{"id":1713,"date":"2015-03-04T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2015-03-04T11:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/?p=1713"},"modified":"2015-03-03T21:32:43","modified_gmt":"2015-03-04T02:32:43","slug":"heroes-is-its-own-worst-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/heroes-is-its-own-worst-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"Heroes Is Its Own Worst Enemy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to Channel Chaser! It\u2019s once again time for a review, and this week I\u2019m turning back the clock by just a few years to take a look at a show that\u2019s polarized viewers and critics alike: NBC\u2019s short-lived superhero drama Heroes<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Heroes<\/em>, created in 2006 by TV visionary Tim Kring, was imagined and presented as a sort of post-modern take on superhero literature. Instead of having a bunch of caped crusaders who zoomed around fighting crime and taking on bad guys, the show starred a group of normal and in most cases flawed individuals who all wake up one day with the ability to do extraordinary things. Brought together by a complicated set of circumstances that some would call coincidence and others destiny, these special individuals are forced to do their part to save the world from deadly disasters and dangerous secrets, all while trying to discover their own purpose in life.<\/p>\n

As with many shows of this type, Heroes<\/em> was envisioned as a serial epic much like Lost<\/em> or Battlestar Galactica<\/em> with a large ensemble cast, many of whom stuck out more than others. As such, let it never be said that this show didn\u2019t produce a fair crop of new stars. The most obvious of these would be Zachary Quinto, now famous on TV and film, who plays the super-powered serial killer and the ostensible \u201csupervillain\u201d of the show, Sylar. To a slightly lesser degree, the series also served as a stepping-stone to bring Hayden Panettiere, cast as the regenerating cheerleader Claire Bennet, to the small screen. She\u2019s currently holding down a long-running starring role on the musical drama Nashville<\/em>.<\/p>\n

On a side note, if you choose to watch the first season, be on the lookout for a two-episode guest appearance by Christopher Eccleston of Doctor Who<\/em> fame as a literally invisible man–I\u2019ll be honest, it was probably the highlight of the show for me.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s kind of surprising to me that I haven\u2019t really seen many of the show\u2019s other cast members in other places…but then again, maybe not. Because if you hadn\u2019t guessed from my tone thus far, I\u2019ve got a fair amount of issues with Heroes<\/em>. It\u2019s not necessarily with the acting: that\u2019s pretty spot-on throughout the entire show, for what it\u2019s worth. My problem is more rooted in the basic construction and writing of the show, and that it takes what I see as a growing and not in any way bad trend in superhero fiction and blows it out to ridiculous proportions: the idea of moral greyness. But I\u2019ll get back to that in a minute.<\/p>\n

\"Heroes2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you asked me for three words to describe Heroes<\/em>, the words I would probably choose are \u201cpretentious,\u201d \u201cheavy-handed,\u201d and \u201cfrustrating.\u201d The entire show seems to give off the aura of a particularly boastful party guest that you don\u2019t really like: they go on and on about how great they are, and yet they don\u2019t offer up a single shred of evidence to prove that their claim is correct. The grand and epic feeling Heroes<\/em> is obviously trying to convey just screams desperation to me. It says, \u201cLook at me. I\u2019m amazing. Love me!\u201d And I respond by wondering, \u201cWhy?\u201d First of all, the show practically beats viewers over the head with its destiny dogma by beginning and ending every episode with some random nonsense about evolution, fate, or a combination of the two. It always feels like it\u2019s on the cusp of some kind of awesome moment, but it\u2019s so full of itself and its ability to tease the audience that it never actually delivers. We get it already: this show is about superheroes! Give it a rest, okay?<\/p>\n

Speaking of never delivering, does it make anyone else mad that there are never actually any hero fight scenes in this show? I could run out of fingers counting the times when Heroes<\/em> has the opportunity to do an action sequence, and the second you\u2019re about to see it, either there\u2019s a cutaway or a door shuts and obscures the action. Infinite budget savings, to the rescue!<\/p>\n

Getting back to what I mentioned earlier, a big part of the show is deconstructing the tropes and cliches of superhero literature to show that if these kinds of things happened in real life, the real heroes would be far from perfect. Thus, pretty much every character in Heroes<\/em> is designed to be completely in the middle of morality: the premiere grey scale where half the time they do the right thing, and the other half they\u2019re making completely horrible decisions. Like I said before, I don\u2019t have a problem with this in principle: actually, I love shows with morally grey characters because it makes things that much more real.<\/p>\n

But the problem with Heroes<\/em> is that it goes so overboard with making sure the characters are grey that it really misses out on any meaningful development for said characters. I mean, if Peter or Mohinder or Noah would just for once in their fictional lives make a real stand and decide what side they\u2019re really on, I would be able to get behind them as people so much more, either for good or bad. As it is, the characterization is just a total mess that makes none of them in any way believable or even likeable: yes, even Hiro Nakamura, the walking cliche that the show just had to shove in there to pay fan service to all the geeks out there. He\u2019s just too cheerful. It\u2019s really annoying. As it is, the only character I really genuinely felt empathy or interest for was Sylar, and he\u2019s the psycho bad guy! I think that about says it all.<\/p>\n

Finally, the idea of time travel and changing the foretold future is thoroughly ingrained in the show\u2019s mythology from the very start. Call me crazy, but for me, time travel is a right you have to earn as a TV show because it can make for some pretty nonsensical situations and plenty of deus-ex-machina curveballs that just destroy credibility. And in case you were wondering, Heroes<\/em> doesn\u2019t make the cut. If they had only introduced the time travel elements in season two or three, maybe…but as it is, it\u2019s just a big old mess.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My Rating: 2\/5<\/h3>\n

It sort of breaks my heart to say it, but the long and the short of it is that Heroes<\/em> is a show so tied up with trying to justify its own existence and establish a legacy for itself that it never had time to slow down, make itself believably coherent and just live in the moment–a.k.a., have a few decent episodes. If you don\u2019t watch it from the beginning, you\u2019ll be hopelessly lost, and even if you do, you might not have the best luck understanding what\u2019s going on. Combine that with the infuriating flip-flopping of most of the cast between the good\/bad sides every other second, and all Heroes<\/em> seems to bring out of its characters is the worst of humanity rather than the best. It\u2019s not a complete loss, but it\u2019s close enough. Such a shame for a show with so much potential.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Channel Chaser is written by Kyle Robertson. You can check out more of his work on his\u00a0<\/span>website<\/a>. Check back every Wednesday\u00a0for new articles.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to Channel Chaser! It\u2019s once again time for a review, and this week I\u2019m turning back the clock by just a few years to take a look at a show that\u2019s polarized viewers and critics alike: NBC\u2019s short-lived superhero drama Heroes. Heroes, created in 2006 by TV visionary Tim Kring, was imagined and [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1713"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1715,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713\/revisions\/1715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}