November 25, 2008

Episode 10: "The Eclipse, Part 1"

My, the little kitten's got claws.

Peter Petrelli really gave it to Nathan in this episode. I'll admit I figured Milo V. had the acting ability of Natalie Portman in "Star Wars: A Phantom Menace", but that heated exchange between the Petrelli brothers in the jungle was just what Peter needed to get right back into this. When Peter proclaimed Nathan had been "a puppet your whole life, doing whatever Dad wanted you to do", you gotta admit Milo said that with some chutzpah. I approve. You get the sense that when Peter mentioned Nathan did whatever their Dad had wanted that Arthur did some mind manipulation on his own son to get him to follow the same path. Nathan alluded to the same thing in the previous episode when he encountered his dad and said (to paraphrase) "my whole life I've done whatever you wanted me to do...I went to law school. I married the girl you approved. I ran for office". Hey, anything can be said once, but when it's alluded to twice then there's gotta be more to it there. That's why I'm here, to get you to read between the lines.

Before I continue, I really just want to kick myself for not putting my initial suspicions about Daphne out there. I just knew it deep inside she used to be a cripple. The writers practically begged us to read the writing on the wall. But...I didn't say it so I don't get credit for it. I saw some silly internet Heroes website had a theory that Daphne used to be a turtle, I saw some poetic justice there but c'mon, I understand this is a live-action comic book show but let's operate with some semblence of logic here. You won't find any of those zany theories here, just so you know.

Ok, we got a nice serving of HRG. The greatest thing about him in this episode was how they showed you that with all things being equal (ie, no one having powers) HRG truly is a straight up badass. At least we know why the Primatech motto is "One of Us, One of Them", cuz when One of Them loses their powers you need someone who knows how to kick ass with his bare fucking hands. This blog must really be read by the writers, cuz HRG said to Claire the same things I've been saying: "You don't have any ability to fight bad guys". I still don't see how being able to swing a stick is going to help her in a fight with, say, Flint, but at least HRG echoed my sentiment. He could've helped her more by teaching her how to handle a gun. And before I continue, just how exactly did Elle know that Claire would be at the Vortex Guy's house? That is just zany and lazy on the part of the writers. Pure laziness.

Writer A: Ok, we got a doozy here. How are we gonna get Elle and Sylar to capture Claire? How would they know where to find her?

Writer B: That's easy...since Elle has met Claire about 4 times total and with only one of those times on friendly terms, naturally she'll know how Claire thinks and will be able to find Claire in one of the most random of places - the house of the Vortex Guy.

Writer A: But that's just stupid. Elle was never in the Vortex Guy's house. Unless she memorized the address of every Level 5 villain when she was an Agent how would she know where to find it? And even if she knew where it was, why would she think that place out of everywhere else would have any significance to Claire and how would Elle know about that significance since she wasn't aware of Claire's encounter with the Vortex Guy?

Writer B: Point taken, but since we're working on a deadline and since this is basically a comic book show we'll go with the Vortex Guy's house.

The shear lunacy of that encounter bothered my brain. It should never have even happened.

And speaking of lunacy, let's take a look at the Haitian. Bear in mind he's on of my top 5 favorite characters on this show, so I say this with love. Faced with a dilemna of stopping his brother in some remote, out of the way jungle/village OR some catastrophic calamity to all of mankind (that still hasn't been fully explained yet) the Haitian opts to....stop his brother. Essentially he said "mankind can wait, I gotta take care of some family bullshit". His priorities are impeccable.

Episode 10. It had it's moments of tension (Peter/Nathan arguement in the jungle). It had it's moments of comedy (Parkman doing the Parkman face on Daphne's doorstep). It had action (HRG kicking Sylar's ass). It had Breckin Meyer. No matter what happens someone will be able to answer the question "that Breckin Meyer, whatever happened to him? What has he done lately?"

Heroes: keeping out-of-work ex-teen movie actors employed since 2006.

November 24, 2008

Crystal Ball

Before episode 9 is aired tonight I thought it'd be nice to take a look at some of my theories/predictions to see how they've panned out. Note - I routinely edit past posts to clear up typographical errors or to clarify a sentence that was poorly worded - but I don't touch predictions. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, if I'm right I don't win any prizes anyway. But it's always fun to take a look at the past and review how correct you were in your theories or how off-base you turned out to be.

