All right, before I get started let me just say - congrats to the writers. This past episode was the best episode in this series since season 1. We're talking top 3 Heroes episode of all time. I rank the Heroes episodes in the following:
#1: 2nd to last episode in season 1. (Where Future Sylar and Future Peter battle in...uh, the future. The first and probably best major hero vs. major villain action in the series.)
#2: The last episode of season 1.
#3: The latest episode of the current season. (I think it's Chapter 7 of the 2nd volume of season 3, if that makes any sense HAHAHA)
And congratulations to Matt Parkman. You're officially one of the coolest characters on the show. Three seasons and a half is a long time, many characters have come and gone but you stuck in the sidelines waiting and now your time in the sun has come. There was a little spark of what was to come this current volume, and your potential was showcased a few episodes ago when Peter and yourself walked in, literally, to a fortified government compound and you held them all hostage for a while. But now it's been hammered home in this latest episode. You are officially the 2nd most powerful character in the show (behind Sylar, of course). Bravo. And since we're throwing out congrats, I'm going to give some to Ali Larter in what was her best performance in this series ever. The coolest episode involving the Tracey/Jessica/Niki character. I wouldn't write her off as being dead just yet, as I'm sure everyone caught the fact that the block of ice where her face was happened to blink. The writers LOVE Ali Larter so I thoroughly believe she's not completely done on the show.
Unlike Daphne. Hey, someone needs to be the sacrificial lamb. Can't go all this time without one or two people dying.
Nothing was left on the table. This one had it ALL. I am thoroughly and completely back on the bus with this show. Season 2 was a hiccup. Hey, not even Babe Ruth hit a homerun every at-bat. It's back. I just had to get that out of the way.
Ok, I know a broken clock is right twice a day, but I hit a grand glam out of the park:
Rebel = Micah
Now, I'm sure as this chapter has gone on Micah being the Rebel became more and more apparent (at least to me), but I called this a while ago. Like, the 2nd episode or so of this chapter. 2+2=4. That's all there was to it. Kudos to the writers for not making a complete random, newly created character the Rebel, as it's been fun to play the "who is the Rebel?" game. As soon as HRG said to Tracey "lead us to the Rebel and you can walk away" I knew Micah was it. I knew it because it seemed so obvious at that point the writers wouldn't make it so easy for Tracey to walk away. She was gonna have to have some type of moral dilemna. And as soon as Tracey got the free money from the ATM I knew it as well (of course Micah was revealed like a minute after that). Free ATM money is an old Micah trick.
I also will credit myself with Hiro and the return of his power. My point in the "The Hiro Conundrum" entry was that he had spent a considerable amount of time being powerless and the writers would have to, sooner rather than later, do something about it. Well, Hiro's back. What I nailed was that when he got his power back there'd be limitations, like how they conveniently limited Peter's ability so that he can only have one power at a time. (And speaking of that, why is it most of all the cool scenes with someone flying has involved Peter? You'd think Nathan, the resident fly-guy, would have all the scenes but Peter has completely OWNED that ability. Just saying). So I called it correctly - Hiro got his ability back but he isn't the master of all time/space like he used to be. So he can't teleport. Fine. No more bouncing around back and forth and ruining the space/time continuum. This is how it should've been from the beginning but that's neither here nor there. Hiro and Ando are now major players again. Who knows exactly what Ando can do to Hiro now that he can supercharge Hiro's ability? I was thisclose to writing them off when they were found in Baby Matt Parkman's closet trying to pose as stuffed animals. I groaned. But they quickly came back from that silliness. Big things ahead for those two I'm thinking in terms of possibilities.
You want another prediction? Fine. Matt Parkman gets back with his wife Janice. Hiro and Ando find Parkman, reunite him with Baby Matt Parkman and then Matt Parkman goes on a mission to rescue Janice and in the process they wind up falling for each other again.
