Great show, but still a ripoff of 4400...

[lazur]

- For the most part, they all show up around the same time
- Evil corporation bent on "controlling" or eliminating those with abilities
- One real bad villain that's seemingly more powerful than all others
- All are "linked" in some way
- Let's not even start on the special "inhibitors" both shows talk about
- Attempted suicide by casting one's self off a building, but being unable to die due to an ability
- Many other similarities in scenes between the two shows, in order to demonstrate abilities

They've put an interesting spin on it, and some abilities are pretty unique to the show (melting appliances, for example, and no one flies in 4400 that I've seen), but all in all it's a copycat of 4400, probably with slightly better acting, not to mention support from people like Stan Lee and some pretty significant actors.

Like I said - great show, great idea, just not too original in terms of a television series. I just watched all 18 episodes to catch up and this'll be a regular part of my Monday evenings come April 23rd. Hopefully, they can part ways with the 4400 and move in a different direction that makes it seem like less of a ... clone.

 

[The Apocalypse]

- Evil corporation bent on "controlling" or eliminating those with abilities
- Attempted suicide by casting one's self off a building, but being unable to die due to an ability

There is an evil corp in about every show today. Peter wasn't trying to commit suicide, he was trying to fly.

 

[lazur]

There is an evil corp in about every show today. Peter wasn't trying to commit suicide, he was trying to fly.

I was talking about Claire.

 

[Katsuro]

I was talking about Claire.

Stll not suicide. She was videotaping her abilities. You think she invited that kid to watch her kill herself? I suppose him hitting her with his car was attempted suicide too?

And if you're gonna call it a ripoff of anything, shouldn't it be X-Men?

 

[lazur]

Stll not suicide. She was videotaping her abilities. You think she invited that kid to watch her kill herself? I suppose him hitting her with his car was attempted suicide too?

And if you're gonna call it a ripoff of anything, shouldn't it be X-Men?

Yeah, that's probably more accurate, calling it a ripoff of X-Men. The idea of The 4400 was pretty original - people taken by aliens (or a group of humans from the future) and imbued with special abilities through genetic science. Heroes, like X-Men, is just the sudden random appearances of people with super powers, as if through the natural evolution of humankind ... which, while cool, is a lot less believable.

 

[The Punisher]

I don't think it's a ripoff of the 4400. X-men sure, but I mean come one the powers are a bit different than the ones the X-men use. Sure, I agree the powers are simialr to the X-men and I think it's cool. But Heroes is it's own show, with it's own plot, characters and etc. Hell, Hayden even admits that the show is a bit like X-men and she thinks it's a godd thing.

Heroes pwnz all!

 

[Katsuro]

Yeah, that's probably more accurate, calling it a ripoff of X-Men. The idea of The 4400 was pretty original - people taken by aliens (or a group of humans from the future) and imbued with special abilities through genetic science. Heroes, like X-Men, is just the sudden random appearances of people with super powers, as if through the natural evolution of humankind ... which, while cool, is a lot less believable.

Who cares though, really? I mean, there's really no such thing as an original idea these days anymore. Everything's been done somewhere. So what if the basic concept has been used before, it's the characters and the stories that make it interesting.

Besides, the way it handles it is quite unique. 4400 may have people with powers, but they're a lot less flashy then most of the Heroes' powers, at least from back when i watched the show. Heroes manages to take superheroes, and place them in the real world. They dont have costumes or silly names, but they're still superheroes.

 

[The Punisher]

Who cares though, really? I mean, there's really no such thing as an original idea these days anymore. Everything's been done somewhere. So what if the basic concept has been used before, it's the characters and the stories that make it interesting.

Besides, the way it handles it is quite unique. 4400 may have people with powers, but they're a lot less flashy then most of the Heroes' powers, at least from back when i watched the show. Heroes manages to take superheroes, and place them in the real world. They dont have costumes or silly names, but they're still superheroes.

Well said one all counts.

 

[lazur]

Who cares though, really? I mean, there's really no such thing as an original idea these days anymore. Everything's been done somewhere. So what if the basic concept has been used before, it's the characters and the stories that make it interesting.

Besides, the way it handles it is quite unique. 4400 may have people with powers, but they're a lot less flashy then most of the Heroes' powers, at least from back when i watched the show. Heroes manages to take superheroes, and place them in the real world. They dont have costumes or silly names, but they're still superheroes.

I agree. I really do like the show. I guess the truth of there being no originality anymore is what bothers me most.

But still ... can't wait for April 23rd!

 

[The Punisher]

April 23 can't get here soon enough.

 

[rdh007]

[political attack ad deep voice]"lazur: Wrong on politics, wrong on Heroes, wrong for America."[/political attack ad deep voice]

Seriously though, glad you at least like the show. I do too.

 

[kedrell]

I'd say it'd be a lot more of a rip-off of X-Men if they all got together at a school, aquired costumes & code-names/secret identities and decided to fight crime. I really don't see them going in any direction like that. You could just as well say it's a rip-off of Unbreakable(super-heroes in the real world). I don't mind, I love it just the same.

 

[DBCrader]

Well, if you want to look at it that way, both shows could be considered rip-offs of fiction from long ago!!! The "Wildcards" series of books, and J. Micheal Strazynski's comic series "Rising Stars" bothe spring to mind!!!

 

[Avalanche]

- For the most part, they all show up around the same time

Oh come on. Completely different. In the 4400 they were all lumped back on earth in a great ball of light. In Heroes they've been emerging over a period of around 20 years, longer for all we know.

- Evil corporation bent on "controlling" or eliminating those with abilities

That's always going to be the case. And I wouldn't say the government in the 4400 were necessarily evil. Just severely misguided and driven by fear.

