Ray Tate:
Jason Brice:
Jason Brice: hey chief
Ray Tate: Hola, Jason, what's up?
Ray Tate: Or rather, what did I do now :D
Jason Brice: just about to update
Jason Brice: nothing you need to be worried about. thank you for the reviews every week. :-)
Ray Tate: No sweat. You're getting some real oddities from me this week.
Jason Brice: oh?
Ray Tate: Yes, I raided the fifty percent off box.
Ray Tate: The only DC comic book I bought on schedule was Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Jason Brice: I was hoping someone will review HEROES that debuted on TV this week.
Ray Tate: Heroes was very slow, Jason.
Ray Tate: I only liked one character in the show.
Jason Brice: I downloaded it... I thought the pacing was a bit off, and it reminded me a lot of Rising Stars by JMS
Ray Tate: I was never attracted to the art in that series--this was long before JMS burned every iota of faith I had in him as a writer with Sins of the Past.
Jason Brice: LOL.
Ray Tate: I'm giving Heroes one more chance to intrigue me.
Jason Brice: I think the Japanese guy is amusing
Jason Brice: and the cheerleader girl was good
Ray Tate: The only character I liked was the invincible cheerleader.
Ray Tate: She hates her powers. She goes into the fire to see if she can burn. She sees a guy trapped under the rubble. Boom. She forgets about herself and rescues him.
Jason Brice: the trick turning mother was a bit stupid... I thought it was the kid who was going to be the hero
Ray Tate: The kid annoyed me.
Jason Brice: LOL
Ray Tate: Actually we should just record this conversation and there's your review.
Jason Brice: you can turn it into a review if you get a chance... :-)
Ray Tate: Well, I'm posting now. I can just copy and paste once we have enough.
Jason Brice: The plot twist with the good brother and the coniving brother was average.
Ray Tate: Yeah. I will say this that the flying scene was well done.
Jason Brice: Was the black woman the artist's agent?
Ray Tate: Either that or a gallery owner.
Jason Brice: The artist's image for the flying looked too cartoony compared with his other stuff - it looked like a pen and ink illo on a canvas.
Ray Tate: I actually couldn't make out some of those paintings. I had a pretty good picture too.
Jason Brice: My wife liked the show though... she's still fairly new to superheroes, though. She's only really seen movies, and has been playing the City of Heroes game a lot recently.
Ray Tate: I just think this program could be a lot better if they cut down the cast and actually concentrated on the heroism. Frankly the Indestructible Cheerleader could have carried her own show.
Jason Brice: Yes, I agree the cheerleader was the most interesting character, and unlike you, I'm not a Buffy fan.
Jason Brice: The guy who was the cheerleader's (maybe) father was too obviously a spook of some sort.
Ray Tate: You're right. It was so overt, and the thing about the cheerleader is that she has different characterization than Buffy or Superman on Smallville.
Ray Tate: She shows the viewer how nuances can create entirely new characters even if they have similar powers.
Jason Brice: More of the reluctant hero.
Ray Tate: Well, reluctant in she doesn't want to be one, yet she can't help herself.
Jason Brice: her FX were good, too. And I did like the way her mother interpreted the literal statement as a metaphor.
Ray Tate: Yes, that was very cool. She has some story meat in her background.
Jason Brice: So, how did you feel about the trick turning mother killing the mob goons?
Ray Tate: Well, you know she seems typical of the cynical way women are portrayed in media.
Jason Brice: the Madonna / whore complex?
Ray Tate: Yeah, exactly.
Ray Tate: I mean she's obviously doing the internet porn thing for the sake of her son, but it's just too obvious.
Jason Brice: I would have thought that action would have made the character irredeemable to you.
Jason Brice: the killing, I mean.
Ray Tate: Oh, no, I don't mind super-heroes killing villains.
Ray Tate: You forget I'm the one on the site who supports Manhunter.
Jason Brice: True true... I always thought you were more silver age than that ;-)
Ray Tate: It's the execution of the killing that's important. I don't believe heroes should kill gleefully. They should kill pragmatically--like Kate Spencer does.
Ray Tate: There was a scene for instance in the third season of Batman the Animated Series, where Batman is definitely killing Mr. Freeze. Mr. Freeze is going to ice Gotham, and Batman hits the switch that will kill him. He does get away we learn, but as far as Batman was concerned. In that moment, it was Freeze or Gotham.
Jason Brice: What about the Indian guy? The Indian guy's lecture was ridiculous... not the sort of thing you'd get in a sensible college.
Ray Tate: The Indian guy following his father to New York was. Meh. His lecture would have felt as long and drawn out as the show :)
Jason Brice: Is the Indian guy going to develop powers? Or is he just going to mastermind them all together vs. the spooks?
Ray Tate: Isn't he annoying enough? I was hoping he dies early. He's almost just serving as the analogue to Sayid on Lost.
Jason Brice: I like Sayeed, though.
Ray Tate: I got over Lost, but the thing is Heroes is very schizophrenic.
Ray Tate: It wants to do special powers and seems to know special powers would involve people becoming super-heroes, but it also wants to do the Lost thing.
Jason Brice: "Lost thing" as in multiple, inter-twining, mysterious plots?
Ray Tate: I was thinking more in terms of Gilligan's Island as drama, but if I was still a Lost watcher...I'm just not sure these ideas are compatible.
Jason Brice: Heroes is rated in the top ten of shows on TV.com, so I guess fan response has been pretty positive so far.
Ray Tate: The real test will be the second or third episode though.
Ray Tate: It's top ten because it was new and programmed opposite of the CBS comedies.
Jason Brice: "Heroes was watched by 14.29 million total viewers, winning its time slot."
Ray Tate: Well, that's fine, but it's all curiosity. I'll give it one more show to wow me. So how many bullets. I'm giving it three.
Jason Brice: I'd give it a little higher than you.
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