Well...I guess with the new Villains theme, I should of expected a more darker Heroes, but I was shocked by last nights season opener. More heads getting cut open, brains poked at, heads lopped off, Women in their underwear, men getting it on with the ladies, full on sexual romping going on, strange God, prayer and messiahish stuff. The picture above is obviously a sun being eclipsed..not a sun emerging this season. It was a barrage of disturbing visual assaults that left me pining for the good old days of Gilligan's Island...sure there was Ginger in her sexy dresses but she was never manhandled in the coconut hut by a sweaty, horny manamial of a professor. I can't imagine what will be allowed on tv when my kids have kids...it's getting raunchier, darker, creepier and flat out more and more ungodly. I think I'm pulling the plug on this one.
Plus...I thought it was boring, tired and unoriginal from a writing standpoint.
10 comments:
I couldn't agree more bro, I am glad to hear I'm not the only one. I turned it off right after Mohinder groped all over the South American girl like a prisoner on a 10 minute congigal visit. My issues with last night were numerous... In addition to the scene described above, which was surprising, disappointing and a total turn off, there is too much abuse of the time/space continuum. I half expect someone to swallow a blue pill and dive down a rabbit hole. It's like you have to be on an acid trip to follow the plot. I remember thinking at 10pm (when I realized it was a two part premier) how frustrating the thought of investing a second hour was. You also hit the nail on the head with the creepy spiritual themes..... bizarre. Nathan Patrelli became some weird mix between Joel Osteen and the old PBS painter guy with the huge fro. What else can be said. After a great first year, what a total letdown. Furthermore, the guy that plays Matt Parkman is a hideous actor and the blatant effort to show the actress who plays Jessica in her panties as often as possible is pathetic.
-Dan
AHHHHH. I missed the opener!
I don't remember seeing more than one preview for the season...
Oh, just read the whole post...boring, raunchy, and unoriginal...good. Then I didn't miss anything.
I missed the opener, but I have a few things to say.
It was the red pill that led down the rabbit hole.
Joel Osteen with a fro. I would pay to see it.
Unfortunately I have to agree almost completely. Having been a huge Heroes fan, with both the first and second season, this "New Beginning" was way over hyped and a huge letdown.
The portrayal of Nicki was far out of character for the show, and when they had the almost sex scene with Suresh, I was complaining out loud that this IS NOT heroes...
I sat through both episodes, wondering if everyone would think the same thing. It was disappointing to say the least.
I find it interesting that so many people enjoyed the extreme darkness that was the new Batman based soley on acting ability - shotguns in the face like never before, etc - and as a result we see the darker side of what was once an excellent genre of entertainment.
Too much violent death, mutilation, and disturbing imagery, coupled with writing that is taking the "fun" out super heroes and turning them into something that we don't even want out kids to see.
I find it all too disheartening.
Jim,
I personally think the Batman point is valid, but to me the violence in that movie was often off screen, a tasteful trick dealing with tasteless subject matter. Heroes has passed that and now is showing us the full monty and probably would in the sexuality too if it could get away with it. I enjoy the literary exploration of the darker side that has been prevalent in many different genres these days...but its starting to get obnoxious to me. Soon nothing good will ever be able to stand as good...its just until it turns bad.
Now we could get into some deep theological discussions about the nature of man and is this really just showing us ourselves anyway and isn't it being more true to reality than the hyper sanitized portrayals of yesteryear? I think there is validity to exploring the tension of that but I think there is a place in art that one as a christian and I think as a good artist needs to determine if they will be a conduit of Chaos or Cosmos.
One is preoccupied with showing the eclipse of the sun...the other is showing the passing of the moon. Both have Sun and Moon but each have a different end goal I think. One inspires hope that is rooted in reality and the other breeds hopelessness or disillusionment by constantly seeing evil as the major force.
It's the issue I complained about in the latest Batman movie...the dark was darker than the light was light. Good wasn't as god as evil was evil. It's a hard thing to put into words...but you feel it afterwards. I long to cheer good not that I want a sanitized good, with no shades to dark...but I want to feel good about the good guys and not always be waiting for the shoe to drop and see that actually they are shmucks and sinners.
Mike-
I was referring to Alice in Wonderland, not The Matrix.
-Dan
Thanks for the update... I think I'm glad I've never seen an episode and now won't bother with ever watching this show - especially with your synopsis of the scantily-clad women - I'd be ashamed to have my 11, 10 and 8 year old walk in and see me watching something like that - so, thanks for the heads up. I'm just amazed at how many believers love crap.
Dan-
Mea Culpa. I had just watched that movie when I read the comment.
The whole dark vs. light issue is a trend I've been noticing for the past couple of years in mainstream film and television (really, the whole art world). I say mainstream because there has always been that kind of stuff out there. It's just that normally you had to pay cable prices for it, or visit "art house" cinemas. I'm not surprised by the level of darkness.
I'm surprised by it's marketability. Why are we so ready to by moody, brooding, emo heroes? Why do we want we want to focus on the darker side of justice (look at how many superheroes are vigilantes). They say that they aren't marketed to children, but they totally are. And that's who's buying it. Or their parent's are buying it for them.
That's what really concerns me. Is that the next generation is being fed this. Impressionable minds being told that good vs. evil is flexible. Then again, that isn't very new either.
Nothing is new under the sun.
My hope is that we are training the next generation of artists to, yes, acknowledge the bad...but point to the hope that lay beyond it.
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