I knew there was a reason I loved Heroes:
NBC's hit series "Heroes" was the most-watched new show on network television this year despite its demanding plot lines and stretches of subtitled Japanese. Its season finale, which aired May 21, dominated the 9 p.m. time slot. What explains the show's popularity, especially with younger viewers? I think it is that, like the Fox thriller "24," "Heroes" is a response to Sept. 11 and the rise of international terrorism. But while "24" skews to the right politically, "Heroes" seems like a left-wing response to those events. In fact, it functions as a thoughtful critique of Vice President Dick Cheney's doctrine on counterterrorism.
Read the article; it's an interesting essay on the political and moral underpinnings of Heroes vis-a-vis 24, and by association, the Bush Administration. Some of the points I'd thought of before, but many I hadn't. It's all true, though: the Gandhian critique of deploying evil to stop evil, otherwise known as "the ends justify the means," the recognition of humans' propensity to both good and evil, the emphasis on diversity as a strength, rather than a weakness...
It's very, very good to hear that this message is resonating more with the nation's youth.
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