Heroes is the new series from the US that the BBC has bought for a controversial £400,000 an episode. Now I have a weakness for Mars Bar ice creams, and I often consume them while watching TV. But having finished one, I soon need another.
Heroes is a bit like getting hold of another Mars Bar ice cream. It’s the same sort of drama series that is great fun while the concept lasts but when it’s been played out as far as it can go, we just want another one. Having seen the many seasons of Spooks, CSI, West Wing and 24 and so on, there is definitely a market for more of the same. Heroes is like watching a film with loads of half famous actors where you spend your time wondering where you’ve seen all the bits before. It’s not hard to identify the components. Coming on the back of the Marvel Comic resurgence of the last decade, Heroes seems to be a kind of X-Men fantasy tale topped with a huge dollop of the type of sinister fate and destiny type stuff that J.J. Abrams (creator of Lost and Alias) is so enamoured by. It’s not new either; think John Wyndham’s Chrysalids and mix it together with Thomas Hardy’s Mayor of Casterbridge to get an equally strong ‘fate and spooky talents’ fusion!
Strange abilities
Having got over the ‘here we go again’ factor and digging a bit deeper into the Heroes concept, we find quite an entertaining show to get our teeth stuck into. I’ll try not to spoil it for those who are waiting to buy the box set, but the general premise at the start of Season One is that several individuals, living ordinary lives, are discovering that they have strange abilities. One can fly, another can heal themselves, then there’s one who can paint pictures of the future, another who can travel through space and time and yet another who can read minds. There’s even one who seems to absorb the special abilities of whoever is around him and replicate them.
