roycevenuter Real acting talent isn't depend upon language. The skillful utilization of space and time, combined with agile adaptation of voice, eyes, body language and other nuances, to character, conflict, imagination and verisimilitude (convincing me wholly that what is fantasy, is truly happening before my eyes). "Alphas" evinces every one of these essential ingredients; I quickly forget that they are merely acting; the story and the performers come alive within their personae like a glove indistinguishable from skin. I suppose that when an intriguing series is cut short after only two seasons, that truncation leaves aficionados of the performers with keenly whetted curiosities, eager for more, somehow, some way, some day.

doranwen All the negative reviews are most likely because the reviewers were expecting or are used to a different show than what they saw. You're not going to find a lot of explosions, sex, or shootouts here, nor complex murder plots. If you want those, go elsewhere. If you're interested in a show with realistic characters, plot threads that raise questions as they answer others, and moral quandaries served up in subtle ways, then Alphas is the show for you.Unlike flashy superhero shows (X-Men) or ones with powers so far out of the ordinary that they're not remotely believable (Heroes), Alphas sticks with people who are essentially ordinary in many ways. They have jobs where they have to drive or take public transit to get to work, they have families (or broken relationships thereof), they deal with anger management issues, autism, difficulty with assertiveness, etc. (A minor note: Ryan Cartwright's development of Gary is the best portrayal of a character with autism that I've ever seen. For those who find him annoying, try working at understanding people with such neurological differences?) The one difference between these characters and people we see in real life is that they have abilities—some of which you might see on Youtube—just dialed up 1000x (such as Bill and Cameron's abilities). There are people who are hypersensitive to light, sound, etc., and Rachel's ability just takes that to the extreme. Gary and Nina's abilities push the limits of belief a little more, but are such compelling characters that it's easy to accept them.The downsides each character has make them more realistic - and therefore more likable; these are people we could imagine in our lives. Plus the show develops them well over time. Characters that seem like they have it together turn out to be broken and struggling; characters that first appear vulnerable and weak gain confidence and strength as the episodes progress. Characters fail as well as succeed, suffer as well as rejoice. And because they are so realistic, I found myself crying along with them when they cried. (Alphas is unafraid to shock the viewer with death and threats of harm, and it's very easy to empathize with the characters in those circumstances.) The actors do a fantastic job in pulling off their characters: I never once felt as if I were seeing Azita Ghanizada "play" Rachel—she *became* Rachel. David Strathairn does one of the best jobs with this, particularly in the second season with the arc involving his daughter—but then Laura Mennell does an amazing job with Nina as well! (When Push Comes to Shove is a particularly excellent example of this.) I could single out every individual actor/actress for this because they all really inhabited their character's skins and brought them to life in a way that I don't always see in shows. The dialogue is very natural, complete with characters talking over each other (how many times in real life do you have a conversation with three people where no two people ever say something simultaneously?), teasing of coworkers, humor that arises when you least expect it (which is how life works), and characters who don't always say things perfectly.All of that aside, what also makes this show so fantastic is the depth to which it goes in dealing with the moral issues. Government actions and paranoia, a blurry line between heroes and villains, lots of wrestling with ends and means… A character towards the end of the pilot tells Cameron Hicks "You're on the wrong side", and the show never ceases to toy with that idea. Even as our heroes become more firmly convinced that the show's villains are wrong, they begin to adopt the villains' methods in order to catch them.Nearly every episode leaves the viewer with something to think about, whether it be a moral issue or some area of personal development. The writers did a great job of letting us see enough of the Alphas' world to recognize it as our own, down to needing change for the parking meter. (For those who hated that scene, I have to say that I loved it because it not only established these people as ordinary folks such as you and I, but also let us see how some aspects of their lives were affected by their powers in ways we might not have thought of—Nina's lack of change is a great character insight.) Then they took us with the characters to a world increasingly turbulent and shadowy, yet still recognizable. The beginning scenes of The Unusual Suspects should send a chilling reminder to all of us how easy it would be for our civil liberties to vanish, and how prevalent this type of force has become.Was Alphas perfect? No, of course not (what is?). Occasionally their labels for abilities weren't the best choices, and they did have some difficulty keeping Rachel's backstory consistent, but these were minor issues. Overall, though, it was the one show where I liked *all* of the main characters. I never felt that any episode was so bad I didn't want to see it again. The action plots fed into the character plots and vice versa, something you don't always see done well. I watched every episode knowing nothing about it and was always engrossed from the first minute.The one major problem this show has is the way it ended. The cliffhanger at the end of the second season is the worst I have ever seen, and Syfy should be ashamed of themselves for the way they treated their fans. I would pay good money to see an episode or movie to actually wrap things up, to give us closure. That said, it's still definitely worth watching all 24 episodes, even if you have to make up your own resolution to the story!

pasa-2 It has good actors an plenty of good writing for the characters themselves.However the plots of the episodes are mostly ranging from bad to extremely annoyingly bad. And the solution of the problems is even worse.For the second season they added a great arch that makes even less sense in either idea or execution.Recommended only for people who can not think at all or can deliberately turn off their brain. But the latter population can easily find better nonsense shows that are at least fun.

redx1708 If you liked X-men, The 4400 or Heroes, you might feel tempted to check out this one. My advice would be: Don't waste your time ! I think the main problem is weak scripts. The writers probably tried to find some new angles to a well tried formula, but didn't really come up with anything. Most of the characters seemed without much substance, which didn't give the actors much to work with, and except for Gary they were just uninteresting people despite their powers. Rosen was certainly no Xavier and most important, they didn't give us a good villain. The main bad guy, who's actually first introduced in season 2, don't really give off any of the charisma one would expect from a head antagonist. We don't get into what makes him tick, except that he wants to kill a lot of people and rule the world.(Wow, what an original idea). A few stabs at giving him a human side fails pathetically, and like the rest of the cast just fizzles out. So after 2 seasons it folded, and while the ending of the last episode was probably meant as an end of season cliffhanger, it could also be seen as an act of mercy.