What I’m Watching: No Ordinary Family

No Ordinary Family: Season 1, Episode 13 “No Ordinary Detention” (C-)

There’s one thing that worked pretty well in this episode, and that was Jim’s attempts to mimic Bruce Willis in “Die Hard” as he started taking out hostage takers in the police station. His brilliant and rather awesome plan was short-lived as it came to an end just like Harrison Ford’s stowaway act in “Air Force One” did. I enjoyed seeing Jim and George think smartly and try to position Jim as a real-life action hero, and that’s something I’d like to see more often on this show. I was extremely disappointed with Joanne Kelly’s guest spot since the actress is much more fun as Myka on Syfy’s “Warehouse 13.” Rebecca Mader’s role also proved rather less than impressive due to her status as the world’s dumbest shape shifter. It’s important to remember that you need to neutralize whoever it is you’re trying to look like so that they don’t show up and ruin all your plans (that would of course go against this show’s nature of never having stakes). It’s a good thing that the Watcher finally revealed to Katie that he has powers, but Stephanie definitely came way too close to showing Katie’s duplicitous other that she has powers. The detention truth or dare wasn’t terrible as a way of giving the kids something to do, but I’m not pleased that it featured one of TV’s worst characters, JJ’s sniveling teacher. Mr. Litchfield. I had hoped that his near-fatal accident would have turned him into a less cartoonish and one-note character.