Who Wants to be a Superhero?


While I'm usually up for this sort of foolishness, upon watching about half of Who Wants To Be A Superhero, I realized something. I realized reality TV and the super-heros are not a serendipitous mixture like chocolate and peanut-butter. This show was more like two pints of Mad Dog and your roommate's reconditioned 1978 Pontiac Trans Am.

Don't get me wrong, I loved Mystery Men, and I look forward to seeing My Super Ex-Girlfriend (despite mixed reviews). But even these shows, which concentrate on the humorous aspects of comic book heroes, accept a basic premise of the genre: super powers exist.

Which is why a reality TV program about super heroes is dead on arrival. One of the conceits of this program seems to be that the audience knows super powers are not real. Thus this program was more about embarrassing the "weirdoes who think they are superheros" than anything else. Maybe that shouldn't be a revelation to anyone--I suppose that to a large degree most reality shows are based on that premise.

Moreover, reality TV seeks to spend the least amount of money possible to produce a program. Low production values and the demands of super heroics comes across as... cheap and seedy. Add in people who for one reason or another are willing to go through with such a charade (seeking celebrity, seeking financial pay-out, or... what? A hope they'll somehow gain actual super powers?), and this thing falls completely apart.

But, perhaps I'm being way too harsh. You can download and watch it free here on iTunes. Decide for yourself. I'm home today fighting a virus, so perhaps I'm merely being uncharitable because my mood is sour.


Posted: Tue - August 1, 2006 at 10:14 AM          

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