Light in "Heroes"

A couple weeks ago I began watching a show that my brother recommended: Heroes. The sci-fi serial drama had four seasons from 2006-2010 on NBC and was created by Tim Kring. My brother watched all four seasons, but he recommended I only watch the first one, because he says it "gets bad after that."

I knew I would like Heroes right from the get-go because I love me a good superhero story. I'm not exactly sure why, but there's something about that hero's journey formula that I find so fascinating. We spent so much time in my freshman year English class talking about archetypes, mythology, and heroes, that it sparked my interest in the genre and soon I was registering to take a mythology class my sophomore year with the same teacher.

Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey was one cycle I learned about in my mythology class. 

All the major characters of Season 1.

The superpowers possessed by the characters in Heroes are unique and among them are mind-reading, invincibility, intagibility (the ability to move through solid objects), flight, and the ability to take on another hero's power, among other things.

I found that the pilot for Heroes was easy to follow, despite the fact that there are many major characters. I've begun paying way more attention to color and light lately, and it's become clear to me how Heroes uses these elements to reveal details about the characters.




For example, Claire Bennett, the invincible cheerleader, lives in Odessa, Texas. She is a sweet girl, despite the identity crisis she is going through. Perhaps the warm light tells the audience that we should be rooting for her.

"Save the cheerleader, save the world" is a motif of the show.

Niki Sanders suffers from Dissociative Personality Disorder and can access super strength when her alter-ego, Jessica, is in control. The shots of Niki include many shadows, perhaps to show that there is a good side and a dark side to her.

Isaac Mendez can paint the future, but only right after he's done heroin. Many shots of him are very dark, showing how lost and confused he is feeling.

Hiro Nakamuro can alter space and time. This screenshot was taken right after he makes the second hand on his cubicle clock go back one second. I think the dim, boring, and repetitive office lights are meant to be juxtaposed with Hiro's energy and enthusiasm. He wants to get out, and eventually, he does.

Hiro right after teleporting into the future and New York City.

I think this quick ability to show a lot about the characters made the show easy to follow right from the beginning. I'm on episode 10 of season 1 right now, so hopefully I finish the season in the coming weeks. Maybe I'll watch Heroes: Reborn as well, when it comes out later this month.

Never Never(again)land

NBC has done it again. Last night, NBC debuted it's second live musical performance, "Peter Pan Live!". It's first live musical, "The Sound of Music Live!" brought in huge ratings for the network, but unfortunately the audience reaction wasn't as great. The event turned into "hate-watching", a guilty pleasure that I enjoy myself. Carrie Underwood just didn't cut it as Maria, and viewers came back this year to see if Allison Williams could pull off a convincing Peter Pan. Here's a highlight of the infamous "I'm Flying" scene from the performance:

The viewer ratings compared to last year's "Sound of Music Live!" went down 47%. As far as performance reviews, the general consensus seems to be that the actors did better than last year, but not by much. I didn't get to see "The Sound of Music Live!", but I was not impressed with this year's show. Maybe I'm biased because I was raised on Cathy Rigby in Peter Pan (2000), which was an incredible performance, but the casting for the new show was not believable. Allison Williams gave a deadpan performance to one of the most fun and rambunctious characters to ever come to the stage. Christopher Walken is well... Christopher Walken. I'm still not sure how someone came to the conclusion that he would be the best fit for Captain Hook. Although his dance moves were pretty smooth, he isn't energetic enough and his singing abilities just don't match up. I understand that big names bring more people, which brings more money, but there is no way there weren't better choices for both roles.

Besides the performances, there was also the controversial matter of racism and sexism in the casting. Peter Pan is originally a pretty offensive show when it came to Native Americans, depicting them as extreme stereotypes. NBC made steps to amend this by changing the most offensive song "Ug-A-Wug" to "True Blood Brothers", but did not realize their mistake in casting. "Peter Pan Live!" took a lot of criticism for casting an all-white ensemble of Lost Boys, and a tribe of mixed races for Tiger Lily's tribe. Not only was the segregation blatant, but there were also no women in the cast besides Wendy, Peter Pan, and Tiger Lily. Understandably, the Lost Boys and Pirates must be men, but there was plenty of room for women in Tiger Lily's tribe.

