Sometimes you tune into a programme and are not sure of the tone: is 'Torchwood' supposed to be serious or comedic? Is 'Coronation Street' supposed to be that crap? Is 'Come Dine With Me' a cooking show or a mental evaluation of its contestants?
One such show was 'Superheroes of Suburbia', a show I'd never planned on watching but my parents had Sky plussed it and, at ten at night, there's little else to do when you're tired and at your parents. For those of you who didn't see it, it was basically a real-life 'Kick Ass', with three ordinary people donning lycra, masks and, in one case, a full Roman Centurion costume, and heading out onto the streets to battle unruly behaviour, solve crimes and, er, attempt to kick some ass.
Now, I was under the impression that this was a spoof show, ala 'Look Around You', made to look real but actually fake. How else would you explain someone walking around drunken clubbers dressed like Maximum Idiotus the third; a teenage superhero who suffers from panic attacks when dealing with people, and a man with smoke bombs whose hero tactic is to scare off teenagers from riding their bikes around a local car park. It's hardly undermining the criminal belly of Gotham City.
When the wife of one of them has to place an advert in a paper for a sidekick as she's worried her husband will be attacked whilst out hero-ing, and a man dressed as a jester-version of Spider-man turns up to audition, giving him defence lessons with a walking stick that he carries with him 'for medical reasons', you wonder if someone has spiked your drink or that it's not really that truthful.
Granted, the three individuals featured suffered from some level of mental problem, so it went from a harmless documentary to a Channel 5-style "hey, look at these weirdos", but there's something that didn't quite fit. There are lots of have-a-go-heroes and reports of people dressing up as superheroes in the paper, but I'm not sure how true this one was. It was more surreal than if your gran turned up at your house dressed as one of the members of KISS. With a warthog. Wearing a tutu.
And it speaks.
Anyway, the people in it were all harmless and maybe doing some good, even at the detriment to their safety. I'm just not sure if the documentry was an amusing look at their achievements or a voyeristic finger-pointing at people with disabilities. One of them suffered from aspergers and his love of comics has translated into what he wants to do in real life. Is that observing a harmless fantasy or highlighting his lack of grasp on reality?
Or, in fact, whether they were any good as superheroes; for a start off, through captions, they revealed their identities. And where they lived. And the chap who had lots of samurai swords kept them in a weakly locked shed at the end of the house. Hardly the bat cave, just as one's method of transport - a pushbike - was hardly the batmobile. I was disappointed though that the Dark Spartan, the aforementioned Centurion superhero, didn't ride around on a chariot. Or at least a Segway with spokes on, pulled by two hobby-horses.
Overall it was an unusual half an hour, but was undoubtedly entertaining, even if the line between observation and mickey-taking was blurred throughout it. I still think someone had spiked my drink though. Where's a superhero when you need one?
The episode did remind me, though, of that great joke by Stewart Francis from "Mock The Week". "Hello... I'm Procrastination Man... hey, wait, where is everybody? And why is there blood everywhere?"
I think the show has inspired me to be a superhero, though. I'm going to become the invincible 'Mothman'... and here I am to save you all... ooh, bright light...
