ONTD

After the Nazi dystopian adventure, Kelly stepped to the fore this week in a more muted affair.

The episode revolved around a body swap between Kelly and coma victim Jen, the latter of whom was desperate to get back to her boyfriend Dom (Nick Blood) through any means possible. This week was Lauren Socha’s chance to stand out but unfortunately her acting fell short and she did not manage to convincingly portray Jen.

There is no doubt about Socha’s ability as an actress, earlier this year she won the Bafta for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Kelly and the year before she was nominated in the same category for her part in ‘The Unloved’. However, in this episode her acting potential remained unrealised, it felt very much like Kelly was there and that Jen had not taken over. There have been glimpses of Socha’s versatility in this series with her new power, as well as in the first series when she was indoctrinated by the Virtue cult, but it just did not come out here. Socha is capable of so much more but if she is not careful she could end up being typecast as the hard-nosed girl from the troubled background.

Saying this, she is superb as Kelly and the resolved relationship between her and Seth at the end of the episode served as a satisfying finale. Kelly and Seth have an underplayed chemistry which works because both of them are guarded characters, neither of whom wants to lose face. It was nice to see Kelly’s love life resuscitated after her disappointing ‘like-a-cousin’ moment with Nathan and her fleeting romance with Bruno, the escaped monkey who turned into a human but ended up getting shot.

On a final note, Shaun the probation worker’s sudden demise was shocking. Although the Asbo Five have killed all of their probation workers through some mishap or other, it was completely unexpected when Shaun was stabbed. Out of all three of the probation workers, he has been the most memorable because of his apathetic attitude towards youth offenders and the rehabilitation system. Craig Parkinson has given a brilliant performance all the way through and his character will be sorely missed. It was very touching when the group revealed their powers to him and there seemed to be an understanding between them all in his final moments.

Next week there seems to be more strangeness afoot after Rudy sleeps with a girl and the police get involved. Curtis’ gender bending power starts to get the better of him and is Kelly pregnant? A ‘Misfits’ baby with combined superpowers could throw up a whole new set of problems. Who can forget Finn the psychic baby from the first series?


Misfits dicussion post? Pretty please? Also, I agree that Jen-in-Kelly's-body seemed a bit off, but it was a good effort, and it was so refreshing to have an episode for Kelly. And I'm so heart-broken over Shaun! He was such a brilliant asshole. RIP bb :(