There were some good points in the show, namely the production value of the set and the singing capabilities of most of the actors. But it was difficult to appreciate when I was so displeased with the acting.

All in all, I commend NBC for trying to bring back musicals, but they need to stop casting film actors and use theatrically trained professionals, even if their names don't bring in most of the viewers. Let's hope they fix their mistakes and apply them to next year's performance of "The Music Man Live!". We can only hope. Rest assured I'll be there, hate-watching with the rest of America.

Marry Me

With two stand out leads, the freshman NBC sitcom, Marry Me has great potential. After dating for 6 years, Annie (Casey Wilson) and Jake (Ken Marino) are finally getting married.  After multiple botched proposals, they finally get it right. We are introduced to all of the characters and get a sense of who they are without much effort or expositional dialogue. The quick and witty writing is welcomed and while I laughed out loud multiple times I am worried their relationship alone is not enough to sustain the show for a whole season, or looking on a larger scale, multiple seasons. The pilot was hilarious, and while the second episode’s main story line of moving in together was not as strong which I think was a result of Annie and Jake being apart from one another for a large majority of the episode. That being said, the supporting characters all had great story lines that did not always directly relate to Annie and Jake, which was refreshing.

Camera-work in The Office

One of my favorite series to ever hit primetime television is NBC’s The Office. I enjoy it for many 

reasons, the humor, how relatable it is, and the way it is produced. I think the most unique part of the 

production of The Office is the camera work. Because The Office is made to seem like a camera crew is 

actually following the characters around, it has a much different feel than most television shows.

            Since it is made to appear as a documentary, all camera angles have to be believable. For 

instance, if it starts with a wide shot, then cuts to a close up, the shot they cut to cannot be from an 

angle within the original wide shot. It sounds confusing, but basically for the show to be believable as 

a  documentary, you have to imagine it being shot with multiple cameras at the same time, in such a 

way that no camera would appear in a different camera’s shot.

            Most television shows try to have the highest production value possible, The Office does the 

opposite, but in a unique way that works for them. Being that its shot in a documentary style, one 

would not expect The Office to have a high production value. When something supposedly is 

happening once and there is only one chance to capture it or it’s gone, you don’t expect beautiful long 

dolly shots or a steadicam follow shot. You expect shakey, handheld shots, with lots of quick camera 

movement to ensure that all the action happening is captured. In real life the camera-man would not be 

prepared for action happening across the room, so to get the shot he/she would have to use quick pans 

and zooms to ensure that he/she can get all the action in frame, while putting the actual framing quality 

on the backburner. The use of tripods is rare, and anything you would call “beautifully cinematic,” will 

not appear in The Office.

            If it were truly a documentary, the characters would be aware of the cameras that are constantly 

following them. Often characters will look at the camera or the crew in certain situations. For example, 

in the clip below, Michael is telling a joke he looks at the cameraman as if he is going to laugh at the 

joke too. At another point in the clip Michael talks directly to the camera about whether or not 

something is appropriate or not.

            One part of the show that makes the characters extremely relatable is the individual and small group confessionals that most of the actors partake in. These are very similar to an interview, which are often used in real documentaries, frequently with b-roll being placed over the audio from the interview. The Office does the same thing, with the confessionals, making the show appear even more similar to a documentary.

            I believe that the documentary style of shooting is a significant contributing factor to The 

Office’s success. Because it’s shot as a documentary the audience believes the characters are real 

people and that is the real way they act. Without this style the show would appear very scripted and 

precise. While the scripted and precise style works for some shows, The Office’s style of comedy 

revolves around the relationship the character builds with the audience, and without the documentary 

style, that relationship would be gone.

Below is another clip that I feel really displays what The Office is really about.

