stop saying "explode," you're killing me!

[thehefner]

So 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."

Comments

[holli.livejournal.com]

I decided that what Heroes really needs is some Silver Age wacky shit. Nothing would amuse me more than the characters continuing to angst and squabble and try to bring down the Company while a giant robot rampages by in the background.

Also: Claire is Season One Buffy. Discuss.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. Absolutely.

Someone wrote a wonderful summation of all that was bad and wonderful about the Silver Age, and what needs to be embraced. I should post that here.

Also, 'fraid I can't discuss, I didn't watch BUFFY till "Fool For Love" and the musical episode, and even then, I only very grudgingly watched it for my love of Spike, and even then only because he was basically John Constantine, only more prone to outright evil.

[fragmentedsky.livejournal.com]

Whoa and wait a minute here. You watch for Spike and you watch the later seasons? There is no logic there. The earlier the eviler with Spike. He shows up in season 2 and spends most of it baiting Angel (in both good and evil form) for being a melodramatic twit.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm a sucker for the whole "villains teaming up with the heroes and slowly gaining redemption" stories. See also Harvey Dent and Parallax. Not when they're just evil period, so I'd have less interest in season 2 Spike anyway.

[fragmentedsky.livejournal.com]

Well, they do team up in Becoming II, although less for redemption and more for...[goes to find quote] "I lost a friend tonight! And I may lose more! The whole earth may be sucked into Hell and you want my help 'cause your girlfriend's a big ho?"

I'm a sucker for redemption too, but Spike is still Spike, early on. Less evil ambition, more posture and wit.