Finally watched the first episode of Heroes which was on BBC2 the other evening, but I've only just got round to sitting in front of.
First impressions are that it is a mic of the "mystery" of The X Files with the puzzled plot of Lost plus the comic books of my youth. Certainly the characters are as everyday as the producers can make them; a cheerleader, an on-line stripper (not sure of the technical term if there is one) who is in serious debt, a druggy artist, a nurse who has nightmares about falling and a geeky Japanese man who sees no irony in his descriptions of himself. Added also is the X Files type mysterious people following others around.
The thing which struck me was the interconnectedness of the characters, even though they were not aware of this. The male nurse is caring for the dying father of the girlfriend of the druggy artist, the geek Japanese man ("Hiro") is best friends with somebody who is watching the on-line stripper and the taxi driving Indian man is being followed by the father of the cheerleader.
The second thing is that if these people are the heroes of today just how messed up their lives are. Gone are Superman's boyhood good deeds in Smallville, or Peter Parker's care and respect for his Aunt (good ol' family values). These are replaced by suspicion and an awareness of something wrong with the world. This mixes in some of the Morpheus stuff from The Matrix.
In September I am doing another talk on the cultural values of today and I am planning to start by using the video for Danny California by the Chilis. What Heroes reminds me of (ok, after only episode one) is the self-containedness of contemporary culture. It has jettisoned many of the reference points of the culture within which Church as we know has developed in the last four hundred years, and needs no outside triangulation points by which to navigate its course for the future.
I did enjoy the first episode and will watch the next one (also recorded). I did a talk some time ago based on The OC (subject given me rather than chosen) and I struggled through half an episode of total garbage to work out the characters. With Heroes I suppose my comic reading youth has some common ground.
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