Is anyone else watching ‘Heroes’? What are you making of it so far?
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I will admit to being slightly ambivalent about ‘Heroes’. I am enjoying it, but I can’t say I’m wholly enamoured of it. Most of the characters are nicely ambivalent and the special effects are great. But it limps along ponderously and tends to feature more angst than actual emotion: I don’t care about most of the characters. Despite the portentious- and largely nonsensical- narration- it’s more interested in soap opera than the actual morality and mechanics of heroism, which is where a lot of the really interesting stuff is. Plus it’s got no sense of humour or fun (except where Hiro is concerned, and he was a last-minute add-on). And worst of all, I’ve seen most of it all before. Apparently the creators didn’t really know that much about comic books, and I think that shows, because the plot threads they’ve come up with so far all feel pretty familiar. It’s been very conservative with its ideas.
I think a fatal weakness is the whole concept of superheroes in the real world. Of course, everyone tries to set their superhero stories in the ‘real world’ these days, but the emphatic realism of this show seems to be crushing the story. It’s a set-up which I’ve seen pulled off once or twice, but it’s not an easy one to do. You can come up with some very interesting scenarios in a world in which superheroes are real, but that’s something different. A better approach seems to be the Buffy approach, where the monsters and magic are all metaphorical of real life.
Plus, being something of a traditionalist, I really want someone to throw a car at someone else at some point. Somehow it’s just not superheroics without it. But seriously, there does seem to be a very strange desire not to have fun with the superpowers. Part of the joy of superhero team stories is using the superpowers in ever more whacky combinations; this is one of the things that ‘The Incredibles’, one of the influences cited by the creators, got absolutely right. But the action in Heroes has been pretty low-key and dull; with the marvellous except of Hiro’s powers- and it’s interesting that it should be him- it seems rather hesistant to revel in its heroes’ powers. Basically, it seems ashamed to be a superhero show. ‘The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, another cited influence, may have been set in the real(ish) world, but it had enormous fun with its fantasy sequences. ‘Heroes’ is just too restrained: it’s afraid of letting rip.
I am still watching it and I would say it’s OK but I am still waiting for it to get really good.
In the meantime I have been watching DVDs of ‘Firefly’ and ‘Battlestar Galactica’, both of which are so superior to ‘Heroes’ as to be in a totally different league.