Sunday, July 30, 2006

Who Wants To Be A Superhero?

A month or so ago when we saw the first preview of this new show on SciFi Channel, I looked over at my gilfriend and said something like "ok... now the game show concept has been streached waaay too thin". She disagreed and made me tivo it anyway.

Yesterday we sat down to watch the episode. She got up in about 3 minutes and walked away, I instead kept going and was totally surprised. I liked this show and I'll tell you why.

First off, the concept is that people are competing to have a comic book made about the superhero that they portray by the legendary Stan Lee. To start the show, we saw hundreds of completely insane fanatics and general lunatics pitch Mr. Lee to be part of the initial selectees to compete. That had me in stiches for a good 20 minutes at least.

Once part of the initial group we got to know them and see them a bit. Wathcing these people show up to compete in these home made costumes was simply priceless. These are people who, for the most part, really want to be superheros. This all reminds me of the extremely short lived but amazing TV show "The Tick" (live action version).

The format of the show is a lot like the Apprentice. Mr. Lee (who hosts from his home via video teleconference) is the best rich guy, legendary, host I've seen so far. Unlike Trump, or Cuban or any of the other "top of their game" people, Stan Lee really has a serious interest in this competition. He really is focused on the people, but also is totally not an egomaniac. I love watching him.

The contestants have competitions to follow and are elimated weekly based on their performance. I've only seen one cometition, but (and this is where it gets strange) the competition really feels like something you would put an actual super-hero through.

The show had me lauging so hard that I had to pause the Tivo at one point and that is when one of the heros "Major Victory" was doing his competition. If there ever was a character that needed a whole show made after him, it was this guy. He is simply hysterical in his mannerisms and actions. He reminds me of this superhero dude that I used to love on Cartoon Network named Johnny Bravo but without the Elvis.

Whatever. The show is entertaining and actually has heart. I'm not sure if it is meant to be funny, but my goodness did I laugh a lot while watching it. So.. what can I say? Give it a look and see if you agree.

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