My New Netflix Obsession

     I recently began watching the television series "The West Wing" on Netflix. While I do not recall  ever seeing this show during its run on Fox, I decided to give it a try after it was recommended by my roommate. Even though I am only a few episodes into the series, "The West Wing" has already captured my attention. Being that I am not very passionate about politics, I had my doubts about wether or not this show would truly appeal to me. However, this television series surprised me and, due to its fantastic writing, has me hooked.

     Right from the very first episode, "The West Wing" drew me in with suspense. Instead of focusing on one or two main characters, "This West Wing"highlighted the issues facing a lot a multitude of individuals, from members of the White House staff to Cuban refugees. Although, on the surface, such issues may seem unrelated, the writers of "The West Wing" do a fantastic job of tying everything together. On that note, and this may be what I liked the most about the series, "The West Wing" presents such issues from multiple viewpoints without forcing the viewer to choose sides, which was something that I was not expecting from a political drama.

     Instead of focusing on who's right and who's wrong, "The West Wing" illustrates that there is often much more to an issue than what meets the eye. As the series progresses, it becomes obvious how limited the power of the president, portrayed by Joshiah Bartlet, really is. Although we view him as the head of our country, he is often little more than a figurehead. As highlighted in this series, the actions that the president takes are very often nothing more than a consequence of the decisions made by those around him. This fantastic political commentary, which I believe holds true in regards to our modern-day presidents, is highlighted throughout the "The West Wing". The writers of this show do a great job of displaying the president as both a politician and a person, a fact that is accentuated by Bartlet's terrific acting.

Score One For the Home Team

Go On is one of NBC's new shows for the current fall season. This is also Matthew Perry's opportunity to break back into the TV industry. His last stint in TV was the underrated Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I feel this time around, Perry has picked the right horse to back. According to the Hollywood Reporter, last week it had a steady rating of 3.3, better then The New Normal.

I'm not really into the whole sports scene, but this show has acquired a perfect balance between sports jargon and character development to have a wide audience. Besides following the life of sports radio personality Ryan King, the show follows his development and growth trying to recover from the loss of his wife. In order to cope with this, Ryan is sent to a loss support group, where he encounters and becomes a part of a misfit group of "losers". From what I've seen of the current season, Overall, I'd say that it might not be a home run, but it certainly scores one for the home team (see what I did there, sports).

Community's Halloween Episodes and Parodies

To many people Community is a television series about a group of students at a community college but it is so much more than that. The series heavily uses pop culture references and meta-humor often parodying film and television clichés. These episodes include a holiday stop-motion episode, a clip show of memories that never happened, a parody of westerns, and even a recent episode that had seven alternate timelines. Every single of one these are worthy of an entire blog post but today in the spirit of Halloween I am focusing on their annual Halloween episodes.

In the first season their Halloween episode was called “Introduction to Statistics” and dealt with Jeff and his decision to blow off his study group’s Halloween party in order to score with the young Statistics professor. However the b-plot of the episode is a great parody of superhero films and Batman. Abed is a student that is obsessed with pop culture and entertainment, much like the show’s creator Dan Harmon and the writers. At Halloween he dresses up as Batman and more specifically as the Christian Bale reboot version. At the end of the episode he saves the day as a chair and desk fort begins to collapse on Jeff who is trying to comfort Pierce about realizing he is old and “un-hip.” Jeff is usually the first to complain about the absurd behavior of Abed but at the end of the episode after he made his decision to choose the study group over the teacher he accepts Abed, his behavior, and his new batch of friends. The ending moment is then a straight parody of the heroic music and narration Batman will often do which was just recently seen in the movie The Dark Knight.

