“Extraordinary” begins with an interview scene where the main character Jen falls under the spell of a bounty hunter and tells her the whole truth: how she got to the office, why she didn’t get enough sleep, and what was wrong with her in general. You should not be surprised by such statements: only the employee of the personnel department has one superpower – next to him people cannot lie. Jen’s confession plays against her – embarrassed and without an offer, she can simply take a road trip through the bustling streets of London and watch how everyone around her has unique abilities: from a failed boyfriend who can get others to orgasm with just one touch, from a half-sister to a super-strength. equipped, it smashes everything in its path.
Jen is ready to be consoled by her neighbors in a rented apartment: the hapless Kash and Carrie’s best friend, the conductor for long-dead people, who know how to turn back time for a short time and dream of building her team of superheroes. Together, the trio will have to find the reasons for the “imperfection” of Jen, who is already 25 years old, the clock is ticking and she still does not have any superpowers.
“Extraordinary” is a true kaleidoscope of human weirdness. Behind this project is showrunner Emma Moran, a former stand-up artist retraining as a screenwriter and producer in 2020. The movie “Extraordinary” was written and made available to Disney+ patrons in 2021, but has been patiently waiting for its time for nearly two years.
The project, which received rave reviews from critics and audiences for its daring (and often outrageous) humor and characters that didn’t even try to hide their innocence, was likened to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag. But if you look closely, the similarity of these two stories is too superficial to be considered true.
“Fleabag” found a place for drama in this endless joke about the strangeness and disorder of the characters’ lives. The main character, with the help of humor, of course, laughed at her problems, but when the teasing lost its magical power, she threw aside her forced smile and looked straight into the face of her grief. She’s had to deal with the death of her best friend (indirectly involved), endure endless verbal fights with her toxic stepmother (the yummy Olivia Colman), and struggle to build a rapport with her sister. And when a love line with a priest was added to it in the second season of the series, “Fleabag” became a reference example of a drama where hysterical laughter turns into bitter tears – but that’s how the soul is treated.
The “extraordinary” tragedy is devoid of all these pretensions. This is an original show in its own way, determined to make fun of the superhero phenomenon we’re fed up with and starting to suffer from its own excess.
Moran’s mastermind works as a parody of Marvel and DC projects, but as a standalone work with room for more serious dramaturgy in addition to a series of endless “300-person jokes”, it doesn’t. Jen’s range of experience is limited to seeking her own superpowers with one motivation – to be like everyone else. Peace reigns in her family (yes, there is tension with her half-sister but who followed her in her youth?), all friends are alive and her love line lacks original chemistry.
The first wick of the project (and the pilot episode, however, is excellent) isn’t enough for eight 30-minute episodes. Along the way, the story gradually unwinds and turns into a four-hour stand-up with jokes processed hundreds of times. Some are still fun but mostly they just cause fatigue instead of smiling.