Nickelodeon Rewind: 'The Secret World of Alex Mack'
Erin Shea
Issue date: 12/2/09 Section: Entertainment
12/2/09 - When you were a kid, didn't you wish you had a special power? Maybe you wanted to be able to fly, like Superman, or have insane strength, like the Hulk. Well, in the '90s, I wanted nothing more than to be able to turn into a chemical puddle and slither around wherever I wanted, just like Alex Mack.
"The Secret World of Alex Mack," which aired on Nickelodeon from 1994-1998, follows the titular character through the every day ups and down of junior high, and later, high school. Alex Mack, played by Larisa Oleynik of "10 Things I Hate About You" seems ho-hum enough, but she has a secret. She has special powers she keeps hidden from everyone in her town of Paradise Valley, except for her best friend, Ray, and her brainy older sister, Annie. she got the powers on her first day of junior high after being doused by an overturned truck with a mysterious chemical called GC-161.
That truck, and the chemical it was carrying, belonged to The Plant, a science research facility in the town, where Alex's dad works. Run by the evil Danielle Atron and her band of incompetent cronies, The Plant is on the lookout for that unknown kid hit by the chemical, so they can turn the kid into their own personal lab rat.
Luckily for Alex though, none of them are terribly bright and she spends four seasons evading them, despite her tendency to glow when she's nervous (Is Stephanie Meyer an Alex Mack fan?) and turn into a mercury-like puddle at random intervals.
The beauty of the show though, is that her powers actually made Alex a very relatable main character. Despite my best efforts, I was never able to master the skill of turning myself into a giant puddle of silvery goo, but Alex still seemed to be like me. She was afraid of being different, and always worked to hide her powers and blend in, and the fight to try and blend in is something any kid can relate to. She was unsure of herself, she certainly wasn't a brainiac, she didn't always have the coolest clothes. In short, she was actually fairly normal, powers or no powers, and that's what got viewers hooked. They could root for her. They could laugh at her sometimes not so fully baked plans or her inability to hold a job for more than a week, because it seemed so typical.
While the show is no longer on air, you can still catch episodes online, and the first season is available at www.amazon.com.
"The Secret World of Alex Mack," which aired on Nickelodeon from 1994-1998, follows the titular character through the every day ups and down of junior high, and later, high school. Alex Mack, played by Larisa Oleynik of "10 Things I Hate About You" seems ho-hum enough, but she has a secret. She has special powers she keeps hidden from everyone in her town of Paradise Valley, except for her best friend, Ray, and her brainy older sister, Annie. she got the powers on her first day of junior high after being doused by an overturned truck with a mysterious chemical called GC-161.
That truck, and the chemical it was carrying, belonged to The Plant, a science research facility in the town, where Alex's dad works. Run by the evil Danielle Atron and her band of incompetent cronies, The Plant is on the lookout for that unknown kid hit by the chemical, so they can turn the kid into their own personal lab rat.
Luckily for Alex though, none of them are terribly bright and she spends four seasons evading them, despite her tendency to glow when she's nervous (Is Stephanie Meyer an Alex Mack fan?) and turn into a mercury-like puddle at random intervals.
The beauty of the show though, is that her powers actually made Alex a very relatable main character. Despite my best efforts, I was never able to master the skill of turning myself into a giant puddle of silvery goo, but Alex still seemed to be like me. She was afraid of being different, and always worked to hide her powers and blend in, and the fight to try and blend in is something any kid can relate to. She was unsure of herself, she certainly wasn't a brainiac, she didn't always have the coolest clothes. In short, she was actually fairly normal, powers or no powers, and that's what got viewers hooked. They could root for her. They could laugh at her sometimes not so fully baked plans or her inability to hold a job for more than a week, because it seemed so typical.
While the show is no longer on air, you can still catch episodes online, and the first season is available at www.amazon.com.
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