The year was 2008--Macbook Airs were blowing people's minds, a black guy was elected President of the United States, and the Writer's Guild had a strike against Hollywood (a strike that completely killed FX's best TV show period, The R1¢hes, but also gave us the fantastic Conan vs. Stephen Colbert vs. Jon Stewart segments. And also made things better for screenwriters, etc., etc.).
Meanwhile, in rainy ol' England, iTV2's first original sitcom hit the air-waves: No Heroics.
From left to right, we have Excelsor (yes, without the "i"), She-Force, Timebomb, Electroclash, and The Hotness. Now, one other fun note before we continue: I have my doubts that anyone who lives outside England (for example, me) would recognize any of the actors right away, but we've all seen Excelsor before.
Patrick Baladi played Neil Godwin, one of the few competent (albeit dickish) staff members of Wernham-Hogg in BBC's The Office. Here's some of his previous problem-solving experience:
Neil Godwin - What I call a proper boss
No Heroics plays out like all the best low-to-no-budget TV shows and/or movies, by working with what it's got rather than trying to do something it can't afford to. Sub-par effects shots always, always, always ruin everything, I can't stress that enough, and thankfully, No Heroics is on the exact same page as me there. So what do the super-heroes do in a super-hero TV show all about a world full of super-heroes if they don't have giant super-hero/super-villain battles? They go to the pub and bust each other's balls.
I'm not gonna explain the reference, 'cause, y'know, but their local super-heroes-only pub, The Fortress, is where the majority of each episode takes place. There are three rules at The Fortress: "No Masks, No Powers, and No Heroics." The Hotness (controls heat/others think his super-hero name is really gay), She-Force (third strongest woman in the world/desperately seeking any man she can get), Timebomb (can see sixty seconds into the future/has a history of ultra-violent torture and also routinely gets kicked out of The Fortress for performing various acts of gay sex in it's bathroom), and Electroclash (can control machines and electronics with her voice/can't believe she used to date The Hotness before the events of the show) are our main running cast, although Excelsor (his specific powers are never really laid out, but he can fly and is the most famous of the super-heroes on the show; he's also a giant dick about it) is always at The Fortress giving them shit, too. Also, The Fortress' bouncer/doorman is a hero called Thundermonkey. (Let's read that word again, this time out loud because it is that great: Thundermonkey. C'mon, did you read that out loud? Say the word "Thundermonkey." Just say it, there's no way to do so without laughing.) When asked how long it takes his monkeys to come after he summons them in the first episode, he replies, "About two and a half hours." Again, not all the heroes are on an equal playing field, and reinforcing that idea really keeps the world that the show builds feel that much more plausible, on top of also making the characters that much more relatable. It's basically the Mystery Men formula as a TV show, and quite frankly, it's surprising a show like this wasn't made sooner.
No Heroics - Timebomb's Therapy Session
There
was an American adaptation ordered, but after producing a pilot that never even made it to air, ABC turned it down, and series creator Drew Pearce moved onto other projects (like co-writing Iron Man 3). So why bother bringing it up at all? Because Drew Pearce has his hands in a lot more giant nerd projects now (eg. The Runaways, another Godzilla reboot), and this show alone is 100% of the reason why. It was award-winning in Britain and way too easily missed anywhere else, but someone recently posted the whole uncut series on Youtube (for those of us without region-free DVD players), so do yourself a favour--give it a watch and get the DVDs (if you can use them--Region 2 only, remember).
Watch the whole series
here, buy the DVDs
here, and since you were so well-behaved through all that reading and scrolling, here's the first episode in full:
No Heroics - 01x01 - Supergroupie