenient for the hero not to get caught by the bad guy, he can block their brain scans.

Beyond the 3Ts, it seems Stephen is a “chosen one” with other cool powers, like the ability to completely STOP TIME.  Yes, he can pull a Neo and stop time.  He has no idea how he does it, but in times of incredible emotional distress, he can stop time long enough to save the day.  Now, again… logically, if I were Stephen, I’d be spending every waking moment learning how to control what is likely the most powerful TP power ever!  I’d practice that sh*t until I could walk around calling myself a gersh-durng TIMELORD.  That ability could save his ass SO MANY TIMES, its not even funny.  Yet, he just dismisses the fact he can do it most of the time, and only does it when the writers can’t think of a better way to save the day.  We have no idea how it works or why, other than the fact that it seems to be tied to Stephen’s emotions.

Now, on top of all the nonsense with the superpowers, the biggest logic flaws stem from both the bad guys at ULTRA and this Prime Barrier ridiculousness.

First of all, ULTRA has technology that is somehow able to neutralize TP powers.  Their headquarters is designed to negate these powers, and it seems like they have this computer chips which can create “null fields” that will inhibit TP powers, so they can plant them in watches, underneath tables, etc.  They also have a serum which can permanently rob a TP of his powers.

Mark Pellengrino plays Jedikiah Price, who is the big bad of the show.  He runs ULTRA and relentlessly hunts down the Tomorrow People.  (Think Sam Jackson’s character from Jumper without all the religious motivation, and that’s pretty much who he is.)  Jedikiah is a molecular biologist, but he’s also one-step away from being a full on Aryan looking to commit genocide against the next evolution of man.  Now, the cool thing here is that he actually makes some pretty good arguments as to why the Tomorrow People have to be culled.  The not-so-cool thing is that his logical arguments are completely negated by the fact that’s he’s made to be so obviously and completely evil.

Case in point – Jedikiah falls into the supervillain trap of needlessly killing his subordinates pretty much for no good reason.  Somehow, ULTRA is able to find Tomorrow People to drink their kool-aide and become agents.  (Why would any of them ever join up an organization dedicated to wiping them out?  No good explanation is ever given.)  Yet, Jedikiah kills these friendly TPs for the slightest infraction of the rules, even when these guys were trying their best to do their jobs!  As in, these guys he killed were actually LOYAL soldiers to ULTRA!  You’d think behavior like this would lead to a riot and/or exodus of TPs from ULTRA’s employ, but nope.  They just go along with his evilness because… um… just because.

Now, the crux of the conflict in the show stems from the fact that Jedikiah is Stephen’s uncle, and Stephen joins ULTRA as a “double agent” to not only help the “good” Tomorrow People avoid capture by ULTRA, but also to track down his long-lost father who may just be the TP’s messiah.  Jedikiah spares Stephen because of the family tie, but is suspicious of him because of his ties to the Tomorrow People.

I can see where the writers are trying to take this.  The whole double-agent thing worked really well with shows like Nikita.  However, it DOES NOT work here.  Why?  Well, first of all, Jedikiah is meant to be really REALLY smart.  He’s so smart, he pretty much catches Stephen’s every attempt to sabotage ULTRA missions.  Yet, he continues to let Stephen operate within his ranks, even though it’s blatantly obvious he’s fighting for the other side.  Secondly, for a building specifically designed to negate TP powers, a lot of them work in the building.  In episode 1, Stephen is able to “hulk out” and actually use his powers in ULTRA HQ, but lots of other TPs seem to be able to use their powers there as well.  Finally, though Jedikiah seems hellbent on wiping out all TPs, he also seems to like to play God a bit and try to make them even more powerful, which pretty much goes against his entire philosophy for hunting TPs down in the first place.

This brings us to the Prime Barrier nonsense.  So, there’s this “brain barrier” that prevents TPs from willfully killing other people.  When they try to kill, they basically pass out.  This is why no TP has gone on a killing rampage, teleporting in and out of locations and force-choking the sh*t out of people.  I guess it makes sense the show needs to have this limitation on characters that are so powerful, but from an evolution standpoint, it really doesn’t make much sense.  Part of the reason ULTRA is so good at killing TPs is because they can’t fight back really.  You’d think mother nature would allow its creations the ability to survive.  It’s not even clear if TPs can kill animals for food or something.  At the very least, they should be able to kill in self defense!

But Jedikiah was able to remove this “Prime Barrier” in a select few TPs to make them the “ultimate” weapon in hunting down other TPs.  In fact, the TP’s leader, John, is one of the few TPs who can actually kill, which is why Jedikiah is obsessed with finding him and killing him.

