Heroes preview

NBC.com > Heroes
“They thought they were like everyone else… until they woke with incredible abilities.”

When I first heard of this show, I figured it would be an X-Men rip-off, similar to Mutant X. After having watched the preview, though, I really think this has the potential to be a good series. It seems to lean more toward the take of M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable, though not with his trademark quiet mysteriousness.

From what I’ve seen, it looks like these will be people from all over the world who are brought together to prevent a catastrophe forseen by a painter who paints future events. And it’s not the “secret identity, pastel underoos with a cape” kind of show. People get hurt (one guy has his hands cut off in the preview!). They seem to deal with this stuff pretty seriously, which is exactly the right way to play it. No camp at all. This is why I think this show will succeed where many other superhero shows have failed. They have taken their cue from the success of Smallville (though that one is a bit heavy with teen angst), and movies like Batman Begins, X-Men, and Spiderman.

An important difference here is that these are all new characters while those in the mentioned stories are established comic book characters. With the comic book characters, while realism is important, it’s easier to stretch the suspension of disbelief a little farther because they already have a long-standing popularity and audiences will be a little more forgiving. With new characters, like these, set in a real world scenario, realism will play an even bigger role. I doubt there will be people on this show with outrageous powers like controlling the weather or multiple powers like Superman.

I’m really looking forward to seeing this show and hope it plays out as well as the preview.

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