Ignoring what was probably sound advice from the uber-webmeister, and more from her who lives in the land where I bet there are real insects, I decided to go ahead and stomp on the wasps’ nest.
What a star. What a….hero.
Lovely little segue there, see what I did?
Last night, I watched some idiot-box light and sound entertainment. Heroes, which everyone is banging on about right now, and have been for a while. As there are some who have seen it all already. Some are way ahead. Me, I have scummer TV, so I recorded it last week (as I was HAVING A LIFE while it was being broadcast on BBC2.) Now, some others say that taking the first few episodes, it could have gone either way, but luckily chose the right path. I can see that, but here are my thoughts on it all.
What a pile of boring rubbish. This is the best thing on the television in the past decade? Makes me doubly convinced of my choice to cut down on my viewing time then. Boring, plodding, unengaging, uninteresting. See, trying to do X-Men (again) in a woo, dark way should work. (Then again, how did they manage to toast the bigger screen, bigger idiot versions of X-Men?) (I also noted that Jeph Loeb was on the production credits, and I still have fond memories of the ‘Age of Apocalypse’ arc. You know the one, evil Prof Xavier and all.) Even Cassandra thought it dull. But then again, I wouldn’t have expected her to like it, unless it was a cut above the usual television sci-fi dross.
If I wasn’t told it gets better (and I am willing to believe this, sort of) I wouldn’t watch the next episode. Oh gno3s!!!onesoneseleventyhundredandeleven I am missing a cultural event! sigh Listen, if I cared about that, I would have seen all those other films I am supposed to have seen. (FYI: A quick list of flicks I have never seen: Gladiator, Titanic, Braveheart, yadayadayad.) I don’t care. I will watch a few more episodes to see if Heroes picks up.
All the usual telly tricks were there, the usual soft-focus, not-even-soft-pr0n-to-hold-the-geeks, but without the curves and attitude. All the usual story line threads were there, the on-the-run-from-the-mob, the evil bespectacled Trask-alike who knows about it all, the junkie, the yakyakyakkityyak.
Oh, wait, if I am so clever, why do I do better? Grrrr. If I have to explain the difference between critic and artist one more time, Mr Two-by-Four will be making another outing. No. Heroes, so far, sucks. Yawn inducing tedium.
So again, I am one step sideways. And again, I don’t really care.
I thought I mentioned to you how I barely made it past the first few episodes? In fact, I stopped around the fifth episode and didn’t watch any more for three or four months… but people were yammering about how it got better, yadda yadda, and I gave it a second chance. I’m not sure I’m convinced that it deserves the whole ‘cultural phenomenon’ tag, as it’s one of those things I feel where you’re better off coming to it with no expectations. But I’m glad I perservered.
I wrote off Buffy for years based on a shonky episode hailing from the first season I happened to catch half of.
There’s a point buried in there somewhere, although I’m not quite sure what it is.
1
chris
Sun 05 Aug, 1:27PM
‘The Wire’ is the best thing on TV in the last whenever, how many times do I have to say this?
2
beowulf
Sun 05 Aug, 5:31PM
Ah, the joys of Photoshop (or GIMP, or …)
personally, I can’t be doing with this new 24 / Lost / etc.. genre of TV. Bring back Shoestring, says I. Oh .. they did: it’s Waking the Dead. Unmissable.
3
Raymond Lesley
Mon 06 Aug, 3:42PM
I’ve armanded “The Wire” for my own good. There’s just too much to catch up on now…
4
chris
Mon 06 Aug, 11:00PM