GoldbergBlog

I watch a lot of TV. More than I should. If I watched less TV, I might go out and have a social life. Then, I could get a girlfriend and we could both watch a lot of TV, thus completing the Circle of Life (or at least, my life).

So when I say that the Television Critics Association (TCA) nominees for best programs couldn’t be more off by nominating Heroes for “Program of the Year”, “Outstanding Achievement in Drama”, and “Outstanding New Program of the Year”, they’re idiots.

Look, I applaud them for giving credit to Friday Night Lights, 30 Rock, Dexter, Ugly Betty, The Daily Show, and pretty much a wholly deserving list of worthy contenders. But you can’t watch Heroes and think it’s a good show. It isn’t. Aside from plagiarizing from material both big and small (and while you can just call it influence or tribute, the show doesn’t have an original idea in its entire first season and doesn’t bother acknowledging its “influences” lest someone discover that the writing staff is creatively bankrupt). A show like Heroes is in no way challenging to its audience and simply stands as an alternative for people who would like Lost if it didn’t waste time building a story and developing characters and confirmed that the writers are making the show up as they go along (the ABC/executive producers’ agreed-upon 2010 end-date confirms that they’re not) while Heroes just lets you know that they’re absolutely making it up as they go along and that’s why you could drive a Mack truck through the show’s plot-holes.

I guess shows like Battlestar Galactica and The Shield, which were unable to merit any nominations, will have to settle for their Peabodies and know that the group of journalists tasked with recognizing the depth and complexity of their shows have instead opted for a show where the writers ask fans to fill in their lazy writing (and I’m not talking about overarching plotlines which are just flat-out stolen, but rather little things that would take ten seconds to explain, such as Hiro’s father waiting in the ancient sword repair shop in the hopes that the samurai sword will need fixing and that Hiro and Ando will go to the yellow pages and pick that store and that he will have to make sure that he arrives before they do so he can have a big reveal; better to make the fans “work for it” rather than filming ten seconds of George Takei following Hiro and Ando).

If you don’t want to recognize obviously great shows, then fine. But don’t honor such an obviously shitty one.

Tags: stupid, television //