Or is that "heroes"? I never get the difference.
Anyway, did anyone catch this on NBC on Monday night? What'd ya think?
It was okay. It seemed like it was trying to hard to be LOST. It even had the dead chick from LOST that I just couldn't see as this new character.
Things I liked: The Japanese kid, the scary father of the Cheerleader, the Indian prof., the LOST chick's "superpower"
Things I didn't like: The flying dudes storyline, the bad effects in the flying scene, the feel of the filming like I'm watching a cheap movie, LOST chick acting just like she did as LOST chick.
Verdict: Not a "must see" but a "will watch again".
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Where the train of thought derails
3 comments:
I watched it. I don't have a really firm opinion of it yet. There were too many characters being introduced for me to know if I liked them. The previews for next wekk were the most fascinating part.
Well, it was interesting, so I guess that counts. I've heard it described as a rewrite of the basic storyline of The X-men, which it is, in part. They are trying to keep it all about the characters, so I don't think it's going to be a cookie cutter show like, say, the Hulk TV show was. (Bill Bixby gets drawn into some current social ill, this week it's spouse abuse, he spends forty minutes helping people to stop being victims while avoiding that one reporter, and at the end they make him angry and he turns into Lou Ferigno, busts some heads, and has to run away alone). I think Heroes is going more for the "Buffy" approach... one big plot arch over the course of the season that (hopefully) gets resolved. Contrast with X-Files/LOST with the lack of resolution.
What bothers me most is lack of thought that has (seemingly) been left out of the power-definition component, and secondly, the lack of pacing. The powers!! Ok, "flight" I understand. "Regeneration" I understand (but I don't think the writers do... they've given the cheerleader some kind of regeneration/invulnerabilty/zombieitis... wha? Pick one! Either she's wolverine, or she's superman, or she's a zombie: but if she's all three, please get to the part where she gets a limb cut off so I can see if she grows a new one or if the old one keeps crawling around on the floor). Precognition, I get. But "homocidal maniac in the mirror" power, I don't get. Timestop/teleport, I don't get. I mean, think about it, isn't STOPPING TIME enough of a super power!? that would be cool if that was his power. It would "look" like teleporting, but he would have to actually walk to whereever he wanted. THAT would be cool. He says "I'm teleporting to New York!" and then he stops time and WALKS across the surface of the OCEAN and all of America to get to New York. When he gets there he has a huge beard and long hair and he's dancing in the street "I DID IT!" By the way, see John D. MacDonald's "The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything" for a stirling treatment of the "timestop" power. Do not take your cues from "Clockstoppers" or the made for TV version of MacDonald's book, although it is passable entertainment notable for having Pam Dawber, Stryker from Airplane, and MORgan FAIRchild). I could understand that kind of teleporting... but they have given him the power to control "spacetime"! He controls space AAAAND TIME! I guess that makes him the Omnipotent guy. Maybe he'll shoot himself on the Moon (sorry, X-men reference).
Oh, and pacing, usually you take "baby steps." You don't go from stopping the second hand for one second to teleporting around the world in ONE episode, let alone in THE PILOT! Do none of the writers read any manga or watch any anime? In Japan, they can take 120 half-hour episodes before the first character becomes omnipotent. And then it takes another 200 episodes for them to become more and more omnipotenter.
Yeah, too early to tell, it's still interesting... but the little inconsistencies are going to kill me I think. "Pssst. Your rib is sticking out." "Oh yeah, my shoulders can relocate OK, but my ribs sometimes don't." "Do you still feel pain?" "I guess not" "Then can you feel ANYTHING?" "I guess maybe I can feel pain, but I don't care" (There's a T.H. Lawrenence reference just to keep this highbrow).
Amazing review James. Exactly like I was thinking only you made sense and wasted enough time to write it out.
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