Who is Kyle XY?
By stephanie - Wednesday, July 19th, 2006
Believe it or not, ABC has been spending money to advertise its new sci-fi show Kyle XY at the beach. For the past few weekends, a plane has flown above the beach skywriting WHO IS KYLE XY in big smokey letters. Well, it worked, I guess, since I finally decided to watch this show and see what the fuss was about.
Kyle XY appears on ABC Family, which is why it’s a bit tamer and less dark than something you might see on regular ABC. In fact, sometimes Kyle XY devolves so much into “family” dynamics and cheesiness, it’s like watching a bad after-school special.
The premise is intriguiging enough – Kyle is found naked in a forest, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. A family takes him in, as the mother is a psychologist specializing in cases like these. Soon, we find out that Kyle has some special talents, including super strength and a propensity for math.
In and of itself, this could be a darn good show for “adults,” but since it’s on ABC Family, Kyle XY focuses a lot more on mild family drama, teen angst, and family bonding. This is the downside of Kyle XY.
Yet, in spite of its painful moments, Kyle XY is quite a charming show. The main reason for this is the lead. Matt Dallas, who plays Kyle, is exceptionally good in the role, playing the wide-eyed innocent yet genius Kyle in a very genuine and sometimes deadpan way. His unique look and wide blue eyes truly make him perfect for the role. He’s obviously also being primed for teen-girl appeal; witness the bare-chested shot with the included promotional photo.
(I do have to say, Kyle is a hottie, which would make me feel terribly unclean considering he’s supposed to be 16 on the show, but in real life Matt Dallas is 23 so he’s legal. Phew!)
Alas, the good acting does not extend past Matt Dallas. Although his “adopted” sister in the show is actually not bad, the acting coming from the adults on the show is absolutely horrific. I’d blame some of this on the cheesy dialogue, but it’s apparent that mom and dad just can’t keep up, acting-wise, with the younger folks on the show. The only good “grown up” on the show is the apparent bad guy, none other than the X-Files’s Krycek, lurking around in a pickup truck.
The show also tries – and fails – to be moralistic at times. For example, Kyle learns what lying is, and then at the end of the episode, decides that he should lie about a fender bender his crush got into. “It was the right thing to do,” he says, but was it really? ABC Family promoting a family show that encourages kids to lie on behalf of other kids when they’ve mangled the car fender? No wonder we’ve got problems with kids and discipline these days. Yikes.
All in all, I think Kyle XY is interesting enough to keep up with on occasion, but nothing I’d go out of my way for. The good news is, they’ve got all the episodes streaming for free over at www.abcfamily.com.
July 21st, 2006 at 7:47 pm
My head is spinning. That premise you just portrayed is exactly like a novel I just finished and reviewed in June–Kathryn Mackel’s Hidden.
Do-doo-do-doo-do-doo.
Becky
August 21st, 2007 at 3:22 pm
kyle xy is for kids to i watch it! It’s really cool.
September 3rd, 2007 at 2:03 pm
While I appreciate your take on the show, I have to argue on some of the points made about the lack of acting and the after school special comment, etc. In a wave of reality miscreants and shows that support the depreciation of our morals, I find it a breath of fresh air to have a show like Kyle XY for all family members to be able to watch. Not all parents are as liberal in their control of what their kids watch as I am with my son, so for many, the “after school special” type of show is all that they are exposed to. Isn’t it nice to have a show like that, which can interest the parent as well as the child. This, I believe, encourages all members of family to watch together and perhaps talk about those issues that come up. Let’s be realistic, do we really think that Parents would be caught dead watching many of the the kids shows that they come up with these days? Perhaps, since I am Canadian, I know what really bad acting is like, so maybe my standards are lower. But I think I would rather have someone struggling to portray someone who is honest, then to have someone who finds it easier to portray a character appreciated for their deviousness. I don’t even have to name any shows in relation to this since there are so many these days. I suppose if we compare this show to other adult shows then yes, I could agree with some of the things that you said. But this is a show that was aired on ABC Family. A channel specifically geared to a particular audience. I think it is safe to say that for that audience, this show really nails it’s objective. Thanks for reading!
September 5th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Call me old-fashioned, but when they showed the teenage daughter IN BED with her boyfriend (ostensibly they’d had sex the night before), I was shocked that this was seen as acceptable for a “family” network. It seemed to be encouraging teen sex. If you’re going to have a family show, that’s fine, but maybe skip the parts about the teens in bed. Yes, I know that’s probably realistic, but we don’t show people on television going to the bathroom now, do we?