‘The Tomorrow People’ episode 4 review: We learn about John, but do we care?

Four episodes into “The Tomorrow People,” and we are still confused about what some viewers see in the show … save for all the shirtless guys. It’s basically the least heroic superhero on TV, mostly because it’s missing the one element that so many comic books seem to know and understand: They are supposed to be fun. They’re not supposed to be the sort of thing that features so much brooding and despair all of the time (unless you’re Batman and only Batman can pull that off).

That, probably more than anything else, is the problem that we run into with “The Tomorrow People” right now: It just doesn’t feel like fun to us. So to see John suffer through the foster system this week and watching a grown man attack him doesn’t give us the sort of feeling we get watching most other things on The CW. Compare this to “Arrow,” “The Vampire Diaries,” or “Hart of Dixie.” While we would not claim that any of these shows are Emmy-caliber, they are series that we check out when we want to have some snark or laughter mixed in with the drama.

The one thing that “The Tomorrow People” did right was knowing that we need to care about all of the characters, and now, we don’t feel like John is just some d-bag that is going to lose his girlfriend to Stephen over time, and we will cheer about it every step of the way. Instead, he’s more of a guy who has been through some horrible times, and he is a hero in some ways. But in the midst of the story tonight, we didn’t really feel like there were that many winners.

Mark Pellegrino is the best thing the show has going for it, but throughout this whole episode we had the same question as Stephen’s little brother: What kind of name is Jedikiah? The show tries to stay at times too close to its roots in the UK original, but then at times too focused on being that “CW show” with shirtlessness and predictable plotlines. What we’re left with is an unoriginal and largely boring show, and most of the momentum it established last week came mostly to a screeching halt here. Grade: D.

Overall, what did you think about “The Tomorrow People” this week? Be sure to share below, and click here if you want to read some more news related to the show.

Photo: The CW