I mean, seriously, do they? Because I know I've ranted about this before but as I continue to work my way through The 4400, I just keep getting more and more incredulous and/or appalled. Aside from the whole "people inexplicably get superpowers" similarness of both shows' premises, there's some terribly identical plot elements. Again, for the record, The 4400 aired from 2004-2007; Heroes has been on since what, 2006?
To reiterate, in S3 of The 4400, an unempowered scientist inject himself with a manufactured potion which first disfigured him and then, after his skin all sloughed off and made him clean and pretty again, gave him an ability. That's been Mohinder Suresh's entire storyline this year thus far in Heroes. Also in S3 of The 4400, the government decided to inject a bunch of soldiers with the potion so as to create a squadron of supersoldiers for protection; you may recall that they attempted to do that in the last couple of episodes of Heroes - and the one Marine they supersized was played by a former 4400 actor.
I'm now several episodes into Season 4 of The 4400 (the final season) and this is what we get so far: one of the abductees is having visions of all the people with abilities being rounded up and put into internment camps. The person leading the charge to contain these superpowered people is a handsome WASPy man with dark hair who is either the President or up there very high in the U.S. government. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last episode of Heroes showed Nathan Petrelli (a a handsome WASPy man with dark hair who is President in one of the show's possible futures) leading the charge to round up all the empowered Heroes and put them into an internment camp.
Are you effing kidding me? How is it that no one is calling them on this? I realize that not that many people watched The 4400 but (1) it had to have some fans who should be noticing this and (2) what about its writers and producers? Heroes writing has been lazy for sure these last two seasons (not paying attention to continuty or character and don't get me started on the time travel timeline nonsense) but ripping off a previous show's storylines goes way beyond lazy. Tim Kring should be ashamed of himself.
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2 hours ago
I was a HUGE fan of The 4400, starting when it first came out years back (what sucked about it is that it was a 'summer' show, so you had to wait an entire year once a season ended for the next season). And I've noticed the similarities as well. I'd tell you another similarity between it, even using the actor from The 4400 that was in Heroes, as well... but I don't think you're far enough into season 4 yet, so I don't wanna spoil you.
ReplyDeleteBut I really don't care if it's original or not. Nobody (besides me, of course :P ) has original ideas anymore. And The 4400 was a great show, so I don't mind seeing the same plotlines being used with other interesting characters. To me, it's a plus... not an annoyance.
I could let it go if it were just the similar themes or even one identical plotline, but it just seems like such unrepentant wholesale pillaging. I suppose the Heroes casting of Chad Faust (Kyle Baldwin, The 4400; super-Marine, Heroes) is a little wink to the fans, saying, "Yeah, we know you know, so this is us saying you're right, we're copying .. but it's okay."
ReplyDeleteAlthough, you know, if they'd just kill off Mohinder, all would be forgiven.
Yes! Die Mohinder die! Heroes is a travesty. Myself and a friend have resolved to stop watching in '09. The Chapter 4 set up was so hella lame on top of the lame ending I've lost all interest.
ReplyDeleteI still need to rent 4400.