Superheros For All Viewers

I don’t know why television studios aren’t embracing file sharing on the internet. It seems to me that they’d benefit from allowing viewers to catch up on their shows, especially the serial television shows that are extremely self-referential.

Case in point, I’d been hearing all about NBC’s “Heroes,” all over the internets; I knew it was the type of show that I’d probably like, but since I missed the first few episodes I never tried to watch it. When the show went on mid-season hiatus I simply downloaded all eleven episodes from Torrentspy and got all caught up.

Now? Now I’m hooked. I’ll watch the show every week. Because of illegal file-sharing NBC has essentially garnered an additional viewer.

I feel it is my duty to share the wealth. I found a YouTube user who has cut episode one of “Heroes” into five parts and posted it online. Here’s the first part:


Here is part two, three, four, and five.Just know that while episode one is good, it’s nowhere near the best episode. What amazed me most about the show was that by the end of episode eleven, which ends chapter one, I had seen a complete and self-contained story. My graphic novel reading brethren will love this show. It’s self-referential, it’s smart, and the creators really understand the superhero mythos.

“Heroes” is what the X-Men movies strived and failed to be.

Jeph Loeb, the co-executive producer, is an awesome comic book writer in his own right, and I have a feeling his expertise is playing a very big part in creating this show. Loeb penned such graphic novel masterpieces such as “Superman for all Seasons,” “Batman: Haunted Knight,” “Batman: The Long Halloween,” “Batman: Hush,” “Batman: Dark Victory,” “Spider-Man: Blue,” “Daredevil: Yellow,” and “Hulk: Gray.”

Episodes 1-11 illustrate that the creators truly understand how to write a superhero origin story. Episode twelve began chapter two, and if what I’ve seen so far is any indication of this chapter then we’re in for a helluva ride. Each character has a backstory that actually motivates their actions and behavior. I love all the heroes, but I gotta say, Hiro Nakamura is my new favorite comic book hero, and he’s not even in a comic book. And the bad guy? The supervillain? Well, he’s a scary, scary badass. You’ll just have to watch the show.

Piqued your interest? I hope so. If you want to get caught up as well, I’ll post a how-to on downloading shows tomorrow.

Categories: Comics, T.V. | 6 Comments

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6 thoughts on “Superheros For All Viewers

  1. Hiro is my favorite too – but he does have his own comic book – the one the Artist drew. Did you know they have an online graphic novel going on at NBC.com concurrent with the show? And a quiz to see if you’re a Hero… I was Nathan Petrelli – “da frying-man” 😛

  2. I just want to see him get that sword. Future Hiro kicked ass. I can’t wait to see how he gets to that place.

  3. Did you just love Hiro’s face, when he saw his dad 😛 Okay, so I’m not understanding the whole Nikki/Jessica thing – how’s that a “talent”…. and it’s not MPD, she’s like being POSSESSED by her dead sis. Yeah, I want Hiro to become a ninja. “I am a very special person, let unspecial Ando go!” Any idea why the “invisible man” looks so familiar? And OMG when Sylar went, “How’s Claire” and they ended it. ARGH, a week is too long between episodes.

  4. Bruce Banner went through the exact same thing. Doc Samson figured out that the gray hulk was his superego and the green hulk was his id. He would also argue with each of his personalities. Bruce split after all the abuse from his father, and after he remembered that he caused his father’s death. Samson brought in the Ringmaster go hypnotize Bruce, and he was able to merge all three personalities. After that Bruce always looked like the Hulk, but he retained his personality and his intellect. I’m waiting for the same thing to happen to Nikki. They’ve already started hinting at it.

    They made the classical blunder of hubris with Sylar. They thought they could contain him. A true hero would have just killed that crazed fucker the moment he hit the ground. You don’t jack around with a guy like that.

  5. “So say we all” re:Sylar.

    Cool, I didn’t know that about Hulk/Banner. Yeah, they were sort of hinting at it with the shrink lady talking about integrating the personas. How cool, btw, would it be to have a child who could hack ATMs. Project Baby would have to get under way pronto!

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