TV review: 'No Ordinary Family'

Seriously, if you've ever seen those shows it take a little getting used to. Chiklis played a bad cop who, when on the job chasing down drug dealers and killers, would barrel like a freight train through fences and dole out punishment. He was angry. And he was scary. Last time we saw Benz in "Dexter," she was in a bathtub filled with her own blood.

And yet, here they are in the light, breezy and let's-have-some-fun confines of "No Ordinary Family," as husband and wife, with two kids, a nice house and your run-of-the-mill troubles that any harried married couple would have.

After you stop shaking your head violently to get the past out of it, accepting "No Ordinary Family" is actually pretty easy. Here's a series that asks you right up front to go with the flow of the premise. Don't scoff. Just come along for the ride and see what happens. If you can't get your head around what amounts to a non-animated version of "The Incredibles," then this series is not for you.

We first meet Jim Powell (Chiklis) as he looks into what you assume to be a documentary film crew's camera, and starts explaining his family's situation. He's a failed artist working as a sketch artist at the police department. His wife, Stephanie (Benz), is a rising scientist working 80-hours a week. They've been married 16 years and have a 16 year-old daughter Daphne (Kay Panabaker) and a 14 year-old son J.J. (Jimmy Bennett). So far, ordinary.

But Jim believes they aren't creating enough memories. Stephanie is barely home, Daphne is texting all the time and J.J. watches too much TV. So he wants the family to accompany Stephanie on her next work trip to the Amazon and spend a little family time there. Unfortunately, their light plane crashes into a remote area of the river, but they all manage to survive.

When they get home, nothing has changed and Jim seems miffed. Until he discovers - and this is your opt-in or opt-out moment - that he suddenly has super powers. He stops a bullet at work. He can also leap tall buildings. Can he die? Apparently, but it's difficult. Slowly, the other three find their powers as well.

Hence, no longer ordinary.

If it all seems a little silly and light, well, that's because it is. But there are very few series that families can watch together these days and "No Ordinary Family" looks like it can be one of them. What's most interesting about it is that creator Greg Berlanti isn't pretending this is the new "Lost" or something like that. To its credit, there are a few extra twists along the way that make the show more intriguing and which hint at a slightly darker feel (but not too bleak) and a chance to have a more complicated story than simply one family with super powers.

Chiklis is both likable and solid as the affable dad. He's aided by having Romany Malco ("Weeds," "The 40 Year Old Virgin") as his best friend. Benz gets more to do here than she did in "Dexter," and the series takes the everyday complications of high school seriously as it details the lives of the kids.

It might not require a lot of heavy lifting, and seeing Chiklis leap from building to building or Benz run 600 mph around a track could lead to eye rolls, but that just means you haven't accepted what this show is all about. They've got super powers, people. And now they want to use them. It might not be "The Incredibles," but it's not a rote procedural or a cheesy reality show either, and that's super enough.

E-mail Tim Goodman at tgoodman@sfchronicle.com. Follow him at www.twitter.com/bastardmachine.

This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle