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First just let me say I love Heroes, I love it LOTS, and I love it for it’s steady character development, plot arc and humour. I love the geek-talk, the effects, the variety of characters and the way the various abilities are being explored.
Heroes 1x05 Hiros and 1x06 Better Halves - On Telepathy
In which it’s OK to do Bad Things to Bad People.
This isn’t exactly a new idea but it fails to engage with what it means to be a person who is willing to do Bad Things.
Who is this character and what is he doing?
Matt Parkman slowly realises he is developing telepathic abilities at a crime scene when he hears a little girl when no one else can. He gets hijacked to work with the FBI to read minds for police work and uses his ability to work on his relationship with his wife Janice, anticipating her desires and attempting to fix their failing marriage.
As his abilities develop, he reads the minds of several people in his capacity as a cop and also discovers that his wife has been sleeping with someone. He later reads the mind of his ex-partner Tom, discovers that Tom has been sleeping with Janice and punches him in a rage.
How do we feel about him?
This has a nice ‘real’ feel to it; Matt doesn’t get time to find his feet, he doesn’t stop to think‘should I be doing this’, he just keeps moving and he copes as and when situations arise. He’s an engaging character, I understand a lot of what he’s going through and I sympathise with him. I appreciate the way he is developed as a sympathetic character because to me, his power is one of the scariest.
The other thing to notice here is that Matt always tries to do the right thing, he’s a caring guy, not super bright but solid. He has this ability and he’s going to use it, both for police work and in his personal life and conveniently, all the situations that arise professionally are situations in which he can do good.
What is he doing ethically?
What are the implications?
The disturbing assumption that underlies Matt’s ability is that because he has it, he is entitled to use it on people. It’s not just Matt who thinks this; his FBI co-worker doesn’t question it either. In fact it appears to be an assumption inherent in the show itself. Compare that with Torchwood’s take on the subject.
Matt isn’t behaving in an ethical way and yet there are no apparent negative consequences. He means well and is trying to do Good and we’re happy that he is one of the Good Guys so we don’t immediately question how he treats people. This is because the consequences haven’t caught up with him yet. So long as Matt isn’t put in a situation where the use of his abilities results in an unhappy ending he will appear to be functioning ethically. He’s also conveniently standing next to a lot of Bad People, which makes it that much harder to see how unethical his behaviour really is.
In ‘means to an end’ morality it doesn’t matter what you do or how you do it as long as it works out well in the end. This can look like ethical behaviour from a distance. The thing is, end results can be pretty hit and miss and they don’t address who you are and what you did.
You can see it unravelling in his personal life; Matt’s doing something truly revolting in ethical terms here, he’s invading Janice’s privacy, lying to her and using what he finds out to manipulate her. Also consider him punching Tom for things Tom thought in the privacy of his own head.
And we stay sympathetic. Why? Because everyone he’s doing it to is either a Bad Guy or a Bad Person (and therefore in ‘means to and end’ ethics deserves it).
What we’re not asking is what kind of guy Matt is that he can choose to do these things to people.
I love this. It’s complex and I’m expecting it to go horribly wrong and I’m really hoping Matt wises up to what he’s doing because right now he’s cushioned from his lack of ethical behaviour by his own good intentions.
Dodgy Ethics, Torchwood 1x01, Torchwood 1x07, Supernatural 2x07
Heroes 1x05 Hiros and 1x06 Better Halves - On Telepathy
In which it’s OK to do Bad Things to Bad People.
This isn’t exactly a new idea but it fails to engage with what it means to be a person who is willing to do Bad Things.
Who is this character and what is he doing?
Matt Parkman slowly realises he is developing telepathic abilities at a crime scene when he hears a little girl when no one else can. He gets hijacked to work with the FBI to read minds for police work and uses his ability to work on his relationship with his wife Janice, anticipating her desires and attempting to fix their failing marriage.
As his abilities develop, he reads the minds of several people in his capacity as a cop and also discovers that his wife has been sleeping with someone. He later reads the mind of his ex-partner Tom, discovers that Tom has been sleeping with Janice and punches him in a rage.
How do we feel about him?
This has a nice ‘real’ feel to it; Matt doesn’t get time to find his feet, he doesn’t stop to think‘should I be doing this’, he just keeps moving and he copes as and when situations arise. He’s an engaging character, I understand a lot of what he’s going through and I sympathise with him. I appreciate the way he is developed as a sympathetic character because to me, his power is one of the scariest.
The other thing to notice here is that Matt always tries to do the right thing, he’s a caring guy, not super bright but solid. He has this ability and he’s going to use it, both for police work and in his personal life and conveniently, all the situations that arise professionally are situations in which he can do good.
What is he doing ethically?
- He invaded Janice’s privacy, lied to and manipulated her.
- He invaded Tom’s privacy and then assaulted him.
- He invaded a hell of a lot of people’s minds and used the information in the course of his job (for context, consider eavesdropping, someone reading your diary, illegal telephone tapping and police entrapment techniques then consider how you feel about it)
What are the implications?
The disturbing assumption that underlies Matt’s ability is that because he has it, he is entitled to use it on people. It’s not just Matt who thinks this; his FBI co-worker doesn’t question it either. In fact it appears to be an assumption inherent in the show itself. Compare that with Torchwood’s take on the subject.
Matt isn’t behaving in an ethical way and yet there are no apparent negative consequences. He means well and is trying to do Good and we’re happy that he is one of the Good Guys so we don’t immediately question how he treats people. This is because the consequences haven’t caught up with him yet. So long as Matt isn’t put in a situation where the use of his abilities results in an unhappy ending he will appear to be functioning ethically. He’s also conveniently standing next to a lot of Bad People, which makes it that much harder to see how unethical his behaviour really is.
In ‘means to an end’ morality it doesn’t matter what you do or how you do it as long as it works out well in the end. This can look like ethical behaviour from a distance. The thing is, end results can be pretty hit and miss and they don’t address who you are and what you did.
You can see it unravelling in his personal life; Matt’s doing something truly revolting in ethical terms here, he’s invading Janice’s privacy, lying to her and using what he finds out to manipulate her. Also consider him punching Tom for things Tom thought in the privacy of his own head.
And we stay sympathetic. Why? Because everyone he’s doing it to is either a Bad Guy or a Bad Person (and therefore in ‘means to and end’ ethics deserves it).
What we’re not asking is what kind of guy Matt is that he can choose to do these things to people.
I love this. It’s complex and I’m expecting it to go horribly wrong and I’m really hoping Matt wises up to what he’s doing because right now he’s cushioned from his lack of ethical behaviour by his own good intentions.
Dodgy Ethics, Torchwood 1x01, Torchwood 1x07, Supernatural 2x07
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