Ugh, enough with the superhero shows... What am I saying!?

Aquaman is the latest superhero pilot to come along, but unlike NBC's Heroes, it did not get picked up. Because money was spent on it, The WB has released it on iTunes for $1.99. Making it the first show they carried that never aired.

The show switches titles from "Aquaman" to "Mercy Reef" almost weekly, but it is indeed about the King of Atlantis before he becomes the most joked about JL member. It's from the producers of Smallville and given the same treatment. There's an overlasting show mythology, semi-star studded/hot-young cast, a coming of age message, and of course superhero action.

Naturally, I had to check it out. I doubt anyone else here will pay-to-watch so I'll sum up my obviously biased thoughts.

It's a good pilot, but it doesn't hold up quite like the Smallville pilot did. I admit, I know jackshit about Aquaman. I make fun of him constantly and I've only read two issues of his comic in my life. But the show does make me interested in him. He's been exiled from Atlantis (existing in the Bermuda Triangle) and doesn't know his heritage. It's up to badass Ving Rhames to teach him. Hands down, Ving is the reason to watch the pilot and he's the reason to watch week after week. A.C. (Aquaman's human name) works at a boat shop with his obvious potential love inteterest, Eva. There's a subplot involving a government agency investigating the triangle and another female pilot whose past is not explained in the pilot, but whose life is saved by Aquaman (ala Lex Luthor, perhaps?).

I should mention that because this show takes place with a young cast in Florida, there is plenty of skin to be shown. I'm sure that alone would keep the male audience interested. But isn't that also the case with the OC?

The actual plot of the episode is a Siren discovering that Orin (Aquaman's ocean name) is hiding on land and she has to kill him (btw, The Siren is played by Adrianne Palicki who also played Supergirl on Smallville). It's a rather small monster-of-the-week appearance, but the first Smallville villain wasn't much cooler either.

By the end of the show we know:
The government knows something is going on in Mercy Reef.
The pilot might remember that AC used special powers to rescue her.
Eva knows about AC's destiny and possibly his powers.
Ving Rhames is going to mentor AC.
AC and his father, Lou Diamond Phillips, have an estranged relationship.
Atlantis is under oppression and Aquaman is their symbol of hope.

There's potential for a good series here, but it's missing that hook that Smallville had. I refer to the Clark/Lex relationship. Part of the fun of Smallville is knowing how the show will end and the journey to get there keeps the audience watching. Not to mention Lex Luthor is an interesting enough character to have his own show. Aquaman misses its appeal of a sympathetic villain. However, I'm not saying that Aquaman should have this element to it, but that this was the factor that separated Smallville from other shows. Aquaman is missing a hook to get it separated from other shows like Dark Angel, Blade, or even The Dead Zone.

Unless your curious about what this show is, or you're just a big Aquaman fan, I wouldn't recommend the pilot. Don't invest the time to try to understand a show that might never happen. It's interesting though, I give them that. If it does return as a midseason replacement show, I'll be watching.

Syd Lexia wrote:

If Lou Diamond Phillips is his father, does that mean Aquaman is hispanic?

Technically, he's just a legal guardian. His biological father was "killed" (meaning will show up later in the series) back in Atlantis.

And granted Aquaman gets shit on daily the world over. I do know one Aquaman supporter who says Aquaman's powers are not limited to the sea. He also has superior strength and protective skin on land due to his ability to survive in even the deepest of waters. His favorite arguement is that Earth is a majority of water and there's a lot of shit happening under the sea.

S. McCracken wrote:

As many of the people I hang out with on a daily basis will attest, I hate Smallville... (edit - to save room) ...It's for retards, the children of retards, and the elderly who leave it on in their hospital rooms to speed up the dying process.

Wow! LOL. That was fun to read

S. McCracken wrote:

No problem, it's a passion I guess. Whether I'm talking about my hatred of things or writing scathing reviews about those things, I don't know.

Well, at least the world will never run out of acrimonious elucidations.

Just keep an eye on the pink slime level underneath New York

JEW wrote:

aquaman dropped a whale on namor during the DC vs Marvel series. all sins forgiven.

