Let's talk about Heroes for a minute:
I didn't like Heroes when it first started. The first episode was awful, and I didn't really stick with it after that. I caught the next three episode weeks later in one lump sum when NBC aired them back to back one night. I could see the series improving, and I ventured to watch it weekly after that and only lasted another two episodes before life decided to actually do something with itself. The buzz hit and the hype followed, and soon Heroes was the it show. That made me want to watch it even less, and I told myself (and the wife) that I'd wait for DVD. Even then, when the DVD hit, I had it pre-ordered on Amazon, only to cancel it before it shipped. I just didn't want it. Aden got a copy of the first season for a birthday present and reluctantly we both watched it, enjoying it enough to consume it in five days, ending the day before the second season began.
But this second season, well, it's not very good. It's not that it's horrible (although, featured on the cover of Soap Opera Digest, I understand it owes as much to it's afternoon television counterparts as it does to its monthly periodical inspiration), but it's also not engaging me like the first season did. And I realize why that is.
Heroes is an ensemble show, with about one to two dozen feature characters, each vying for screen time but only a few getting it every episode. When watching three or four episodes in one sitting, one gets a greater sense of each character's story arc, and a more fulfilling viewing experience, even if nothing is really resolved (like monthly comic books).
People like to compare it to Lost, mainly because they're both genre shows, with a large international cast, but Lost manages to engage the viewer differently, primarily as a result of structure. Each episode of Lost spotlights one or two characters via flashback, while the "mythology" of the show is carried forth by the "meanwhile, on the island" scenarios. The flashbacks provide a complete story for that episode, even if it is just another small part of the big picture, and there's something rewarding about that. Of course, almost each episode of Lost also contains a cliffhanger ending that implores you to return. Heroes on the other hand operates on the ongoing soap-operatic principal of continuing story. While there are cliffhangers of sorts, they're more dangling plot threads that are picked up and let go from week to week, only fully visible when watched in a cluster.
So I think I'm going to give up watching Heroes weekly, even though I won't be able to purchase Season 2 on DVD myself until 2009, I'm willing to wait, afterall, I'm as invested in it as I ever was, which is to say not very much. I suspect there are others like me, only without the time to ruminate on it like I have, and will instead just drop the show altogether. I see Heroes' ratings dropping this year and by mid-season 3, the show being cancelled or told to wrap it up.
That leaves Monday pretty much free now
Which is almost too bad, because the second episode of Journeyman has me quite liking the show now. Okay, the same thing with the second episode bothered me about the first episode, in that the lead character adjusts way too easily to his time jumping, and the "random encounters" with the people whose lives he's tracking are accepted way too easily. To be honest, I could do without even knowing what he's doing when he's time travelling. What's more interesting is what he's left behind, as his wife has to deal with sudden disappearances and his career is in jeopardy and his life, overall, is just weirdly affected (is this the plot of "The Time Traveller's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger? Journeyman might be seriously impeding on the success of the upcoming Eric Bana/Rachel McAdams adaptation, currently shooting in Toronto). That's much more interesting than these cute little "saving people"/Quantum Leap-light stories.
Let's talk about Tuesday
Kids In The Hall alum Bruce McCulloch debuted his new show, Carpoolers last night. The show is a strange mix of typical sit-com, smarter sit-com, and mid-level Hollywood comedy. The first 15 minutes of the first episode felt not too dissimilar to the opening of Office Space in many respects, the visual feel somewhat cinematic and the overall sensibility that we were in for a longer-than-1/2-hour-sitcom ride.
Via the new guy Doug (Tim Peper), the four "carpoolers", Aubrey (Jerry Minor), Laird (Jerry O'Connell) and Gracen (Fred Goss) are introduced, mainly via distinguishing characteristics. Aubrey is nebbish, Gracen is neurotic, Laird the morally misaligned one, and Doug, well he's the new guy. The show is availed the possibility of exploring both the professional and personal lives of each of these characters (Gracen takes the focus here as he begins to worry that his "house flipping" wife is now making more money than him, just as his dim, Napoleon Dynamite-esque son - aptly named Marmaduke - gets a higher paying job), while also having the surprisingly rarely-mined comedy of commuting to punch up the show with.
The sit-com elements stand out awkwardly, in some respects a parody of sit-com like That's My Bush or Get A Life, and other times falling into sit-com tropes. The more bizarre touch, like the nemesis carpoolers they face off against for parking spots or the general characterization of the leads, are the strength of the show, and if they can exploit that a bit more to create a vibe similar to The Office or Curb Your Enthusiasm then it'll be a solid TV comedy.
As a long-time Kids In The Hall fan, I can see tangibly the hand of Bruce McCulloch in the comedy and the characters. The two Jerry's playing Aubrey and Laird are each playing key McCulloch characters. O'Connell has obviously been taking a lot of direction from McCulloch in his performance of Laird as he's so similar in mannerisms and delivery to many of Bruce's confident, borderline egotistical butchest of butch sketch-com figures. Minor's Aubrey is the flip-side of that coin, playing the fragile and peculiar types of McCulloch's stock... Gavin all grown up, or a variation of the "my pen" guy. These two, with their McCulloch impersonations into, amuse me in ways completely unintended I'm sure.
I'm not likely going to watch this every week, but I'll definitely catch it when it's on. It's not freshly inventive but it's not regurgitating other shows either.