Heroes Analysis

The programme begins with the the Heroes iconography of planet Earth with a recap of the previous episode. The solar eclipse of Planet Earth had become the iconographgy of Heroes as they had used the same beginning for the three seasons. The series doesn't actually have a proper opening sequence as seen in many other shows that shows each characters and actors that play them, usually there is music in the background as well such as Friends. However over the years there has been some change, like Heroes, My Wife and Kids starts off with simply the title and a picture of the house and then starting the show. This is also the same with Heroes where Earth is shown and there is a rather strange sound in the background. Also they don't tell the audience any characters as they would have to find out on their own by watching the show.

In the title sequence has a voice over that recaps the previous episode for the viewer, they show the plot for each character as there are multiple stories going on in the shows, there isn't a single story as compared to other shows that may limit to just a single one. This makes Heroes unique in a way as the multiple storylines would keep the series intresting as they also contain cliffhangers that makes the audience hunger for more, this could also be what has made the series so strong.

There are ideologies in the programme such as the Petrellis being a family unit despite being a somewhat dysfunctional family. The episode begins with Peter Petrelli standing on top of a building, there are multiple shots used, firstly it is a close up of his face as he stands on the top, this cuts to a long shot showing a birds eye view from where he stands, to the ground. Immediately an enigma code is created as it raises questions to why Peter is doing that. Also the setting is in New York City, which is a very busy city where there would be such stereotypes such as a lot of business men and a flooding of taxis driven by immigrants. We see the binary opposition of Peter and his brother Nathan, one is a working class person, who is Peter, and Nathan who is seen in a more formal outfit who is in the programme is trying to be a Civil Servant.

Film Poster Analysis (Click to Zoom)

Cross Media Evaluation

The tv text and film i have chosen is the Spider-man TV series and its movie. These both films obviously have a link and the theme of both the tv text and film is animation comic/superhero.


TV Series:

The opening credits of Spider-Man (TV Series) starts of with a web filling up on the screen, because it is called 'Spider-man' it would make sense to start it off this way right off the bat this immediately goes to a scene showing the man himself web swinging through the sky scrapers of New York. Being the tagline of Spider-Man "With great power, comes great responsibility" we see an enemy of his attacking him, this then does a close up of his face showing that he's rising up to the challenge, plus there is added thunder to make it all seem so dramatic. From viewing the opening sequence we can see the animated series is targetted at a younger audience despite the fact that there is somewhat constant violence as various villans make attempts to eliminate spider-man. We don't only see him in his constume as the character is seen in the flesh, first taking a picture without a costume, then with a costume, this shows that he leads a double life.


The institution that made this tv series was Marvel Productions who also made other tv animated series.

There was also the movie released with two sequels following that. It was produced by Columbia Pictures.
Plus there was even a radio show called Spider-Man: From Beyond The Grave (1972).

FILM ANALYSIS