Heroes

Have you seen the new NBC show Heroes?

The show is pretty good and reminds me of the Saturday afternoon serials when I was growing up. The show’s creator Tim Kring has woven the story with multiple characters into nicely done smaller arcs within the main story. The writers spent a lot of time developing the characters and intertwine several plotlines within each episode. Some of the characters are far too stereotypical but provide a nice balance to each other.

The first four episodes were advertised with the tagline "Ordinary people discovering extraordinary abilities". I was hooked after the first show with the great writing, the changing plot twists, and the typical episode ending leaving everyone wanting more. It was easy being a Sci-Fi fan to get sucked in by Heroes storylines.

At the end of the fourth episode, an event occurs that kicked off the second story arc, where the slogan "Save the cheerleader, save the world" has appeared many times. Several characters presume this phrase to refer to Texas high school cheerleader Claire Bennet, who has the ability to rapidly heal from injury, and the apocalyptic visions of New York artist Isaac Mendez. One of the things that bothered me the most about the show is the tagline that many believe has resulted in much of the show’s success — “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” It has a nice ring to it and has that ability to hook the viewers. Okay. The cheerleader is a pretty, blond. I loved her in “Remember the Titans” (Hayden Panettiere) and the attitude and humor she brought with it. They’re not exploring new territory with the pretty face. But she’s the primary victim (so far) — even though she’s INDESTRUCTABLE! That makes no real sense to me and kinda aggravates me as good as the writing is, that part of the story makes no real sense.

This cheerleader can run through a burning boxcar, dive off a bridge, and even survive drowning and a subsequent AUTOPSY. Yet, there are a bunch of men rushing around frantically trying to SAVE her. She’s kinda like a ‘Superman’ or superhuman character. If you ask me, she’s the one who needs to save everyone else! She’ll probably be the only who survives the nuclear blast that the precognitive comic artist foretold or in the brief preview before going on hiatus, she can ‘heal’ Peter as he ‘blows up’.

What really frosted my flakes when I watched the next episode was that even though they saved the cheerleader, the New York is still going to blow up. Maybe they saved the ‘Wrong’ cheerleader.

Beginning at the conclusion of the episode “Fallout” a new tagline appeared, "Are you on the list?" We probably now have thousands of people sitting on their bathroom counter in front of the mirror trying to figure out what ‘special’ abilities they may have. I know when I was young I sat there trying to get my stomach muscles to move like a horse’s skin when a fly landed on it. Did you ever try that? My daddy would come in and yell at me never quite understanding what I was trying to do. All I ever heard was, “What’s wrong with that boy?”

The characters in Heroes slowly discover their abilities and the existence of others like them, they begin to realize the need to come together to prevent a catastrophe and save mankind. This is just like the old serial westerns we grew up on.

The Hiro character has that innocence and fun that makes his character’s transformation on of the most anticipated in the series. He will eventually get the use of a sword as it was shown in a ‘future’ sequence on the show. That will be fun seeing how this comes about as one of the paintings shown has him battling a dinosaur.

All in all this ensemble show reminds me of some well written ones from the past like Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, West Wing, and others. The story arcs with good acting from a virtually unknown cast makes this one of the highlights for this year’s television season.

If you get the chance to view Heroes it can be seen on NBC and Sci-Fi channels on cable TV. You never know . . .

“Are you on the list?”

Ice