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91The 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.
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80Alphas 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.
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75Strathairn 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.
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75The 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.
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70As 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.
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70At 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.
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67Ultimately, 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.
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Aug 1, 201163Even as tropes arrive in full force, exceptions to boilerplate good-versus-evil scenarios make occasional appearances.
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63Alphas is fun, sure, but it has a "been there, done that" feel.
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60Alphas proceeds with a relative sobriety that will prove attractive to some and simply unintoxicating to others. If there are any grown-up fanboys left in America--people who can bring themselves to admit that this summer's blockbusters-in-tights are meager gruel--then Alphas may have enough beta charm to see them through the season.
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60Alphas is hardly the alpha show in this supernatural-hero genre, but it's still engaging.
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50Of course, it's a coup for SyFy to snag Strathairn for the new series, but this is very much an ensemble piece. The other performers are all great at being unlikely and, at times, downright cranky heroes. Still, while their crankiness is initially appealing, it could wear thin pretty quickly unless they are given really smart crimes to solve.
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50It's neither here nor there: low on sci-fi mystery and intrigue and not yet convincing as ensemble drama. Right now it feels like the beta version.
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50Alphas looks fairly good on paper, but never catches fire. And its use of Strathairn is even more of a fizzle.
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50The problem with the show is that it's pretty dull, particularly if you've ever watched any of the similar shows that preceded Alphas. None of the characters feel new, nor do the situations.
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40Their take on human nature may develop, but right now it's cartoonish in the worst way and too reminiscent of similar shows.