Now, Jedikiah is such a worthy nemesis, you’d think John would kill him to protect his people and those he cares about.  In fact, you’d think he’d be on a mission to kill everyone associated with ULTRA.  However, he doesn’t like that he was turned into a “killer” by ULTRA, which is why he ran away from them to begin with.  So instead he just prefers to karate chop and MMA people while his friends get killed left and right.  He keeps the fact that he can kill a secret because he’s so ashamed of his ability to kill.  In fact, in the last episode I watched, he basically saved his girlfriend from being killed by ULTRA agents, then gets all emo that she discovered he’s a killer – EVEN THOUGH he killed to protect her, and she was totally fine with what he did.

MAKES.  NO.  SENSE.

In fact, another rogue TP who was able to kill tried to kill Jedikiah by blowing up his car.  However, Stephen teleports in and saves Jedikiah by teleporting him out of the car right before it blows up.  Keep in mind, if Jedikiah were to die, chances are the TP would have a much better chance of surviving.  Yet Stephen saves him.  Why?  ”Because I’m not a killer!!!” *headdesk*  Even the other TPs were like “Dude, why the f*ck didn’t you just let that ass hole die?”  Stephen’s answer?

“Because he’s my uncle and everyone has a right to live!  Oh, and, uh… plot.”

*sigh*

Despite being totally evil, Jedikiah makes the point that TP powers are incredibly dangerous, and TPs can cause a lot of havoc and need to be controlled.  This is evidenced by all the TPs who discover their abilities and start doing dumb things like robbing banks and breaking out convicted murderers from prison.  There are definitely a lot of dangers the Tomorrow People pose, and it could have been an excellent set-up for some interesting moral questions the character of Stephen would have to face.  Will he choose the side of the humans?  Or will he choose the side of the Tomorrow People?  If Jedikiah were a more pragmatic, rather than evil character, I could see why Stephen would save him.  If Jedikiah were a good guy for the wrong side, instead of a cocky, sadistic bastard, then I could understand why Stephen might be torn between his allegiance to the Tomorrow People and his uncle.  But Jedikiah is a remorseless killer, so it’s hard to really see things from ULTRA’s point of view.

Also, the Tomorrow People are ridiculously stupid.  They don’t really seem to understand the concept of fighting for survival.  And beyond that, all their plans to thwart ULTRA are usually half-baked and poorly executed.  In a recent episode, one character “sold out” the Tomorrow People to ULTRA because they told him they’d let the guy see his mom in exchange for helping them capture John.  Of course, three TPs end up getting brutally murdered by ULTRA agents and the rest barely escape.  And then, the TP traitor is all like “I THOUGHT I COULD TRUST THEM!”  Keep in mind, he thought he could trust the organization which nearly murdered him multiple times (There was a whole episode devoted to him being hunted by ULTRA), and then kidnapped his mom and threatened to kill her if he didn’t help them.

My guess is that the next phase of human evolution must zap some pretty important brain cells, because none of the TPs act any smarter than this dude does.  Indeed, all the brains seem to be on ULTRAs side, which is probably why they’re winning in the first place.

All this adds up to one hot mess.  The Tomorrow People isn’t a bad show.  It’s just not a good one.  In fact, it’s very “meh.”  Most of the time, the show is very boring, peppered with really stupid moments that make you chuckle at how stupid they really are.  The show does little to surprise you or make you care about what happens to the characters.  And that’s probably the big reason why it won’t last if it ever loses its Arrow lead-in.

Beyond that, I think if the writers just stopped relying on plot devices to drive the story forward, they could actually have a really great show on their hands.  I think they shot themselves in the foot by making the TP’s powers limitless.  If I were them, I’d retcon some of that to make it more difficult for the TPs to use, or at least define some hard limitations of the use of these really incredible powers.

I think in most books, movies, and TV shows, you have to be really careful about how superpowers are used, otherwise you get into these “bad logic” situations where the audience begins questioning the character’s actions in favor of the character’s powers.  When it comes to The Tomorrow People, I know these questions pop up pretty much every 15 minutes.

At least in a show like Alphas (which was pretty much the exact same show), the powers were well-defined and had limits to them.  The characters in The Tomorrow People are almost God-like.  There are enough of them in that Subway tunnel where, if they wanted, they could probably form an army large enough to take over an entire city on their own… but that hasn’t really crossed any of their minds yet (I told you they were stupid, right?).

Anyway, like most bad sci-fi shows, I’ll watch this one to the bitter end.  I just with writers, in general, would get a clue about how to write superheroes the right way.  It’s always about a character’s limitations which makes them interesting.  When you grant a character powers, you must always try and do so responsibly.

Otherwise, you end up getting crap.  And that’s what The Tomorrow People is.  Really pretty, shiny, fun-to-look-at crap.