1. "If I had to wager some poker chips I'm going to say something interupts Papa Petrelli from fully taking Hiro's power. First bet is Ando does something."

Ando did indeed interrupt Arthur's stealing of Hiro's power. Some conversation with a reader of the blog drew into question as to what exactly was going on with Arthur and Hiro in that scene. Past scenes where Arthur has put his hands on someone shown he was stealing their power. I was correct that Hiro wouldn't lose his power due to someone knocking Arthur off him, but since Hiro now has the mind of a 10 year old it's questionable as to what Arthur was doing to him. Arthur doesn't need to touch you to put thoughts in your mind. Common internet chatter suggests Arthur didn't need Hiro's power since he already has it thanks to Peter Petrelli, so Arthur just wanted to erase Hiro's mind. The writer's did a poor job of explaining what was going on. Obviously Arthur has some other power he aquired that allows him to steal abilities, it hasn't been revealed yet how he got that ability - his main power is mind manipulation. Considering he was the defense attorney for Linderman that actually was a *very* useful ability to have in a courtroom. But anyway, this was a correct prediction on my part.


2. "If I had to bet on this I would say [Daphne's] playing Pinehurst, afterall if she was truly going to doublecross Parkman he could've read her mind."

Daphne turned out to doublecross Pinehurst afterall. I still like how the writer's cast just enough doubt in that one scene. Again, as I pointed out, the future in which Daphne dies while trying to capture Sylar/Peter doesn't seem likely to pan out because there's been several Butterfly Effect instances in our present timeline, so it's not like we have to follow that path anymore. But when you think about it, that future is starting to come into fruition more and more. We have Sylar quicking morphing into the Gabriel the peace-loving father. Certainly seems Parkman and Daphne are gonna be an item. That future isn't entirely out of the question.

3. "Also - why did [Adam] whither into dust when Papa Petrelli took his power - but Peter didn't?"

Duh, genious, isn't it obvious! I should've known, as found out in various Heroes message board discussions, that Adam's power was what was keeping him alive all those centuries. Without that power he would've turned into dust a loooong time ago. Peter, while naive and gullible, is still a healthy under-30 year old, powers or no powers.

It remains to be seen how Peter/Nathan don't remember having Sylar as a brother and if the Haitian erased anyone's memories, but I'm sure we'll find out soon cuz sweeps are coming up.


Before I end this I want to put this next theory of mine out there:


Peter's scar that Future Peter has on his face is going to be related to Peter fighting his dad. Think about it - he had Claire's regeneration ability, so the only way that Peter could get scarred facially is if he didn't have that power. It just so happens he's in that very predicament right now, so look for the battle that brings about that wicked scar to happen sometime soon. If I were to be so bold and look for bonus points, I'm going to say when Arthur dies in this future battle is when Peter gets his abilities back. But I'm not feeling adventerous today, it's a Monday afterall.

November 19, 2008

Episode 9 - "It's Coming"

I got the feeling of being a hamster in a wheel while watching this episode. You know, you're a hamster, you're running, you're thinking this is the greatest thing ever and you're really going places - but actually not much is happening. That was episode 9.

Let's look at the major developments that happened (trust me, it borders on "more of the same" and "not much"):

1. Ok, Sylar doesn't have to kill anymore to get people's powers. The only way the writer's could have hammered home the fact that "Sylar is not a monster anymore" is if they personally emailed all the viewers of the show. I'll give this to you - this is somewhat big. What the show gains in a real powerful hero that everyone can root for, performed by a really talented actor, the show loses in one of the best television villains of our generation. The gods giveth, and they taketh away. I personally have liked Gabriel more than Sylar so I have no probs with this development.

