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It saddens me that this entire site is so quiet, so I am going to post a long discussion of Heroes as a means of conveying values I consider to be positive.
When I first heard about Heroes, it was because George Takei had been cast in it. I run a fansite, as I've said, and I keep tabs on what he's doing in case it's worth posting about. So I read a bit about the show, specifically Hiro's fannishness and his dad's character (spoiled some parts for me, actually.) I didn't really take much interest because I don't have a TV and can't watch his guest appearances.
The second time, I think, was when Fandom_Wank over on JF covered the apparent controversy of Zach's sexual orientation (the character, not the actor.) I recall being amused; that's kind of all.
The third time was ( possible season 2 spoiler I guess? ) and at that point I was vaguely interested because between the icons I kept seeing around and the updates I kept getting about George Takei, I was getting an idea that it was possibly a somewhat geekily cool show.
Then I found out that the show's online and watched season 1 in about a week. A lot of it scared me witless (I'm easily freaked out) and I didn't like many of the characters at first, but I kept at it because I needed to know what happened and I liked Hiro and Ando. Then at some point I stopped minding being freaked out (still freaked out, just didn't dislike the sensation so much) and started to appreciate the writing, the direction, even the characters I hadn't liked at first. Then I got hooked, and here I am.
Yesterday, having finished my summer Spanish class (I'm a college student, incidentally, not a failing highschooler) I decided to celebrate by re-watching some Heroes, and asked my sister what she thought I should watch again. I thoroughly spoiled things for her, so she knew most of what happened, and actually watched bits with me (Hiro and Ando, and one bit of violence against her least favorite character) but was too freaked out by the blood to want to watch the thing, so I was really surprised when she asked me if I'd start from where she left off and go through it with her. I agreed, naturally, with a bit of fist-pumping over my success at converting her (she's on episode 7 now and appears to be really enjoying it) and sat down to watch, and it really hit me for the first time: Heroes is like a modern Star Trek.
Okay, for people who aren't Trekkies, Star Trek was a groundbreaker. It had television's first African-American woman in a non-stereotypical role (later the first African-American woman to put her handprint on the Hollywood walk of fame,) television's first interracial kiss, a Russian during the Cold War who was just treated as a person, and an Asian-American during the Vietnam war who was, yes, just a person. It used allegory to talk about the problems facing the US and the world at that time -- from racism to war to overpopulation -- and did so pretty effectively. Now, I'm not saying Heroes is quite so revolutionary -- with TV being what it is now, it would be hard to be -- but it's got one very major thing in common with the original Trek: it attacks stereotypes and cultural norms. I will list examples, cut to avoid spoiling anything for anyone who's not watched all of the show.
( Here Be Character Descriptions and Plotlines )
P. S. Thought this might be appreciated here: I was looking at the Heroes Wiki and came across the article and theories about... waffles. I kind of love this fandom right now.
When I first heard about Heroes, it was because George Takei had been cast in it. I run a fansite, as I've said, and I keep tabs on what he's doing in case it's worth posting about. So I read a bit about the show, specifically Hiro's fannishness and his dad's character (spoiled some parts for me, actually.) I didn't really take much interest because I don't have a TV and can't watch his guest appearances.
The second time, I think, was when Fandom_Wank over on JF covered the apparent controversy of Zach's sexual orientation (the character, not the actor.) I recall being amused; that's kind of all.
The third time was ( possible season 2 spoiler I guess? ) and at that point I was vaguely interested because between the icons I kept seeing around and the updates I kept getting about George Takei, I was getting an idea that it was possibly a somewhat geekily cool show.
Then I found out that the show's online and watched season 1 in about a week. A lot of it scared me witless (I'm easily freaked out) and I didn't like many of the characters at first, but I kept at it because I needed to know what happened and I liked Hiro and Ando. Then at some point I stopped minding being freaked out (still freaked out, just didn't dislike the sensation so much) and started to appreciate the writing, the direction, even the characters I hadn't liked at first. Then I got hooked, and here I am.
Yesterday, having finished my summer Spanish class (I'm a college student, incidentally, not a failing highschooler) I decided to celebrate by re-watching some Heroes, and asked my sister what she thought I should watch again. I thoroughly spoiled things for her, so she knew most of what happened, and actually watched bits with me (Hiro and Ando, and one bit of violence against her least favorite character) but was too freaked out by the blood to want to watch the thing, so I was really surprised when she asked me if I'd start from where she left off and go through it with her. I agreed, naturally, with a bit of fist-pumping over my success at converting her (she's on episode 7 now and appears to be really enjoying it) and sat down to watch, and it really hit me for the first time: Heroes is like a modern Star Trek.
Okay, for people who aren't Trekkies, Star Trek was a groundbreaker. It had television's first African-American woman in a non-stereotypical role (later the first African-American woman to put her handprint on the Hollywood walk of fame,) television's first interracial kiss, a Russian during the Cold War who was just treated as a person, and an Asian-American during the Vietnam war who was, yes, just a person. It used allegory to talk about the problems facing the US and the world at that time -- from racism to war to overpopulation -- and did so pretty effectively. Now, I'm not saying Heroes is quite so revolutionary -- with TV being what it is now, it would be hard to be -- but it's got one very major thing in common with the original Trek: it attacks stereotypes and cultural norms. I will list examples, cut to avoid spoiling anything for anyone who's not watched all of the show.
( Here Be Character Descriptions and Plotlines )
P. S. Thought this might be appreciated here: I was looking at the Heroes Wiki and came across the article and theories about... waffles. I kind of love this fandom right now.