Sci Fi Channel and Stan Lee: Who Wants To Be A Superhero?

[Matthew Glover]

Okay, so this isn't precisely about Capes.

The SCI FI Channel, Nash Entertainment (Meet My Folks, For Love or Money, Who Wants to Marry My Dad?), and legendary comic-book creator Stan Lee (Spider-man, Hulk, The Fantastic Four, X-Men) will produce a six-episode, one-hour weekly competition reality series that will challenge a lucky few to create their very own superhero and reward the winner with the best reality competition prize yet: immortality!

All you'll need is an original idea for a superhero, a killer costume, and some real superhero mojo. The winner of this six-week competition will walk away with their superhero immortalized in a new comic book created by Stan Lee himself. It gets better: The winning character will also appear in an original SCI FI Channel movie!

http://www.scifi.com/superhero/

[TonyLB]

I'd heard about this before.  I'm not optimistic.

Reality television, for all that I love it (and my love of, at least, Amazing Race is deep and abiding) is about the banal, mundane weaknesses of human existence and the utter rarity (and value) of genuinely decent human beings.  Superheroes inspire us to believe that each and every one of us has a spark of heroism and virtue within us, and that the everyday vices are just passing things, that the virtue is truer and deeper.  Mixing the two strikes me as a recipe for disaster.

But I'm also fascinated.  Because ... y'know ... Stan Lee.  The man's not dumb.  And they say that they're testing on "courage, integrity, self-sacrifice, compassion, and resourcefulness" which is at least the right rhetoric.

And in a deeply snarky way I'd freakin' love to see some of the gorgeous male models who will no doubt apply be told "Okay, now you're going to have to figure out how to make a secret identity where you look like a complete and utter dork, and you'll have to live that way for the next two weeks, and if anyone figures out that you're good-looking then you lose."  Heh.

[Eric Sedlacek]

Reality television, for all that I love it (and my love of, at least, Amazing Race is deep and abiding) is about the banal, mundane weaknesses of human existence and the utter rarity (and value) of genuinely decent human beings.  Superheroes inspire us to believe that each and every one of us has a spark of heroism and virtue within us, and that the everyday vices are just passing things, that the virtue is truer and deeper.  Mixing the two strikes me as a recipe for disaster.

I'm actually not all that big on reality television.  It's not so much the psychology of the participants that bothers me it's the psychology of the viewership.  Ultimately, it is humiliation television, fueled by shadenfreude.  We watch to see people we don't like get what we imagine they deserve.  What really turns me off about reality television is not that I don't like the people participating...which I generally don't...but that I don't like myself when I am watching.  Then, there is, of course, the "uplifting" reality television which usually seems just banal. 

The vision of what this might be is compelling I admit, but my fears over what it will turn out to be will likely keep me away.

[TonyLB]

We watch to see people we don't like get what we imagine they deserve.

That's certainly what I watch for.  For that hour each week I freely indulge my desire to be a really petty person.  The rest of the week I feel a little bad about it.

[Eric Sedlacek]

That's certainly what I watch for.  For that hour each week I freely indulge my desire to be a really petty person.  The rest of the week I feel a little bad about it.

It's is probably similar for me.  It's just that in my case I feel bad enough to not watch it.  I've watched it in the past, some of the worst of it.

A lot of people say they avoid reality TV because they believe they are too good for it.  I avoid it because I know beyond a doubt that I am absolutely not too good for it.

If it were done really well, I mean really judging people on how heroically they behave, the superhero one could be really cool.  But I suspect the usual baggage will creep in.

[Sindyr]

The only "reality" TV I have watched is Rockstar:INXS, which I regretted, and Beauty and the Geek which is moderately amusing and even uplifting at times.

Most all of the other reality show I find depressing and not a good sign of the times.

[dunlaing]

I like a lot of bad reality TV. My favorite show so far was WB Superstar, which was a knockoff of American Idol, except they selected the worst singers, not the best. The deal was that they didn't tell the contestants and they only allowed people who seemed to legitimately think they were good singers (even though they SO were not).

So, yeah, I like being petty. It didn't ruin the rest of my week, though.

[David "Czar Fnord" Artman]

Hmmm... take American Idol's Simon... and a buncha guys in spandex suits proclaiming their super powers. Oh, dear.

Maybe the main show will have some heart--and you can rest assured it will have a LOT of latex and midrifts and curves (which is what will make ME tune in: superHEROINES!)--but I pity the folks who get onto the "outtakes" reel. Poor suckers. :-(

With fear and loathing... and hope for a lot of Catwomen variants;
David