KYLE XY (TV SERIES) - DVD review

"Kyle XY" is yet another TV show brought to DVD that I've never seen before. The complete second season box teases, "He is not alone. Prepare for twice the excitement with the mysterious arrival of Jessi XX in the captivating sci-fi drama's jaw-dropping second season."

I don't know if my jaw dropped, but my coiffed-hair and shoulder pad sensors were going off. This show had to have '80s DNA hidden somewhere in its make-up, I thought, because it had a distinctly glossy, edgy-but-wholesome feel of a "21 Jump Street" or "Beverly Hills 90210" teen drama. And sure enough, Michael Robison, who directed the most episodes this season, lists "21 Jump Street" on his resume. A flimsy connection, you say, no more convincing than Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? Maybe. But the fact remains that this show really feels more like an '80s teen drama than it does a sci-fi series for the new millennium. The dialogue is bad (lots of turn-taking in every scene, rather than naturalistic overlapping dialogue), the blocking is straight out of the soaps (nobody does much except stand around), the acting is of the Joey Tribiano smell-the-fart variety (lots of knowing, thoughtful glances), the characters' emotions aren't all that complex (one minute the Trager son is jealous of Kyle, and the next minute he's jumping up and down with the rest of the family upon Kyle's return), and the tone is cheesy. So why are fans taking to this ABC Family series?

I can only speculate. But it's not because any aspect of the show reminds anyone of reality. These are actors acting, and you never forget it. The Tragers are almost a parody of a family they're so unbelievably one-dimensional--a goody two-shoes group if I ever saw one. The father, Stephen (J. Mackye Gruber), looks and acts a lot like Alan Thicke from "Growing Pains," and he gets by with mostly smiling, reassuring fatherly looks. The mother, Nicole (Marguerite MacIntyre), begins this season with a kind of post-partum depression over Kyle's leaving. I guess that's the effect finding a naked man will have on you. In Season One, Kyle apparently awakens in a Seattle forest buck-naked, and the mystery is that, like Toni Morrison's Pilate, he has no navel. He's taken in by the Tragers, and this season he leaves, triggering a numbed response by the mother, who has dreams that Kyle is drowning. As far as they know, Kyle's natural parents have shown up to take him away. Really, Kyle was summoned by Adam (J. Eddie Peck), the guy he realized was used to apparently clone him ex-vitro--hence, no belly button. Adam has some things to teach Kyle, but as with any apparently top-secret project there are good guys and bad, and the bad guys put a crimp on any plans of mentoring that Adam had. And so Kyle returns to a house that should be foaming with sibling rivalry. After all, Mom made it clear who her favorite is, and it's neither of her biological children, Lori (April Matson) or Josh (Jean-Luc Bilodeau). Instead, it's like Kyle hasn't even been gone, and no one seems to have noticed Mom's affection--which borders on a fixation.

Kyle has special powers, like ESP and being able to jump off a building and survive, yet a part of him wants to be like everyone else, and this includes having a girlfriend named Amanda (Kirsten Prout). But Kyle's senses tingle because he can sense that there's another like him who was just "born" (i.e., dumped in a forest, naked). Only the X chromosome is the more aggressive one in this series. Jessi XX (Jaimie Alexander) is kind of like one of the aliens from "Men in Black"--a naïve but supernaturally powerful creature who doesn't think twice about killing someone who annoys her. So why do Kyle XY and Jessi XX feel a connection to each other? What does it mean? That's the big mystery this season, as the bad guys try to get at them.

On the domestic front, more evidence that this is aimed at teens: every young person has a "thing" or a "fling," and there are a lot of scenes that deal with day-to-day high school life and those oh-so-important relationships. Lori has a boyfriend (Chris Olivero) that provides her with as many downs as ups, while Josh has a girlfriend (Magda Apanowicz) whose illness provides a crossover plot point. When the sci-fi plot and the high school teen drama mesh together, this show works better than when we just see one or the other. And if you can get past the first seven episodes, the plotting and pacing improves.

Here's a rundown on the episodes:

1) "The Prophet." Kyle begins to get more of a sense of who he is when Adam tries to teach him what his mind can do. But Zzyzx wants him dead, and that kind of complicates things.

2) "The Homecoming." Kyle lies about his past in order to keep the Tragers out of danger. And another clone is born . . . i.e., escapes.

3) "The List is Life." Kyle saves a girl from burning, Lori and her boyfriend break up, and Amanda is introduced as someone who could use better PR at high school.

4) "Balancing Act." Two probes: an investigation into the forest murder, and Lori's boyfriend's prying into Kyle's secret life.

5) "Come to Your Senses." Nicole ends up with a new patient. What a coincidence. It's Jessi, who's on a mission to get closer to Kyle. This episode, the Tragers find pot under Josh's mattress, which is as close as anyone gets to being naughty.