I'm going to give you another predicition. This has been nagging me for a bit so I'm going to announce it cuz I think I've seen enough clues to feel safe in making it public.
The Hunter has an ability.
There. I said it.
I liken this to a guy who acts like such a homophobe just to hide the fact that he is, in fact, a closeted homosexual. You know, the kind that is really into sports and makes public displays of how much they dig the ladies, just to put up a good enough screen to hide the truth. Why exactly is he so anti-powers? Being the uber-government military guy you'd think he'd want to capture and have tests done on these people to try to harness their abilities for super soldiers (like what Nathan originally attempted). Why does he want to basically just kill them? I'm going to give a run-down as to the little tidbits I've come across that made me this he has a power:
1. The aforementioned extreme aversion to people with powers just to serve as smoke and mirrors to avoid detection. Shit, even HRG doesn't have a fondness for people with powers but he knows they have their uses and he doesnt' have a problem using them as pawns to serve his needs. He doesn't go around trying to eliminate them no questions asked.
2. It was revealed that he was part of a failed military mission in which essentially everyone underneath him got killed and he was the only one to walk away. Same thing happened to Bruce Willis in the movie "Unbreakable", where he was the only survivor in a huge train crash and, oh yeah, he had powers in that movie, too.
3. The shock value factor. The only way you can surprise and shock viewers is if you have them looking one way and then pull the rug out from under their feet. The potential for a shocking revelation here is too great and tempting for the writers not to go that route.
4. In the previews they showed a clip of The Hunter talking with Sylar - I suppose they wind up forming an alliance of sorts - saying (paraphrasing here) "I guess the benefit to you is that you wind up being the only one with powers" to which Sylar replied (paraphrasing again) "something like that". It could be The Hunter wants people with powers to die just so he eliminates the competition in the same vein of Sylar. I'm sure the Hunter will attempt to turn on Sylar at the right moment, although that's stating the obvious.
There you have it, one immense episode. Welcome back.
March 25, 2009
March 18, 2009
Microwave Boy
This is just a short little blurb, but the more I think about it the more I start to wonder:
Just why exactly was the microwave boy (aka Luke Campbell in the show) in this season as much as he was? He didn't really accomplish much other than leading Sylar on the path to find his dad. That was nothing Sylar couldn't have found out with a little torture. And why have Sylar rescue the kid from the government agents only to abandon him an episode later?
The kid was annoying. I actually have him ranked higher than Suresh and Ali Larter in my "List of characters that annoy me" scale. That's saying a lot. He just didn't do anything to move the story along. Essentially a human navigation system. At first I thought the writers were going with a sort of "Sylar gets a sidekick" arc, which wouldn't have been so bad (not like Sylar needs a sidekick or anything). Kinda like how cool a Hiro/Ando team would've been had both of those characters actually had powers at the same time. Peter/Parkman was too shortlived but probably the most formidable we've seen aside from Sylar/Elle, another tagteam that only lasted like two episodes. I guess the writers understand just how chaotic two people with powers would be.
Also, was it me or did anyone else feel underwhelmed with Sylar's encounter with his Dad? We spend all of this volume watching Sylar hunt for his father and the actual searching for him took up more airtime than their encounter. Wouldn't it have just been insane to have his Dad take Sylar's power, come back a little more powerful and then become a major thorn in Sylar's side for a while? Sylar's Dad - his true nemesis?
I guess if they did that they'd have to call the show Star Wars.
Just why exactly was the microwave boy (aka Luke Campbell in the show) in this season as much as he was? He didn't really accomplish much other than leading Sylar on the path to find his dad. That was nothing Sylar couldn't have found out with a little torture. And why have Sylar rescue the kid from the government agents only to abandon him an episode later?
