The Problem with Alphas and other shows

[darlarosa]

So I do not know how many people here have watched the show Alphas, but along with the many problems in the show I noticed something that bothers me. In Alphas you basically have the "good mutants, the good alphas" and "the bad mutants, the bad alphas". The show has soo many narrative problems, that I would rather not get into, but in short the characters come off as relatively unlikable, inconsistent, and also as unknowingly assisting the government doing horrible things. In an effort to make our "heroes" seem just they depict all the bad alphas as abusing their powers, and ultimately worthy of incarceration...and worse.

The show basically tries to justify the good guys as being good, because showing truly empathic characters consistently on "the other side" makes things more questionable.

Perhaps I'm oversimplifying but basically like so many shows the majority of the bad guys are almost "overly bad" in order to make the protagonists look better. To a certain extent this is always done in narrative...but to me Alphas an other shows build everything up as almost unrealistic. There is simply not enough there besides "bad guy is bad" that makes me, as a viewer, root for the protagonists. Then you have the antagonists, who honestly have the very valid reasoning for their actions, who are comprised of primarily irredeemable characters.

To me shows where it feels like the antagonist is only dramatically evil to make the protagonist seem good, suffer from a narrative flaw. It can be done well, Dexter, for example, features a character who does morally wrong(depending on who you ask) things, but he comes off as having good characteristics...then his antagonists are depicted as relatively balanced characters. Even the "evil" antagonists are interesting and are more complex than just being bad.

Are their other shows that are consistently depicted as being like this?
What do you guys think about this ploy in narrative?

 

[PleaseDele]

So your post makes me think of two things. As for the whole "black and white, good versus bad" thing, I feel it's indeed quite a shame when a show goes for such a simple difference.

However, I've seen Alpha's and I don't fully agree with you. I forgot how the girl that was unable to talk was called, but you know who I mean right? Anyway, she hints at something dark without being truely evil. If anything, the government seems to be the badguy.

Spoiler: Spoiler warning

Why else would the doc unveil the conspiracy in the end? Just to open the publics eye to th eevil government.

But I feel in Season 2 we're getting a more intrecate story. We've only seen the first season, which is often more basic. Intrecate story plots don't usually happen till season 2 or even later.

But your right about the narrative flaws. They are there. I think the point is, that Antagonists don't have to be evil, just on the opposite team. Something that could be used for a plot twist later on in a show or something.

Anywayz, lost my train fo thought. Cyaz

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well the basic problem with Alphas is that the whole thing is incredibly cheap, from the few shows I've seen it would appear they were made for some youtube channel, mostly filmed in peoples flats, writing that wouldn't sell for a cup of coffee and actors that just got no other job.
They really have no idea how to present their grand scheme of things, heck I doubt they even have one, and judging their ideas from such poor delivery is next to impossible.

Now Heroes, that was a great mutant show, sadly all their season 1 writers were victims of a horrible plane crash ... probably not exactly true but it all went to shit there after.

 

[Dandark]

I know what you mean, it get's boring a lot of the time when they make they do hat. It's actually one of the things I like about anime, they usually show the bad guy in a balanced way rather than just "BAD GUY IS BAD! HE KILLED KITTENS!!!". Of course this depends entirely on what you watch I suppose.
One of my favorite shows is Code Geass just because it can become hard to decide who you is the good guy.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

I think the show has potential, as an above poster said, we've only seen the first season, now is the time when they should really start diving into more personal things.

Of course they aren't going to show all their cards right off the bat, these shows are created with the possibility of five or more seasons, they need material to fill all those.

I do admit I'm getting tired of the whole "good alphas vs bad alphas" thing, it feels like a generic villain of the week plot line.

 

[Zaik]

Maybe I misunderstood, but I thought that all of the Alpha "mutations" caused terrible psychological issues?

That *might* explain why that old guy is always giving therapy to the "good guys". Maybe.

 

[Sean Steele]

Too many kick the dog moments for the villains, before they go off to seethe in their skull fortress, yeah that happens a lot in American Television. There are some notable exceptions of course but it dose happen a great deal.

 

[high_castle]

Black and white morality is common in American television because it's easier to write and these seasons need to be churned out. You can sometimes see more nuanced characters on the premium channels (Showtime's Dexter, HBO's Game of Thrones), but that's not always a guarantee.

AMC's The Killing did a good job of having all it's characters rooted thoroughly in the "morally gray" area. Of course, it had a shorter season on a cable network. They can afford to be a little "edgier" because they don't need to worry about hooking a huge share of the mainstream audience. Breaking Bad, The Wire, Life, and BSG also all explore more complex characters.

Shows with interesting morals are out there. You just need to do some digging.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I've never seen Alphas, so maybe it's the exception to the rule, but in my experience the problem today is that there aren't enough good people on /either/ side. It's pretty much a choice between a bunch of assholes that you're supposed to hate because the writers want you to, and a bunch of assholes that you're somehow still supposed to like because... the writers want you to. I love it when shows have heroes and villains on both sides of a conflict (see:my avatar), but the problem is that these days, it's all villains all the time. I blame Battlestar Galactica, personally.

 

[frizzlebyte]

I actually liked Alphas when I could watch it (don't have cable tv; too darned expensive for the few good channels). I thought that the Doctor, whatever his name was, was really convincing at times for his role.

But I think there is a bit too much of the Anti-hero bullcrap going on with tv right now. Not that the shows aren't good, just that they need to do something else with new shows coming out.