6) "Does Kyle Dream of Electric Fish." Kyle has multiple visions that all come true, which, of course, leads him to believe that he's psychic.

7) "Free to Be You and Me." Kyle and Amanda have a first date, and in a rare episode of social consciousness, students protest the exclusion of same-sex couples from the school dance.

8) "What's the Frequency, Kyle?" Stephan's estranged father has a stroke and ends up in a coma; meanwhile, Jessi doesn't seem to be making any progress in her therapy.

9) "The Ghost in the Machine." On a camping trip, the gang stumbles onto ruins of Zzyzx in the forest, but most of the focus is on who likes whom. It's high school, you know!

10) "House of Cards." Kyle found a box at the Zzyzx site and now he's figuring out how to open it. A ring is involved, one which he pawned to help his new girlfriend, and that means they've got to get it back.

11) "Hands on a Hybrid." The high schoolers try to figure out Jessi's secret, while Josh and Andy kiss, and a charity event turns uncharitable.

12) "Lockdown." Nicole institutes a lockdown after Jessi escapes.

13) "Leap of Faith." Together, Jessi and Kyle try to learn about their pasts and discover a whopping secret at a cabin in the woods. Yep, it's always the woods. Jessi also jumps of a dam. Damn!

14) "To C.I.R., with Love." Kyle is in a state of shock after Jessi's leap, though why should he be? He's jumped off buildings! In this episode, two forces are after the X-kids: Madacorp and the C.I.R.

15) "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades." Jessi starts to showboat, showing others her little trick about leaping off buildings. And Amanda's mother catches Kyle. No, not that. He's levitating.

16) "Great Expectations." A particularly soapy episode has Amanda returning home with a secret, and a mom that's determined to keep them apart.

17) "Grounded." Now it's a social worker who intrudes on the Trager home. Guy sleeping in a bathtub? What's the problem?

18) "Between the Rack and a Hard Place." Amanda starts work at The Rack and gets annoyed by Jessi. Then money turns up missing from the store's cash register. Will the drama never end? It's moments like these that really spark '80s teen drama flashbacks.

19) "First Cut is the Deepest." A trip to the University of Washington and a prom are the focal points in this one, as the storylines continue to unfold.

20) "Primary Colors." Kyle experiences brain-strain while the other kids struggle with college placement exams and Andy wrestles with more tests and test results. And who's Sarah??

21) "Grey Matters." A cheating scandal threatens to put a stop to prom, and the mysterious Sarah (Ally Sheedy--speaking of the '80s!) turns up.

22) "Hello . . ." Prom is back on again, and the whole Jessi thing starts to come to a head.

23) "I've Had the Time of My Life." Kyle researches teen movies to try to figure out how to create the perfect prom experience for his date. The episode (and season) ends with Jessi and Sarah revealing a shocker, and an even more shocking thing happens with Amanda.

Video:
The video quality is Disney decent-nothing special, but no deficiencies either. It's just a good-but-not-great picture with a fair amount of detail for a DVD, colors that seem true enough (especially skin tones) and a pleasing widescreen aspect ratio (1.78:1).

Audio:
Same with the audio, which is a solid-but-unspectacular English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround with French and Spanish subtitles. The bass isn't as rich or robust as I'm used to, but that's the only thing worth noting. Otherwise it's, well, decent.

Extras:
There's a LOT to watch.

Twenty-seven deleted scenes and an alternate ending are included, along with a behind-the-scenes feature ("Livin' with the X's"), a featurette on "The Science of 'Kyle XY,'" a "Facing the Future" look at the series arc, and audio commentaries. I didn't watch all the extras--getting through the show was painstaking enough--but what's here seems to be enough to satisfy the main teen audience and other fans of the show.

Disc one features a commentary for "The Prophet" by supervising producer Julie Plec and executive producer Erich Tuchman, and one for "The Homecoming" by producers Chad Fiveash and James Stoteraux.

Disc two has a commentary for "Ghost in the Machine" by Plec, writers Chris Hollier and Rudy Gaborno, and series star Matt Dallas.

Disc three offers commentaries for "Leap of Faith" with Dallas, Plec, and executive producer Eric Tuchman and "House of Cards" with Fiveash and Stoteraux.

Disc four has two more commentaries: "To C.I.R., with Love" with Plec, Tuchman, and writer Bryan Holdman, and "The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades" with writers Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt and director Chris Grismer.

Disc five is void of bonus features, while disc six features a commentary for "I've Had the Time of My Life" by Plec, Gaborno, and Hollier.

If fans will have any complaint, it's that Dallas is the only actor to appear on a commentary track, and he only pops up twice.

Bottom Line:
There's an audience out there for shows like this, but for me the first seven episodes were slow-going and the overall feel of this show was way too '80s. It's kind of like a teen version of "Lost," but without nearly the complexity . . . and twice the deja vu.