This week saw the start of the much heralded and long awaited Heroes on BBC2. Was it worth the wait?
The show opens on a man falling off a building. We see in fact that he is rescued by his flying brother and turns out that both of them can fly. What a family secret to keep!
We then cut to see a young girl charge into a burning wreck to rescue a trapped man. No, she is not Wonder Woman but a cheerleader from Texas.
The central idea to the programme is that the real heroes are ordinary men and women who find themselves in extraordinary situations. They do what they do because they discover that are special.
It’s what makes it so interesting as our whole idea of what a hero is turned upside down. We don’t see a man with his underpants over a pair of tights with a blue cape saving New York. There is no Stan Lee, larger than life, megalomaniac villain grappling with a man in a spider uniform issuing corny lines to another.
The scene itself is set mainly in New York City where time or day seems largely irrelevant, but it is here that these incredible events seem to break into the mundane experience of life.
The genre crosses over with ease from fantasy to reality with such a matter of fact style that the supernatural seems almost, well…natural. All this makes it most definitely a TV drama rather than blockbuster material.
The first episode is called “Genesis: Chapter One” and begins with a voiceover about “life’s mysteries” and the soul, along with some stuff and about personal destiny. But it is more New Testament that Old when it comes to Messianic figures. It really is quite spoilt for choice.
Some commentators have thought that Heroes is America’s response for 9/11 and this is how America likes to see itself dealing with terrorism and horror.
Whatever its foundation, it is still the classic dual between good and evil and spells out clearly that we all have the potential to be more than ordinary.
Our church Stour Valley Vineyard has as its strapline “For a life less ordinary”. This is because at its heart we know that we are ordinary people living ordinary lives, but we follow an extraordinary God who does extraordinary stuff with us.
Or put it another way in non-super language. We are real, down-to-earth people who simply follow Jesus. We are not super-spiritual and ‘saintly’ but we do believe in a supernatural God who works in us in a natural way. That, in turn, makes Christians special, but thankfully does not make us super heroes. And certainly doesn’t lend itself to a 22-episode American TV drama or blockbuster.
And as far as I know I don’t know anyone who has raced into a torching blaze in our church, though there is the story in the Old Testament (Daniel 3) of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being thrown in the fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar, only to be seen with a man dress in white and come out totally unscathed. Now I must admit that is pretty cool.
I‘ll continue to watch Heroes and see where the series goes. It’s actually quite fun. But, unlike the Christian experience, it does fall into wishful thinking but, hey, so what!
ASD
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