HouseTV - Who Wants to be a Superhero? Week 2

Last week's disturbingly entertaining episode gave us thrills, laughs, and public nudity. Could this week's show possibly keep up the pace or... possibly exceed it? Read on and see.

Spoily the Pirate says, "Y'arr! There be spoilers here!"


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This week's show begins with Stan giving the gang a special task. It's Truth or Dare time, kiddies. Or just truth time. Each of the heroes are given the opportunity to anonymously write down questions for the other heroes. The questions will all go to Stan, who will read them and ask the heroes to respond. Ah, anonymous question and answer. A reality show staple.

Among the heroes that receive questions (and since they were aired we'll assume they were the better of the questions), Major Victory is put on the hot seat about having been a male stripper (so that's where he gets his moves from...), Fat Momma is called into question on being able to be a role model who's overweight (most consider it a low blow to her), and Iron Enforcer is called on to answer allegations of steriod use and body odor (his response to the latter is to fan his butt at his peers... real mature there, Enforcer).

Having been adequately demoralized by the Q&A session, the heroes have to turn their attention to their next challenge. A little old lady has locked herself out of her house, and the heroes need to scale the backyard fence and get in through the back door. Simple enough, right? Did I mention the old lady's backyard is guarded by two vicious attack dogs? At least the heroes need only touch the door to end the challenge. And at any point, they can bail out by screaming, "Uncle." All the fun of a boy scout citizenship badge combined with the bullying you received as a 10 year old. Ah, nostalgia...

Highlights:

Tyveculus earns high marks for 1) volunteering to go first under the premise that the dogs will wear themselves out on him and 2) barrelling through the dogs and the challenge itself. I don't think the people who came up with the challenge considered that someone would actually charge at the dogs and push them back like that.

Feedback felt that he let Stan down last time, so his determination would not allow him to fail again. His grunting declarations that he would not be stopped made for entertaining commentary.

Major Victory was... well, Major Victory. Between saluting the dogs prior to entering the yard, all but politely carrying them to the door as they clamped onto his arms, and asking if his hair was okay after it was all over, the man made for one entertaining trip.

Fat Momma decided to eat a doughnut for power before the challenge, then tossed one into the backyard to attempt to distract the dogs. It's a foolish gesture, since everyone knows that a superhero can only distract enemies that way if they use Hostess brand fruit pies.

Monkey Woman held onto a steadfast determination going into the challenge. She had to be crazy to try it, since I know for a fact that dogs and monkeys do not get along with each other. I saw it on MedaBots, so it must be true. But despite that, Monkey Woman perservered through initial pain and over nine minutes of dog battering to eventually reach the door. She even managed to eek out a weak victory screech before collapsing on the floor. That's good heroing.

Scraping the bottom of the barrel in the challenge (and ending up in the hot seat for elimination):

Lemuria: She really got the short end of the stick on this one. Stan calls her out for getting dragged back by the dogs and then giving up, but it realy looks like her helmet was about to fall off. Courage under fire aside, I can't help but think that anyone would have quit at that point.

Iron Enforcer: The Half Man, Half Machine, Half Time-Bomb, showed what he was made of when he yelled uncle just a scant foot from the door. For the guy who's supposed to be the tough one, he certainly picked an odd time to wuss out. Although in his defense, it did look like a dog was pulling his arm at an odd angle right before he gave in. On the other hand, that was his metal arm, so he should have just sucked it up.

Cell Phone Girl: On top of having the shortest time before saying uncle, CPG made the lamest excuse for her performance when she claimed that she had a headache. What's worse is that she mentioned at one point that she had been bitten by a dog before, so you'd think that she would have worked that into a, "I was brave just for getting in there," excuse. But alas, she chooses not to, and Stan eliminates her.

The heroes get a bit of a break in the torture the next day as Stan offers each of them a costume makeover. Feedback celebrates his new look, and Major Victory declares himself to be, "Mr. Shiny Pants." But it can never be as simple as fun makeover, and Stan declares that it's time for another elimination.

On the block:

Iron Enforcer: After his makeover, Stan noted that something felt like it wasn't quite right with Enforcer's look. If nothing else, you'd think that they would have streamlined that microwave oven he calls a gun, but nothing doing.

Tyveculus: Poor Ty gets caught in a moral quandry. His new look was... less than great, so much so that even Stan says that it didn't end up quite the way he expected it to. But when asked how he felt, Ty decided to suck it up and declare that he was pleased with it. Ty later fesses up to Stan that he doesn't like the new look, and Stan calls him out for being dishonest when he was first asked. A tough break for a guy who probably just wanted to spare Stan's feelings.

Feedback: Speaking of tough breaks, Feedback gets called out because he mocked Ty’s new costume. Or maybe it was more because his pun was so horrifically lame. If I had to wager, it's because they needed a third person and no one else did much of anything worth noting.

At any rate, The third time's the charm for Iron Enforcer, and he's asked to leave. The other heroes breathe a sigh of relief facilitated by the Enforcer's B.O. having been removed from the house.

The End... or is it? As Enforcer strolls down the street, Stan appears on a hidden screen and tells him what was bothering him before. The thing is that Enforcer doesn't make a good superhero, but he would make a great supervillain. The offer of a villain makeover and the chance to mess with his former allies is too tempting to pass up, and Iron Enforcer is reborn as... Dark Enforcer. Oh, snap. It's on now.

All in all, the episode was pretty solid. The lines between hero and real person started to unravel during the Q&A session, and a few featers got ruffled as well. Finally the reality of the reality show begins to seep in. Stan was in good form as he was last week, equal parts funny (when he feigns insensitivity by pointing out that he'd hate for the dogs to wreck the heroes' costumes) and chiding (when showing his disapproval of the hero's who have failed). Likewise, he is equally dramatic and convincing when he explains to Iron Enforcer how every hero needs an arch enemy. I think anyone would have been lurd to the dark side after that speech.

And Enforcer has stumbled into what may be the breakthrough role of the series. A few of the heroes may be forgettable, but everyone remembers the supervillain. Hopefully he has an evil laugh and the appropriate gesticulations to match.

Next week looks like it will be equal parts challenge and drama. If the previews are any indication, the heroes seem to take the villain change with the appropriate level of in chracter shenanigans. Good times will be had by all.