stop saying "explode," you're killing me!
Dec. 14th, 2007 02:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thehefnerSo Mom and I just finished the first season of HEROES. God, what a gloriously, magnificently horrible show.
This show has almost zero sense of irony. Everything is so serious and earnest, that when bad actors spout lines like the following, with dead-serious Oscar-baiting brooding intensity:
"Yes, as long as I let this city become a nuclear wasteland." (stands up, turns, and looks out the window) And let my brother explode."
Look, every single time someone said "explode" with a straight face, it was comedy gold. It's hard to imagine Daniel Day-Lewis making that writing work, and they're saddling dialogue like that on that cast... but that single line, complete with the dramatic pause and the cliched "turn and look out the window"... Mom and I were hyperventilating with laughter.
Seriously, this shit was straight out of GARTH MARENGHI'S DARKPLACE*: "I have never exploded. But I know what it would be like. Don't ask me how. I just know. I've always just known." "Now I don't know whether someone close to Garth had exploded - whether it was a colleague or a pet - but you could tell that scene meant a lot to him. There were tears on set. Not from Garth. He was strong for the crew. But I wept. I'm not ashamed of that."
CHUD.com observed that great bad b-movies just don't exist anymore, because all b-movies know that they're B-movies, so try as they might, the tongue is always in cheek. But HEROES takes itself so utterly seriously that it's completely oblivious to how terribly written and acted it so often is, and combined with the actual quality elements of the show, the result is something that's magnificently compelling and entertaining.
I'm afraid to watch season two, though, as I understand it goes from "wonderfully bad" to "just plain bad." I think I'd be better off finally watching DEADWOOD, LOST, and BATTLESTAR GALACTACA.
*God, how I love DARKPLACE. Why are there only six episodes?! WHY? As Ridgaway put it, "Hefner, I cannot believe you haven't made this show already."
This show has almost zero sense of irony. Everything is so serious and earnest, that when bad actors spout lines like the following, with dead-serious Oscar-baiting brooding intensity:
"Yes, as long as I let this city become a nuclear wasteland." (stands up, turns, and looks out the window) And let my brother explode."
Look, every single time someone said "explode" with a straight face, it was comedy gold. It's hard to imagine Daniel Day-Lewis making that writing work, and they're saddling dialogue like that on that cast... but that single line, complete with the dramatic pause and the cliched "turn and look out the window"... Mom and I were hyperventilating with laughter.
Seriously, this shit was straight out of GARTH MARENGHI'S DARKPLACE*: "I have never exploded. But I know what it would be like. Don't ask me how. I just know. I've always just known." "Now I don't know whether someone close to Garth had exploded - whether it was a colleague or a pet - but you could tell that scene meant a lot to him. There were tears on set. Not from Garth. He was strong for the crew. But I wept. I'm not ashamed of that."
CHUD.com observed that great bad b-movies just don't exist anymore, because all b-movies know that they're B-movies, so try as they might, the tongue is always in cheek. But HEROES takes itself so utterly seriously that it's completely oblivious to how terribly written and acted it so often is, and combined with the actual quality elements of the show, the result is something that's magnificently compelling and entertaining.
I'm afraid to watch season two, though, as I understand it goes from "wonderfully bad" to "just plain bad." I think I'd be better off finally watching DEADWOOD, LOST, and BATTLESTAR GALACTACA.
*God, how I love DARKPLACE. Why are there only six episodes?! WHY? As Ridgaway put it, "Hefner, I cannot believe you haven't made this show already."
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yes, watch LOST, please watch LOST, you can come over to my place and watch it ...
Date: 2007-12-14 08:05 pm (UTC)Still the best. I rewatched the entire third season to make sure, and — yes — still the best. Heroes just doesn't have its mythic grandeur. People are reaching for the stars here. And maybe beyond. Really, there's never been anything like it."
Season One of Heroes was trying to emulate LOST and never got over it's bad writing, bad acting, and (as you said) lack of irony to get there. Season Two (so far) doesn't even try ....
Re: yes, watch LOST, please watch LOST, you can come over to my place and watch it ...
Date: 2007-12-14 08:20 pm (UTC)But yes. Yes, I will absolutely watch LOST. Also, I need to see THE WIRE and THE SHIELD, as I hear those are downright fantastic.
Re: yes, watch LOST, please watch LOST, you can come over to my place and watch it ...
Date: 2007-12-14 08:23 pm (UTC)And yeah, I know Stephen King is a bit of a crazy old geezer, but he's onto something with his appreciation for LOST. I'll just let you watch it :)