Showbits

In the course of the last six days, I watched all 23 episodes composing the first season of Heroes. It was a perfect application of the DVD medium: uninterrupted, commercial-free broadcast of a continuous narrative with no waiting. It was difficult for me to ever turn the television off, as the story never disengaged its audience long enough to warrant such a break.

It's true that perhaps this series about ordinary people who discover they can do extraordinary things may be unoriginal; in comic book format, we've see similar powers in the X-Men, and on television, it's been done by The 4400. I'm not familiar enough with those efforts to say how Heroes stacks up, but I definitely enjoyed this particular take. I appreciated that it was set in a modern, everyday world, free of aliens and mysticism, while still incorporating the staples of science fiction, such as genetics, time travel, and samurai.

Having engorged myself on a half-year of story in less than a week, it's almost dizzying all the details and character development I've witnessed. (I usually hate it when bad guys turn good, as it leaves me with undirected angst — but they handled this one well.) Though I didn't find the depth and breadth hard to follow, I did think it unlikely that all these disparate threads would weave together. I'm willing to chalk it up to the "destiny" they were always talking about — even if all the secrets and misunderstandings between the characters sometimes made it seem like a soap opera.

There were so many characters that I felt their specialness was diminished by the frequency with which they met people like them; what are the odds that everyone in the Petrelli and Sanders families would empowered? (Must be genetic.) Yet I'll contradict myself by saying Mohinder was the least interesting character. Except as "guardian of the list", I don't feel he played a very important role in bringing the characters together or providing them with vital information. Though an interesting person, he was, in more ways than one, underpowered.

The tapestry of which he was a part was a rich one, and anyone looking to further explore its mythos need not look far. Many of the show's key people and places have their own Web sites, most notably Hiro's father documenting the legend of Tazeko Kensei. NBC has also produced nearly five dozen short comic books detailing the background and side events of the show, available for download as free PDFs. (Or pick them up as a single $30 hardcover this November 7th) I'll be consuming these shortly, as it probably won't be until this time next August that I'll get to watch season 2. That gives me a full year to contemplate the many questions with which the final episode left me:

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Just a brief post to report I finally saw the first two episodes of Heroes last night. My first thoughts: OMG!!

I watch a lot of first episodes (Deadwood, Angel, Joan of Arcadia), just to get the feel for a series before dismissing it. Not the case here — nothing has ever hooked me like Heroes. I had actually seen the pilot on NBC.com back in January, so what I watched last night were the unaired pilot and deleted scenes; a fast-forward review of the actual pilot; and the second episode. It's fascinating to see all the different threads, both actual and deleted, all at this point unresolved. The characters and powers, and the reactions of former to latter, are intricate and diverse, and I can't wait to see what happens next. I almost wish I'd waited until tonight, so that I could stay up late and watch more! Fortunately, I can still do that. No spoilers, please!

See also:

• Heroes for One Season
• What Makes Heroes Tick?
• Heroes pilot episode online

Time travel is a fascinating concept that is bafflingly unpopular at the box office. With the exception of Back to the Future, few films that dabble in this science fiction staple have become household names — and those that do, such as The Lakehouse and Click, owe their recognition more to the stars than the plots.

Yet even Sean "Hobbit" Astin couldn't elevate Slipstream out of obscurity. But before I review this film, I'd like to rewind the clock and examine its ancestry of other little-known time travel films: Time After Time, Time Changer, Timestalkers, Out of Time, and Happy Accidents.

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Mystery Science Theater 3000, the television series that for ten years lampooned terrible B-films, will see its twelfth DVD collection released this October, reports TVShowsOnDVD.com.

Since I was a latecomer to the series, the three Comedy Central-era episodes in this set are unknown to me. More appealing is the inclusion of episode 811. When I was taking a college course on bioethics that steered one day toward cloning, I offered to lend the professor a film about cloning. I didn't warn him it was the MST3K version of Parts: The Clonus Horror. My thoughtfulness was acknowledged the next day when I was late to class and Prof. Shannon stopped his lecture to address my classmates: "I would like to thank Mr. Gagne for lending me what is very possibly the worst film I have ever seen."

