You know, I have to hand it to modern television. It’s come a long way. Particularly in the realm of science fiction. You have almost anything Joss Whedon creates which becomes well written, thought out and executed (and ultimately cancelled) you have various shows like “Lost” and others which captures the imagination and keeps you guessing. Yes… it seems like anything from Aliens to space to horror-ish stuff has had a pretty successful life with TV the last ten years or so… except for one genre…

Superheroes.

TV just cant get them right. The closest they came was to the first season of “Heroes” and that’s really only because they weren’t super heroes, they were regular people being hunted by a really bad villain. But with the exception of some well done cartoons, live action superhero shows… well… they suck.

Case in point: 2 recent shows to hit the last year…

#1 No Ordinary Family. Ugh. This show looked stupid to begin with. I don’t know why I bothered to tune in. This is obviously drivel that is spewed out to the masses because of the success of “family super hero programs” like the Fantastic Four movies, The Incredibles, etc. The synopsis? Take a family (wow) that is on the verge of being dysfunctional (you dont say) and give them super powers. But… we use the same old tired sitcom family setup… You know… bumbling overweight dad who is a little dumb but has a heart of gold… his wife who is too hot for him, so it really shows off his nice guy personality, and two teenagers who don’t care for their parents or each other. See… at least “The Incredibles” was animated and I could watch for that… this well, it offers nothing.

#2 THE CAPE. The Cape is the newest awful show to hit the airwaves. At first I got excited because I heard Summer Glau was going to be in it. Then I realized after watching the trailer… that not even the beautiful Summer could save this. The Cape centers around a cop who is framed and believed dead. He adopts the role as a fictional comic book super hero to avenge himself and prove to his son that “one person can make a difference.” In truth if one person could make a difference, I wish one executive would have actually gone to a comic book store and read ONE freakin comic book to know that this is absolute crap. The show looks like it’s a 90′s WB sci fi show (You know what I’m talking about) and the script is wooden and the plot lame… (get this kids… his cape is made of *snicker* spider silk… and is stronger than Kevlar…hahahaha). The Cape lives in a world where bad guys are just evil.And I guess that would be fine if I was reading a comic book in the fifties. But folks a strange thing has happened the last 60 years of comic books… They became well written and fans became smarter….

People arent evil just to be evil. They dont fight wars because they are bad guys, the fight wars because they believe they are right. A villain has reasons for being a villain. Not because he just wants to be a bad guy. A super hero probably wouldnt want his family in on the business… these are all things we have to think about before we sign our names on a show that everyone sees.

I know I’m being a jerk, but honestly, I didn’t get into comics because it was trendy, I was reading these when being a nerd wasn’t chic. You got uninvited to a party if you talked about spiderman in my day… So it’s weird to see people only celebrate nerd culture when it’s popular to do so. As a result we will continue to see half ass produced TV shows given to the masses.

Chew on that space boy.