"Heroes" (the new television series)

[DBN]

Super hero not in costume on TV? It's called "Smallville"

I can see the "not in costume" part, but you've completely lost me with the "super hero" bit.

Oh, don't you start! You're getting as bad as Super Monkey.

Doesn't the Smallville writing staff consist of a monkey, darts, and a wall full of "plots" obtained from various other stereotypical teen shows?

[Super Monkey]

I tried to watched the 1st show and was bored to tears! So I stopped.

I can't bare snoresville either.

[Aldous]

Doesn't the Smallville writing staff consist of a monkey, darts, and a wall full of "plots" obtained from various other stereotypical teen shows?

I can't bare snoresville either.

OK -- you guys have succeeded in making me laugh.... And for that, I forgive you. 

[JulianPerez]

I didn't watch SMALLVILLE after the first season, but I found it an interesting ROSWELL replacement (though the lovely Kristin Kreuk alas, is no match for a sexual Tyrannosaurus Rex like Katherine Heigl).

That's the secret to enjoying SMALLVILLE: don't think of it as Superman. Watch it as ROSWELL, but with only one main character.

Frankly, everything about Smallville pointed to as a weakness is really, at least to me, a strength.

I don't mind the absence of traditional Superman elements like flights n' tights. In fact, the fact they're not there makes everything tolerable because if he DID wear a costume, it would be a reminder of how much they tinkered with the Superman concept...instead of what they did, which was create a unique animal.

I also don't mind the overuse of Kryptonite, though I hear - secondhard - that the Kryptonite is no longer everywhere after the first batch of shows. I liked it because...as I've said before...it explains for why so many strange and unusual things happen in what is otherwise a very boring small town. That's my problem with the Superboy concept at its core: he lives in a tiny town. He must be one of the most bored superheroes in history. For Smallville to make sense as it was presented, 75% of the population would have to be diamond smugglers.

I LIKE SMALLVILLE's approach to teen life. When I was a teenager, I was stupid and inarticulate. Just like the kids on this show! I really hate the whole DAWSON'S CREEK or BUFFY school where teens talk like 35 year olds. Not even Bob Heinlein could make that work.

Strangely, DAWSON'S CREEK had less and less cognitive dissonance the more obvious Jason van der Beek's male pattern baldness got. At least he looks the age his character sounds.

[Aldous]

That's the secret to enjoying SMALLVILLE: don't think of it as Superman. Watch it as ROSWELL, but with only one main character.

I always think of it as Superman. To me, it was never anything else. I watched more than one season (up to the third, I think), and, like any show, it will deteriorate the longer it goes on; it starts to repeat itself. But basically I enjoyed the way the show dealt with some elements of Superman that had never been really closely examined before (not in the comics I'd read anyway).

Some things I liked:

Clark being torn in two because he desperately wants to open up to people but he is always forced into actually lying. And that's what young Clark Kent would have to cope with. He finds it painful, he is trying to figure it out, and we see him struggling with this.

The relationship between Clark and Lex, and a genuine sense of tragedy which is building... When things get tense between them, when Clark is forced to tell another lie, and Lex's seemingly good intentions go awry, and more suspicion creeps in, well... You can see that when things eventually go belly-up, it will be hard to pin the blame on one or the other, and that's the tragedy. All those good intentions were not enough. They are who they are, and it all has that feeling of fatalism.

The relationship between Clark and his Dad. Pa Kent in this show is great.

I LIKE SMALLVILLE's approach to teen life.

I do as well, in some ways. Occasionally they capture that sense of hopelessness, that your teenage relationships are turning bad despite good intentions on all sides, and no one can figure it out.

....I was stupid and inarticulate.

You mean you're not anymore?

[Permanus]

I've been watching Heroes over the Internet, and I quite like it, actually, even though the main character annoys the hell out of me for two reasons:

1) I always hate that "I-can-copy-other-people's-powers" power

2) For heaven's sake, get a haircut instead of flicking your fringe out of your eyes all the time

The story is cliched and there's not much one hasn't seen before, but there are some pretty funny scenes in it (the invulnerable girl waking up in the morgue and the Japanese salaryman meeting the flying man raised smiles); it's good stuff.

[Karn-El]

Yep, you can watch all episodes of HEROES online at:

http://www.nbc.com/Video/rewind/full_episodes/heroes_01.shtml

Great show, in my opinion, especially once it gets off the ground after the first couple of episodes.  As for Peter Petrelli getting a haircut, keep watching and you might learn that some wishes do come true.