Years later, when I first read the plot description for the 2005 film The Island, I was sure it was a remake of Clonus (which is a pretty bad idea for a movie; shouldn't you rip off the greats, not the awfuls?). A few months later, I wasn't the only one to think so: the producer of Clonus (interviewed for a bonus feature on the above DVD set) filed a lawsuit against The Island's producers, claiming copyright infringement. The case was settled out-of-court a year later for a seven-figure sum.

I'd ask for a RiffTrax version of The Island — but that would just seem redundant.

Speaking of top films lists, Entertainment Weekly has published, in preparation for Transformers: The Movie, "our 10 favorite mechanical men (and fembots) in movie history". The list honors good guys such as the Iron Giant (a hero after my own Superman-inspired heart, and the subject of scrutiny in the film studies course I taught), Data, and R2-D2 and C-3PO (who I'd never consciously realized to be an Odd Couple) — but also appropriately celebrates the persistent destruction wrought by darker cyborgs, Robocop and the Terminator (the latter described as "an all-purpose golem").

These two futuristic deathbringers represent possibly my favorite action films ever: the original Robocop film and the second Terminator. The former is a haunting tale of a man robbed of his family, his memory, even his emotions — everything but his career. He uses that sole connection to give his life purpose and, eventually, his audience a TV series that I actually enjoyed. The latter is a villain sent from the future to alter the past… but for better, or for worse? Plot twists, character dynamics (especially the humanity of the Terminator and lack of same in Sarah Connor), and awesome action sequences make this a film that's more than meets the eye.

Too bad these two robotic icons never encountered each other… or did they?!

I haven't posted a video in awhile, so to kick off the weekend, return with now me to 1993 and the debut of the "Got Milk?" ad campaign with this hilarious, award-winning commercial:

Next Friday will mark the end of an era: after 35 years, Bob Barker is stepping down as host of The Price Is Right.

It's an event I can't help but commemorate. When most kids might've been outside playing stickball, I grew up inside watching game shows, sitcoms, and soap operas. Here, I was exposed to language before I was taught its meaning: I thought the host was saying, "All this could be yours if The Price Is Right", when what he meant was, "All this could be yours if the price is right." A subtle difference… My sense of time, too, was distorted (as it probably is for all children) when I turned on the show one day and found Mr. Barker's hair had gone white! Had it been so long since I'd last seen him that he'd aged so much??

The high point of my affair with TPIR occurred in late June of 1998, when my youngest brother and I were in the show's studio audience. So many myths and misconceptions were dispelled that day: the stage and studio are small (the camera really does make things look bigger!); Bob Barker is really sexist — the things he said to the female contestants during commercial breaks were shockingly rude (and, admittedly, rather funny); and the late Rod Roddy did great standup before the filming started. Sadly, I was never told to "come on down!", probably because one of the showcase showdown prizes was a trip to Boston, which would not prove a very exotic award for someone living an hour west of there. But my brother and I did get shot high-fiving each other as the camera panned the audience before cutting to a commercial.

Despite all that, I don't feel as sad about Mr. Barker's departure as I did when Johnny Carson left The Tonight Show. Both Mr. Barker and Mr. Carson were not the first hosts of their shows and neither were they the last. But I think the format and style of TPIR has been and will be more consistent than the unique personality with which Mr. Carson invested The Tonight Show.

Still, it's a significant milestone in daytime television, and I hope it's been a fulfilling career for Mr. Barker. If you want to share your sentiments with him and other fans and hear what they have to say, visit the CBS video site "15 Seconds".

[Bonus: check out Crystal Waters' hit single, "Come On Down"]

I've never seen either Family Guy or American Dad! (or most any other show in the eight years since I cancelled my television service), but even I marvel at the sheer genius and execution of this crossover promotion:

American Dad! vs. Family Guy Kung Fu II Turbo! Hyper-Mega Edition

Check out this 1- or 2-player, Street Fighter-style, Flash-based fighting game. Wild!

(As a side note: can anyone identify what remix version of Carl Douglas' song is playing in the background of this game's title screen?)