Alphas

Alphas
Alphas's intertitle
Also known as	Section 8[1]
Genre	Action/Adventure Drama Science fantasy Science fiction
Created by	Zak Penn Michael Karnow
Starring	David Strathairn Ryan Cartwright Warren Christie Azita Ghanizada Laura Mennell Malik Yoba
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	11 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Ira Steven Behr Zak Penn Gail Berman Lloyd Braun Gene Stein Robert Hewitt Wolfe
Producer(s)	Michael Karnow Nick Copus Julie Siege Kevin Lafferty
Running time	43 minutes
Production company(s)	BermanBraun Universal Cable Productions
Broadcast
Original channel	Syfy
Picture format	NTSC (480i) HDTV 1080i
Original run	July 11, 2011 (2011-07-11) – present
External links
Website

Alphas is an American science fiction dramatic television series created by Zak Penn and Michael Karnow. The series follows a group of people with superhuman abilities, known as "Alphas", as they work to prevent crimes committed by other Alphas.

The series is broadcast in the United States on the cable channel Syfy and is a co-production between BermanBraun and Universal Cable Productions. It premiered on July 11, 2011. After initial reports that the show was canceled,^[2] on September 7, 2011, Alphas was renewed for a 13-episode second season.^[3]

Contents 1 Series overview 2 Cast 2.1 Main characters 2.2 Recurring characters 3 Development and Production 4 Reception 4.1 Critical reception 4.2 Ratings 5 International broadcasting 6 See Also 7 References 8 External links

Series overview

The series follows five people, known as "Alphas", led by noted neurologist and psychologist Dr. Lee Rosen as they investigate criminal cases involving other suspected Alphas. Rosen and his team of Alphas operate under the auspices of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the criminal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Defense. While investigating these crimes it doesn't take the team too long to discover that a group known as "Red Flag", who were thought defeated and eliminated long ago, are using other Alphas to commit crimes. With the inclusion of Dr. Calder in the episode "Never Let Me Go" it was established that Alphas takes place in a shared universe with Eureka and Warehouse 13.

Cast

Main characters

• David Strathairn as Dr. Lee Rosen – A doctor specializing in the study of people with super abilities that he has dubbed "Alphas", he leads a government sponsored team of such Alphas to help identify and aid other Alphas or stop dangerous ones.
• Ryan Cartwright as Gary Bell – A young autistic man who lives with his mother and is socially functional to a degree. He has the ability to view and interact with wireless communication signals out of thin air and process information as fast as any computer. The signals can only be seen by him, which he can move around by touching them.
• Warren Christie as Cameron Hicks – A former Marine with the superhuman ability of "hyperkinesthesis" which allows his brain to process movement at a much faster rate than others. This allows him, for example, to predict trajectory by eyesight. However, he cannot always do it when under extreme stress.
• Azita Ghanizada as Rachel Pirzad – A former CIA linguist with the ability to heighten one of her five senses (sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch) to extreme levels, by disabling all of the others. She uses this, for instance, to view things at a microscopic level or detect complex chemical composition by scent. The fact that all of her senses are permanently heightened to a degree above normal, along with her synesthesia make it difficult for her to interact socially.
• Laura Mennell as Nina Theroux – A young woman who is able to mentally "push" people into doing whatever she verbally asks of them (this is called Hyper Induction). She used to use this for personal gain, culminating in her accidentally "pushing" her boyfriend into suicide. She is now helping Dr. Rosen in an effort to redeem herself. It is noted that her character seems to have been with Rosen the longest, and is the closest to him. A running gag in the first season is that Nina always has a different car that she's "borrowed" implying that she "pushed" someone for it. If Nina "pushes" too hard or too much on a person she can cause the person to become brain dead. Nina has very good control of her ability, people with this ability have a hard time controlling how they use it and become power hungry. When she talks to some of the agents they won't make direct eye contact in fear of becoming pushed.
• Malik Yoba as Bill Harken – A former FBI agent with the ability to activate his endocrinal "fight or flight" response at will, resulting in increased durability and superstrength. He cannot keep this up for very long, however, due to the stress it causes on his body.

Recurring characters

• Callum Keith Rennie as Don Wilson – An FBI agent who has worked with Dr. Rosen in the past.
• Mahershalalhashbaz Ali as Nathan Clay – The head of a tactical unit within the U.S. Department of Defense tasked with dealing with rogue Alphas.
• Valerie Cruz as Kathy Sullivan – A Special Agent with the U.S. Department of Defense assigned as the DOD liaison to Dr Rosen's team of Alphas.

