There arent a shortage of series and films that are about people with powers. Raising Dion is another series about someone who gets powers and sometimes you can feel exhausted from the similarities to other people with powers series. Raising Dion manages to keep your attention with its strange mystery amongst a familiar setting.
Raising Dion (based on the comic by Dennis Liu) follows a young boy named Dion who gains many various powers. This all occurs after the death of Dion’s father Mark (Michael B. Jordan) which leaves Dion and his mother Nicole having to cope with life without him. They are helped out by Pat, Mark’s best friend and Dion’s Godfather, as they try to uncover the mystery of why Dion has powers and what his father’s work has to do with him having powers. I havent read the comic but from my research, there are a few setup differences at least.
Trying to explain it is difficult but everything is linked to a mysterious weather event and villain. It’s a different avenue to take for a powers series, yes there’s been characters who have gained their powers from lightning (The Flash) and other sources but to have the entire show based around it with a mystery is another matter.
While the mystery is great and makes the show easier to get through, it’s the rest of the show that brings it down. Raising Dion feels like it should have a different feel and vibe to it. The show feels like it should feel more like Stranger Things than how it actually is, which is more like the CW superhero series.
The overall direction and script for the show are what really lets it down. Any potential/excitement the show has is easily forgotten about by cheesy lines or obvious setups. Many times the show falls down from being easy viewing, knowing people aren’t going to be caught in this episode or each episode ends with suspense and then the next episode starts all happy. Its something that the CW shows do but that is usually because time has passed in the series’ world between episodes but in Raising Dion no time passes which removes a lot of urgency from the series.
Raising Dion has sparks of potential, in some moments the series stands on its own as something original. In other moments the series is the same as every show you’ve most likely seen before. The first season is a great start and perhaps after the build-up of this first season, the show can find it’s own footing. Right now Raising Dion is worth a viewing if you like superhero shows but beware of the feeling that you’ve seen parts of the show before.