NO ORDINARY FAMILY: J.J.’s Superpower is…Math?

“When will I ever use geometry after I graduate?”

It’s a familiar refrain, coming from students who would rather play video games than find the hypotenuse of a triangle. Beyond knowing how to balance a checkbook and calculate a tip, when do we need math in every day life? Who cares about velocity and radius? No Ordinary Family, the new series on ABC, may be a math teacher’s best friend.

Jimmy Bennett stars as J.J. Powell on No Ordinary Family

The story of a family that is mysteriously endowed with superpowers after a plane crash in the Amazon, No Ordinary Family has the usual powers on display: Dad Jim is practically invincible and can leap tall buildings in a single bound; Mom Stephanie can beat a speeding minivan and has a metabolism that allows her to eat unlimited cheeseburgers; and daughter Daphne can read minds and, I suspect, has untapped telekinetic powers. Just your run-of-the-mill superpowers, and then there’s son J.J. His power is less obvious but probably has the most potential: he understands math.

Where J.J. used to struggle with basic algebraic formulas, now advance calculus makes perfect sense. What’s so great about that, aside from being able to pass his math class? As J.J. discovered a couple of weeks ago, math has hidden applications. While watching the football team practice, suddenly the geometry of the sport revealed itself to him. OK, so it’s unlikely that a math genius would suddenly be a football star, but I can appreciate the message here: football does require more than brute strength. After years and years of being shown dumb jocks, it was nice to have an acknowledgment that brains are involved. It was also nice to see that for all his mathematical skill, J.J. didn’t really have the physical prowess to withstand the brutal nature of the sport, at least not yet. What if he decided to train his body to match his brain? It doesn’t appear that the show is going that direction, but it would be interesting to see.

In addition to his two-week career as a high school football star, we also saw J.J. apply his math skills to a “life-size game of Jenga” after a man-made earthquake trapped a woman under a bunch of shelves at the store where the Powells were shopping. He was also able to crack an encryption for Steph’s assistant, Katie. Saving lives and decrypting computer data? That’s pretty cool.

So far No Ordinary Family has played the family’s powers for good, or at least any bad has been the result of bumbling, not ill intent. But what if, say in season 2 or 3, one of them had cause to go to the dark side? I’d say J.J. has the strongest potential for that storyline. He’s quite young, but if his youthful arrogance were triggered, he could be a real danger with his super-intelligence. In other words, math is awesome, but it can be dangerous, so be careful out there, geeks!

No Ordinary Family airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on ABC.