Heroes; Or, Science Fiction Executed Well on Television.

I was reminded to write this as I was watching a video of Zach Snyder talking about the Watchmen movie, which is supposed to start shooting soon. According to related buzz, Jude Law is being cast as Ozymandias, and Gerard Butler is somewhere inside of it. Seeing Mr. Snyder talk about it, I'm sure he has the right attitude to go into a Moore project. He isn't being abstract. Moore isn't an abstract writer. He's paranoid, calculating, and pretty when he sees the opportunity to be. I don't think it'll suck, basically.

So. Heroes.
The second run of nine or so episodes ended a few weeks ago, with new episodes being served in mid-April.

I have almost every episode on my computer, with the exception of the latest, which I tried to watch on TV. I remembered why I don't watch TV anymore when that happened. That is, my Heroes episode was embedded with more advertising than I could take. If that is what it takes to produce such awesome media, then I suppose it is worth it, but when I realized that fifteen minutes of the hour timeslot Heroes occupies on Monday nights were commercials, I was agitated.

Other than that, the show is good. It is what mutants would have been like in the world of today, minus anything to do with Stan Lee (though he does have a cameo at one point). The special effects are never horrendous, and rarely feel out of place. In fact, after watching this show I began to question what the appeal of costumed superheroes were for me, and couldn't get a clear answer. Was it the costumes themselves gone? Being able to see bodies through spandex? The art of mimicking the comic book panel in a movie frame? Whatever it is, Heroes does not have that. Instead, it feels like a coherent drama. The writers do a good job of not making it feel too campy, though sometimes it's good for relief from the tense drama in the show. Also, the producers aren't afraid to kill people off or move characters around. I do not feel as though the show is still setting itself up, but is constantly unfolding into a unique world. I see a few things in the current world that I would amend or cut, but so far nothing has really seemed so irrelevant or uninteresting to me that I didn't care that much.

Okay, so: what are the characters like? Well, most of them have mismatched powers. Some of the powers are so weird, I can't see them working with a superhero. Recently, a minor character had the power of superheating, which means he could make things melt into goop. Useful? I guess, if so for killing people. Some people in the show have very overpowered abilities, such as Hiro, who can bend time and space. However, he is a pop culture nerd of delusional status who often uses his power for personal pleasure, and still hasn't been able to teleport without moving forward or backward in time. Some have powers that are more well thought out than their comic universe counterparts- Peter Petrelli is an "empath" which means when he thinks of others, he can gain their powers until he stops doing so. Sylar, his sort of evil counterpart, actually eats the brains of others to understand how they "work," absorbing their powers. This works better than the ambiguous way Rogue takes the powers of others. Peter's brother, however, has only the ability of flight- a quip of his comes to mind in which he asks Peter what he would be able to do once he got to the scene of a crime, since he did not have a gun or superpowers other than flying. This very restrictive way to deal with superpowers serves two purposes: 1) It's a TV show on some kind of budget, despite the money that is coming in from it, and 2) Characters are rarely so developed with their powers that they lack any personality beyond their abilities.

As for how this series will turn out, I have a few hopes for it. I'd like to see more heroes outside of the US. Many of the big events occur here, especially in Las Vegas and New York, but it's been shown that they exist elsewhere. I'd like to see some kind of big superfight or a Hero who has to deal with their power in a different culture- just to open up everything. I do not want there to be anything like a Justice League developed, or any "team"- It's too young for that and its not realistic. I do not want there to be any cosmic stories or anything that is outside of Earth. I'd like them to kill off the woman who has the weird, unexplored Hulk powers- or develop her a bit more, clear up her convoluted backstory. I'd also like to see Hiro travel through time and find Heroes from an earlier era or something. Maybe even some kind of Morlock thing- or a Genosha idea. It's a show about social interaction, really, so I don't see why exploring these different social structures in the show would be a bad idea. But at this point, the show could go anywhere. And thats what I like about the show- it does. It is very realistic, and very unforgiving. I wish more comics were written like this- I compare the narrative style to Watchmen often. Maybe Zach Snyder will take a cue from the production team of Heroes and make it feel authentic.

Anyway, that's this week's Monday post, two days late. Friday and Saturday, I'll post movie or video game reviews. Ta.