Alphas

2011

Seasons & Episodes

  • 2
  • 1
  • 0
7.2| 0h30m| TV-14| en| More Info
Released: 11 July 2011 Canceled
Producted By: BermanBraun
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.syfy.com/alphasseries
Synopsis

Five ordinary people with superhuman physical and mental abilities are brought together to form one extraordinary team of Alphas. Operating within the U.S. Department of Defense, the team investigates cases that point to others with Alpha abilities.

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Reviews

UnowPriceless hyped garbage
Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film
Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.
InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
doranwen All the negative reviews are most likely because the reviewers were expecting or are used to a different show than what they saw. You're not going to find a lot of explosions, sex, or shootouts here, nor complex murder plots. If you want those, go elsewhere. If you're interested in a show with realistic characters, plot threads that raise questions as they answer others, and moral quandaries served up in subtle ways, then Alphas is the show for you.Unlike flashy superhero shows (X-Men) or ones with powers so far out of the ordinary that they're not remotely believable (Heroes), Alphas sticks with people who are essentially ordinary in many ways. They have jobs where they have to drive or take public transit to get to work, they have families (or broken relationships thereof), they deal with anger management issues, autism, difficulty with assertiveness, etc. (A minor note: Ryan Cartwright's development of Gary is the best portrayal of a character with autism that I've ever seen. For those who find him annoying, try working at understanding people with such neurological differences?) The one difference between these characters and people we see in real life is that they have abilities—some of which you might see on Youtube—just dialed up 1000x (such as Bill and Cameron's abilities). There are people who are hypersensitive to light, sound, etc., and Rachel's ability just takes that to the extreme. Gary and Nina's abilities push the limits of belief a little more, but are such compelling characters that it's easy to accept them.The downsides each character has make them more realistic - and therefore more likable; these are people we could imagine in our lives. Plus the show develops them well over time. Characters that seem like they have it together turn out to be broken and struggling; characters that first appear vulnerable and weak gain confidence and strength as the episodes progress. Characters fail as well as succeed, suffer as well as rejoice. And because they are so realistic, I found myself crying along with them when they cried. (Alphas is unafraid to shock the viewer with death and threats of harm, and it's very easy to empathize with the characters in those circumstances.) The actors do a fantastic job in pulling off their characters: I never once felt as if I were seeing Azita Ghanizada "play" Rachel—she *became* Rachel. David Strathairn does one of the best jobs with this, particularly in the second season with the arc involving his daughter—but then Laura Mennell does an amazing job with Nina as well! (When Push Comes to Shove is a particularly excellent example of this.) I could single out every individual actor/actress for this because they all really inhabited their character's skins and brought them to life in a way that I don't always see in shows. The dialogue is very natural, complete with characters talking over each other (how many times in real life do you have a conversation with three people where no two people ever say something simultaneously?), teasing of coworkers, humor that arises when you least expect it (which is how life works), and characters who don't always say things perfectly.All of that aside, what also makes this show so fantastic is the depth to which it goes in dealing with the moral issues. Government actions and paranoia, a blurry line between heroes and villains, lots of wrestling with ends and means… A character towards the end of the pilot tells Cameron Hicks "You're on the wrong side", and the show never ceases to toy with that idea. Even as our heroes become more firmly convinced that the show's villains are wrong, they begin to adopt the villains' methods in order to catch them.Nearly every episode leaves the viewer with something to think about, whether it be a moral issue or some area of personal development. The writers did a great job of letting us see enough of the Alphas' world to recognize it as our own, down to needing change for the parking meter. (For those who hated that scene, I have to say that I loved it because it not only established these people as ordinary folks such as you and I, but also let us see how some aspects of their lives were affected by their powers in ways we might not have thought of—Nina's lack of change is a great character insight.) Then they took us with the characters to a world increasingly turbulent and shadowy, yet