The kid was annoying. I actually have him ranked higher than Suresh and Ali Larter in my "List of characters that annoy me" scale. That's saying a lot. He just didn't do anything to move the story along. Essentially a human navigation system. At first I thought the writers were going with a sort of "Sylar gets a sidekick" arc, which wouldn't have been so bad (not like Sylar needs a sidekick or anything). Kinda like how cool a Hiro/Ando team would've been had both of those characters actually had powers at the same time. Peter/Parkman was too shortlived but probably the most formidable we've seen aside from Sylar/Elle, another tagteam that only lasted like two episodes. I guess the writers understand just how chaotic two people with powers would be.
Also, was it me or did anyone else feel underwhelmed with Sylar's encounter with his Dad? We spend all of this volume watching Sylar hunt for his father and the actual searching for him took up more airtime than their encounter. Wouldn't it have just been insane to have his Dad take Sylar's power, come back a little more powerful and then become a major thorn in Sylar's side for a while? Sylar's Dad - his true nemesis?
I guess if they did that they'd have to call the show Star Wars.
March 15, 2009
The Hiro Conundrum
You are Hiro Nakamura. You are one of the top 3 or so most powerful characters on the hit show "Heroes". You are the master of all of space and time. You became too powerful on the show. What ingenious idea did the writers of your show have do to solve the problem?
They took away your powers.
Yes, the writers took the easy way out last chapter. Rather than coming up with a clever way to have such a powerful character coexist with people who can do useless things like fly or breathe underwater they simply took his power away rather than deal with the difficult task of coming up with a solution. Now, they didn't originally take away his powers at first. No, rather they tried something silly such as giving him the mind of a 10 year old first. So he was still powerful, he just didn't have the mental facility to use it. But that storyline couldn't have gone on forever - although compared to what the character is now I'd have prefered a Hiro-as-a-10-year-old character who struggled with the immense task of being so powerful than a powerless Japanese guy trying desperately hard to recapture the good times.
But that was such a long time ago. I'm too lazy to check, but I assume it's been probably 8 episodes now that Hiro hasn't been "normal" (as much as a person who can bend time and space to his will can be considered normal).
Evenutally the writers found a solution for Peter, his "one power at a time, losing the previous power" limitation will allow him to be on the show for as long as NBC airs Heroes now that the writers found a clever way to deal with his 100+ powers. In hindsight it was a rather simple solution, simply making it so that Peter can't walk around with so many abilities and limit him to one at a time and make him have to decide if it's worth it to lose his current power in order to replace it with a new power that may be a better fit for the current task. But how to you do the same thing with Hiro? Either he can travel through space/time or he can't. That is unless...
Make it so that he can travel through time, but he's invisible. So instead of going back 2 years ago and changing the future - he can still go back 2 years ago but it's more to witness events for data collecting purposes. Kinda like how Matt went into HRG's head to find out the trail of events that lead up to the government project, Hiro would be doing the same thing except being actually there. He would become strictly an observer. Then he'd go back to the present time and armed with the info from the past he'd be able to affect events in real time as the present day happens. Or when he freezes time, instead of freezing time and, for example, take the gun out of the hand of the enemy who's about to shoot him, he loses the ability to tangibly touch things and he can only escape.
Either that, or they give him a retarded power out of pity. I'd love to see Masi Oka (the name of the actor who plays Hiro) at the writer's table trying to convince them to give him his power back:
Masi Oka: "Ok, guys, don't you think Hiro being powerless has gone on long enough? Whaddya say we get him back to the old Hiro, the one that audiences loved to cheer for?"
Writers: "Yeah, about that...we just can't have Hiro running amok like the old days. We've caught a ton of flak over the years from the critics who like to point out how we've used Hiro as a crutch by having a time traveller who can erase bad storylines."
Masi Oka: "Ok, I understand. It certainly was getting repetitive having my character always bail out you guys when you wrote yourselves into a corner. I can take another power though."
Writers: "Well, we do have one power that currently doesn't have anyone claiming it. But we gotta warn ya, it's not exactly on the same page as being master of time and space."