Development and Production

Originally known as Section 8, Alphas was initially developed by Zak Penn and co-creator Michael Karnow in 2006.^[1][4] The series was then shopped around to various networks, with some interest from both NBC and ABC.^[1] In late 2007 ABC picked up the series with an initial six episode order.^[5][6] However, complications arising from the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike derailed the project.^[1] On August 5, 2009, after almost two further years of shopping the show around to the broadcast and cable networks, Syfy placed a pilot order. Zak Penn and Michael Karnow wrote the pilot, Jack Bender was attached to the project as the director, with Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun serving as executive producers.^[7]

Casting announcements began in August 2010, with David Strathairn and Ryan Cartwright first to be cast, Strathairn was cast as Dr. Lee Rosen, the overseer/team leader/prescribing doctor and all around mother hen to the team: an eccentric, absent-minded professor, and Cartwright as Gary Bell, a member of the team who has autism and whose ability allows him to "read" wireless transmissions passing through the ether.^[8] Next to join the series was Warren Christie as Cameron Hicks, a new recruit on the team with a history of psychological problems, drug abuse and an anti-authoritarian streak whose Alpha skill is hyperkinesis.^[9] Malik Yoba and Laura Mennell were next to be cast, with Yoba playing Bill Harken, a former FBI agent from working class roots. Harken's Alpha skill allows him to intentionally activate a "fight-or-flight mechanism" producing a power surge of adrenaline giving him increased strength, speed and immunity from pain, and Mennell cast as Nina Theroux. Seductive, intelligent, and confident, Nina has an Alpha ability that allows her to influence people into doing whatever she wishes.^[10] Azita Ghanizada was the last actor to be cast, playsing Rachel Pirzad, who from an early age has been able to hyper-intensify her senses, one at a time – vision, touch, hearing, taste, and smell.^[11] The filming of the pilot episode took place in Toronto, Canada.^[12]

Alphas was ordered to series on December 8, 2010 by Syfy to air in the summer of 2011.^[13] The series is a co-production between BermanBraun and Universal Cable Productions. Along with the series pickup, Syfy also announced that veteran Sci-Fi producer Ira Steven Behr had been picked to serve as executive producer and showrunner.^[14]

Reception

Critical reception

Alphas has received mixed reviews. It earned a score of 63 on Metacritic.^[15] The New York Post said of the first episode: "Alphas is fun, sure, but it has a 'been there, done that' feel."^[16] TV Fanatic gave the show an average review saying, "Everything Alphas brought to the table has been done before."^[17] The New York Times gave the show a negative review: "It's neither here nor there: low on sci-fi mystery and intrigue and not yet convincing as ensemble drama. Right now it feels like the beta version."^[18]

Variety gave a positive review: "At first blush, though, give Alphas high marks for effort and ingenuity, demonstrating a TV show needn't provide major pyrotechnics or a reinvented wheel to lay the groundwork for solid summer entertainment where the characters, somewhat refreshingly, are only sort-of super."^[19]

The Los Angeles Times gave the pilot a positive review: "Alphas deftly balances all the building blocks of great genre--nonhuman abilities, twisty plot, cool special effects, smart dialogue and characters you want to spend more time with. And that's the most impressive superpower of all."^[20]

After eight episodes had aired, Maureen Ryan of AOL TV called it the summer's most promising new drama: "Not only has Alphas successfully avoided many of the pitfalls that have bedeviled other superhero-flavored projects, it's done a good job of balancing character-driven moments with taut, well-paced storytelling."^[21]

Ratings

The pilot episode premiered with 2.5 million total viewers, scoring 1.2 million viewers in the 18-49 demographic and 1.3 million in the 25–54 demographic, making it Syfy's most watched debut in two years.^[22] Live + 7 day ratings for the series premiere updated those numbers to 3.6 million total viewers, scoring 1.7 million viewers in the 18–49 demographic and 1.8 million in the 25–54 demographic.^[23] By the 11th episode (its season finale) however, the ratings had dropped to 1.16^[24] million total viewers.

In the UK the show is broadcasting on a Tuesday. The first episode took 666,000 altogether, 595,000 live and 71,000 on timeshift. When the second episodes aired, the views dipped to 469,000 together live and on timeshift. Despite the fall in viewers on a Tuesday showing, The show has become popular in the UK with Friday repeats rounding up around 150,000 viewers up.

US ratings

Season	Season Premiere			Season Finale
	Date	Viewers Total	Viewers 18-49	Date	Viewers Total	Viewers 18-49
1	July 11, 2011[25]	2.52[23]	1.21[23]	September 26th, 2011[24]	1.16 [24]	N/A

UK ratings

Series	episode	Viewers (5* and 5*+1)
1	1	666,000
1	2	469,000
1	3	505,000
1	4	435,000
1	5	413,000
1	6
1	7	497,000
1	8
1	9	425,000
1	10	373,000

International broadcasting

Country	Network	Premiere date
Canada	Space	July 11, 2011[26][27]
United Kingdom	5*	18th October 2011
Australia	Seven Network	2012
Brazil	SyFy	2011

See Also

• The 4400 - Similar type of series.
• Heroes - Similar type of series.
• Mutant X - Similar type of series.
• X-Men

References

External links

• Official website
• Alphas at the Internet Movie Database
• Alphas at TV.com