The CW has a flawless previous record in the action stakes with the first seasons of Arrow and 2010’s Nikita hauling in record ratings and winning critical acclaim, and the addition for The Tomorrow People of The Vampire Diaries’s executive producer Julie Plec gave the show remarkable promise before the pilot even aired.
Fortunately The Tomorrow People made good on its hype and has already positioned itself as the stronger of the two new CW shows to have premiered this season.
The central narrative focuses on Stephen Jameson (Robbie Amell), who’s got a fairly awkward sleeping disorder where he randomly wakes up in other people’s houses often in bed with them. He also has voices in his head which means he’s a social outcast at school but for long suffering best-friend and all around sassy teenager Astrid (Madeline Mantock). She’s worried he’s stopped taking his pills and then asks to see them since Stephen’s in a right bad mood, “I just wanted to check if being a raging dick is a side effect?”
Things suddenly get a bit franchise thief as the script starts pilfering from Harry Potter and Star Wars. There’s an evil empire (US Government Agency ULTRA) led by an evil emperor, Jedikiah Prince (Mark Pellegrino) and then some lovely rebels (the eponymous Tomorrow people) led by John Young (Luke Mitchell) and Cara (Peyton List). The Tomorrow People have 3 Ts, telekinesis (the force), telepathy (mind-reading) and teleportation (the effect is a spit for apparating though). And in a Luke Skywalker based turn of events, his Uncle’s the emperor and his Dad used to lead the rebels. That’s no bad thing though because those are all good things, and in the CW’s exclusive world of the fabulously good-looking and deceptively youthful-looking the elements make a delightful cocktail.
The overall strength of Robbie Amell in the lead isn’t surprising, considering he is younger brother to Arrow’s Stephen Amell, and boy can little brother carry the weight of the show. Luke Mitchell’s made a refreshing transition from Summer Bay to take up the Han Solo slot, and Peyton List easily outshines Madeline Mantock in the femme fatale slot.
They’re helped though by the strength of the script. It’s as intriguingly crafted as anything we’ve seen in four seasons of The Vampire Diaries and the cut and pasting of super natural for sci-fi gives the show a very positive familiarity, while giving a different flavour. For once a gun actually produces a pang of danger, instead of being written off unless it has wooden bullets.
The pilot isn’t entirely flawless however. There’s a very long exposition section that robs The Tomorrow People of much mystery as their entire backstory, powers and how they came to band together is explained at length by John and Cara, with the only real mystery being whether or not Stephen’s Dad’s actually dead or not. The end twist did turn things upside down at a point when the script might have again opted for cliché. There’s an awful lot of potential here, and with Julie Plec behind it, there’s little doubt the show will capitalise on it.
Most Unusual Response To Having a Three-Way Next Door:
Stephen: It was an accident.
“Didn’t quite catch the bit where…you massively tempted intervention by evil people?”
Stephen (On Walking Home Alone): I’m sure I can stay out of trouble.
Random Biblical Reference Of The Week:
John: (On Stephen) I get it, he’s Moses.
4/5.