Masi Oka: "I see...well, whatever it is it's gotta beat having no powers and being shipped off to India for no good reason. What's the power?"
Writers: "How do you feel about being able to breathe underwater...?"
They took away your powers.
Yes, the writers took the easy way out last chapter. Rather than coming up with a clever way to have such a powerful character coexist with people who can do useless things like fly or breathe underwater they simply took his power away rather than deal with the difficult task of coming up with a solution. Now, they didn't originally take away his powers at first. No, rather they tried something silly such as giving him the mind of a 10 year old first. So he was still powerful, he just didn't have the mental facility to use it. But that storyline couldn't have gone on forever - although compared to what the character is now I'd have prefered a Hiro-as-a-10-year-old character who struggled with the immense task of being so powerful than a powerless Japanese guy trying desperately hard to recapture the good times.
But that was such a long time ago. I'm too lazy to check, but I assume it's been probably 8 episodes now that Hiro hasn't been "normal" (as much as a person who can bend time and space to his will can be considered normal).
Evenutally the writers found a solution for Peter, his "one power at a time, losing the previous power" limitation will allow him to be on the show for as long as NBC airs Heroes now that the writers found a clever way to deal with his 100+ powers. In hindsight it was a rather simple solution, simply making it so that Peter can't walk around with so many abilities and limit him to one at a time and make him have to decide if it's worth it to lose his current power in order to replace it with a new power that may be a better fit for the current task. But how to you do the same thing with Hiro? Either he can travel through space/time or he can't. That is unless...
Make it so that he can travel through time, but he's invisible. So instead of going back 2 years ago and changing the future - he can still go back 2 years ago but it's more to witness events for data collecting purposes. Kinda like how Matt went into HRG's head to find out the trail of events that lead up to the government project, Hiro would be doing the same thing except being actually there. He would become strictly an observer. Then he'd go back to the present time and armed with the info from the past he'd be able to affect events in real time as the present day happens. Or when he freezes time, instead of freezing time and, for example, take the gun out of the hand of the enemy who's about to shoot him, he loses the ability to tangibly touch things and he can only escape.
Either that, or they give him a retarded power out of pity. I'd love to see Masi Oka (the name of the actor who plays Hiro) at the writer's table trying to convince them to give him his power back:
Masi Oka: "Ok, guys, don't you think Hiro being powerless has gone on long enough? Whaddya say we get him back to the old Hiro, the one that audiences loved to cheer for?"
Writers: "Yeah, about that...we just can't have Hiro running amok like the old days. We've caught a ton of flak over the years from the critics who like to point out how we've used Hiro as a crutch by having a time traveller who can erase bad storylines."
Masi Oka: "Ok, I understand. It certainly was getting repetitive having my character always bail out you guys when you wrote yourselves into a corner. I can take another power though."
Writers: "Well, we do have one power that currently doesn't have anyone claiming it. But we gotta warn ya, it's not exactly on the same page as being master of time and space."
Masi Oka: "I see...well, whatever it is it's gotta beat having no powers and being shipped off to India for no good reason. What's the power?"
Writers: "How do you feel about being able to breathe underwater...?"
March 8, 2009
And the Rebel is...
This is just a small entry today, but I'm telling you, the more and more I think about it the more it seems Micah is the Rebel. I touched on this before so I don't want to recycle previous thoughts but when you add it all up you come up with Micah. That is, unless the writers didn't specifically create a new character for this one purpose just like they created the Aqua Man character just to give Claire something to do. If the Rebel winds up being a new character that's gonna be a letdown of huge proportions. With that in mind I'll proceed as if the Rebel is in fact someone we already know.
We officially know Angela Petrelli is not the Rebel. That eliminates one of the three possible suspects that I mentioned previously. That was a reach on my part regardless but I was just trying to cover all my bases.