2. The two sides have been chosen. Good vs. Evil. Ma Petrelli vs. Arthur (Papa Petrelli). Son vs. Father. We all know wherever this is leading the good side (Ma Petrelli side) is going to prevail, but on paper the Arthur side should wipe their dirty assholes on the Ma Petrelli side. Look who's on the Arthur side - Arthur himself. Apparently Sylar (so far). As they say: "'nuff said". You got Elle. You got your Flint and Fear Guy. Tracey. Let's take a look at who's in Ma's posse: a person who can see into the future (Ma); a powerless Peter Petrelli. A teenager who can feel no pain and regenerate herself when she inevitably gets dominated. Someone who can fly. A powerful hero who thinks he's 10 years old. Ok, Parkman and the speedy Daphne obviously have some good offensive powers. The only thing that saves the Ma Petrelli side is the inevitable defection of Sylar (and his new friggin caliente piece of ass - Elle) to their side. That's it. Unless the writers can create a hero who is the opposite of Arthur/the Haitian and has the power to restore people's abilities, thereby swinging the advantage considerably to the Ma Petrelli side (Peter with his powers back+Sylar=win).

Let's switch gears quickly and point out what was wrong:

3. Hiro didn't lose his powers. Unfortunately he now thinks he's 10. This is poor writing only in the sense of what the hell did Papa Petrelli do, or more importantly "how did he do it"? What does making someone think they're 10 years old have to do with the power to take people's powers away? Obviously Ando interrupting the power stealing of Arthur affected the outcome, but you would think the end result would be Hiro having only limited powers since the power stealing started but was never completed. If you illegally download music files (what, like you don't?) and the transfer gets interrupted - yeah, you can't play the music file but if you look in your hard drive somewhere you'll find the music file (albeit an unplayable music file). You don't find a Word doc or something completely unrelated. I pride myself on being able to see all the angles but I'm helpless against poorly thought out writing. Also poorly thought out was Ando being able to activate Hiro's power for him while in Africa with Arthur coming after them by closing Hiro's eyes, but in the bowling alley Hiro showed he had to *really* concentrate to get his power to work. But that's the little things, and we try not to break out the angry townfolk with their pitchforks and torches for the little things. I just want the writers to know I'm watching and they need to sharpen up a little bit.

4. Tracey (Ali Larter) has an evil agenda. This is a very natural and logical plot development. I mean, it was only 2 or 3 episodes ago that she was ready to kill herself, now she's running on all pistons and is looking to get in on the ground floor of an evil plot by manipulating the very person who saved her life. Very logical. Nevermind the fact that the person who saved her life flat out stated he doesn't trust his father, no, it's better to assume you know the score and can start brokering deals. This show tries very hard to keep Ali Larter relevant and employed. They were grasping at straws the 1st two seasons with those awful DL/Micah storylines that had minimal (and I'm being polite here) impact on the overall plot. Now they "resurrect" Nikki/Jessica by renaming the character "Tracey" and hatching up some hooey about her getting her powers in a science lab. Oh yeah, remember that? That's the supposedly huge plot development from a few weeks ago where it was revealed she wasn't born with powers, rather Tracey and her sisters were tested on and injected with powers. She hunts down the doctor that did it, kills him, finds out the truth and....Yeah, that's all that happened. This was supposed to be a great (or at least interesting) turn of events. You mean not everyone on the show was born with abilities? You mean there could be others who were tested on? I'm sure the writers will go back to that before season's end but I just don't agree with this sudden getting off track. Finding out more info on the whole "creating powers in a lab and injecting them into babies" was supposed to be Tracey's story arc this season. Now she's done with that and is moving on to evil plots to take over the world. Naturally.

5. Claire, its ok for you to refer to Ma Petrelli and Arthur as "Grandma" and "Grandpa". They're the parents of your biological father, making them, yes, you're correct - your grandparents. Btw, as soon as Arthur was told the catalyst was "someone" and not "something", who really didn't know the catalyst was going to be Claire? We all saw that coming a mile away as soon as that catalyst info was revealed. If you're scoring at home, this episode marks the 1,000th time that Claire has decided to stand up to/fight villains only to be (quickly) beat. This is bordering on lunacy. She is so inept as a hero that a powerless Peter was able to stop Flint/Fear Guy. And listen writers - we know Milo V. and Hayden P. are a couple in real life, please don't dilute the show with unnecessary air-time with them in scenes together.

