Intergalactic Medicine Show just published the latest installment of Camera Obscura, in which I review the new NBC superhero drama Heroes.

[Excerpt:] The dream sequence opener was the first clue that Heroes wasn’t exactly going to be full of original thought. The pilot is your standard comic book superhero origin story, given the Unbreakable treatment–which is to say, treated in a more realistic light: no spandex, just people with freaky powers. But its most grievous sin is the characters’ rather uncanny resemblance to the X-Men. Not only because they appear to be mutants, or the next step in human evolution, but also because some of the characters have direct X-Men analogues. For instance, Hiro has the same abilities as Nightcrawler; Claire, Wolverine; Peter, Storm (or any of the other flying X-Men). Stan Lee should consider suing somebody.

Go read the whole review and tell me what you think!

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Intergalactic Medicine Show just published the latest installment of “Camera Obscura,” in which I review the new CBS post-apocalyptic drama Jericho.

[Excerpt:] CBS is positioning the show as a family drama, not as science fiction. Or as a publicist pointed out to me, it is post-apocalyptic, but “based on events that could actually happen,” so not really science fiction. While that phraseology is mildly insulting to the science fiction fan, I think I know what CBS is trying to say. Jericho is attempting to be Alas, Babylon, not A Canticle for Leibowitz. What it might also be trying to say is: there’s nothing original here that hasn’t already been done in SF, but it might seem new and fresh to a mainstream audience.

Go read the whole review and tell me what you think!

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