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by Rick Norwood
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SF on TV | |
You may remember a series called Witchblade, some years back. The first season was,
you should pardon the expression, cutting edge. But then, after a number of major characters died,
the Witchblade turned back time, and everything was set back the way it was. This can only happen
once, we were told, but once was enough. "I say it's crottled greeps, and I say the hell
with it." If everything we see is provisional, if a character can be unkilled, then why should
we care what happens to anybody?
In Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King told how he would end the series
Lost. King's advice: make it all a dream. Bad, bad advice.
Yes, we know that fiction is not "real." But within the fiction, it has to seem real. We
have to care what happens to the characters. If, as in a dream, anything can happen, then who
cares what happens? Dream fiction can have an effect -- psychological insight, perhaps, or
surrealistic imagery. But we don't care what happens to the characters in a dream.
So, while I don't look forward to Heroes the way I look forward to the Green Arrow
episodes of Smallville, for example, Heroes has taken another move in the right direction.
On TV in November
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Rick Norwood is a mathematician and writer whose small press publishing house, Manuscript Press, has published books by Hal Clement, R.A. Lafferty, and Hal Foster. He is also the editor of Comics Revue Monthly, which publishes such classic comic strips as Flash Gordon, Sky Masters, Modesty Blaise, Tarzan, Odd Bodkins, Casey Ruggles, The Phantom, Gasoline Alley, Krazy Kat, Alley Oop, Little Orphan Annie, Barnaby, Buz Sawyer, and Steve Canyon. |
The series Heroes is taking an important step. In the December 1 episode, we
discover (spoiler warning) that Hiro cannot change the past.
Friday, December 1
 
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