In a superhero genre withcountless comic books, movies, and television series constantly released, fans seem to love nothing more than a"gritty and realistic" take on superpowers. The media has become rife with examples of this subgenre, with huge hits likeThe BoysandInvincibleportraying the wonder of heroes while accounting for the horrors of reality. Both series have entertained with their interpretations, but each one’s mission of superpowered realism pales in comparison toZak PennandMichael Karnow’sAlphas.
Syfy’sAlphashas a similar goal to these other shows, focusing on a group of people with jaw-dropping abilities in a world a lot like our own, yet it refuses to fall into the fantasy that even the most grounded superhero programs can’t resist utilizing. It doesn’t undercut its own premise by showcasing abilitiesthat no amount of universe-specific logic can explain.Instead, it explores the magic that is the human body and the subtle fears of everyday life, deriving its “powers” and “villains” from the things people experience every single day. It’s a much more practical approach that perfectly fits this riveting yet analytical series, showing that before audiences even began to wonder what heroes would actually look like in society,it wasAlphasthat revolutionized how powers could be portrayed today.
SyFy’s ‘Alphas’ Was Revolutionary for the Superhero Genre
WhileAlphasmay not be the only series that imagines superheroes in the real world, its approach is much more grounded than that of the popular programs fans enjoy today. One of the biggest examples of this isEric Kripke’sThe Boys; while the series excels at portraying how powers would be twisted by society’s elite and explains their existence through man-made chemistry, it can’t resist creating fantastical displays of impossible abilities,stretching its in-universe rules in order to entertain the audience.Alphasdoes the opposite by envisioning a power systemthat viewers are all too familiar with — the human body. It follows Dr. Lee Rosen (David Strathairn), a psychologist specializing in “Alphas,” rare individuals who can push different bodily functions to perform superhuman acts. He has spent his life finding and, in many cases, saving those struggling with their unbelievable gifts, forming those he’s rescued into a governmental defense team who save others like themselves while imprisoning those rogue alphas who want to use their abilities for evil.
Alphasis a program that prides itself on being scientific, with the first episode introducing viewers (through digestible terms) to the genetic wonders that are the titular subset of the human race. Audiences quickly learn that not only doour main cast hold interesting powers, but they also have shockingly rational ones. Former FBI agent Bill Harken (Malik Yoba) can push his biological fight-or-flight response to gain short bursts of immense strength, and his teammate, the sensitive linguist Rachel Pirzad (Azita Ghanizada) is able to dull four of her physical senses to turn the fifth one into a heightened “super-sense.”
While already cool in appearance, these are made even more fascinating by the series taking the time to embody each one through the person who wields it, turning these scientific marvels into utterly emotional experiences as their user must grapple with the unfortunate drawbacks each ability entails. It’s a nuanced approach to the concept of superpowersthatcreates heroes audiences can actually resonate with.Shows discuss the complications of powers, but few are as heartbreaking as this one, with audiences learning through things like Rachel suffering concussive bouts of overstimulation how abilities would be much more complex and individually risky than other series present.
‘Alphas’ Real Superpower Is Science
While innovative in so many ways, some notable flaws holdAlphasback. Primarily, though the series does well at providing scientific reasoning for every person’s power,its second installment begins to stretch the limits of chemistryeven further, introducing abilities that even the maddest scientists couldn’t rationalize. These moments drag the program into the dark fantasy elements of contemporaries likeThe Boys,but luckily, it always manages to bring itself back to the analytical outlook that defines it as a whole.
Through spotlighting science in a way most other shows refuse to (most likely because they recognize it would undermine their whole sense of realism), the show becomes not only a thrilling adventure but a legitimate questioning of what superpowers would look like in the real world. While most projects do this by focusing on the folly of man and society’s elite,Alphasdoes it in a more palatable way by turning the focus inward onto a viewer’s own body. It becomes a shockingly educational experience as the series pairs action with an understanding of how these superhuman feats could occur in the real world, creating an instantly relatable show that viewers can see themselves in — and making them question whether their bodies could do those things too.
Alphasis available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.
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