With the departure of Robert Sheehan for series three of Misfits, his flair is replaced with double the trouble (and yes I did just write that)of Joseph Gilgun's character Rudy who has the power to split himself in two like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Rudy is a nice addition to the group although there is a lot missing without Nathan. Even though they both have quite a mouth Rudy doesn't have the sparkle that Nathan had. Rudy's not as good of an asshole as Nathan was. Rudy's not the only thing that's new on the show. Everyone has a new power some which are better than others. Curtis can turn into a girl which is helpful when running from the cops but becomes problematic when exploring your sexuality and getting yourself pregnant. Alisha can put herself in others people's shoes to tell where they are which only seems to help when Kelly is trapped in the body of a comatose patient. Simon can see into the future and Kelly is a rocket scientist but because of her look and attitude no one takes seriously. It does add some comic moments.
The third series lacks a driving narrative to guide it to the end. There isn't an overreaching arch in the episodes causing it to loose direction and focus. This series had better stand alone episodes than previous series. My favorite was the fourth episode which showed an alternative reality where the Nazi's won the war because an elderly Jewish man travels back in time to kill Hitler fails and before returning to the present he drops his phone which allows the Nazi's to win. Kelly takes his power to put everything back to the way it was. It's kind of a nice break from the reality of the show and shows the depth the show can have - the possibility. When I began the episode I thought I was watching something else, a different show because it was so unlike the rest of the show's aesthetic. Not only is this my favorite episode of the series but the episode contains my favorite moment of the entire series in which Kelly exclaims 'fucking Nazis' leading into the show's opening credits.
Throughout the weakened third series the stories that were most interesting were ones involving either Kelly or Simon. Simon really took the helm this time around mostly by trying to become the superhero character we first met at the end of series one. It was great to see more of Simon and I loved the romantic relationship between him and Alisha. Which leads me to the biggest problem I have with the third series the death of Alisha and Simon (even though we saw Simon's death previously). The finale was very much a stand alone episode in that the previous seven episodes did nothing to lead up to that point. Yes Simon had told Alisha that he was giving up his superhero suit after his dealings with Peter when he really kept them but there wasn't a overarching theme to the third series leading up to that moment. Alisha's death - killed by a ghost out for revenge was dramatic and caught me off guard. That was the first shoe that dropped the second was when Simon took his superhero suit out of hiding, got his time travel power from Seth and went back to save Alisha, make her fall in love with him and consequently die. A romantic yet tragic love story cycle which they are forever stuck in.
The third and final shoe to drop was the realization that now with both Iwan Rheon and Antonia Thomas gone there aren't many characters left that make me want to go back for another series. All my favorites keep leaving and the show's writers are definitely not afraid of killing off characters but their specialty seems to be probation workers as two bite the dust this series one of them getting killed twice as she came back as a zombie. Craig Parkinson who played Shaun has to be my favorite probation worker who I kind of figure was going to die this series as he died in the alternative reality episode which seemed to foreshadow events or in terms of Gary who died in the very first episode repeat events - Gary doesn't have much luck in the alternative universe either.
On the whole, series three was just waiting for the finale and the departure of Simon and Alisha. There were some good episodes in between and new characters but I'm not sure how much longer this show can last and whether or not I'll continue to tune in.
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