Heels is a series about wrestlers and family. It sounds inconspicuous, but Loki's writer Michael Waldron is showing his talent again.
Heels promises to be a series that approaches wrestling with common sense, respect, but above all with the heart on the right side. You do not feel glorifying this form of entertainment in all this, and even the creators try to show all the dark and bright sides, giving a full picture of what we are dealing with. It becomes a vivisection of passion for sport, which is also the only recipe for achieving anything in life. We are not talking about the top of the career in the largest federations, but about local family businesses in small towns. The scale offers the potential to focus more on the human factor, but this purely sports arcane of wrestling works great as a basis for entertainment value. Nobody is telling anyone here that wrestling is not based on pretending, and we can even see one of the heroes creating scenarios that build the narrative of the fights of the evening. A great aspect of Heels because it allows you to view wrestling from different perspectives. Also those that to some extent can bother some people who treat this sport something very serious...
We know that Stephen Amell did not shine as an actor in Arrow, because he did not have much to act. Here, the character written by Waldron is ideally suited to his specificity. And this also builds an interesting hero morbidly devoting himself to the family business. Here we have the stressed problems with the father, after whose death he took over the command, and above all the conflict with the younger brother played by Alexander Ludwig. This is not only about the strength of Heels, but also about the emotional foundation, because it makes the aspects of wrestling relevant. By observing the arguments of the characters presented to us, we can see that the conflict will be the greatest theme of this series. The brothers' fight is only seemingly obvious and banal, because Waldron combines it so well with wrestling that it has a unique character, and both of them become expressive, interesting and already at this stage of getting to know they are "some". Feel that the motivations of both are understandable, so building sympathy is mutual, and thus it is difficult to cheer on one side in their conflict. Both gentlemen become a surprisingly strong asset to Heels and allow themselves to be involved in their story. It is also surprising that in the ring you can clearly see how they do various stunts, which adds authenticity to it...
Only theoretically, the history of the premiere is typical. The sibling conflict, the younger one wants to escape higher, the older one has a problem with it, because it clearly feels that it is only an introduction and a starting point for something more, which can provide a lot of impressions and emotions in the next episodes. At this stage, Heels is a fascinating series about something you don't need to know or like to get hooked. Showing wrestling in such a way as to feel passionate about it, and at the same time universality, is a strong point of the program...
Heels builds a specific convention that fits into what wrestling is as a form of entertainment. The premiere is promising, because Michael Waldron shows here his heart for the story he is building and reflecting on it well. There is no exposition of supporting characters, because for now they are only an empty background for the main playmakers, but the first episode is so addictive and is so good to watch that such shortcomings become less important. You can feel the potential for a really good series here...
