From the Outside
January 24th, 2010 by Esther Inglis-Arkell | Tags: DC comicsI was interested in Graeme McMillan’s review of Human Target. He comes to the conclusion that pretty much everyone else I’ve talked to did; it’s an okay show, but it’s nothing even remotely like the comic book. Although the commenters on io9 seemed to take it pretty well, I’m wondering how fans who are more invested in the comic would take it.
I wonder this for two reasons:
1. It’s really not an okay show. It’s a drinking game kind of show. One drink for every time Chance pauses in the middle of an action sequence to make a big production of being the coolest guy on earth. One drink for every time Chance’s boss is humiliated. One drink for every time Guerrero looks at someone with his steely eyes and they back down for no reason because he is just. That. Dangerous. It’s only a show you watch if nothing, nothing at all, else is on and you’re too tired to focus on anything else.
2. Most of the time I am the one who gets angry when this kind of thing happens, and now someone else will be angry instead. Once such a large amount of you gets invested in comics, it’s nice to sit on the sidelines with popcorn and watch the drama unfold.
Similar Posts:
- Theme Music
- “Reruns of Your Grief”
- B is for Brains! That’s Good Enough for Us!
- Faith Erin Hicks on Finding A Balance
- Short Takes
I really liked the Peter Milligan Vertigo series, but I also enjoy the TV show. I don’t know why they felt the need to option the property if they were going to just use the name and alter what he does, but I can understand not wanting to have a different actor basically play your lead character every week. It’s a fun, stupid kind of show… something that I’ll watch if I have the time, but not get too upset over should I miss an episode.
Guerrero not Rodriguez, but since they’re both sufficiently hispanic sounding so … I guess that’s easy mistake for certain people to make?
He’s kind of the only reason I’d consider watching the show, just something about him. Also I’ve come to enjoy Haley.
Think of it this way . . . at least Chi McBride has work so soon after Pushing Daisies. And he’s more or less playing the same character: a cranky straight man who’s easily exasperated. Good times.
@Nathan: Goddamnit, I’m stupid. Changing it now. Sorry.
The steely eyes work on you? I don’t know. He just seems like so much show to me. We don’t ever see him do anything cool, but everyone acts like he’s the scariest thing in the world. It reminds me of those long build-ups on The West Wing, where they would banter about something without explaining it so we were on the edge of our seat when they finally decided to tell us what it was. The gimmick gets tired after a while.
@Chad Nevett: Aren’t we living in the age of CGI? It would be cool if they could put in a virtual actor, or have virtual characteristics. Or maybe that would be too Polar Express.
@Jason: Okay, but his character kind of bothers me, too. He’s the boss, but all he seems to do is play Watson. “Why do you want that? What are you doing here? Why would he do that? What’s going on? You better not do that! Aw, you did it even though I told you not to! You better not do it again. Crap, you did it again!”
It really is a very slight show. But since I can’t have Valley in Keen Eddie or Chi McBride in Pushing Daisies, I guess I’ll just have to settle for this…
I can@Esther Inglis-Arkell: yes.
“I really liked the Peter Milligan Vertigo series, but I also enjoy the TV show. I don’t know why they felt the need to option the property if they were going to just use the name and alter what he does”
The only explanations that I can think of is that they thought the name was really, really good and wanted to use it but didn’t care about the concept, or that they started out wanting to follow the premise of the comic but as they went through production it was slowly altered into something else.