This summer, the SyFy channel is premiering “Alphas”, a new series about people with special abilities hired by the Dept. of Defense to solve seemingly impossible crimes. When a witness is murdered in a locked room at a Federal courthouse, (obviously not a normal murder), the government decides to assemble a task force using other people with abilities. Led by psychiatrist Dr. Lee Rosen (David Strathairn), the assembled group combines their talents to investigate cases involving others like them.
The “powers” we speak of stem from brain anomalies which “boost hyper-normal mental and physical abilities”. Nice to note here that this show is written by Zak Penn – who helped write “X-Men: The Last Stand”. Dr. Rosen serves as the mentor to the rest of the team, as follows:
Gary Bell (Ryan Cartwright): A highly functioning autistic with the ability to process information like a computer. Gary is also a “transducer” — a human antenna.
Bill Harken (Malik Yoba): A former FBI agent who can boost his fight or flight reflex, giving him super strength for a brief period of time. (A hyperadrenal.)
Nina Theroux (Laura Mennell): A woman who can use “”influencing” and reprogram other people’s minds to do as she wishes.
Rachel Myers (Azita Ghanizada): Being a “synesthete” allows her to enhance one sense while rendering her remaining senses temporarily useless she can shatter glass with a whisper.
Cameron Hicks (Warren Christie): a man who has “Hyperkinesis,” where the mind’s imaging systems and muscle control are perfectly in tune with the motor skills center of the brain. This results in flawless aim, balance, and greatly enhanced motor skills.
As you may imagine, it’s not all fun and games for these people – due to his autism, Gary is pretty much a child, Harken has anger issues that threaten his family life and job, Rachel must stay mute and wear a device on her larynx, while Nina never really knows true feelings of those around her. I am sure that will all lead to some serious drama.
“Alphas” is set to premiere on SyFy Monday, July 11th at 10/9C. What do you think? Does this show sound promising? Will you give it a chance before calling it a knock-off X-Men?
