Howard Overman writes genre television in which extraordinary events leave people's shortcomings intact. We like him best when the comedy earns our patience with those people; Misfits does, though its unpleasantness sometimes wears thin.
Fi1m perspective
Five teenagers doing community service acquire superpowers in Misfits (2009), but Howard Overman sees no reason to make them admirable. He gives the performers unlikely material and trusts them to make it sound convincing. We laughed because the cast deliver the silliness without embarrassment, making it easier to accept people we might otherwise find exhausting. This is sharp, dark comedy, and we recommend it despite the stretches when its characters become wearing. The writing usually finds enough humour in their shortcomings to justify staying with them.
Before that breakthrough, Overman wrote episodes of Hustle and New Tricks in 2005; his work on Merlin ran from 2008 to 2011. Misfits established him as a creator and lead writer, and the programme ran for five series. His subsequent work includes co-creating the mythological fantasy Atlantis (2013) and creating the modern H.G. Wells adaptation War of the Worlds (2019). His producing partners include Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy. The later work has taken him into different settings without abandoning genre storytelling.
Crazyhead (2016) combines tongue-in-cheek horror with humour, while Future Man (2017), which he co-created, continues the comedy. Across his work, extraordinary events tend to arrive among flawed people whose ordinary difficulties still matter. What interests us about that habit is the opportunity to let characters respond badly, selfishly or absurdly to something a more solemn programme might treat with awe. Misfits makes good use of that opportunity, helped by an ensemble willing to take the premise seriously.
The limit is how long disagreeable behaviour can remain entertaining without giving us anything more to enjoy or understand. In the weaker stretches of Misfits, Overman keeps returning to the unpleasantness when the joke no longer earns it. The performances remain committed, but they cannot supply what the writing has stopped finding. Start with Misfits for the dark humour and the ensemble; a little tolerance for difficult company will help.
Biography
Howard Overman is a British television writer and producer. He created and wrote the E4 series Misfits (2009–2013), which won the 2010 BAFTA Television Award for Best Drama Series.
Overman began his career writing episodes for series including Hustle and Merlin. He has created or co-created Vexed (2010), Dirk Gently (2010), Atlantis (2013), Crazyhead (2016), Future Man (2017), War of the Worlds (2019) and The One (2021). He co-founded the production company Urban Myth Films.
