Note I didn't have the time to watch the second part of last night's 2 hour premier, so any opinion of the season opener is based off of the first chapter. Since this blog was on a long hiatus I guess it's best to break things down into two parts anyway so I have more to write about.
First things first - I was underwhelmed. Where was the big bang, the "POW" from the season opener last year? The second part of last season was even more tremendous - all people with powers being hunted and everyone on the run from The Man. This season started off very slow. Normally a season opener will 1.) identify the villain and 2.) unveil their evil plan. Ok, so #1 was established - we think...All we know right now is the Carnies are probably villains. We're supposed to think that because of the dark, brooding evilish music in the background. And they killed Denko - which may or may not be a bad thing. Oh, and the main Carnie leader has evil hair and dark eye makeup, so that probably makes him a villain. But yeah, I don't think it's going too far to say the Carnies are the bad guys. Only thing is based off of the first part of the premier - we don't know what the hell they want. Sylar wanted your brains. Arthur Petrelli wanted to build a force of super humans (they never really fleshed that out though). The Gov'ment/Denko wanted to round up all people with abilities. Like I said, there was a lot of BANG! POW! to these openers. They're supposed to set the table for the rest of the season.
What do we know so far?
Ali Larter is immortal: That is, she will always be on this show. Her name may not be Nikki, it may not be Jessica, it may not even be Tracey - but she'll always be a character on this show in some way. She wasn't rather annoying to me in this opener, but alas, the season is young. I'll give her time.
Mohinder is gone: ...for now. Normally season openers will show what all the characters are up to, but Mohinder was nowhere to be found. There wasn't even the normal narrative voiceover that starts and ends the show. I think a different person does the narrating if you look at the credits - but it sounds like Mohinder so I always pretended it was him. Anyway - all gone. I'm sure the writers have him stashed away to bring out at some other opportune time (ie, when it's convenient to them after they've written themselves into a corner) but for now the show seems to be Mohinder-free.
The Hiro & Ando Comedy Group: Officially have crossed over into comic-relief. The show even *unnecessarily* has that whimsical music everytime they're on the screen. At one point when Ando was on the roof saving the cat and he fell I swear there was a Benny Hill sound effect. Almost like a Fozzie Bear "whocka whocka" or bicycle horn. What the hell is going on? And now Hiro was considering going back into the past so he wouldn't meet a fortune teller who set him on the path to wanting to be a hero? Ummm, don't you think that would mess up the storylines of the previous seasons??? Without Future Hiro to give Peter the "save the cheerleader, save the world" order then Sylar gets Claire's power in season 1 and chaos ensues. Although Sylar wound up getting Claire's power eventually, which kinda negated the tension from season 1. Granted, Hiro inadvertently has some as much harm as good with his time travelling - if he goes back in time to prevent all that who knows what winds up happening. Why did Ando not bring that up? Why did he not say "Hellooooo? If you go back in time you'll mess everything up by altering the timelines!". Also, we get it already - you don't want Hiro timetravelling all over the place so you devised this contrived scenario so that he has a built-in weakness/deterrent for using that power. Hiro's power is cool, but the character himself isn't. If this is the best you can muster then kill him off and let us remember him fondly. I sighed during the scene when Hiro/Ando were talking to the little girl. Cringe-worthy, I think some would describe it.
Carnies, small hands...smell like cabbage: From the first episode we don't know much other than the lead Carnie must really be a sweat talker as he apparently convinced that Tattoo Chick she needs to be topless when she uses her power.
Lead Carnie Guy: "Ok, I need you to take your top off so you can show me a face."
Tattoo Chick: "Is this really necessary, I can easily make the face appear on my shoulder or something."
Lead Carnie Guy: "DAMMIT JUST DO IT!"
Also not sure why he had to inject his cohort with ink to do that cool tattoo hand choking the throat trick - he's able to move dirt so he obviously has a similar telekinesis power as Sylar.
Parkman: The most powerful hero on the show (now that Sylar is out of commission for the time being) isn't interested in being a hero any longer. So let me get this straight - Angela Petrelli tells you the person you helped lock in someone else's body is now starting to manifest himself and you need to fix it before it's too late. You're reply is "it's not my problem anymore"? Granted towards the end of the show Sylar mentally threatens Parkman so I only have reason to believe he'll come around. But it's just weird someone who's now a parent wouldn't be totally gung-ho to make the world as safe a place as possible for his young. He's morphed into my defacto favorite character due to being so powerful, I hope the writers tread carefully here. I don't want another Hiro on my hands.
Peter: Completely useless once again. Just leave him like this, guys, he does more harm than good. He's more suited to be a super-paramedic than a super hero. He's perfect in his current role. Of course he's not going to go an entire season like this, but I'll enjoy this new Peter (insignificant, not crucial to the storyline) for as long as I can.
Claire: The writers listened to me. They put her back in school. It's where she belonged for the last season and a half. Glad they've seen it my way. I still don't know why they showed a scene of her playing Guitar Hero, unless that was a poor stab at product placement. Sure the song being played was ominous - "very supersticious...writing on the wall" - but unneeded. I think her geeky friend has a power, she commented something along the lines of "I'm learning this quickly every second", which I took to be a hint of some kind of ability. Her murdered roommate was going to really be a downer on the show if they gave her more airtime, I'm glad she was quickly disposed of. But anyway Claire belongs in school, back to being a special person who just wants to be normal. Crime-fighter Claire was a bomb. Not "the" bomb - "a" bomb. A failure.
I'm going to assume last night's premiere kinda needed to be watched in its two-hour entirety. The first part was just too "bleh", perhaps they saved the fireworks for the second part.
Showing posts with label Suresh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Suresh. Show all posts
September 22, 2009
December 18, 2008
Episode 13: Dual
We made it.
