TV Watch: Save The Cheerleader. WTF?

I continue to like Heroes almost, it seems, in despite of itself. Perhaps it's because the plot is finally feeling a little cohesive and it's fun to watch it gel. Maybe it's because of the extremely competent special effects and good directing of photography.

Course, maybe it's because there are so many subplots popping around that it's fun just to try and keep track of it all. If Flying Guy doesn't buy into all this malarky - why bother defacing a paint that isn't the future? Just how fast are all these jets that seem to be able to keep characters in the same time zone? Will Hooker Mom cap Shadowcat Dad? If so - will that keep PhoneFreak Boy out of foster homes?

And of course - what really happened to Hiro? Oh ... and will Angsty Teenager finally take those headphones off?

I think the show works because unlike Lost - which at one point had a coherent narrative - Heroes only superficially takes itself seriously. You get that great horn music or voiceover when you're supposed to really buy into it ... but everything else is just popcorn television. Lost begged to be overthought - to a fault even ... once those of us who overthought got tired of all the producers' "gotchya!"'s (What's that in the middle of the ocean?? HUH? HUH??? WHAT COULD IT BE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN???? OH .. A .... boat? Oh. Um. .... k, thanks).

I mean, "Save The Cheerleader. Save The World." Honestly, it's just a dumb simplification of the basic premise of nearly every popcorn film ever made. But who cares? It has a cheerleader right there in the slogan.

On the funnier side of life, Studio 60 gets to finish the season and I still can't understand why there was any question of that. One TV reviewer said he loved the show primarily for the soundtrack - which I think is funny because if anything remains almost intact from Sports Night it's the music. Oh, and we got a cameo from one of the console guys. And that in joke about pushing a button.

OK, fine, I love Studio 60 because in my warped mind it's the next season of Sports Night. So sue me.

Tonights our date with Veronica Mars ... which has slowly only gotten better with time this season. I still think Logan is dead weight, the show has gotten a bit of a soft side and there's not nearly enough Backup this season. But it's still good watching.






tagged: game, heroes