Impulse

Anchored by sensitive lead performances, this oddball series is an interesting and dark character study wrapped in superhero-drama packaging. Young people coming into their (supernatural) power is a classic superhero plot, of course -- you need look no further than shows like Flash or Smallville, or more modern entries like Runaways or Marvel's Cloak & Dagger to find super powers used as a metaphor for puberty. But though Henry discovers her power to teleport in Impulse's very first episode, it takes a lot longer for her to figure out just how she pulls off the trick. In the meantime, drama is milked from more typical teen-angst plotlines: what it's like to be the new girl in town, the pitfalls of building (step) family relationships, the pain of being ignored and overlooked -- except by people who want to do something bad to you. 

A slightly ludicrous plotline involving Henry's connection with a Mennonite-dominated opioid empire gives this sad-eyed girl yet another reason to feel conflicted, and intense, natural Hasson is great at playing all the colors of her misery. If only the discovery of her powers lent the same bit of joy that we see in other dramas about fledgling heroes, a Peter-Parker-swinging-through-the-skyscrapers scene where all the slings and arrows of her life became fuel for an exultant release. Hasson is terrific, but her ever-present dark cloud, and even the cool blue tone of the show's cinematography adds up to kind of a bummer. It's not that Impulse isn't good. It's that it's not a lot of fun to watch.