Last season the Halloween episode was called “Epidemiology” but most fans know it has the zombie episode. In this episode the study group is left to fend for themselves when their classmates become “zombies” due to tainted food the Dean cheaply bought. While it was actually an outbreak of rabies instead of them actually being zombies, the episode features numerous horror movie clichés the would be seen in a zombie or horror movie. First was a cat rustling in an abandoned area. Many times in movies characters are often spooked by some animal like a cat flying past them when they are trying to hide and escape the real evil outside. Community parodied this by having the cat constantly keep reappearing and showing it unconvincingly flying across the screen. Another funny comment on horror movies the show made was on music. Usually horror movies have scary, dark, and very intense music but on Community the music was the greatest hits of ABBA mixed in with the Dean’s voice memos. Unable to leave that section of school to change the playlist, upbeat songs like “Dancing Queen” played as the zombies attacked and bit the study group. Finally another comment on horror movies (or any movie in general) came when Troy tries to run through crowd to save the day and turn down the thermostat (which is believe to slow down the symptoms of the zombies before they suffer brain damage). While normally the action hero will burst through the group and destroy all the bad guys in his path, Troy is immediately attacked and stopped. He ends up reaching the goal but after he was bit himself.

I love Community and their themed episodes like their past two Halloween episodes. Tomorrow night at 8 pm on NBC their third episode airs called “Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps” and I am sure based on the title and the prior history of the show that it will continue to make fun of and comment on horror movies, pop culture, and entertainment in general. I for one can’t wait for the hilarity and references to ensue.

"Community" and its Pop-Culture References

I am genuinely surprised that nobody has yet written about the comedy-masterpiece that is Community. The half-hour comedy on NBC is about a group of six eclectic “losers” who attend Greendale Community College and form a study group. Over the course of the series, they become friends and experience highly unconventional college trials and tribulations.



Jeff Winger, played by the handsome Joel McHale (who I had the pleasure of meeting in Los Angeles!) is a “too cool for school” 30-something womanizer who was forced to go back to school after the law-firm that he was working for realized that he had a false degree. Jeff is the character that all of the other characters look up to and respect the most—he is basically the leader.

Britta Perry, portrayed by Gillian Jacobs is a radical feminist who takes any chance she gets to take a stand against “the man” and get her voice heard. From the beginning, there is sexual tension between her and Jeff although mostly she is disturbed by his chauvinistic point of view.

Opposite of Britta, is Annie Edison (Allison Brie) who is a straight out of high school perfectionist. Annie is set out to get the perfect grades and is very susceptible to what people think of her. Annie and Jeff also have some tension between them, which sometimes creates a competitive atmosphere between Annie and Britta.

Then there are the inseparable best friends, Troy Barnes (played by comedian Donald Glover) and Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi). Abed, is a nerdy but sweet film connoisseur whereas Troy is a not so smart ex football player. The have a great dynamic and often create outrageous circumstances for themselves.

The final two of the group are the oldest: Shirley Bennett (played by Yvette Nicole Brown) and Pierce Hawthorne (played by Chevy Chase.) Shirley is the mother of the group, as well of her own children and is usually overbearing with her religious beliefs. Pierce on the other hand is extremely offensive—he is racist, sexist and overall inappropriate. He is very old-fashioned and out of touch with a lot of modern day technology.



The dynamic that all of these characters create is the perfect combination for a brilliant comedy. Not only is the acting and writing magnificent, but the storylines themselves is what sets Community apart from other comedies like Modern Family (which I also love) and Parks & Rec. The writers of Community love to reference pop culture. There are episodes that movies like Pulp Fiction, Dinner with Andre, Die Hard , Space Odyssey and Star Wars. There are also episodes that are homages to western films as well as zombie films. The stories are always very rich.

Here is a clip from "Epidemiology", the episode that is an homage to zombie movies in which everyone at Greendale Community College becomes infected:



The beauty about the writers is that they don’t automatically assume that everyone watching will understand the references. In fact, most of the time they go over my head—however, I still find myself laughing out loud. Understanding the references enhances the show, but it is still enjoyable to those who don’t grasp it.

In order to watch Community and properly enjoy it, there needs to be a suspension of disbelief. Essentially, the world of Community is one in which anything goes and therefore the audience needs to grasp the fact that zombies might exist in one episode and not in the next.

Community is truly a wonderful comedy although it hasn’t been particularly noticed by award shows such as the Emmys. I believe that it is a show that has a little something for everybody, so I recommend it to all who are looking for a laugh.