- One real bad villain that's seemingly more powerful than all others

Isabelle I guess

- All are "linked" in some way

They're not all that linked in the 4400. There are a couple of relations and that's it.

- Let's not even start on the special "inhibitors" both shows talk about

The 4400 is much further along on that slant. And again, where there are powers, there is always took of some kind of 'cure'.


I love the 4400, but Heroes is a better show, and as far as I'm concerned, not a rip-off at all. The share some ideas, but that's always going to happen with shows surrounding a similar basis.

 

[GL1]

- For the most part, they all show up around the same time
- Evil corporation bent on "controlling" or eliminating those with abilities
- One real bad villain that's seemingly more powerful than all others
- All are "linked" in some way
- Let's not even start on the special "inhibitors" both shows talk about
- Attempted suicide by casting one's self off a building, but being unable to die due to an ability
- Many other similarities in scenes between the two shows, in order to demonstrate abilities.

-They don't show up around the same time, ther've been several heroes in the past, perhaps with a single one showing up centuries ago.
-Not only are the goals of the company not clear, but they're not really evil, are they?
-Nikki's not a villain? Fine... but he's not more powerful than Peter or Hiro
-All people are linked someway in real life.
-There are no inhibitors in Heroes... yet
-The only similarity is the concept "normal people get superpowers, now what?" And it's been done better both before and after 4400.

Well, if you want to look at it that way, both shows could be considered rip-offs of fiction from long ago!!! The "Wildcards" series of books, and J. Micheal Strazynski's comic series "Rising Stars" bothe spring to mind!!!

Now you're talking... Rising Stars, as far as I know is the first comics to take the Superhero aspect out of comic books, and showcase normal people, just trying to get by and survive on extraordinary abilities. Even X-Men is about a team of superheroes, a group of people united in a common goal, and Heroes has none of that... it's only ties to X-Men being 'evolution' is the cause (or is it?), but the type of evolution and the results are completely different. There are some powers in X-Men that you seein Heroes, but there are some you don't, and you see the same powers in Heroes, X-Men, DC, Rising Stars and every superpowered universe around. They are the basics of super powers, and NO ONE has the same abilities as any X-Man... or Rising Star for that matter (IIRC)...

It depends upon what you call ripoff, though I guess... if you consider Spider-Man a ripoff of Superman, then yeah, I could see how Heroes is a ripoff of something... but it's unique enough that the passing similarities seems small to me...

 

[Antonello Blueberry]

The show is a rip-off of DP7.

 

[butt_salad]

Everything is a ripoff of Star Wars/Superman.

EVERYTHING! ****!

 

[CyberFaust]

Everything is a ripoff of Star Wars/Superman/Batman.

EVERYTHING! ****!

fixed

 

[PLAS]

- For the most part, they all show up around the same time
- Evil corporation bent on "controlling" or eliminating those with abilities
- One real bad villain that's seemingly more powerful than all others
- All are "linked" in some way
- Let's not even start on the special "inhibitors" both shows talk about
- Attempted suicide by casting one's self off a building, but being unable to die due to an ability
- Many other similarities in scenes between the two shows, in order to demonstrate abilities

They've put an interesting spin on it, and some abilities are pretty unique to the show (melting appliances, for example, and no one flies in 4400 that I've seen), but all in all it's a copycat of 4400, probably with slightly better acting, not to mention support from people like Stan Lee and some pretty significant actors.

Like I said - great show, great idea, just not too original in terms of a television series. I just watched all 18 episodes to catch up and this'll be a regular part of my Monday evenings come April 23rd. Hopefully, they can part ways with the 4400 and move in a different direction that makes it seem like less of a ... clone.

Ladies and gentlemen.... There is only one lazur, accept no substitutes

and I guess we'll now have to have him around here too

and now that we're talking about the whole "Heroes is a rip-off of ________", lemme chip in too

Heroes is a ripoff of The Tomorrow People and Misfits Of Science

 

[The Punisher]

The show is a rip-off of DP7.

Never heard of it.

 

[DBCrader]

It depends upon what you call ripoff, though I guess... if you consider Spider-Man a ripoff of Superman, then yeah, I could see how Heroes is a ripoff of something... but it's unique enough that the passing similarities seems small to me...

And Superman was a rip-off, or at least mined heavily, pulp hero Doc Savage... Doc had the "Fortress of Solitude" in the Arctic long before Superman did!!!

 

[lazur]

Ladies and gentlemen.... There is only one lazur, accept no substitutes

and I guess we'll now have to have him around here too

and now that we're talking about the whole "Heroes is a rip-off of ________", lemme chip in too

Heroes is a ripoff of The Tomorrow People and Misfits Of Science

Ah, another jab based upon nothing more than your disagreeing with me politically. Thanks, thanks for the display of arrogance and intolerance.

As to the topic at hand, I'm not talking about stories and/or comics that haven't been adapted to mainstream television, k?

 

[Antonello Blueberry]

Never heard of it.

DP7 was a Marvel comic-book of the New Universe line, written by the late Mark Gruenwald with art by Paul Ryan.
The premise was of ordinary people who all of sudden developed extraordinary powers and they banded together trying to understand how this happened and what they could do about it. They were taken to a sort of "clinic" where they tried to take control of them.

 

[zanos]

I watch both shows and while each may share similiar characteristics or themes it kind of ends there. Heroes takes it to a completely different level.

 

[bulok]

4400 made an excellent mini-series with the mysteries and questions etc. when they went beyond the first season, it sucked.

Heroes formula will be good for as long as they keep the writing direction they have been.