Friday, July 28, 2006

Mondays this Fall: Heroes

This series is dedicated to new shows coming this fall. I'll cover a show a day for the next month.

"Heroes"

When: Mondays, 9:00 PM EST
Who: Milo Ventimiglia, Ali Larter, Greg Grunberg, Hayden Panettiere
Where: NBC
What:

I guess it's time to cover a possible winner. One of my fans mentioned she was looking forward to this one, and to be honest, I am too--with some reservations.

The first problem is that there aren't many worse time slots they could have put it in. Head to head with Monday Night Football is tough. That said, I suppose you need to put your best shows against MNF to have any share whatsoever.

The next problem is the format. It's still unclear how these characters will be connected. Will they discover each other and form a modern day X-men? Will the show chronicle their lives separately?

This is by far the best promoted new series so far. They reveal just enough about the characters to make them compelling, and none of the plot. I suspect this show will be a hit, but the true critics will find each episode to be hit or miss.

The talent:

An interesting collection of characters. You'll recognize most of them, but probably won't be able to pinpoint where. They've all done quite a bit of work, but none of them has really hit the mainstream. Mostly bit parts, and lead roles on crappy shows that somehow had longevity (aka the Gilmore Girls). I caught Grunberg on an episode of "House" recently, and he's got promise. Larter was primarily in movies, so we'll see if she can make the transition. Hayden Panettiere (I always thought Hayden was a guy's name...) has been in bit roles of television and movie craptacular, but she's fantastic eye candy.

That leaves us with Ventimiglia. You'll know him as Rocky Balboa, Jr., shortly. He was a Gilmore Girls regular, so I don't know much about him.

Women: 7 out of 10
Men: 5 out of 10

Projected Longevity of the Show:

This one has staying power. The writer is a guy named Tim Kring. He was the writer for "Knight Rider" and a few episodes of "Providence." He was the creator of "Crossing Jordan."

And think how excited I was to discover he was the writer of a the subject of a recent post, and the guiltiest of pleasures, Misfits of Science.

When I wrote that post, I had NO IDEA he wrote both shows. That at least explains why Heroes reminded me of Misfits. Small world, eh?

To be successful, I think they really need to switch this show with "Deal or No Deal," which airs just before it. Game show fanatics will tune in regardless of what else is on. Football will have people watching "Heroes" during commercials and blowouts, and I think it deserves better.

All that said, I think we're looking at a 5 season minimum for this show. Longer if they switch it to Thursdays.

9 comments:

yellowdoggranny said...

i would probably watch it if the eagles were playing as i hate the f****** eagles...but most monday nights..im watching football..im jonesing already for some football...and cowboys are in Oxnard(i love to say that word...oxnard..heehee)so that is phase one...i have bought my footballl book and cant wait to start the season

Nicole said...

I must have too busy of a social life, because I haven't watched ANY TV this summer and have not heard of one single show you have mentioned so far. But thanks for your trusted breakdown of these new shows to date :-D

goddamn green apple martinis anyway

Anonymous said...

Whoa! Ben! You commented nicely! *W* Just kidding. So.......I forgot what I was going to say.

SUE said...

Deal or No Deal grabs a family demographic, and this looks more adult...particularly the promo with the cheerleader throwing herself off a bridge abuttment. As a result, I'm going to agree to the later time slot for this one. This looks good to me too, and the promos are well done. It reminds me of Smallville's first season and their "freak of the week" string of characters.

Nicole said...

Hey, I love smallville, i will have to check this out....Tom Welling...yum yum

Shelly said...

I'm looking forward to this one. I'm not a Milo fan, but I am a Greg Grunberg stalker, I mean fan. I've downloaded the pilot episode and I'm watching it tomorrow night. I'm glad I'll have something on while football is on!

Boobs Radley said...

providence = reigning champion of crappy shows that somehow had longevity. it actually gave me kidney failure.

Sal said...

Misfits of Science! i LOVED that show! you're the only other person i've come across who saw it.

teenage courtney cox... yummo

Persico said...

The first episode of this one was amazing.

Never before have I seen such a well written drama show dealing with a large spectrum of main characters. (It's hard to find that if you deal with more than 3 leads.)

The acting was well done, the writing was tightly composed, and for dealing with not so human humans it had such a humanity it made my heart hurt.

My favorite this year.

(Probably will be my eager to watch pick next to Lucy Daughter Of The Devil.)