6. One last flub (or maybe I'm reading too much into this). Arthur mentioned to Sylar essentially "you were always the strongest of my sons". Really? After Sylar mentioned in the same episode his mother - the one he killed, not Ma Petrelli - messed him up for always making him think he had to be special when he was a kid. So how is this possible? Something's off with the timeline here. Did Arthur mean when Sylar was an infant he showed himself to be the strongest (a time that maybe Sylar can't remember)? How could Sylar have been raised by both his fake mom and have a long lost dad that he not only doesn't remember, but a long lost dad that apparently was around him enough to be able to ascertain that Sylar was the strongest? We know Nathan is older than Peter. It doesn't seem likely he's younger than Sylar, which would mean Nathan *should* remember Sylar. Why hasn't this been discussed more? Why hasn't Peter asked Nathan or his mom yet about this? I will give you the answer to the mystery - I can see this coming over the horizon. And, yes, you heard it here first because I can add 2 + 2. The Haitian erased Sylar's memory.

Bam.

I just said it. Watch, by the end of the season we're going to see a flashback like in episode 8 with the Haitian erasing Sylar's mind, and the mind's of Peter and Nathan to make them forget having known Sylar.

This makes so much sense I have nothing more to say about episode 9. I'm going to rest my feet up and declare today a win for me.

November 13, 2008

Episode 8 - "Villains"

Ok, now it seems things are back to normal.

There's been a shakeup with the writing staff, but I'm pretty sure this episode isn't part of the new regime. Episode 8 revealed what the backbone of this show is - the people who can actually act. It featured the people on the show with actual talent. We had Nathan. We had Papa Petrelli. Zach Quinto. Malcolm McDowell (Linderman). Ma Petrelli at her finest moment to date. I'm interested and I want more. What it didn't have was the constantly brooding, one-dimensional Milo V. or the two-man comic act known as "Hiro and Ando". Don't get me wrong, I love my Hiro (who doesn't), but this show was quickly morphing into the Peter & Hiro Show. Also getting minimal screentime was Suresh, I think the writers have been reading my blog.

The only bad note about this latest episode is how the writer's seem to want to have everything fit together in a nice gift-wrapped box. It wasn't enough to have Flint (the blue flame power guy) on the show - now he has to be related to one of the central characters as well (apparently he's Claire's uncle). Necessary? Not at all. Also, this episode revealed that Sylar and Elle have a previous history together (Elle as HRG's partner trying to manipulate a mentally fragile Gabriel into resuming his hero-killing). I have to go back and rewatch the episode where the Villains escape Level 5. They escaped because Sylar was trying to take Elle's power and she short circuited the entire complex. Did Sylar give any indication that he knew Elle? Did he acknowledge her in anyway that would suggest he knew her from a previous time? Based off of memory I'm thinking no, at least I would've recalled such an exchange between the two former lovebirds. If this is the case - that's really bad, writers. You should be ashamed of yourselves. I think we all know where this is going anyway - Elle is going to be the one he impregnates and that's the mother of Future Sylar's son. They'll probably keep her around long enough to give birth to Sylar's son. It doesn't seem the show has long term plans for Kristen Bell because she's still listed as "guest starring" on the show, as in she's not considered a main character.

So, apparently Hiro loses his powers. I don't know where I stand on this. On one hand it just goes to show just how badass Papa Petrelli is. On the other hand that would leave Sylar as the only person strong enough to take him down. On the other hand (if you were a three armed person) next week's episode throws in the wild card of another eclipse happening which will be a mystery as to how that plays a role on everyone's powers. Nevermind that another lunar eclipse so soon after season 1's eclipse is scientifically impossible. The things that the show doesn't show you are as important as the things that are shown. We didn't see Hiro lose his powers. We saw him in the process of losing his powers. If I had to wager some poker chips I'm going to say something interupts Papa Petrelli from fully taking Hiro's power. First bet is Ando does something. Second bet is the Speedster saving Hiro. Of course this is all contingent on Hiro not losing his powers. One thing that certainly makes no sense is how the African Future Seeing Guy could predict Hiro sneaking up on him several times (which he thwarted by knocking Hiro out with a shovel) but he didn't see in any of his visions of the future...oh...someone cutting his fucking head off! I also would like to know (and this is going back several episodes) how African Future Seeing Guy had a copy of "9th Wonders" - Isaac Mendez's comic book - in his hut. I guess it's another example of the writers trying to get too cute in showing how everyone in the show is somehow connected.

Anyway, enough of my nitpicking. The show delivered and seems headed back in the right direction. I just hope that direction involves more of the actors who have actual acting skill and less of Peter Petrelli/Claire/Suresh.

