Critic Reviews

The soul of the show, though, is its conflicted "heroes," truly tortured, in palpable ways, recalling the best, early days of NBC's ill-fated Monday comic book. There's no cartoonery here. Just adult adventure and angst.

Alphas deftly balances all the building blocks of great genre--nonhuman abilities, twisty plot, cool special effects, smart dialogue and characters you want to spend more time with. And that's the most impressive superpower of all.

The premiere drops enough intriguing hints about the players' pasts without distracting from the main plot. You can't have a team without conflict, and every character seems to carry a quirk that rubs the others the wrong way.

Strathairn helps the credibility of the melodrama a lot. Alphas may remind some viewers of Heroes, and is a dropped ABC pilot, but it's not damaged goods. It's fun and swift.

At first blush, though, give Alphas high marks for effort and ingenuity, demonstrating a TV show needn't provide major pyrotechnics or a reinvented wheel to lay the groundwork for solid summer entertainment where the characters, somewhat refreshingly, are only sort-of super.

As an origin story, Alphas hits some notes too hard and lacks a certain subtlety, yet there's potential in this tale, especially if it delves into the psychological cost of being extraordinary.

All in all, the Alphas season premiere is competent and enjoyable when it comes to action and pacing, but this show (especially given its modest budget) will rise and fall on the continuation of the character development begun in Season 1, and the jury's still out on that front.

Ultimately, I was more drawn in by the team's interactions than I was by either aspect of the plot, but that's probably better for the show's long-term viability.

Alphas is fun, sure, but it has a "been there, done that" feel.

Even as tropes arrive in full force, exceptions to boilerplate good-versus-evil scenarios make occasional appearances.