Having just began to watch Heroes, I’ve been surprised with the depth and quality of the show. Now up to Episode 11, I’m just about halfway through the series. From this glimpse of the show I’ve noticed quite a few interesting things happening through the show, including the obvious comic book influences, strong ties to X Men, and even science fiction and Hitchcock-esque draw ins within the show.
The comic book influence is fairly obvious, with the whole structure of the series built upon comic book storylines. The character names and even many of the stylistic elements reinforce this influence, but despite it’s fairly low 14+ age rating in America, Heroes contains quite a lot of themes and adult content - whether it be violence, death, sexual acts and innuendo, and others. This makes the show almost appear to be a comic book for adults. I guess if you were younger, you might gloss over a lot of the adult orientated material, or not even notice it. Heroes seems to have a very large target audience, with a fairly broad age range interested in the show. There probably couldn’t have been a better time to have such a show, with comic book movies popularity the highest its ever been.
Probably the closest comic series this show reminds me of is X Men, with the similar themes of Evolution, Darwin, Us against Them etc. The show even features characters of similar lineage up against each other, a kind of segregation amongst themselves of the ‘good’ and ‘evil’, just as normal humans have these very same separations. In fact the show reminds me of a mixture between X Men and some other Anime series like ‘Akira’ or ‘Ghost in the Shell’, and is an interesting mixture of storytelling elements.
The other surprising element in the show is it’s sense of humour. Although it’s not surprising to have a comedic element in a TV show, Heroes seems to have an almost Hitchcock-esque sense of humour. I read something a few days ago about how Alfred Hitchcock liked creating instances or scenes where it seemed like a huge practical joke was being played on the characters - almost like Murphy’s Law, where everything that can go wrong does go wrong. These moments in the show are quite funny, and although they only function as comedic relief in amongst all the dramatic story building, they add a lot of depth to the story.
Well I’m looking forward to watching the rest of the series, but I’m really impressed at present with the show. It’s about time a decent television show came out that wasn’t another medical drama.
A Month of Reflection
7 months ago
2 comments:
Yeah, Heroes is great, did you get out the DVD box set or something? Heroes, to me, was a show that, throughout season one, got better as it went along, with some of the best episodes being near the end of the season.
It also has some really great characters from Mr Bennett, to Claire who is basically invincible, and they've managed to work it so there isn't some stupid loophole, same with Peter who is basically as strong as everyone he comes across put together, plus you really have to love Sylar. Also wait till you see who shows up in the last few eps. If you are a Kubrick fan you'll be pleased.
You are right about the themes that, and I won't elaborate as you've put it far better than I would, especially with you already having done that. I will say that it's a great age for television, with some TV equaling movies. Sure there's still a lot of crap on TV but there always has been, the best stuff just got better.
For other good shows off the top of my head, that aren't CSI ripoffs or medical dramas, I recommend Carnivale, Lost (Sort of sags a bit second half Season 2 and first have Season 3 but gets better afterwards), The early seasons of 24 (I still enjoy the later ones but they are getting more rediculous and implausable) Veronica Mars if you'd be interested in a sort of Buffy meets film noir, and Doctor Who, new or old. It's all good. Give me time to rack my brain and I could probably come up with more.
Yes, the DVD box set... is it even out yet? I sure wouldn't mind getting my hands on the HD version of the box set, if I had something to play it throught that is.
Heroes does have very well developed and likeable characters, they must have a good team of writers to come up with all of the alternate storylines/plots. The production level of the show is also really high, and like you mentioned equals movies somewhat. There's some fairly top end special effects they've used, and they're not otherused either which seems to reinforce both the story and the viewers interest.
Thanks for the recommendations, I'll have to get out the boxsets of Dr. Who and Carnivale.
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