It can only be Micah. The Rebel is only shown communicating via some type of electronic device. Cell phone. PC. Fax machine. That sort of stuff. There has been no phone communication (well duh, if there were we'd have heard the voice). The Rebel has the ability to hack into elite government networks. Now I'm sure any hacker worth his balls could probably hack into a secure network, but I'm thinking a government agency's PC is probably not doable. So it has to be someone that can hack into these things without being traced, someone that can can control a machine and "tell it what to do", as Micah himself loved to always explain as he was using his power. Also, it has to be someone who isn't captured, so we all know Micah isn't captured or we would've seen him by now.
It could always be The Hunter if you're into whacky far-out theories. He could always be using the Rebel persona as a way to control and manipulate the escapees. Kinda like how HRG pretended to be helping Suresh escape only to turn him in. Whacky. Far-out. Not likely. But I guess it doesn't hurt to consider all the possibilities.
I think it's Micah, anyway. I don't know how I feel about that, though. I guess one good thing to come out of that would be they finally got something worthwhile for that character to do. It's the way it should be - someone with Micah's power should be in fact extremely powerful. They'd be untouchable and have the ability to remain off the grid by manipulating security systems. Be extremely rich as long as there was an ATM in the vicinity. He could basically set up a virtual command center and do a vast amount of damage.
And before I go, let me just gripe about something. This whole "Parkman having a weakness while using his power" thing infuriated me. I can't stand these "oh, by the way..." moments. So the writers finally get Parkman up to a cool status on the show, he's finally a force in the series after all this time as a 2nd-tier character and NOW is when the writers feel it's time to divulge some info about his weakness. My, wasn't that convenient.
Government agent: "how are we gonna stop Parkman, he's virtually unstoppable."
HRG: "oh, by the way, I forgot to mention his weakness."
Classic roll-my-eyes moment when that scene took place. C'mon guys, tighten up the screws a little more.
We officially know Angela Petrelli is not the Rebel. That eliminates one of the three possible suspects that I mentioned previously. That was a reach on my part regardless but I was just trying to cover all my bases.
It can only be Micah. The Rebel is only shown communicating via some type of electronic device. Cell phone. PC. Fax machine. That sort of stuff. There has been no phone communication (well duh, if there were we'd have heard the voice). The Rebel has the ability to hack into elite government networks. Now I'm sure any hacker worth his balls could probably hack into a secure network, but I'm thinking a government agency's PC is probably not doable. So it has to be someone that can hack into these things without being traced, someone that can can control a machine and "tell it what to do", as Micah himself loved to always explain as he was using his power. Also, it has to be someone who isn't captured, so we all know Micah isn't captured or we would've seen him by now.
It could always be The Hunter if you're into whacky far-out theories. He could always be using the Rebel persona as a way to control and manipulate the escapees. Kinda like how HRG pretended to be helping Suresh escape only to turn him in. Whacky. Far-out. Not likely. But I guess it doesn't hurt to consider all the possibilities.
I think it's Micah, anyway. I don't know how I feel about that, though. I guess one good thing to come out of that would be they finally got something worthwhile for that character to do. It's the way it should be - someone with Micah's power should be in fact extremely powerful. They'd be untouchable and have the ability to remain off the grid by manipulating security systems. Be extremely rich as long as there was an ATM in the vicinity. He could basically set up a virtual command center and do a vast amount of damage.
And before I go, let me just gripe about something. This whole "Parkman having a weakness while using his power" thing infuriated me. I can't stand these "oh, by the way..." moments. So the writers finally get Parkman up to a cool status on the show, he's finally a force in the series after all this time as a 2nd-tier character and NOW is when the writers feel it's time to divulge some info about his weakness. My, wasn't that convenient.
Government agent: "how are we gonna stop Parkman, he's virtually unstoppable."
HRG: "oh, by the way, I forgot to mention his weakness."
Classic roll-my-eyes moment when that scene took place. C'mon guys, tighten up the screws a little more.
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