A trailer parodying the show “Heroes”, supposedly made by NBC’s production studio. It’s good that they’d have a sense of humor about their own show.
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Dave "The Game" Chalker is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Critical Hits. Since 2005, he has been bringing readers game news and advice, as well as editing nearly everything published here. He is the designer of the Origins Award-winning Get Bit!, a freelance designer and developer, son of a science fiction author, and a Master of Arts. He lives in MD with e and at least three dogs.
Heroes is so terrible.
Actually, after they resolved the first arc (aka “Saved the cheerleader”) it got steadily better, crossing over solidly into Good territory for the past few episodes, and I’m now eagerly awaiting the last few that comprise the season.
I mean, Stan Lee, George Takei, Christopher Eccleston, and Malcolm McDowell? That’s an awesome lineup of guest stars.
Also, what happened to Mr. “People should give constructive criticism, instead of just bashing a show”? 😛
I figured anyone smart would remember that I’ve already torn into the critically flawed aspects of Heroes quite a bit, but here goes again just for you (jerkface):
A- the writing is sub-par at its best, especially when considering utterly inane catch phrases like “save the cheerleader, save the world” and “somebody flies, somebody dies!” Whoa, someone whiped their ass with an english degree to come up with that one!
B- the acting is inspired but still very cheesey and does nothing to hide the flaws in the writing, for almost all of the characters
C- the character ideas are interesting at first glance, but when you really consider how much thought was put into them it can make you gag: female highschool cheerleader, las vegas stripper, druggie urban artist, and an asian uber-nerd! The names and superpowers are even less creative and terribly matched to the characters
D- one thing the show does seem to do right is the actual representation of the superpowers, and I imagine this is what grabs a lot of people to the show, and the way the terribly un-creative powers are used is decent also. I haven’t seen it enough to know quite how well the actors play to their powers, but from what I’ve seen that’s not a problem
E- AGAIN, the terrible tag-lines that someone is actually getting PAID to come up with.
F- the plot, at least for the first arc, wasn’t spectacular and while it may have had unexpected events happen during it the original premise is lackluster and trite-to-death.
A – I agree with the inane catch phrases stuff, but not all of the writing is awful.
B – Good acting is a problem?
C – The idea is that they were normal people, so stereotypes are ok aren’t they? So you would prefer Peter Petrelli to be named something more interesting like “Zongar the Implicit Feng Shui Donkey Puncher”?
D – That’s a good thing
E – See A
F – The opening wasn’t terrible except for the catch phrase. The show was meant to have greater appeal to non-comic book people, if you haven’t read comic books maybe the ideas aren’t as trite.
The plot line is actually somewhat clever in the way it is integrating all the characters together with several common threads. Government conspiracies, corporate powerhouse, genetics, etc. These are somewhat overused ideas but not terrible in the grand scheme of things.
What you seem to be saying is that the show actually has it’s good points (acting and special effects) and needs to work on its writing. That would be one critical flaw (new rival website idea?) and I don’t think it’s as bad you say it is.
Additionally, in specific regard to C, all the characters gained more depth in the second half. Cheerleader had serious family/trust issues, and focused more on the adopted angle than the cheerleader angle. Las Vegas Stripper gained an interesting backstory that explains her power, spent time in an asylum, and has had to deal with a husband and son (both with powers.) Druggie urban artist… still kinda lame even after cleaning up, but used infrequently. Asian Uber-nerd has an overbearing father (who happens to be George Takei, and also has intriguing connections) and even uber-nerd’s non-powered friend gets to do cool stuff.
“B- the acting is inspired but still very cheesey and does nothing to hide the flaws in the writing, for almost all of the characters”
This did nothing to say the acting was good, I simply said it was inspired but it is sometimes unbearably cheesey and, because of the aforementioned crap written dialogue, is often bad. At some point in the future I’m sure I’ll have so little to do that I can just go through and provide evidence of all of these things, in comparison to other popular shows out today, but for now all I have is my words and opinion on it.
Joshx0rfz: All I can ever say about the show is my own, personal, opinion. I’ve read a ton of comic books, therefore yes you’re probably right it’s better for someone who hasn’t. However, for me, the show IS every bit as bad as I say it is. I’ve even given it many benefits of the doubt – I have watched at least 3-4 full episodes, and caught bits of others. Needless to say I almost vomit by the end of a full episode.
The Game: I don’t care how spectacularly awesome the asian uber-nerd’s back story gets. THEY NAMED HIM “HIRO”. For the love of f-ing god, it’s cute and it’s trite-to-the-core, but it prevents me from ever taking his character (or the show) seriously.
Well, personal dislike of naming I can’t really speak to. All I was debating was the point about the characters not being interesting, as they changed that during the second half. A friend recommended that I check it out again after personally disliking the first half of the series, and was pleasantly surprised, so I’m passing along the same recommendation.