Analyzing 'Heroes' SEASON ONE | They've captured the TV-viewing nation, but they're not perfect
May 20, 2007
BY DOUG ELFMAN
Last fall, the cast and crew of "Heroes" knew they had a good show on their hands. But they were nervous about the time slot. The show's super people would have to compete against "24." Now "Heroes" is beating "24."
And Monday's season finale is probably the most anticipated TV drama event of the year.
Which heroes will die while trying to stop an exploding man from destroying New York City? Are we all dorks for caring? Yeah, but that's not our problem.
It's been a wham-bang first season, accomplishing the improbable: It captured our TV nation with a character-based, sci-fi, supernatural story line, humming with a patient tone amid graphic novel imagery.
"Heroes" is topical, too. If you psychoanalyze it, you clearly see parallels to our own political state.
But not everything about "Heroes" works. Mothers are portrayed cruelly. And there have been at least three plotting missteps.
Here's my psychobabble about at all that.
MOTHER OF THE YEAR THEY'RE NOT
'Heroes" has some serious mommy issues. Every mother character is either vicious to some degree or out of her mind.
MOMMY DEAREST: Villainous Sylar essentially asked his mom to stop him, because he thinks he'll kill millions of innocents in New York. But she berated him until he killed her, making him even crazier. She was a psycho killer-rearing mommy.
SERIAL MOM: Niki is a good mother to Micah. But she often morphs into her evil and powerful dead sister. As Jessica, she kills people, engages in blackmail and tries to shoot Micah's dad in the head. She's a murderous mommy, half the time.
ONE CRAZY MOTHER: Claire's adopted mom, Sandra, occasionally mocks her beloved dog and dodders cluelessly around the house, because the big bad agency keeps cleaning her brain of super-people knowledge. She's sweet, but a Grade-A nutbag.
CLAIRE HAS TWO MOMMIES: Claire found her biological mom, Meredith, and said she wanted to meet her biological dad, too. Meredith phoned Claire's dad, Nathan, but only to squeeze him for $100,000. And she didn't let Claire meet him. Trashy.
BIG BAD MAMA: Claire tracked down her biological grandma Angela (Peter and Nathan's mom), and she appears to be complicit in the big agency's plan to let New York get blown up so Nathan can ascend politically. She's a nasty piece of work.
MISTER MOMS: Dads are mostly good. Her whole life, Claire's adopted dad, Jack, has protected her, and he's joined the resistance to the big bad agency. Mohinder's dad was trying to help super-people before he died. And Micah's dad D.L. is trying to save his son from both Jessica and the bad guys. Hiro's dad, Kaito, appears to be using his power to help his son battle evil. But power-hungry Nathan has been crappy to Claire, abandoning her years ago, though even his fate as either good or bad is TBD. Also, Mr. Linderman appears to be both a father and evil.
BRING BACK EDEN AND ALL WILL BE RIGHT WITH 'HEROES'
'Heroes" has been a Critic's rating: show all season. But nobody's perfect. Here are the three biggest mistakes the "Heroes" writers have made.
1. IT'S SO DEMANDING: Every single episode has been part of a season-long mythological story. It's going down the road of the constant serial, like "Lost" and "Days of Our Lives." That works for now. But if you watch old "X-Files," you'll see that sci-fi show's self-contained installments are usually the most compelling episodes.
Creator Tim Kring, who's done a brilliant job so far, ought to think about building in more one-off hours, the way "X-Files" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" did. People may be burning out on the constant serial. They're sure tired of "Lost."
2. HIRO'S RICH? At the beginning of the season, Hiro rose up from an office desk in Japan and began to time-travel. It was awesome. It looked at the time that he was an average guy, "Spider-Man"-like, who was very special on the inside. Aww. But it turns out his dad Kaito is a wealthy industrialist or something. Hiro's still great, but he was more appealing when we all thought he was an Everyman in ascent.
3. THE DEATH OF EDEN: One of the most compelling heroes was Eden. She had this cool power of persuasion. She put Sylar to sleep and got people to do her bidding. But Sylar was about to kill her and steal her power, so she shot herself. Although, her death was confirmed only off-screen, so maybe she's alive. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
CONSPIRACY THEORIES BREED SCI-FI ENTERTAINMENT
On the surface, "Heroes" is just a comic book story in the realm of the Justice League, but done up real nice.
Read between the lines, though, and you may infer plot points are commenting on American conspiracy theories -- the ones that suggest our anti-utopian U.S. government is purposely profiting from the "War on Terror."
There's an honorable history of sci-fi entertainment satirizing or observing how people's freedoms are impinged by governments and corporations. So look at "Heroes" this way.
There's a Texas company called Primatech (think Haliburton or the Carlyle Group). It is a nefarious front for an outfit engaged in a scheme to let New York get blown up (9/11). One goal may be to pass forbidding laws (the Patriot Act) and round up people with super-powers (terror suspects). It will also allow a law-and-order New York politician to run for president (Rudy Giuliani). An evil guy behind the scenes is moneyman/powerbroker Mr. Linderman (a James R. Bath/James Baker type, I suppose).
Those under suspicion are mainly good citizens, though a few are violent extremists (Muslims).
Malcolm McDowell, who plays Linderman, jokes that his main concern is looking good on TV, so it's not really possible for Linderman to be based on, say, our less attractive vice president.
"Who wants to play Dick Cheney?" McDowell says.
(Attention people who occasionally e-mail me: I do not think the U.S. government caused 9/11.)
