Breaking Down the End of Netflix’s ‘The Atypical Family’ [Video]

The first time we meet the Boks in Netflix’s The Atypical Family, they are perched on a literal precipice. Bok Dong-hee (Soo-hyun) stands on the edge of a cliff, willing herself to fly. Her brother, Gwi-ju (Jang Ki-young), downs a stiff drink while his mother, Man-heum (Ko Do-shim) simultaneously berates him for no longer being able to travel back in time and laments the insomnia that stops her dreaming of the future. It’s an unsubtle introduction to the series’ titular atypical family, now rendered ordinary by the loss of their superpowers and desperate to get them back. And it’s a lack of subtlety that haunts The Atypical Family right to its surprisingly watchable end.

That ending arrived this weekend, when the series’ 12th and final episode aired on Netflix. The finale closed with a tight, almost-tragic climax that had the potential to salvage a sterile series that too often relied on mean-spirited jokes and tried to cram too …