Real is not enough

[aesmael]

Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.

Some weeks ago the British series Misfits started airing here. It seems to be another in a line of attempts to show 'how superheroes would be in the real world', like the series No Heroics. The characters in this one are certainly convincing enough; I've been meeting people like them all my life. But, I don't like them and in the two episodes I watched there wasn't either any plot or drama that made me want to keep watching in spite of the characters.

For me, perhaps the problem is these interpretations starting with the idea 'realistic superheroes' and going from there to 'superheroes are petty, vain, selfish, and often bullies or bullied losers of some sort', and there's nothing left in it to hold my attention. Without the SF elements it would be a comedy or drama I wouldn't be interested in, and despite my interest being as biased toward SF as it is, nothing is done with those elements that might overcome my disinterest with the rest of the show. And the obsession with rape does not exactly help my interest (Timebomb on No Heroics, being gay and 'dark', sometimes threatens to rape people; one of the characters in Misfits has the uncontrolled power that sometimes skin contact with men compels them to try and rape her [no indication in the two episodes I saw if that works on women too]).

Hm. I was going to use My Hero as a comparative example where I like both the comedy and the superhero aspects, but I can't really imagine it without the superhero component, while I can imagine No Heroics without that, despite us seeing more direct heroing in the latter.

I don't think I opposed to the idea of 'dark' television treatments of superheroes, but I am annoyed that the concept of people being idealistic and heroic seems increasingly to get treated as an obstacle to putting superheroes on television.

Well, most of my annoyance is directed at No Heroics; Misfits I mainly don't like the characters and aren't interested to see more of them. It could be that I am reading them both wrong and they aren't superhero shows, but rather the former is a sitcom whose cast happens to be superheroes and the latter a youth drama featuring a cast who suddenly gained powers and has to deal with that. In which cases, I'm still not enjoying them enough to keep watching.

Comments

[lost-angelwings.livejournal.com]

I'm tired of the idea that dark, cynical, selfish, etc personality traits is more "realistic" than being a good or nice or helpful person.. or wanting to help. Superheroes are "unrealistic" b/c of their powers, not cuz they want to help or are nice ppl. It's kinda funny to me actually that they consider "realistic superheroes" to be about people with SUPER POWERS but who are jerks... to me a "realistic" superHERO would be somebody who has NO powers but still strives to help ppl... hence the whole HERO part...

[aesmael.livejournal.com]

I endorse this comment.

Think you said it much better than I managed.

[pazi-ashfeather.livejournal.com]

Hear hear!

Dear Producers:

Nice people do exist, believe it or not. And plenty of curmudgeons are the sort of people you'd nevertheless trust with great power if you knew what they'd do with it. There are nice people. There are compassionate and kind people. There are people who aren't any of these things and yet still seem to orient their moral compass on something recognizable as "good" in a consistent way.

[ai-meilian.livejournal.com]

This 'Misfits' sounds downright icky now :/

I'm inclined to blame 'Watchmen' for bringing the concept of anti-social anti-hero to the fore in the superpower genre. It was a good antidote for ne'er-do-ills like Superman, but indeed, it's been rather overdone. Not that I follow superhero genres much, if at all.

[smurasaki.livejournal.com]

It's related to the idea that a grimdark world of misery and suffering is realistic. Or Joss Weadon's bizarre belief that happy people are boring and even more bizarre belief that having everything end in tears and every relationship in death is dramatic and realistic. Actually, Joss*, it's really frigging boring and about as realistic as a sitcom.

Either a good number of creators actually need treatment for depression or other mental illnesses or they need to sit down and actually think about what the grimdark movement thinks reality is. Do actual real people all suck? Or are there plenty of good (which is not at all the same as perfect) people out there? Does life actually contain mostly misery, unhappiness, and pain? Or does it have a lot of fun, laughter, love, and joy, too?

Its one thing to, for whatever reason, like grimdark or shows about petty, selfish, unpleasant people, and quite another to proclaim them any more realistic than happy fluffy land.

*And every other writer who does this.

(sorry, wrote you a novel there ^_^;)

[infinitely-late.livejournal.com]

I missed the start of that one, and was wondering whether it was worth looking at; I'm glad I haven't bothered.
Actually, I think our inability as a society to believe in heroes with unselfish motivations is rather sad. Either that or they've all decided that making things darker will cause them to appeal to more adult audiences, because they consider that sort of belief to be childish.