November 5, 2008

Episode 7

Let me ask you something.

So, you're a hero - or at least someone who has powers and abilities. You exist in a world where other people have powers. People who can fly or absorb powers of others or create illusions are not shocking to you.

So when you walk into the offices of a mysterious, shadowy company and you see what appears to be your father - even though he's been dead for a bit - standing in a room full of villains why is your first reaction to embrace this individual?

Let me introduce you to Peter Petrelli, folks.

Rather than saying "hold up - let me digest all this for a second, maybe read this guy's mind to see if it truly is my dad" he walks over with open arms and gets his powers stolen in the process. The only thing I find more laughable than that is him being powerless in his holding cell trying to attack his dad and other captors with a tray.

What else did episode 7 tell us?

1. Suresh is a villain now. He's officially crossed over into "Evil Scientist" territory. I'm wondering why it took a show that's essentially a live-action comic book so long to have the stereotypical villainous scientist/doctor. At least Suresh now has a decent reason to be on the show other than to antagonize me with his long-time uselessness.

2. C'est la vie, Maya. Or should that be "Adios, Maya"? The last link to all that made season 2 such a crappy season has now left the building. She never caught on with the audience (despite being so caliente) and has set the record for most consecutive episodes with a crying scene. Seriously, I think every episode she appeared involved her crying at some point.

3. The Elle/Claire tag-team duo. It makes so much sense. With Elle walking through the doors of Pinehurst to have her powers removed one doesn't know how long this duo is going to last but it worked on a lot of levels. Which brings me to this - what's up with all these people looking to remove their powers? First Maya, now Elle (and it also seemed Claire was headed down that path for a bit). I guess we're supposed to contrast Sylar's need to feel special and superior with Claire's need to be normal. I'm not certain people would actually want to have a power removed (unless you're that guy from the Skittle s commercial who turned everything he touches into Skittles). But Elle/Claire has a lot of potential as a crime fighting unit - Claire wants to fight villains but lacks the power to take them down and Elle has a very nifty ability to stop people in their tracks. Would be a shame if they dismantled that duo before exploring the possibilies of a tag-team first.

4. There was an unnecessary Hiro sighting. Ok, we understand he's a fan fave, but his 1.5 minute scene didn't accomplish anything other than to feed the audience's Hiro-addiction. Couldn't they have just saved that scene for the next episode where they could've had a better flow to the storyline? It just felt so obligatory, like "oh snap, we almost forgot to put Hiro in this episode!". It's ok, writers, we know Hiro isn't going anywhere, you can leave him out in an episode and we won't panic.

5. HRG/Noah. You feel that? Yes, slowly but surely you're becoming a background character. What a shame. As Claire breaks further away from him his whole "whatever it takes to keep my family safe" approach becomes more and more pointless. What made this character resonate so well was his motivation to protect his family and to shelter his Claire-bear from the prodding scientists of The Company. Writers need to find another role or purpose for this great character. He consistently was one of the bright spots on the show. You never knew if he was just doing what was best for his family or if he was still an operative of The Company and just playing the role. He always had that sly grin that could've gone either way.

6. Sylar delivers, yet again. As soon as Peter didn't die from the fall as he was launched through the window of Pinehurst I knew Sylar had a hand in it. Excellent turn of events. Is there anyone who wants to argue this show isn't focused on Sylar? Seasons 1 and 2 were all Peter, but season 3 has been the breakout of Sylar. I applaud the writers for this decision.

7. Finally, marvelous plot development in the Parkman/Speedster storyline. Her conversation with Pinehurst cast serious doubts as to whether she was still aligned with them or with Parkman. If I had to bet on this I would say she's playing Pinehurst, afterall if she was truly going to doublecross Parkman he could've read her mind (unless that's a serious gaffe on the part of the writers). You can't make it that Parkman needs to do his "Parkman reading your mind" face every time he uses his power, it should be assumed that this character continuously scans the minds of people he speaks with, thus making it hard to dupe him.

With the election of the president unfortunately getting in the way of our normal Heroes festivities we have to endure a whole week without an episode, thus spend a whole week with me talking about how I wish when Elle's electricity was on the brink of bringing the plane down and Claire decided to absorb Elle's electrical current she had proposed they transferred the electricity by touching lips rather than taking her hand.

