Television series

Misfits

Name: Misfits
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Science Fiction
Released: 2009
Cast: Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Joseph Gilgun, Antonia Thomas, Iwan Rheon, Lauren Socha

Five sullen teenagers doing community service get zapped by a freak storm and wake up with powers nobody asked for — telepathy, invisibility, the ability to rewind time, none of it especially convenient. Misfits treats superpowers as just another humiliating thing that happens to you, wrapping teenage rage and boredom in foul-mouthed comedy, sudden violence, and unexpected tenderness. Cheap-looking, filthy, and much smarter than it lets on.

TVMaze rating

7.8

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Being Human2009no page yet

A vampire, a werewolf and a ghost share a flat and try to hold down ordinary lives — same low-budget British charm as Misfits, same trick of using the supernatural to talk about shame, addiction and grief without losing the jokes.

But The tone drifts more melancholic than filthy-funny, and later seasons swap out most of the original cast, losing some chemistry.

The Umbrella Academy2019

Superpowered siblings raised as a dysfunctional found family, bickering through apocalypses with the same mix of trauma, dark humour and reluctant heroism that makes Misfits sing.

But Slicker and more expensive, with heavier plot mechanics — the scrappy DIY feel of Misfits gets replaced by real effects budgets and multiverse lore.

The Boys2019

Superpowers as corporate product and moral rot rather than gift — vicious, filthy, very funny, and just as interested in what power actually does to damaged, ordinary people.

But Much more graphically violent and cynical, with a satirical target — capitalism and celebrity — that's broader than anything Misfits aimed for.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Mob Psycho 1002016

Same central joke as Misfits — powers that arrive with no instructions and mostly just make an awkward adolescence worse — filtered through Japanese animation instead of British social realism.

A teenage psychic treats his terrifying powers as an embarrassing personal failing rather than a gift, wrapped in gorgeously chaotic animation and surprising emotional sincerity.

But It's anime, it's often extremely silly on the surface, and the visual style is a world away from Misfits' grubby realism.

Chronicle2012

Three teenagers get powers from a mysterious hole in the ground and immediately start using them for stupid, believable teenage reasons — found-footage intimacy with a real emotional gut-punch.

But One story, one arc, no room for the ensemble bickering and slow-burn friendships that make Misfits worth returning to.

Heroes2006no page yet

The original mainstream 'ordinary people discover powers' ensemble drama — earnest where Misfits is sarcastic, but built from the same DNA of strangers linked by an event bigger than any of them.

But Far more po-faced and network-friendly, and the show notoriously loses its nerve and quality after an excellent first season.

Kick-Ass2010

A teenager decides to become a real-life superhero with no powers and terrible consequences — the same dark, profane comedy about kids playing with forces above their pay grade.

But The violence is cartoonish and extreme in a way Misfits' scrappier, more human brutality never quite matches — this is pure pulp.

Skins2007

No powers, just the same raw nerve — British teenagers behaving badly, funny and heartbreaking in the same breath, from the network that gave Misfits its voice.

But Purely social realism with no genre hook, so if it was the sci-fi premise you loved, this won't scratch that itch.

Sex Education2019

Warmer and glossier, but the same trick of using outsiders' messy, embarrassing lives to say something true about growing up while never dropping the jokes.

But Considerably softer and more optimistic — the community-service grime and casual menace of Misfits are largely traded for Netflix polish.

Utopia2014

Britain's other great low-budget cult genre show of the era — a conspiracy thriller with the same nerve for sudden, shocking violence and pitch-black humour.

But No superpowers and a much bleaker, more paranoid register — this is a thriller first, comedy a distant second.

Scum1979

Strip the sci-fi out of Misfits and this is roughly what's left underneath — same setting, same anger at kids the system has already written off, decades before superpowers softened the blow.

Alan Clarke's brutal, once-banned drama about life inside a British borstal — no fantasy, no jokes, just the rage and violence of institutionalised young people with nowhere to put it.

But Genuinely bleak and hard to watch, with none of Misfits' comic relief or supernatural escape valve.

The Interrupters2011

Misfits keeps circling one question under all its jokes — can someone the world has already judged actually change? — and this documentary asks it for real, with no powers to hide behind.

A documentary following former gang members trying to stop cycles of street violence in Chicago, one exhausting, hopeful conversation at a time.

But It's a real, sober documentary with real stakes and no jokes — a considerable tonal jump from anything Misfits does.