Heroes

My blogger friend Caryn has asked for personal essays on Heroes. This thrills me to no end. Heroes is one of my all-time favorite shows! And the timing couldn't be more perfect - Season Three kicks off in two weeks. It's a great time to reflect on the show's greatness thus far.

What's that? You don't watch Heroes? Well, first off, shame on you. But second, never fear, I'll fill you in.

Heroes is about a bunch of random people in random places that have random special powers. And I do mean random - one guy reads other peoples' thoughts, one lady can make you see things differently than they really are, one guy can fly, one guy stops time, one girl can shoot electricity out of her fingers. The list goes on. Really unrealistic stuff. But I digress.

Anyway, these people all meet up somehow (as frequently happens on well-written television shows) and share their angst about their special powers.

Why all the angst, you may ask? Well, some of these special people don't want their special powers. They resent being forced to be different from everyone else. Never mind the fact that you can FLY, for crying out loud, the important thing here seems to be not standing out. Never mind the fact that you have obviously been given a gift here. You can FLY! No one else can fly. No one that I'm seeing. Just you. But rather than seeing it as a gift, rather than asking yourself why you, and why this gift, and where did this gift come from, you just complain about the possibility that people might stare at you...

Sorry...got a little carried away with that one. Good television does that to you. Keeps you all wrapped up in the characters and their issues. Even if their issues are totally unrealistic. Imagine real people hiding who they really are so they can be just like everyone else. How stupid would that be? But let's get back to the show.

So, we've got these people with these special powers. And this angst. But despite the angst, they manage to meet up and fight evil. (Except the evil ones - they all meet up to fight good, but that's to be expected.) And this is the actual focus of the show, the fighting evil. Because what good is having a special power if you don't do anything with it? Isn't that what being a hero is all about? Taking the gifts you've been given and using them to make the world a better place? Taking your special powers and helping other people?

Which is why Season Three has a new tag line: Heroes and Villains. See, there's this whole cast of characters who have special powers, but can't be called heroes. Because they use their gifts simply to advance themselves. They don't use their powers for anyone else. That's why they aren't heroes. Heroes aren't selfish. Heroes aren't looking out for number one.

See, it isn't the special powers that make you a hero. It's what you do with the special powers that makes you a hero. Use them to take over the world? That makes you a villain. Use them to pull your neighbor out of a burning building simply because you can? That makes you a hero. To loosely paraphrase Rick Warren, heroes don't think less of themselves, heroes think of themselves less.

So tune in on Monday nights for a brand new season of Heroes. But don't look for any great life lessons. Heroes is a great show, but it's pretty unrealistic.