I’ve never met Tim Kring but I already consider him to be a great friend. Kring is the creator of Heroes and, aside from being a very good and intriguing show, it has proven to be the show that finally killed my indescribable addiction to 24. I am currently on Week 7 of my Jack Bauer-free life and I couldn’t be happier. As I noted before, had become so patently ridiculous and redundant and boring and redundant that it became maddening that I couldn’t just tune it out. Maybe I thought Jack would actually be killed.
The only thing more maddening than watching a show you don’t like is watching a show you don’t like for no reason at all. I will henceforth refer to this as the Friends Corollary. The
In any case, 24 became the drama version of the Friends Corollary—something you watched because nothing else was on and its legacy will probably be way overblown (thanks to the Emmy’s it recently won) in proportion to the creativity involved (i.e.-the “surprise” plot twists were just recycled amongst different characters).
Enter Tim Kring and his show about normal dudes with super powers with the comic book feel and comic book formula. When the initial previews came out I thought the show looked helplessly lame. I thought it was going to be a poor attempt at a poor Jerry Bruckheimer or Michael Bay movie. Or, at best, I thought only people like The Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons would be the only crowd clamouring for more.
Of course, I was wrong and the show is really good. To me, the mark of a good show is when it hits that point where you have absolute faith in the writers. Is Sylar going to kill Peter Petrelli? What will become of Mr. Bennet? What’s the future story arc for Candance Wilmer? The show is so good and interesting at this point that the only way they’ll lose me is if they inexplicably start creating things on the fly (all of the sudden Sylar’s a good guy! or don’t look now, but we’ve decided to write in a love story between Claire and The Haitian!)
Thank you, a thousand times Thank You, Mr. Kring. You’ve rid me of Jack Bauer and I didn’t even need anyone to pull the memories from my head. You’ve created a show based on comic book elements that I’ve invested time into and look forward to following, despite the fact that I’ve never liked comic books or been a big fan of superheroes in general. Your show has finally provided me the choice to kill Jack Bauer and for that I will forever be indebted to your show.
Speaking of choices, either human or spiritual, the New York Times has a fascinating article on whether our belief in God is nothing more than an adaptive response that we can’t seem to shake from our ancestors. Whether you’re an atheist (for which this article will no doubt be reinforcing) or a devoutly religious person (for which this article will no doubt make you squirm a little), the ways in which religion and how it is seen contextually by people is being studied is pretty fascinating. It is my personal belief that if you’re too easily dismissive of things life will find a way to make you confront the things you dismiss, usually in a most uncomfortable way (i.e.-the zealous Atheist will have a zealous Catholic child).
I have a hard time believing that Jesus is the Saviour of Man and that his death spared all of us mortals but, at the end of the day, it’s hard to refute his teachings as something not worth following. Regardless of what your religious views are the article is worth reading, if for nothing more than to soak in a new different perspective on how our minds may work.
The article can be found here and is 11 pages long.