still recognizable. The beginning scenes of The Unusual Suspects should send a chilling reminder to all of us how easy it would be for our civil liberties to vanish, and how prevalent this type of force has become.Was Alphas perfect? No, of course not (what is?). Occasionally their labels for abilities weren't the best choices, and they did have some difficulty keeping Rachel's backstory consistent, but these were minor issues. Overall, though, it was the one show where I liked *all* of the main characters. I never felt that any episode was so bad I didn't want to see it again. The action plots fed into the character plots and vice versa, something you don't always see done well. I watched every episode knowing nothing about it and was always engrossed from the first minute.The one major problem this show has is the way it ended. The cliffhanger at the end of the second season is the worst I have ever seen, and Syfy should be ashamed of themselves for the way they treated their fans. I would pay good money to see an episode or movie to actually wrap things up, to give us closure. That said, it's still definitely worth watching all 24 episodes, even if you have to make up your own resolution to the story!
ah-52966 I have no clue how this is entertaining.the characters are just all annoying, make no sense, and are cheap rehashes of entertaining characters from great shows. The whole idea is also mind boggling, the government trusts specifically a woman who can change anyone's will to what she wants with little to no effort, everyone else's "abilities" are essentially useless and never seem to help. This show has a lot of other problems, like the actors. The actors/ actresses are all terrible either show no emotion or show too much or are just not in character. I wish someone could explain how this show is "good". If anyone can explain please go ahead I have seen no positives from it. Is this long enough yet, I have ran out of stuff to say about this show.
Dutcher_R This show has a really decent start keeping the paranormal activities on a somewhat explainable level. The most impressive role is probably that of Gary. Bold move to have a main character which is very autistic. But it works really well too. Acting is very decent on most parts and in the beginning there are some larger threads woven, especially with Nina's past.However, as the shows process, it kinda loses it identity and has too little progress in the overall line. What starts as a group of gifted people who need to control their lives along with those gifts who in spare time try to help/save/find others with said powers quickly turns into a self controlled government spin-off with all consequences coming along with them. Now this doesn't have to be a bad thing, but as the cases continue it's more about the cases (and later on Red flag) than the actual life work which, in turn, causes Dr. Rosen to become quite redundant in the group (or at least, the show tries to praise him for more than he actually seems to do).*** this next paragraph contains some direct references (spoilers), I tried to keep actual details to a minimum. Read at own risk ***But the most important thing that probably made me lose my excitement is the 'suddenly'-factor. The story has too many 'suddenlies'. For example, at one point, the government places a holding cell in their building. At the end of the same episode, it gets blown up and never returned. Another episode suddenly caused a 'leak'. In the end we learn that a shape shifter took the place of one of our members whereas earlier episodes revealed nothing of that sort (a bit of doubt in the episode before it would've sufficed). The show is full of things like these, relating to events but also choices of our lead characters which would help the plot, but don't seem to make enough sense as a whole.The idea was good and the fx were really nicely made (especially Gary's radio weave 'hearing' is brilliantly displayed). But overall I felt that the scripts were too little thought through beyond the episodes.
Cypherdude I just got through seeing "Alphas" on Amazon Instant Video for free. I saw every episode, all 24. It's too bad Syfy cancelled "Alphas". It was entertaining, interesting, not boring. Why they cancelled it I don't know. The action was good and the special effects were credible.Usually Syfy TV series are awful. Usually the special effects in Syfy TV series are terrible. However, in "Alphas" they were pretty good. The characters were also credible and developed. I think Syfy should have had at least 1 more season. I think there was enough potential content to fill another season. Syfy also should have allowed "Alphas" to have an ending with finality, something where viewers would be satisfied. It appears to me the writers for "Alphas" wanted to continue with another season but Syfy just cancelled them.In a situation such as this, where the Network wants to cancel, I think Syfy should have at least allowed 1 more episode to allow for a definitive ending for the series.Good series, 8 out of 10.

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