Misfits: series 5, review

Misfits, E4's Asbo superheroes drama, is inventive and zesty but still a show in transition, says Patrick Smith.

Misfits fans flock to Twitter as final series kicks off

Fans of Misfits have wasted no time in welcoming the show back to screens as its final series got underway on E4.

Matt Stokoe as handsome barman Alex in Misfits (E4) would be in with a shout if there's ever a Bafta going for Least Sexy Sex Scene.

Both of his less-than-amorous encounters in the opening episode of this rollicking drama's final series were as erotic as a plate of cold semolina. And, it should be added, intentionally so.

The sending up of Alex's studly stereotype - he's granted a superpower which you just know is going to come back and bite him in the backside - is just one of the plotting pleasures of Howard Overman's clever storytelling.

Misfits is a show powered by its own internal logic, its character shifts continually catching you on the hop.

It takes itself not too seriously but just seriously enough to combine the potty-mouthed wise-cracking of Rudy One and Rudy Two (Joseph Gilgun, hilariously doubling up) with a spooky line in the supernatural, last night introducing a troop of Satanic scouts into the action.

This plotline climaxed in one of Alex's deathly bed scenes, his encounter with cheeky Scouser Finn - watched by a mouth-taped Jess - about as warped a ménage à trois as I've encountered without involving an illegal download.

If the rest of this farewell season is as good as this, then we'll be going out on a high.

MISFITS, 5.1 - episode one review

Overall, this was a good start for the final series and something to build on.

The final series of Misfits dawns as dark as ever, with Alex the handsome barman waking up from a lung transplant with an intriguing superpower. Hangdog-faced Finn shows his harder edge as he takes his job as Satan's chief agent on Earth seriously. But it's Joseph Gilgun who's the most fascinating to watch, as his face etches out the subtle differences between the two sides of split-personality Misfit Rudy brilliantly. Add a dead chicken and a lady who knits the future and it's a return to form for the series opener.

Be still our beating hearts: it's time for the fifth and final donning of the orange jumpsuits for one of the most original dramas to hit British screens in the past few years. The personnel has changed but the dynamic spark between the super-powered community service group has remained constant, with Matt Stokoe's barman Alex getting a beefier part this time round. But it's Joe Gilgun,terrific as fast-talking Rudy, who has made the show his own.

The final series begins, just before Misfits slides into complete irrelevance. Which is a shame, given how brilliantly funny and imaginative it was at its peak. Now, it resembles a televisual Sugababes, with a rotating cast recycling familiar themes without ever quite recapturing the glory days.

Tonight's opener sees the members of the gang once again turned against each other, this time by a Satanic cult disguised as Scouts, with inveterate bedhopper Alex (Matt Stokoe) finally bedridden after a lung transplant and offered the chance to 'use your cock for good'. The cast are still game - Joe Gilgun's scatalogical idiot savant Rudy remains a superb comic creation - but the ideas are undoubtedly running dry. Let's hope that Thamesmead's finest get a climax worthy of their grubbily storied past.

The juvenile delinquents-turned-superheroes in orange jumpsuits return for a fifth and final series, as lippy and lewd as ever. To think it's from the pen of Howard Overman, the man behind Dirk Gently, and co-creator of Atlantis - BBC One's squeaky-clean Saturday-night offering.

Devotees can stop holding their breath: hunky barman Alex has survived his lung transplant. Alas, he awakes to find it's no longer his looks attracting the ladies but a new superpower far too rude to write about in a family magazine. Finn, meanwhile, cannot resist the advances of a comely scout; only to discover her troop is not as wholesome as they appear. The star of the show - as always - is Joseph Gilgun as Rudy: ruder and lewder than all the others combined.

Misfits series 5 episode 1 review

The Misfits series 5 opener might not be the show we first met, but it's certainly an entertaining hour.

Misfits Series 5: A return to form or a hellish flop?

The Misfits series five premiere is a solid enough launchpad for a final run of episodes that I'm still hoping will restore a once-great series to a little of its former glory.