I just began watching Alphas, the SyFy original series based on individuals who have superhuman abilities investigating crimes committed by other individuals with Superhuman abilities. When I first saw trailers for this show, I got very excited because I had already seen NBC's Heroes and I needed another fix of superhero television.
What I actually got wasn't exactly what I expected. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it to a point, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for. Of course I've only watched 5 episodes but from what I've seen and the fact that it's not being renewed for a third season, I'm gonna guess its going to stay what it is so far, which is Criminal Minds with super powers. Again, not a bad premise, just not what I was expecting.
Watching Alphas made me think of NBCs Heroes. I watched that show from its very beginning and I watched it all the way to the end. Yes, I saw the 2nd season train wreck that started the downfall and yes, I watched the circus act, AKA the 4th season. Did it get bad? Oh yes. Did I still enjoy it? Yes I did.
Both shows are put into quite a predicament that all live action superhero shows face. Superhero media needs a large scale, variety, and more than just the powers, it needs a story. It's easier with a medium of film because usually you have a budget to do so. Television on the other hand doesn't. Usually the show reaches a point that showing off different abilities is still needed but its not what keeps the show going, such happened with Heroes and I'm guessing it happens with Alphas (I don't know for sure).
Now you run into a different ball game with a show like Smallville. I am also starting Smallville in my summer of Superheroes and from the first episodes, I think I know why that show was able to go 10 seasons without losing its audience and Heroes could only do 4. Smallville had material to build off of. They had their goal: Make Clark Kent Superman. Everything in between was free range, play with cannon villans, make your own, have your teen drama, whatever, just go nuts. With Heroes, there was no end goal, at least not after the first season. They had to keep coming up with abilities to keep people interested and keep their stories not only good, but straight with their characters which they eventually did not do. Overall, it kinda turned out to be a giant mess in the end.
I'm interested in seeing what happens with the new SHIELD television show that is coming out this fall. They have some material to draw from but in a way their going into uncharted territory.
But I digress. Alphas is a very similar premise to Heroes. You've got a bunch of people with super human abilities and they have to adapt to live with those abilities. Where Alphas gets it right, I think, is that these people have known that something is special about them their entire life but this team they form is a way to harness that power and use it for good. In a sense, it skips their origin story.
Now this sounds like a bad idea but frankly, it is very hard to do an origin story in a television show unless that is your entire premise like Smallville was. Heroes always was somewhere in between. Lots of the times, Heroes didn't have a direct goal, it was just day to day life of these characters who have superhuman abilities. They're not using them in extraordinary ways, they're just living their lives wondering why they're not normal. Again, there was no end goal for Heroes, they weren't destined to dress up in costumes and fight crime, a lot of them didn't have any interest in that, they were just surviving.
Alphas, the characters are actually fighting crime in a logical way. And that really sums up Alphas for you. Everything is based in science and plausibility. For example, one of the Alphas is a man who has super strength. (there's a scientific word they use at the beginning but I'm not going to look for it, its just super strength) Whenever this guy wants to use his strength or enhance his physical abilities, he swells up, you see his blood start to pump (literally, there's shots of inside his body) and when he overexerts himself, he basically goes into cardiac arrest. Could it actually happen? No. If it could would it happen like this? Probably. It very based in science, which is an interesting take. However, that element of it limits where the show goes. It makes it lose the comic book feel that Heroes often brought. Again, I've only watched 5 episodes, but there's this one episode where the super strength guy is going after this guy. He needs to stop him so he pushes a car at him. I wanted him to just flip the car over onto the guy. Unfortunately, not only is that not the kind of action this character would do, chances are he can't do that. The superpowers I've seen in the first five episodes just seem like enhanced real like skills. So far there's no flying (although I have seen something in the opening theme sequence) no telekinesis, no feeling that these guys are superheroes. Again, its not horrible, its just not what I expected.
So a side by side comparison
Story
The two have very different styles of storytelling. One is written by Tim Kring who has this whimsical feeling to his shows. He's not exactly Joss Whedon but he's a lot more comic booky and gives that feeling to Heroes. Alphas on the other hand is written by Zak Penn who is best known for his work with the Dark Knight trilogy and Man of Steel. His writing is a little darker but again, is more based in fact. You're not going to get too many comic book nods from Zak Penn unless it is required of him, which in Alphas, its not. In my opinion, based off of what I've seen so far, the story of Alphas on the surface is a little bit better. I read something that it doesn't fall into the regular traps that a lot of these shows do where it no longer feels new, which I think happened with Heroes. It follows the episodic forumla (very similar to Criminal Minds) where characters have their own personal problems but the show is more based on the events that happen in each episode and how these characters react. Heroes is the exact opposite. In fact I can't recall what happens in individual episodes because they just follow the storyline of individual characters. They're all connected and although each episode has its conflicts, its more based on the journey of individual characters. Both shows work well with the formula they use but Alphas is a little more organized and less likely to fall apart. Although Heroes got more seasons, I'm going to have to say Alphas has the better story structure based on its organization and ability to grow naturally.
Characters
This section isn't exactly fair because I've only watched 5 episodes of Alphas compared to 4 seasons of Heroes. As I said before, Heroes is a little more character driven whereas Alphas is episodic. Obviously the characters of Heroes are a little more developed. However, I do like the characters of Alphas, a lot. I didn't think I would when I watched the first episode. I didn't connect to characters like I did with Heroes right off the bat. The unfortunate part about Heroes is that there were a bunch of characters I liked in the first season, I continued to like them in the following seasons but their motivations shifted and frankly things happened to them that didn't make sense. Despite strange shifts in characters, Heroes wins the character contest mostly due to the formula it holds
Super Powers
Again I'm only basing this off of 5 episodes, but even in five episodes I have seen a lot of the powers of the main characters. Although there is definitely more to come, the powers of Heroes are definitely more impressive and more gripping. As was stated before, the abilities in Alphas are based in science and have logical explanations to them. This however limits the badassery of these powers. Since its not comic books, I'm guessing I'm not going to see Bill Harken flip over a car with super strength. The show keeps teasing me with moments of that comic book feeling but they're short lived and still are somewhat plausible. For example, you'd never see a guy like Sylar in a show like Alphas. Even though the powers of Heroes are more epic feeling, the powers of Alphas have a realistic feel to them and are clever in their own right. A great example of this is the second episode of the first season when they are looking for an Alpha who is a master tactician. He foresees cause and effect and is therefore able to use it to his advantage. Its not incredibly extraordinary and it kind of makes you wonder if there is actually a person who is that much of a strategist. He basically should be in all the Final Destination movies because it was a bunch of those scenarios. An episode later I realized that that guy was the Isaac Mendez of Heroes. He could tell the future. This was a very very cool episode and I'm not sure yet if I've seen an episode that can top that one. So while Heroes may still win the cool superpowers competition, its only because they're more comic book like. For example, you would never see a guy with flames coming out of his hands in Alphas. You see that in Heroes and I like that. It doesn't matter if its not scientifically plausible, it looks badass and it sets the story in a world a little bit more epic.
I think that's pretty much all I wanted to say about these two shows. I'm bummed that Alphas only got two seasons because I'm just starting to like it. Basically you have two very similar premises executed in two very different ways. In short, I wanted a good superhero television show with long lasting stories and characters with a pluthera of both stunning and clever superpowers. In a sense certain elements from one show and certain elements from the other. Hopefully, SHIELD will give me that perfect in between I'm looking for... I doubt it.
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