"Using your powers to win basketball games and throw parties?"
In the seven years since it launched, The CW has made its name as a provider of fantasy thrills and teen romance - the television equivalent of a YA novel - and that blend is now a staple of much of its programming. How baffling then that one of its newest series - The Tomorrow People - can't seem to quite nail the balance.
'Limbo' is inadvisably heavy on Stephen (Robbie Amell)'s high-school antics - girl troubles, house parties, underage drinking - which are substantially less interesting than either his time at ULTRA or his underground exploits with the Tomorrow People.
In short, when there's a violent miscreant on the loose, who wants to watch our lead using his powers to improve his basketball game? Cutting back on this sort of material in favour of a greater focus on our roster of central characters would seem to be the most sensible direction for The Tomorrow People to take.
Speaking of which, 'Limbo' picks up the morning after the night before and Cara (Peyton List) is keeping both of the men in her life at arm's length. John (Luke Mitchell)'s romantic gestures, adorable soft toys and declarations of love all fail to impress, while Stephen - last week the "best person [she'd] ever met" - is now branded "useless".
You get the feeling that the flawed-but-noble John would be better off alone - Cara's a cheat and Stephen's continuing his descent into douchebaggery as he fools around with random girls, hurts his friends and throws punches rather than giving apologies.
In fact, Stephen is acting out so badly that Jedikiah (Mark Pellegrino) eventually puts him on a leash, slapping a repression cuff on his nephew's wrist and so robbing him of his powers.
It's an intriguing development, though why introduce such a twist when 'Limbo' is already halfway done? There's easily an entire episode's worth of mileage in the idea of Stephen learning to live without his powers having only just adapted to living with them.
Similarly, Ben Cotton's formidable and genuinely unsettling villain - a Homo Superior who uses (or rather abuses) his abilities to attack vulnerable women - isn't given nearly enough screen-time, at least until the episode finally kicks into gear with an action-packed and exciting final act.
If 'Limbo' had centred on the hunt for Cotton's rapist and a 'normal' Stephen struggling to get by without his powers - with the added drama of the Stephen/Cara/John love triangle thrown in - it would've been far more satisfying.
As it is, needless high-school hijinks tarnish what could've been a great episode.
Gotta make way for the homo superior…
- Glad to see loveable geek Irene (Laura Slade) playing a larger role - an endearing character and performer!
- So where is Stephen's father - trapped in some sort of netherworld? And who or what is Thanatos?
- John is getting more beardy by the week - presumably in an attempt to exert some masculine authority over his rival Stephen?
