Blógünder Schlock

Last night I watched the premiere episode of Heroes, with the help of an iTunes promotion, and a friend who had an extra coupon.

It looks like it’s going to be a good series. It also looks like it is going to cover a lot of the same ground that has been covered in mainstream superhero comics over the last 50 years, only without the skin-tight costumes and fantasy-borne physiques.

It’s hard to avoid the re-tread. You have ordinary people who discover that they have extraordinary abilities. How do they react? How do the people around them react? Do they go out and buy tights and capes? Why or why not?

But since most of us have fantasized at least once about having super-powers of some sort, there’s good reason to go ahead and cover this ground again — especially if we can cover it with people who look and act more like real people. I, for one, think it would be great if a generation of dreamers could avoid getting their power-fantasies tangled up with pictures of mostly-naked Adonises and Venuses.

The premiere episode’s primary weakness lies in the sheer number of characters who must be introduced. It is quite the onslaught, but the writers and director have mitigated the problem by finding clever ways to link the characters together. We segue, for instance, from the japanese comic-book fan who has a purple godzilla for a desktop background at work, to the young son of the exotic dancer as he reads a comic book with that same purple-zilla image on the cover.

The only other thing that bugged me was the intro, in which an indian professor (to the right of the cheerleader in the photo above) lectures about the genome project, and how it seems as if tiny changes in human DNA are unlocking hidden potential in otherwise ordinary people. Hello, X-men. But it’s not the re-tread/ripoff here I dislike. No, I’m upset because by using science to explain the mechanism for “who becomes supernaturally endowed,” the series seems to think it can trick us into not asking questions like “how can a particular protein sequence result in anti-gravity as a natural ability?” Just because a lottery’s organizers have a system for announcing the number of the winning lottery ticket doesn’t mean they have the money to pay the winner.

If you can get past those two bits — the large ensemble cast (which by mid-season should be quite a strength to the series) and the pillorying of genetic science — you’ll probably enjoy the show. The characters are interesting, their problems are recognizable, and they come off fairly believable. The writing is compelling, and there were three very cool “reveals” towards the end of the 56-minute premiere. Each of them alone would have been sufficient to convince me to tune in next week.

Well, if I had cable, dish, or a TV antenna. I doubt I’ll be spending $3.00 a week to watch the series on iTunes. I’m cheap that way.

Schlocker Jonathon Green (who also happens to be married to novelist Laurell K. Hamilton) forwarded this link to me this morning. I shall now quote from the article:

Television personality and environmentalist Steve Irwin has died from a stingray wound while filming off north Queensland…

Irwin had been filming a new documentary called Ocean’s Deadliest with friend and manager John Stainton at Batt Reef, off Port Douglas about 11am.

“He came over the top of a stingray and the stingray’s barb went up and went into his chest and put a hole into his heart,” Mr Stainton said. “It’s likely that he possibly died instantly when the barb hit him…”

Three things:

1) I really liked watching Crocodile Hunter. I laughed at how outrageously dangerous it seemed, and chuckled at Steve’s aussie-isms.
2) It was funny joking about what might kill Steve Irwin… right up until the point that something killed him.
3) I’m going to have to explain to my kids that the Crocodile Hunter is dead. They’re going to miss him at least as much as I am.

Okay, I’ve seen all the episodes, and The Tick (live action) still = Brilliant.
From the pilot episode:

“Destiny dressed you this morning, my friend, and now Fear wants to pull off your pants. If you give up, if you give in, then you’re going to end up naked, with fear just standing there laughing at your dangling unmentionables.”

From “The Terror,” (when Arthur laments being anal retentive):

“Good Lord, man, retain that anus! One day its fruit may be the only thing that stands between us and total oblivion!”

From “The Funeral”:

“Hey, now, no-one’s saying that Death isn’t sad. But it’s also the Mount Everest of Life. And I say when your time comes, climb it! Who knows what wonders may lay at the icy summit of Death Mountain. It might be nice up there! And think of all the people that have gone before you. You may get to shake hands with some of the greatest minds in human history! Then again, maybe Death is just Nature’s way of saying ‘try again.’”

I empathise completely with Fillmore in “The Funeral”: “I’m starting to like the cut of this man’s jibberish.”

So… I loved the dialog enough to transcribe some great quotes for you. I laughed out loud during every episode. That’s not to say the series didn’t also have some big problems. Here are the biggest:
1) Costuming: The Tick’s costume looked good at first blush, but it obviously restricts Warburton’s movement. He can’t express himself athletically (he can’t RUN, for instance). In some episodes it looks like the costume’s crotch area is one big “cold weld,” cracks and all.

2) Action: Okay, it’s funny when the action happens off-screen. I do that joke a lot myself. But when there is on-screen action it looks almost anti-heroic. You can argue that this is part of the comedy (it is) but it is also a weakness. Had the series run for any appreciable length of time, they would have HAD to actually deliver some good action sequences. The Tick is nigh-invulnerable, after all.

3) Logo, credits, and music… sure, the series had a low budget. But the opening credit sequence was almost student-film-editing weak. The only thing holding it together was Warburton’s narration. (Okay, I’ll grant that’s pretty good glue.)

All said, it’s still loads of fun. It’s not aimed at the kids, though. You’ll end up explaining the innuendo, because in at least one episode the characters themselves try to explain the innuendo to The Tick. “blah blah blah paternity suit.”

My buddy Dennis just loaned me The Tick (the live action series) on DVD.

I watched the first episode right here at my computer.

It’s hilarious. There are easily a dozen dialog snippets worthy of sig-file inclusion, and they come so fast there’s no time to remember them. I’m a sucker for good dialog, I am.

I’ll post more when I’ve seen more.

(Note: don’t post spoilers in the comments. I’m not done watching yet!)

Some thoughts on the upcoming “super” bowl:

1) Until Thursday, I had no idea who was playing.
2) Unless things have changed significantly, I’m willing to bet that they’ll be playing “football,” and that one hour of game clock will be cut with three hours of commentary and commercials.
3) I’m sure y’all will tell me which commercials won. I’m rooting for the one with the monkeys (I’ll be disappointed if the monkeys don’t make it to the Superbowl.)