heroes on nbc
I’m a little late to the game on this one, but we need to talk about NBC’s new hit, Heroes, for a second. On the advice of my good friend, Rowan (“YOU MUST WATCH IT!!!!!”), Dave and I sat down yesterday to try the show on for size. We promptly tore through the six episodes that have aired so far, stopping only for dinner.
It’s an X-Men meets Terminator 2 meets Sin City kind of affair, if that makes sense. Ordinary people developing mysterious powers, a quest to stop an imminent apocalyptic event, mysterious connections between people who don’t believe themselves to be connected, you get the idea.
The show is smartly written and well produced. Each episode feels longer than its one hour, crammed as it is with new twists and new information. Its only flaws are, as I see it, a very slight penchant for melodrama, and that by “ordinary humans,” the producers obviously meant “extraordinarily attractive ordinary humans.” Even the heroin addict who can see the future looks like he spends a fair amount of time in the gym.
There are a few other things about the show worth mentioning. Despite the grudge that American audiences and networks have traditionally harbored against science-fiction (witness Firefly), Heroes has repeatedly won its time slot and has proved to be a bona fide hit. Its website is like a paean to dorks, with online-only comics and a blog “written” by the show’s dorkiest character. He threw in a Setzer Gabbiani joke, for God’s sake! The staff there obviously knows what they’re doing, because that is some serious dork cred, let me tell you.
A serialized drama in the mold of Lost, Heroes likes to end episodes on weird cliffhangers and feels like it should probably be a self-contained, extended miniseries. American television, however, doesn’t like to play that way. So let’s hope that Heroes’s creative team does it a little smarter than Lost down the road, which from what I’ve heard, is starting to live up to its name.
One of the most interesting aspects of Heroes and of the culture surrounding it is the comic book motif. The show prominently features the comic “The 9 wonders”, featuring the actual characters in the show, taking the actions they take before they know themselves what they are going to do. From a TV perspective, the comic book allows the heroes to surmount some pretty big logical jumps (like the idea that Japanese men can travel through time and space). In the community, as well, heroes uses the continuing theme – the website publishes a weekly comic book in relation to the show.
Although this doesn’t necessarily reflect a changing demographic in the American prime-time audience, the success of Heroes does showcase the increased tolerance, and perhaps respect even, for those artistic and imaginary pastimes that were previously viewed as male dominated, and for young boys with little to no social skills. Comic books, video game references, science-fiction content – if Heroes continues to deliver in its time slot, we could see the beginnings of these fringe aspects of culture to become the new mainstream.