Just a regular guy -- with superhero powers

Getting superpowers can be very cool, but it also can torpedo your personal life.

Suddenly, you’ve got a secret identity to deal with, not to mention the “with great power comes great responsibility” burden -- and to top it off, your body starts doing weird things.

In short, you’re leaving normal, and there’s no going back.

The newest member of the superhero fraternity makes his debut in “Jake 2.0” Wednesday on UPN. Created by Silvio Horta (“The Chronicle”) and executive produced by Gina Matthews (“Popular,” “The Chronicle”), Grant Scharbo and David Greenwalt (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel”), it stars “Popular’s” Christopher Gorham as Jake Foley, a computer technician who longs to be in the spy game.

He gets his wish when an attack on a lab accidentally causes Jake to be injected with nanites -- molecule-sized robots -- that give him enhanced strength, speed, hearing and vision, along with the ability to interface with any form of technology. Unfortunately, the unpredictable nanites also could kill him.

Before he knows it, Jake is the spy he always wanted to be -- but not in quite the way he envisioned. Also complicating his new existence are two women: Diane Hughes (Keegan Connor Tracy), a scientist who watches over Jake, and Sarah Heywood (Marina Black), Jake’s college crush who is now working as a Washington, D.C., insider.

Gorham says, “There’s just something about this role. When I read this script, I told my wife, ‘I have to do this part.’ It was just one of those things. It happened to me on ‘Popular,’ where I just felt the ball start to roll. I felt like it was going to happen. It just felt right.

“Jake, as a person, is pretty close to me. He’s a pretty regular guy. He’s easy to get along with and generally has good intentions. He’s a little bit geeky -- all those things.”

As much as Gorham loves “Jake,” the show’s producers love Gorham.

“I can’t say enough about Chris Gorham,” Greenwalt says. “Just the way he moves in the frame. He makes terrific choices. Sometimes he’s really funny, and sometimes he’s really touching. He’s always spot-on, which, when you’re making eight pages a day of a TV show, is a real challenge.”

“We’re on our second show at the moment,” Scharbo says, calling in with Matthews from the show’s sets in Vancouver. “The first episode was fantastic. It’s a big episode, probably as big as the pilot.”

“In the first episode after the pilot,” Greenwalt says, “there’s a Mideast terrorist that is up to no good, that Jake goes up against. The first episode feels very big and international, but still sort of small and personal to Jake. We’re more into the personal stories, but we will be going overseas and breaking people out of prisons and stuff like that.

“We have gone from stories that are about the launch of a nuclear weapon down to, ‘How do I afford to get my car fixed?’ We’re trying to stay in the human world with him.”

That, Horta says, is what sets “Jake 2.0” apart from more standard espionage or action dramas. “We try to start at some place of character and theme. We have a slew of stories and missions, but we never go there first.

“We always say, ‘This is a cool mission, but where do we get Jake here? How does this tie into our character and how he’s growing as a person, as an agent?’ So, we always are trying to maintain that.”

“Imagine Jake Foley going to his best friend’s wedding, but while he’s there, he runs into a little problem with the nanites,” Scharbo says. “You always go to a wedding and think it’s a great place to meet someone, but when he gets there, he’s the only single guy left.

“Diane flies out the next day to be his friend, his date. It’s her big [transition] episode.” “But what’s interesting, [is that] Diane still has to be his friend, but you realize that some of her ‘lab mice’ aren’t doing so well.” Matthews reveals.

“This gets into the issue of his Kryptonite,” Scharbo continues. “And one element of this Kryptonite is the unknown nature of how these things work, and how they’ll behave in certain situations.”

“What you’ll start to see in this episode is how the nanites start to reject Jake, like a transplant,” Matthews explains.

“There’s such a big twist, that we can’t say too much more,” Scharbo says. “It’s a pretty cool twist.”

“You haven’t seen me kick some butt yet,” Gorham says. “But Episode 2, you’re going to see me kick a little butt. You’re going to see more action. That’s the great thing too. He doesn’t know martial arts. It’s not like ‘The Bourne Identity.’ ”

“He’s got powers and stuff, but they’re not limitless,” Horta says. “A guy who’s a trained killer can kick Jake’s butt. We want to keep him human and accessible and measurable.”

Greenwalt says, “Every episode, he’s going through some weird personal thing. In one episode, his car breaks down, and he has to rideshare. He quips he’s the first super spy in history to have to rideshare.”

“Jake 2.0” airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on UPN. The network has rated it TVPG (may be unsuitable for young children).

Kate O’Hare writes for Tribune Media Services.

Cover photograph by Monty Brinton.