We Could Be Heroes

[40cakes]

I've been watching so much good sci-fi lately, I'd forgotten how sci-fi can also be shit.

From a Feminist perspective, let's look at our cast of characters. A nurse and his politician brother, a genius genetics professor and his genius father, a tortured artist, a nerdy salaryman, and the big bad evil man from the 1950's. All male characters. Here are our female characters:
A porn star
A cheerleader

Wowee. Well, maybe I'm not fair. I did leave out the cold aloof mother, the mom more attentive to her pets than her children, the redneck friend of the porn star, and the love interest of the nurse AND the tortured artist. How forgetful of me.

In a speech, Joss Whedon once said he writes strong female characters because no one else does. I never really felt what he meant by that until I watched Heroes.

In other news, the writing and characterization was just plain boring. The nurse character feels like a bunch of old men in a room gathered around and said, "Hey that Garden State movie was popular - let's make a character like that." He's a skinny little indie guy whose brother is pressuring him to "get a real job" (because nursing is up there with counter work at McDonald's), and who dreams of flying. Aw shucks.

A genius geneticist from India emigrates to America to continue his research and...become a taxi driver. No, I don't get that either. After his murder, his son comes to Brooklyn to investigate his death and read over his research, to the point of continuing his father's work...including driving a taxi.

A high school cheerleader learns that she is indestructible. We're introduced to her by a scene of her friend videotaping her jumping off a silo, and then her resetting horribly disturbed shoulder and telling the camera, "That was attempt 6." What were attempts 1-5? How did she discover she had advanced healing? Did she try to kill herself in an Evanescence-fueled moment of low self-esteem, which she doesn't seem to have? Why is her friend taping this, at her consent, when she doesn't want anyone to know? WHAT THE FUCK?!

And the porn star. Oh, they made sure we got a good, long look at what she does. And what she does is have a poorly run porn website where she can only cater to one person at a time, doing what must be a very very long striptease at $39.99/20 minutes. No wonder she has to borrow from the mob. Lady, just go be a stripper already. Fuck. She has some sort of Hulk power or something. Between her and Wolverine the Cheerleader, and Salaryman's reference to X-Men 138 and Kitty Pryde, I wonder if this is a tie-in with Marvel, or if Marvel is under the GE family.

The only character I cared about was the damn salaryman. Really. He was a funny, decent character, and you could figure out how he discovered his powers, and the banter between he and his friend was hilarious (nice artistic touch in the subtitling, too!). I'll even pretend they didn't name him "Hiro". (You stupid fucks.)

I promise at least one post today will not be me bitching. Really.

Comments

[brandawg.livejournal.com]

Besides the Japanese guy, who's really just a loser schlub (JUST LIKE COMIC NERDS), the cheerleader was the only story that showed promise because her story moved along with the reveal at the end that her dad was Mr. Government Spook. It's painfully obvious, and this is the problem with all pilots and pretty much why all of them suck with the exception that proving the rule being Lost and 24, that Heroes was just trying to establish characters before any semblance of plot comes together in the third episode.

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

I don't know, my instincts usually are good re: my tastes. I'll give it one more shot, but I could totally do much better things with an hour. Like playing video games or reading comic books or watching old episodes of Buffy or Firefly or Doctor Who or Battlestar Galactica.

[brandawg.livejournal.com]

Pretty much every show gets three episodes for me if it looks initially promising, although it took me two hours to get through the one hour pilot last night because the show never hooked me.

[nothingjerk.livejournal.com]

I see what you are saying about the female characters and how they are abused in scifi, mostly becuase scifi is traditionally a male audience.

Why did the ship's counselor on sttng have to wear a leotard?

Why is it everytime Lana Lang turns evil she dresses like a total slut?

So many used and abused female characters in Scifi Fantasy those were just the first 2 that popped into my head.

i did find the concept of the show and the story interesting enough to get me to comeback next episode. You did forget to mention the junkie's girlfriend.

and perhaps the writer is just a Marvel guy. to some people its like Yankees/Red Sox, Mac/PC and he just writes what he knows.

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

I also forgot to mention that the premise of the series is pretty much a take on X-Men anyway.

It's a chicken and egg thing - are female characters objectified because sci-fi is a male audience or is sci-fi a male audience because the females are objectified? Nonetheless, I don't think you should automatically discount and abuse an entire section of the population because you don't think they'll tune in anyway.

[cheekybaby.livejournal.com]

I fuckin' love you. That was fantastic, and I am suitably chagrined for not having thought of at least SOME of that. :)

Though, I do agree on the subtitles. Loved that.

And the only part I can offer explanation on is POSSIBLY the cheerleader. I assume that we'll find out more on how everything originated, including attempts 1-5, as the show progresses. :)

And I wondered if people really IM for payment on porn sites... Maybe if they're THAT badly run...

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

I assume as much too, re: Cheerleader Wolverine, but she didn't strike me as interesting enough to care. I can sit through terribly stupid stories and origins and plot holes if the people are funny and interesting.

[cheekybaby.livejournal.com]

But... but... she was in the third Bring it On! That shit was deep, yo.

[phanatic.livejournal.com]

In a speech, Joss Whedon once said he writes strong female characters because no one else does.

Kaylee and Inara demonstrate that his conception of "strong female character" is horrifically skewed.

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

How so? Kaylee was smart and funny and Inara was a prostitute, but she was stubborn and firm in her beliefs.

[pyrobovaphiliac.livejournal.com]

I'm entirely unfamiliar with this show, and it seems I'm not missing much.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

I like that the cheerleader seems not to be typical popular blonde bitch (so far) and I don't care if he's a stereotype, Mr. Otaku charmed me. :D As for plot...I'll watch another few episodes and see.

But you should've mentioned this stuff while we watched! zomg bitch I luff to dissect shows.

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

U WER PLAYING TETRIS AND CHATTING U DONT' CARE ABOUT MY PAIN!!!!11111

I didn't know if you were enjoying the show or not, and I didn't want to be the Debbie Downer if you were. I already do that what with the "I HATE SOUL SOCIETY ARC!!" :)

I love Mr. Otaku too! He should get his own show. I wonder how he'll communicate with the other characters, what with being Japanese and all.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

XD I was enjoying it, but I also recognize the difference between "enjoyable" and "good." ;) And god knows I can never have enough of poking at pop culture.

...wait, if you HATED it, what made you sit through 63 episodes? XD