I read this blog post today and it prompted me to write my own. The aforementioned blog discusses the merits of Heroes vs Lost. We all have our opinions, and as such I feel obligated to deliver mine.
But first let’s discuss the shows. Lost has and always will have a cooler concept. The whole idea of being Lost somewhere in another time/place/dimension is creepy especially now that there’s a few seasons behind us, I think it’s safe to say Lost has a lot more promise. Heroes
is, and only aspires to be, a comic book. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. And, in fact, Heroes delivers what it promises whereas Lost has lost its way. That’s not quite true actually, Lost has not become lost, but it has become inconsistent.
I am going to use the same grading scale as The Jay did in his blog and provide my own commentary and answers. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Jay’s post enough to make my own commentary. I just think his answers aren’t all correct. Let’s see how it works out.
Better Central Concept (Advantage: Lost): As I said above, Heroes is a comic book and aspires to be nothing more or less. That’s not bad, but Lost aspires to be many things on many levels. We’re discussing the concept and not the execution of the concept. That’s a key difference and Jay blew it there.
Least Annoyingly Self-righteous Male Lead with a Background in Medicine and Emotionally Unavailable Fathers (Advantage: Lost): Wow, an easy one. I have to say Jack is less annoying than Peter because Peter is whiney and annoying whereas Jack is just annoying. They share self-doubt at times, though expressed in different ways. But if you wanted to have one guy at your back, I think we’d all pick Jack.
Hotter Resident Slamming Hottie (Advantage: Heroes): This isn’t a tough one, claims Jay but he blew the answer. Evangeline Lilly versus Hayden Panettiere — you have got to go with Hayden because all guys really want a cheerleader even if she isn’t quite 18 yet. This isn’t about execution — it’s about desire. We’ve all had that cheerleader fantasy. Don’t deny it. It’s a guy thing. I gotta’ teach this Jay guy about surveys. We’re answering the questions honestly.
Cooler Mysteriously Creepy Older White Guy (Advantage: Lost): Locke was a top-notch bad ass. I agree, Jay because Locke is the opposite of Bennet (H.R.G.) — both are creepy and in retrospect HRG is a better guy. And it comes down to who would you trust? Bennet, of course. Which is why Locke wins hands down because we just haven’t figured him out yet.
Cooler Long-haired, Bearded Rebel (Advantage: Lost): This is a no-brainer. Sawyer is in a class all by himself.
Better Villain (Advantage: Lost):
Sylar is a psychopath and Ben is a psychopath. Sylar, however, is a boring psychopath whereas Ben is fucking creepy yet interesting. There’s a fine line between evil and cliché and evil and fascinating. Sylar’s a comic book character and we can’t forget it, but with Ben it’s hard to remember he’s not real. Besides, Sylar looks like Peter Petrelli and Ben looks like Hannibal Lechter which is a double bonus.
Least Offensive Asian Stereotype (Advantage: Lost): I love Hiro Nakamura to death and he’s so freaking cool, but I keep thinking of some old stereotypical Asian cartoon character going “Meesta Magloo, Meesta Magloo.” Whereas both Korean characters on Lost are just normal people who speak Korean. I have to give this to Lost even though I like Hiro better.
Most Interesting Set of Numbers (Advantage: Lost): Lost has 4 8 15 16 23 42, and everyone wants to know what they mean. Heroes doesn’t have numbers.
Least Offensive Middle Eastern Stereotype (Advantage: Heroes): Mohinder is boring and Sayid is really interesting. Yeah, we all get that. They are both stereotypes of a sort. But Mohinder is probably supposed to be Indian and he’s not selling Slurpees and driving a cab, so that’s a plus. Sayid is into that whole torture thing, something he excels at too. So, this is close, but Mohinder is least likely to offend.
Cooler Silent African Dude (Advantage: Tie): I have no comment and agree with Jay. I’d give a slight edge to Eko only because he talked and as such, we could learn about him.
Better Young Black Kid With Special Powers and Bad Dads (Advantage: Heroes): Hell yeah. This one’s easy. Michael (Walt’s dad) was irritating and I’m glad we’ve possibly seen the last of him. Micah’s dad is not so interesting, but he doesn’t irritate me — or maybe it’s didn’t now? But if you had to have a cool little kid brother, who would you pick? Micah or Walt? Right. Nobody picked Walt. Nobody.
Better Audience Desirability a.k.a. Which show would you rather be a character on? (Advantage: Heroes): Easy. If you’re on Lost, you’re a red-shirt and will die.
Better Blonde Femme Fatale / Least Useless Eye Candy (Advantage: Heroes): This category is also no-contest. Although one of my least favourite characters, Niki and Jessica are interesting and Lost’s best effort was Shannon and now Juliette. Only Juliette doesn’t interest me as eye candy, though her character is kinda’ cool. I’m going with the Freud-experiment twins.
More Quotable One-Word Catchphrase (Advantage: Tie):
Neither of these shows has anything worthwhile. However, Heroes has a better tagline this year “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” I’d give this to Heroes, but it doesn’t satisfy the question.
Most Annoying, Most Annoying Character (Advantage: Heroes): Jay blew this one. Charlie’s a good actor, a complex character, and everybody’s favourite little hobbit. Oh, shit, there aren’t hobbits on the island? Damn. Well that mucks it up quite a bit. My problem with Heroes is there are so many characters I don’t like: the cop, the twin-psycho bitch, and so on. Based on sheer quantity of irritating characters, this goes to Heroes.
Which show gives the better goods? (Advantage: Tie): Wow. A toughie. So many questions and so few answers. Heroes delivers more answers and replaces them with new questions while Lost just makes new questions and doesn’t really answer many. This is a hard call because this is very personal and it’s what makes a show work (or not) for a person.
So after reading all this you’d think, wow Eric prefers Lost over Heroes. That’s what the numbers say. But, that shows you how valuable any survey really is. If I could watch one and only one of the two shows next season, I’d pick Heroes without a doubt. No hesitation. Numbers lie.