BY DOUG ELFMAN
Last fall, the cast and crew of "Heroes" knew they had a good show on their hands. But they were nervous about the time slot. The show's super people would have to compete against "24." Now "Heroes" is beating "24."
And Monday's season finale is probably the most anticipated TV drama event of the year.
Which heroes will die while trying to stop an exploding man from destroying New York City? Are we all dorks for caring? Yeah, but that's not our problem.
It's been a wham-bang first season, accomplishing the improbable: It captured our TV nation with a character-based, sci-fi, supernatural story line, humming with a patient tone amid graphic novel imagery.
"Heroes" is topical, too. If you psychoanalyze it, you clearly see parallels to our own political state.
But not everything about "Heroes" works. Mothers are portrayed cruelly. And there have been at least three plotting missteps.
Here's my psychobabble about at all that.
MOTHER OF THE YEAR THEY'RE NOT
'Heroes" has some serious mommy issues. Every mother character is either vicious to some degree or out of her mind.
MOMMY DEAREST: Villainous Sylar essentially asked his mom to stop him, because he thinks he'll kill millions of innocents in New York. But she berated him until he killed her, making him even crazier. She was a psycho killer-rearing mommy.
SERIAL MOM: Niki is a good mother to Micah. But she often morphs into her evil and powerful dead sister. As Jessica, she kills people, engages in blackmail and tries to shoot Micah's dad in the head. She's a murderous mommy, half the time.
ONE CRAZY MOTHER: Claire's adopted mom, Sandra, occasionally mocks her beloved dog and dodders cluelessly around the house, because the big bad agency keeps cleaning her brain of super-people knowledge. She's sweet, but a Grade-A nutbag.
CLAIRE HAS TWO MOMMIES: Claire found her biological mom, Meredith, and said she wanted to meet her biological dad, too. Meredith phoned Claire's dad, Nathan, but only to squeeze him for $100,000. And she didn't let Claire meet him. Trashy.
BIG BAD MAMA: Claire tracked down her biological grandma Angela (Peter and Nathan's mom), and she appears to be complicit in the big agency's plan to let New York get blown up so Nathan can ascend politically. She's a nasty piece of work.
MISTER MOMS: Dads are mostly good. Her whole life, Claire's adopted dad, Jack, has protected her, and he's joined the resistance to the big bad agency. Mohinder's dad was trying to help super-people before he died. And Micah's dad D.L. is trying to save his son from both Jessica and the bad guys. Hiro's dad, Kaito, appears to be using his power to help his son battle evil. But power-hungry Nathan has been crappy to Claire, abandoning her years ago, though even his fate as either good or bad is TBD. Also, Mr. Linderman appears to be both a father and evil.
BRING BACK EDEN AND ALL WILL BE RIGHT WITH 'HEROES'
'Heroes" has been a Critic's rating: show all season. But nobody's perfect. Here are the three biggest mistakes the "Heroes" writers have made.
1. IT'S SO DEMANDING: Every single episode has been part of a season-long mythological story. It's going down the road of the constant serial, like "Lost" and "Days of Our Lives." That works for now. But if you watch old "X-Files," you'll see that sci-fi show's self-contained installments are usually the most compelling episodes.
Creator Tim Kring, who's done a brilliant job so far, ought to think about building in more one-off hours, the way "X-Files" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" did. People may be burning out on the constant serial. They're sure tired of "Lost."
2. HIRO'S RICH? At the beginning of the season, Hiro rose up from an office desk in Japan and began to time-travel. It was awesome. It looked at the time that he was an average guy, "Spider-Man"-like, who was very special on the inside. Aww. But it turns out his dad Kaito is a wealthy industrialist or something. Hiro's still great, but he was more appealing when we all thought he was an Everyman in ascent.
3. THE DEATH OF EDEN: One of the most compelling heroes was Eden. She had this cool power of persuasion. She put Sylar to sleep and got people to do her bidding. But Sylar was about to kill her and steal her power, so she shot herself. Although, her death was confirmed only off-screen, so maybe she's alive. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
CONSPIRACY THEORIES BREED SCI-FI ENTERTAINMENT
On the surface, "Heroes" is just a comic book story in the realm of the Justice League, but done up real nice.
Read between the lines, though, and you may infer plot points are commenting on American conspiracy theories -- the ones that suggest our anti-utopian U.S. government is purposely profiting from the "War on Terror."
There's an honorable history of sci-fi entertainment satirizing or observing how people's freedoms are impinged by governments and corporations. So look at "Heroes" this way.
There's a Texas company called Primatech (think Haliburton or the Carlyle Group). It is a nefarious front for an outfit engaged in a scheme to let New York get blown up (9/11). One goal may be to pass forbidding laws (the Patriot Act) and round up people with super-powers (terror suspects). It will also allow a law-and-order New York politician to run for president (Rudy Giuliani). An evil guy behind the scenes is moneyman/powerbroker Mr. Linderman (a James R. Bath/James Baker type, I suppose).
Those under suspicion are mainly good citizens, though a few are violent extremists (Muslims).
Malcolm McDowell, who plays Linderman, jokes that his main concern is looking good on TV, so it's not really possible for Linderman to be based on, say, our less attractive vice president.
"Who wants to play Dick Cheney?" McDowell says.
(Attention people who occasionally e-mail me: I do not think the U.S. government caused 9/11.)
Comments
Yeah, like if she was still alive after shooting herself at close range - and right in front of Sylar - he wouldn't have tried to finish the job and get a hold of her brain (or what was left of it after she shot herself IN THE HEAD). Eden McCain is gone. Deal.