Emma
11-13-2006, 05:40 PM
<img src="http://www.fanbolt.com/forums/images/avatars/heroes/12.jpg" width="85" height="85" vspace="5" hspace="5" align="right" border="0" alt="Heroes, NBC"> Contrary to clich้, heroes do not always triumph. Sometimes the bad guys win. And on TV, it's usually the mediocre ones.
So it came as a delightful surprise to the critics and to its creators when Heroes very quickly emerged as the season's hottest new show, debuting to the highest ratings (14.3 million) of any NBC drama of the last five years. In Canada, where it also airs on Global, it averages a commensurate 1.2 million.
The show had everything going against it: a serialized drama sandwiched into a season of almost nothing but serialized dramas. A large cast of mostly unknown actors. A complex, convoluted, leisurely unfolding storyline. A heightened reality in which ordinary humans are suddenly able to fly, instantaneously heal, read minds, see the future and wilfully manipulate space and time ...
Without a cape or stitch of Spandex in sight.
And that may be its most super-heroic accomplishment: Genre television for a mass audience, with an appeal well beyond the expected geek contingent, downloading episodes in their parents' basement.
"It's taking that sense of fantasy and combining it with a sense of realism," suggests Milo Ventimiglia, the young actor who plays the pivotal role of Peter Petrelli, whose emergent superpower appears to be channelling the super-powers of others.
"I think when you mix those two things as effectively as the show and the writers have done, you end up with quality television that draws you in, you know, on a weekly basis. It is more rooted in reality than any other superhero show."
Ventimiglia and his TV brother, Adrian Pasdar as senatorial candidate Nathan, the reluctant Hero with the ability to fly are the series' most recognizable actors, Ventimiglia from Gilmore Girls and his upcoming film role in Rocky Balboa, the veteran Pasdar from regular roles on series like Judging Amy and Mysterious Ways.
While others on the show the adorably over-enthused Masi Oka, Ali Larter's schizophrenic stripper have been getting the lion's share of media attention, the Petrelli brothers have been getting much of the initial story focus.
<a href="http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1163371809015&call_pageid=968867495754&col=969483191630" target="_blank">Click here for more!</a>
So it came as a delightful surprise to the critics and to its creators when Heroes very quickly emerged as the season's hottest new show, debuting to the highest ratings (14.3 million) of any NBC drama of the last five years. In Canada, where it also airs on Global, it averages a commensurate 1.2 million.
The show had everything going against it: a serialized drama sandwiched into a season of almost nothing but serialized dramas. A large cast of mostly unknown actors. A complex, convoluted, leisurely unfolding storyline. A heightened reality in which ordinary humans are suddenly able to fly, instantaneously heal, read minds, see the future and wilfully manipulate space and time ...
Without a cape or stitch of Spandex in sight.
And that may be its most super-heroic accomplishment: Genre television for a mass audience, with an appeal well beyond the expected geek contingent, downloading episodes in their parents' basement.
"It's taking that sense of fantasy and combining it with a sense of realism," suggests Milo Ventimiglia, the young actor who plays the pivotal role of Peter Petrelli, whose emergent superpower appears to be channelling the super-powers of others.
"I think when you mix those two things as effectively as the show and the writers have done, you end up with quality television that draws you in, you know, on a weekly basis. It is more rooted in reality than any other superhero show."
Ventimiglia and his TV brother, Adrian Pasdar as senatorial candidate Nathan, the reluctant Hero with the ability to fly are the series' most recognizable actors, Ventimiglia from Gilmore Girls and his upcoming film role in Rocky Balboa, the veteran Pasdar from regular roles on series like Judging Amy and Mysterious Ways.
While others on the show the adorably over-enthused Masi Oka, Ali Larter's schizophrenic stripper have been getting the lion's share of media attention, the Petrelli brothers have been getting much of the initial story focus.
<a href="http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1163371809015&call_pageid=968867495754&col=969483191630" target="_blank">Click here for more!</a>