Misfits (2009)

Taking a leaf out of Skins's character-per-week structure, the second episode hones in on Nathan. He's ended up with the double blow of being kicked out of home and not appearing to have a superpower. While dealing with the aftermath of killing their support worker, the gang help out at a pensioners' tea dance, which brings a little light to Nathan's situation. Not safe for work, but very funny.

Having bumped off their probation officer and buried the body, our juvenile offenders nonchalantly continue their community service. They may now be superheroes - endowed with special powers after an electrical storm - but they're as incorrigible as ever, quarrelling and cursing (albeit entertainingly). Once again Nathan steals the best lines, impishly goading the other Misfits. Yet this week we meet the insecure young man behind that cocksure facade, as he's caught up in more sinister goings-on. For starters, the bloke who lives with his mum (Nathan can't quite bring himself to say "boyfriend") scurries past naked - twice. Quick-witted dialogue ensures this teen drama remains a cut above, although a raucous, Skins-style party in the local community centre and bedroom scenes may be too graphic for some.

Misfits, a British comedy drama about five miscreants doing community service who get caught in a strange storm and inherit superpowers, had every right to be one of the worst ideas for a TV series of recent times. In fact, as viewers who caught it on E4 last autumn will know, it's rather good, despite obvious borrowings from Shaun of the Dead and 28 Days Later.

Now that Misfits has won a Bafta, beating Being Human, The Street and Spooks to Best Drama Series, it's a good time to start showing the E4 original on a terrestrial channel. Tonight's series opener sets the scene, as a gang of six youths on Asbos do their community service, until a freakish storm changes the lives of everyone. It only seemed like a surprise award-winner to those who haven't seen it; those who have know that it's one of the most witty, original and stylish shows to appear on TV in years. Get involved.

The terrestrial debut for this Bafta-winning and imaginative comedy-drama first shown on E4. Five inner-city delinquents doing community service get struck by lightning and gain strange superpowers. Its premise of teenage outsiders thrown together as punishment recalls cult high school film The Breakfast Club. The reluctant superhero plot echoes US drama Heroes, while its hormonal, hard-partying cast draws inevitable comparisons to E4 stablemate Skins. Yet Misfits is very much its own beast, combining horror shocks and sci-fi special effects with sharp humour. Provided you're not put off by its occasionally self-conscious "yoof" sheen, it's really rather superb.

This playful series largely slipped under the radar when it was first shown on E4 in November. Now that it's scooped a Bafta for best drama, here's another chance to make the acquaintance of five unlikely superheroes before the second series arrives in the autumn. One grey day a group of young offenders begin their community service. Entertaining, if not exactly lovable, they squabble, cuss and splash paint about - incapable of good manners, never mind delivering mankind from evil doings. Suddenly, lightning zigzags across the sky and hailstones as big as boulders pelt down. When the storm passes, the teens discover they possess special powers and, even more bewildering, their cheery probation officer has metamorphosed into an axe-murderer. Funny, saucy and downright frightening by turns, Misfits isn't half as silly as it sounds.

You may have missed this the first time around, all buried in E4's schedules between the 90th airing of The One With The Monkey Wedding and Chandler's Yo-Yo Weight and the episode of How I Met Your Mother where you wish that it was all about Doogie Howser. It was billed rather unfairly then as 'Heroes meets Skins', but Misfits more than deserves this terrestrial outing here on its own merit. It's really good. Oh, and it won a BAFTA this year.

Misfits Review

Misfits is a witty and original comedy drama which has more style than a copy of Vogue. If all that's not enough, it's also quite exciting.

Channel 4 plans Misfits Xmas special

Drama series following group of Asbo kids with superpowers earns hour-long special alongside recomissioned series.

This might have flown under your radar when it was shown on E4 at the end of last year, but it was an instant cult hit. A gang of Asbo adolescents are trudging through community service when an electrical storm hits, leaving them all with special powers.

A bleak, edgy, smart cross between Being Human, Skins and The Breakfast Club ensues: shot in palid greys, rocking to an acutely well-chosen pop soundtrack, and acted by unknowns who will surely not be unknowns for long.