Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

Something happened on Monday, September 25, 2006. It made a big entrance. Nobody saw it coming. What was it?

'Heroes'.

NBC had aired the pilot episode of the new TV series, 'Heroes'. Though I will let you in onto a secret, I already had watched the pilot prior to the airing. I managed to get my hands on a pre-air screener copy of the episode. 'Heroes' is a cross between 'X-Men' and 'Unbreakable', only without the costumes. At least that's the impression I got. It also has a touch of 'The 4400'. People in this show aren't highly skilled in using their special abilities; they just had discovered it.

When I first heard about the show, I was deeply skeptical that it was going to be an interesting series. I was glad to be wrong; the show is absolutely fantastic. I don't remember TV being this good in many years. I was complaining a few years ago that there were absolutely nothing worth watching on the TV and that the good shows were being taken off the air. 'Firefly' anybody?

• 24
• The 4400
• Battlestar Galactica
• CSI: Las Vegas
• CSI: New York
• Curb Your Enthusiasm
• Grey's Anatomy
• Jericho
• Lost, My Name is Earl
• The Office
  
• Prison Break
• The Sopranos
  
• Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
• Supernatural
  
• Veronica Mars

The list just goes on and on. A few years ago, I would have no problem saying that I prefer movies to the television series. Television was a poor cousin to the movies, but now that's changing. In fact, I've watched more episodes than I have watched movies this year. Especially when there's a great deal of poorly made movies being pumped out of Hollywood more than ever these days. Not only to mention the remakes, which I am getting sick of. Where's the originality? I sought for originality; the best chance you'll find originality in is the independent movies and the TV. I also believe that it's more expensive to finance a TV series nowadays. Not as many people watch a channel at once as they used to, there's hundreds of TV channels and when I was a kid, there were dozens of channels instead of hundreds. In my father's childhood, most TV antennas were able to reach only a few channels at the most. The world has changed a lot since then.

'Heroes' is the best new series this fall; at least it is in my opinion. In fact, this show's audience has been expanding ever since the first episode aired. Any TV executive would kill to make that happen. It's not common for an audience to expand significantly as they air the episode on a weekly basis. In fact, they are rerunning the episodes on the Sci-Fi channel. 'Heroes' has an ensemble cast, a very good one. Nobody's the same; all characters with special abilities are different and not so two-dimensional. I read that a writer is assigned to write one character's scenes and then mix them together through the rewriting process. I wish they would do this with other shows. The TV show, 'Lost' has been declining in quality. Perhaps they should follow the method used by the writers of 'Heroes'.

My personal favourite character would have to be Hiro Nakamura, a Japanese fella, and a close second is Claire Bennett. Hira who can bend time and space is a pretty interesting fella and I suspect we will see him becoming more of a serious character with some scars to bear. After all, we were given a glimpse of his character from the future. That's a clue. The great thing about this show would have to be the clues. Most of them are subtle and well hidden. The average viewer is likely to miss most of these clues, I paid attention to the show and I've spotted quite a lot of them. In the pilot episode, there's even a hint of what Hira may face soon, just take a look at the computer monitor in Hira's cubicle at his workplace. I believe most people missed this subtle clue, as it hasn't been brought up in any discussions I've had. There's also this particular symbol that keep showing up in some episodes. I don't want to spoil it for everybody; I'm just sharing a few details without severely spoiling it.

Claire, a beautiful young teenager and a cheerleader is a significant character. Her special ability is similar to X-Men's Wolverine. She is capable of healing her wounds and broken bones instantly. As you can see, the title of this blog entry is in relation to this particular character. Like I said, I cannot spoil the show for the non-viewers. I highly recommend this show and you can find out what the fuss is all about.

Before some of you accuse this show of being a rip-off of the X-Men, I have to defend the show by saying that it takes some elements from a variety of well-known franchises and made it their own. It is refreshingly fantastic, and I applaud them for successfully pulling it off. I know what I'm about to say is a cliché but I do believe it actually will make an interesting addition to the show, how about a deaf character with a special ability?

Remember to tune in at 9PM/8PM Central every Monday on NBC to watch 'Heroes'.