I’m afraid that if things continue along this same story arc, that is what Heroes is threatening to become, a super powered prime time soap.

Not that prime time soaps are a bad thing in and of themselves.   If Heroes had started out like that from the beginning, well, there’s a certain tone and style of storytelling associated with prime time soaps which gives screenwriters a great deal of latitude.  You both know what to expect, and, you expect to be surprised by strange plot twists.  In fact, in a soap, normal plot twists are considered pedestrian and out of place, while the baroque, the bizarre, the campy and the convoluted are celebrated.

But, is this what Heroes should be?

In retrospect, season 1 was truest to the feel of a graphic novel.  Everything from it’s obvious love of fans, with Hiro is the ultimate stand info for the viewer, to the mise en scene borrowing comic scene layouts.  It was refreshing, even those familiar with the genre.  Its obvious now that season 2 was a vinculum, a transition from the world of comics to the world of normal television.  Season 2 was unfocused and seemed lacking in direction because the storytelling tropes were shifting from the exotic to the familiar, bringing us to where we are now.

But why bring us here?

OK, everyone gets that biology and psychology are central to the world of Heroes.  Psychology ties each hero to the form of the manifestation of his or her powers.  It’s a way of writing the character’s needs and motivations in technicolor strokes across the high definition screen.  I’ll leave it to you to figure out the particulars.  Biology binds the heroes to each other. Where the story was about saving the world, the story now is all about family, genealogy, heredity, familial relations, fratricide, matricide, patricide, sibling rivalries, power struggles, etc, etc.  Television knows how to tell this story.  Think Dynasty, Falcon Crest, The Colbys.

Actually, now that I think about it, as the season progresses, I wonder how much the Petrellis will resemble the ultimate soap opera, the Greek Pantheon.  Try doing the mapping (don’t forget the Titans).

For some people, this transformation has made the series unwatchable.  I’m still watching but with not nearly as much interest as in the beginning, not because I have anything against soaps in general, but because I don’t much care for the old bait and switch.

There are other rapidly developing issues with the series, but I’ll deal with them in another post.

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

    -- William Butler Yeats

Unlike some folks, I only write the occasional post about televised pop culture, in spite of the fact that I watch too much.

What can I say, I’m a child of the sixties, and a latch key child to boot.

That being said, a steady pre-pubescent diet of 60’s action cartoons, like Jonny Quest, was perfect preparation for appreciating the genius that is The Venture Brothers.

The Venture Brothers hits the perfect note. It’s always smart, perpetually witty, never afraid to “go there” (this series is not for the kiddies), and the writers (Christopher McCulloch and Doc Hammer) are intent upon thoroughly fleshing out the weird niches and crannies of the universe they’ve created. Whether they’re exploring the relationships between heroes and arch villains, uncovering the forces that turn a normal everyday boy adventurer into a failed super scientist or the origins of a suave killing machine…

Wait.

I’m making this sound like some oh, so, serious graphic novel, or the self important outpourings of some graduate student’s pop culture fevered brain. Nothing could be further from the truth. This series is comedy gold. I mean, bust up, squirt your drink through your nose, gasping for breath, funny. Because it is smart and snarky and self reflexive and mines deeply into the pop cultural strata, not in spite of these things. The more you know, the more you think about it, the better it becomes.

As funny as ATHF is, it’s kid stuff compared to The Venture Brothers.

This is definitely a series for my Amazon wish list.