A holiday crash enhances the lives of the Powell family in a show reminiscent of The Incredibles. Jacqueline Smith talks to television's newest super stars.
Michael Chiklis thinks his character Jim - the patriarch of showbiz's newest superhero family - is "far superior" to the cartoon character he resembles, Mr Incredible.
"They are basically two guys that are down and want to do more to contribute, and then they get the opportunity to do that and it awakens them," he says, trying to avoid any spoilers.
Jim is a failed artist who works as a criminal profiler for the police. He has a high-flying wife, Stephanie - played by Dexter's Julie Benz - and two teenage kids.
His attempt to indulge his family in some relaxing together-time takes a disastrous turn and no sooner have they returned to their safe haven of suburbia than they realise the events of the holiday will have long-lasting repercussions.
That's right. By some inexplicable fizz, pop and bang of science, they have all gained super-powers.
Jim gets super strength, which sees him wanting to join the cops in his office in fighting crime - sound familiar? - while Stephanie uses her newfound speed to be even more of a supermum and son J.J (Jimmy Bennett) turns his super brains to achieving exceptional marks at school. Daughter Daphne (Kay Panabaker) feels she has lucked out, as she suddenly finds herself privy to the innermost thoughts of everyone around her.
It's a power Panabaker says she wouldn't mind having herself but that her character really struggles with.
"I've always wanted the power to read other people's minds. Everybody has negative things to think and say about other people but are they trying to help that person or is it mean-spirited? I would like to be able to weed out the not-so-nice people and the nice people and then just hang out with the nice people. Daphne has to deal with hearing what people say behind her back, as if they are saying it to her face - and that hurts."
Meanwhile, Bennett has found himself constantly consulting Dictionary.com and using the online pronunciation tool to learn his lines. "He'll have the most incredible vocabulary at the end of the show. They ask him to say the most maniacal 27-character words I've ever heard in my life," Chiklis says.
Both Benz and Chiklis are just enjoying being on family-friendly shows after being associated with more gruesome, and in Benz's case, more revealing work in the past.
"I don't have to take off my clothes. Dexter really pushed to shock and sometimes it's very disturbing. We had some table reads that had us questioning if we really wanted to do it. But this show is entertainment, it's what I want to watch when I get home at the end of the day," Benz says.
It's also the sort of show that has attracted a swelling online fanbase since it was rolled out in the United States a few months ago.
Autumn Reeser, who plays Stephanie's gawky science-geek colleague Katie, says the Comic Con crowd appears to be drawn to her character in particular.
"I think it's really fun for the geek girls out there. I get a lot of Twitter and Facebook love from them, saying it's so nice to basically have someone they can relate to. Katie talks a lot about Comic Con, it's a huge part of her social life. That is probably where the majority of her friends come from. I feel like there's a lot of people who really relate to who Katie is and what she finds appealing and the lifestyle she leads," she says.
The actors agree it's fun to be working with a supernatural genre that has not has its limitations spelled out by pop-culture already.
Vampires have become so prolific recently that it is widely understood there are certain ways in which to kill them, that they will live a long time and that they share certain properties, such as cold skin.
Superheroes, on the other hand are still trying to figure that out.
Panabaker says that's one thing she loves most about the series - that the Powells are all trying to figure out what they can do with their new powers and whether it's a good idea to use them or not.
"There's no handbook," adds Benz.
Romany Malco, who plays Jim's best friend, George St Cloud, a character who does not have super-powers but who is the only person Jim has trusted with his secret, likens his character to the audience.
"I get to be the fanboy, I get to speak on behalf of the audience. I get to say 'wtf'. Nobody else gets to do that, but you have to when you see a muscle-bound man jump from a floor 20 storeys up. Somebody has to."
LOWDOWN
What: No Ordinary Family
When and where: Thursday, 8.30pm on TV2
-TimeOut