But they're the same person... just with different religious preferences. Shouldn't they turn into a large jell-o mass and fall apart when they touch?

DarkMaze wrote:

Douche McCallister wrote: Smallville is shit, absolutely no question there. Fixed.

I recall you saying you haven't watched the show. I also remember you agreeing that the series was better than that silly, fanfic "Returns" movie.

DarkMaze wrote:

I don't think that was me. I haven't watched Smallville in a long while, but I've seen a number of episodes. And I'll gladly take Superman Returns over Smallville, but it's still not a great flick.

*barf*

I can overlook not watching the show, but to prefer a film that has nothing to do with The Man of Steel and encourages immoral behavior is just complete and utter atrocious uncultivated nonsense.

Any Antisemitism I have in me is directly responsible because of Bryan Singer. I'll leave the screenwriters out of it, because after reading the script I saw that they addressed issues Singer ignored.

While researching Spider-Man demographic numbers, I came across this old article:

http://www.ejumpcut.org/currentissue/SmallvilleFans/fans2.html

Despite how dated it reads, it's a pretty nice breakdown of the other side of television culture and marketing, even for you critics of "Smallville" and "Spider-Man"

Though looking at the show's changes from first season to the current, I have to say they've gotten away from what the show used to be. Music is cut down to about two songs per episode, gone are the "moral of the week" (for the most part), and the show focuses more on serial story telling than switching like the X-Files.

Looking at the original WB strategy:
1. pursue a young audience;
2. draw upon the cultural capital of a character associated with both American-ness and comic book fandom;
3. encourage the active participatory culture of both these groups by extending the text of the show into familiar formats of fandom.

1. I think "Smallville" current is less friendly to new younger watchers. Instead, the show has decided to mature for fans who started watching in 2001. As I didn't join the show until 2006, I felt there was an obvious shift in audience while I crammed 4 seasons in two months. If a 13 year old watched the last new episode for example, I think they'd be less excited about it than they would have had they seen the Bug episode of season one. This is only taking into account energy and presentation, not writing.

2. This is still very much around. There's a sense of new mythology integrating with existing history. Episodes are in television structure, but follow plot points closer to a comic book rather than "Brothers & Sisters". Same is true for "Heroes" and "Lost".

3. I'm not 100% sure what #3 means except that they wanted viewers to obsess about the show. Whether they post online about it, form groups, write fan fiction, read the comics, and/or read the novelizations. I'd argue every show wants to have this kind of connection with its audience. I know I'm more excited about a show that is a little more complicated than standard shows and I actually enjoy taking "notes". Again, same is true for "Heroes" and especially "Lost".

"24" is much more 'action of the week' than super plotted, but still cashes in on fan participation. It makes fans want to predict what will happen. And, as a super fan, makes us want to read the books, comics, and buy the video games.

I've lost focus of what I started this post about, but the original point was that article above is a real interesting read.

Douche McCallister wrote:

You still watching the current Smallville season, is it good so far? I missed some in the middle so I stopped watching it as not to spoil anything.

Where'd you stop?

My breakdown of the season:

Started fairly well...
( 601-604)
Then it really started to go down in quality...
(605-610)
Then it got really, really good
(611-615)
Now it's in the "end of the season" kind of arc mode, which starts back up this week for the final five episodes of the season)
(616-622)

So is it good? The first half of the season is really saved single handedly by Green Arrow, but after the JLA episode it got much, much better. The Lana story arc has its moments, the Chloe arc is awesome, Clark's arc is a little unfocused this year each episode depending on whether he's trying to avoid or save Lana that episode. They also introduced what I think will be a key arc for next season, which I think is amazing. Let's just say MMH...

Douche McCallister wrote:

Martian Man Hunter will be cool.

They say Clark's real training will come into play next season, which is what I'm excited for.

Plus, Green Arrow this season has really won me over for bringing in other DC characters.

Oh, and semi-spoiler, Michael Rosenbaum's been saying that the Lex arc will wrap up next season so he can leave the show. If the show does get an eighth season, the lack of Lex could really open the door for a more world prospective than just Clark vs. Lex... or the show will fall apart. One or the other.