04 August 2006

Kyle XY picked up for a second season

One of the few scripted shows in a summer glutted with reality crap, Kyle XY on ABC Family (along with Sci Fi's Eureka) has earned a place on my must watch list. This charming (and sometimes hokey) funny hybrid of family drama tinged with sci fi is far from original, though. But that's not a bad thing, either.

Its a series about a teenage boy (played with great gusto and believeability by Matt Dallas) who wakes up naked in the forest, with no memory of who he is and where he comes from. After wandering into a nearby town, the boy is taken into custody, but the police find they have a conundrum on their hands, as the boy seems not to able to talk.

And while a he seems healthy as an ox, the local doctors are at a loss why he can't speak or why he has no bellybutton.

But soon, the young man displays a savant-like intellect, learning things like talking, math and other things in a swift time. Baffled, he is put in the care of a psychologist (Marguerite MacIntyre), given the name Kyle and settles in with her family, including her husband and teenage son and daughter (Bruce Thomas and Jean-Luc Bilodeau and April Matson).

While he is prodigiously intelligent, he is also deeply naive - much like a real teenager.

Anyway, the series has done well on the cable net, averaging 2.1 million views, becoming their most-watched original program. Repurposed on sister network ABC, it has an audience of 4.6 million, which has been a sizeable increase from a year ago. Now, ABC Family have announced that the show will return for a second, most likely airing next summer.

I like this show alot, despite some of the by-the-book teenage angst that grips all three young stars. And while this show resembles Starman in many ways, it has more wit and heart. Dallas, in a truly break-out performance, is able to show incredible emotion in his face and eyes, and its a marvel at the way he can take an every day object and make it look like its the first time he's seeing it.

The mythology of the show is who or what is Kyle. Why does he have no memory, why does he have no bellybutton and is he connected some how to a mysterious murder? Kyle also has a shadow, a man who watches his all his moves. Nicholas Lea, last seen as bad guy FBI agent Alex Krycek on FOX's The X Files, plays an equally mysterious watcher. But all we 've seen him do is a lot of stalking, and reporting to a mystery person on the phone.

Its a wonderful show, despite the 7Th Heaven teen troubles, and Matt Dallas holds all of this together. He's a talent and should be watched.

And since he's pretty on the eyes, that won't be too difficult to do.

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