November 2, 2008

Musings On Season 2

I came across a promo pic for what was then the upcoming 2nd season. Anyone who follows the show knows that originally the creators of the show meant to have new heroes every season (instead of the focus on the same cast from season 1).

Labelled as a "first look at the five new kids on the block" you can really see the direction the show wanted to go in. I mean, just look at these people - good looking, toned, oozing sex appeal. Just as NBC's "Friday Night Lights" turned into "Friday Night 90210" as they abandoned the focus on high school football life in a small Texas town to good looking young people and their sexy lives and, oh yeah, who happen to play football - if I were a betting man I could see Heroes trying to take on more of that also. Can't you picture a Heroes producer at the photoshoot just barking orders..."Maya, arch your back some more, curves equals ratings and we really need your breasts to be heeving." and "Alejandro - why don't you take your shirt off? We're trying to steal some of the female demographic from 'Dancing With The Stars' and 'One Tree Hill'."

Interesting that of all the characters from this photoshoot, only Elle remains. And considering she just walked through the door of Pinehurst to have her powers removed one can only think how much longer Kristen Bell's contract is gonna last. You can still see the tire tracks on the floor where the writers screeched to a halt, putting the brakes on several of these bad storylines from season 2. A famous Heroes article admitted their mistake in some of these characters - namely the Maya/Alejandro plot (whose whole "one needs the other to keep their powers under control" seems rather familiar to the comic book "Cloak and Dagger"). Monica - Micah's cousin with the copycat ability - never was really dealt with at all, they just swept her under a rug and quite frankly we've all been happy to forget her. Not even a death or having her powers removed. The only other time this has happened - in recent times - was in the ABC show "Family Matters" when the writers decided it wasn't worth writing off Judy Winslow (the youngest child) since they didn't think viewers would notice her gone. I'm sure the show reserves the right to bring her back in future episodes whenever they deem convenient but judging from the tiny appearance by Micah at his mom's wake I don't think the show is gonna go there too often.

Funny thing about Alejandro - going back to my post on the useless powers of the characters from The Company, how awkward would conversations be for Alejandro at a get together with legendary heroes from comic books? Like I could totally see this happening:

Superman: "I have superhuman strength, the ability to fly and have no earthly weakness that can threaten me."

Wolverine: "I have a mutated ability to heal myself and have an unbreakable skeletal frame, and let's not forget these nifty claws that can cut through steel."

Superman: "You there - Latino - what can you do?"

Alejandro: "I have the ability to calm my sister down so that she can control her power."

Superman/Wolverine: HAHAHAHAHA

Wolverine: "LOL, even powerless Batman has a fucking utility belt".

November 1, 2008

The Company

Before we go any further I just wanted to get this out in the open. Has a League of heroes - in this case the older generation that made up The Company (Hiro's Dad, Ma and Papa Petrelli, Parkman's Dad Maury, etc) - ever had a bunch of people with the most useless powers? What kind of crime/villain did they fight anyway? Most of them are dead which goes to show how inept and powerless they were. No one yet knows what Hiro's dad could do, but I don't think it was anything of value since he got taken down (in his case down several stories off the edge of a building) so easily.

And Bob Bishop (Elle's dad), that guy who had the Midas Touch as his power. If you had that ability would fighting evil be the first thing on your agenda? How exactly did he battle villains - offer them gold to go away? I could just picture the following exchange:

Bob Bishop: Hey guys, I was thinking for this next mission I could tag along with you and help battle that nasty group of bad guys we've been having problems with.

[Group looks down at their feet]

Ma Patrelli: Yeah, we're gonna need you to hand in those TPS reports soon, and then after that there's the trash dumpster outside that we need you to convert into gold so we can finance the repairs to the rec room so we don't think you'll have enough time.

What a waste of abilities.

Speaking of waste of abilities, this has nothing to do with the Company, but ponder this:

Papa Petrelli and Peter Petrelli both have the ability to take the powers of other people. But suppose they were the only two people on the planet to have any powers at all - would that not be an epic waste of a power?? That's like someone coming up to you and saying "my power is if I ever were to hold the horn of a golden unicorn - if such a mythical creature were to ever exist - in my hand I would have unlimited abilities and end all suffering for man forever."