Final episode of the year and of this current volume.
An end to one of the most up and down seasons for not only this series, but in probably all of tv-dom in recent memory. Has any series really had a season that combined some of it's lowest points with some memorable scenes? Any season in recent memory where one character has gone from bad, to good, back to evil again? Mind you, this was done over the course of only 13 episodes.
I'm going to go light on the criticism this time. I think by now everyone knows the cat is out of the bag, the show has writing and consistency problems and it isn't new or shocking to be the one to try to reveal "hey, this show isn't gold, it does have it's weak point". Besides, I'm not one to pull out a magnifying glass to look for anything to make fun of. No show is perfect. Let's review this last episode for what it was - the tv show equivalent of a basketball team that was down for most of the game hitting a key 3 pointer to tie the game up right as the buzzer sounded. Now we're at half-time, all tied up, all the mistakes and whatnot have been erased (but not forgotten) and you leave the crowd eager and excited for the 2nd half. That was episode 13. The preview for the upcoming volume couldn't have been any better. I literally said out loud "wow".
Can you not imagine the voiceover for the upcoming season:
"Heroes - they've saved the world....now they must...save...themselves. "
I look forward for a Heroes volume that doesn't involve the end of the world and/or mankind. There are some certainties that ruin the suspense of a show like Heroes. We know the world isn't going to end. There's no tension in that. Mankind is not going to be wiped out. A show like Heroes is like watching a Mission Impossible episode - you know the good guys are going to win, it's just a matter of how. We also like to see who is going to die (and stay dead). So for a season to be about Heroes being hunted like Jedi - who knows where that's going to go? This is unchartered territory. I like it.
Back to episode 13. We had some people die, to put it bluntly. Arthur we already knew was dead, but we weren't sure if he'd stay dead. It certainly seems that way, unless the writers want to completely remove any credibility and have the show become a parody of itself by constantly killing off characters and bringing them back. Arthur was odd - what was his ultimate vision? What was he ultimately trying to do? We only know he was a villain because he stopped at nothing to accomplish his goal, but that in and of itself doesn't a villain make. How exactly was he a threat to humanity, if anything he wanted to improve humanity by giving everyone a power. The writers didn't flesh that out too much. How was he anymore a villain than Angela, who was also manipulative. And the whole Arthur and Angela are Sylar's parents was handled so poorly, that was a pretty big revelation and the payoff was near nil.
Speaking of Sylar, it sure looks as if he's dead. Of course, this will be the 3rd time he's been down this road. This is the problem with not keeping characters dead - when you cry wolf so many times people tune you out that one time a wolf is actual at your door. Sylar "dying" just didn't hold that much weight. No one is convinced he's actually dead. It's not conceivable how he could be alive, but I think everyone won't bat an eyelash when the writers bring him back using some hokey nonsense excuse. But he certainly made a good villain in this last episode. I sort of wished he would have mindfucked everyone further, maybe had a major battle between 3 of the escaped convict villains at one time. His fight with the Puppet Master could've had more chutzpah.
That Fear Guy died out of nowhere. That's one guy I think we all agree will actually stay dead. I'm not convinced Arthur is completely out of the picture and certainly am not buying Sylar is dead, so that leaves one out of three. Classic sacrificial lamb scenario - someone has to die and stay definitely dead.
Funny thing happened at the end of the episode. Suresh got into a car being driven by Tracey. The only thought in my mind was "now that the two characters that annoy me the most are in the same car - couldn't the writers just have it blow up right now and kill two birds with one stone??". Further proof to back up my claim that NBC just wants to keep Ali Larter employed. I simply don't know what future hijinks they're going to put her in for the upcoming volume, and apparently she has a partner for whatever it's going to be. With Suresh's sly grin as he got into the car I'm going to assume he's going to play up his evil scientist role. And apparently the recipe for surviving exploding labs is to get covered in oodles of power-goo. Certainly seems like he's become just a tad more powerful.
Speaking of becoming just a tad more powerful, looks like Peter finally got his groove back. Only question remains is did he get his original power back - and was able to fly since he absorbed Nathan's ability - or did he just aquire the same weak flying ability as Nathan by coincidence. I'm going to bet he got his original power back, I'm sure the writers feel Milo V. suffered enough all season. Not cool enough to pull off being powerless like HRG can do. And was I the only one who put his head in his hands as Peter made a weak attempt to point the gun at Nathan trying to stop him? Did anyone think Peter was going to pull the trigger? I didn't think so. No tension at all there. Flint had the fastest flip-flopping in the series, btw. He went from going to beat up Peter/Suresh to teaming up with Peter to trash the lab to turning on Peter again in the end. In the same episode. Again, I'm not here to nitpick and criticize in this entry, just pointing things out.
This episode was too big to be contained to just one entry, I'm going to stop now and continue in a new entry to be released shortly or else my thoughts will be all over the place. We still have Hiro/Ando and a little bit of Claire to talk about.
Final episode of the year and of this current volume.
An end to one of the most up and down seasons for not only this series, but in probably all of tv-dom in recent memory. Has any series really had a season that combined some of it's lowest points with some memorable scenes? Any season in recent memory where one character has gone from bad, to good, back to evil again? Mind you, this was done over the course of only 13 episodes.
I'm going to go light on the criticism this time. I think by now everyone knows the cat is out of the bag, the show has writing and consistency problems and it isn't new or shocking to be the one to try to reveal "hey, this show isn't gold, it does have it's weak point". Besides, I'm not one to pull out a magnifying glass to look for anything to make fun of. No show is perfect. Let's review this last episode for what it was - the tv show equivalent of a basketball team that was down for most of the game hitting a key 3 pointer to tie the game up right as the buzzer sounded. Now we're at half-time, all tied up, all the mistakes and whatnot have been erased (but not forgotten) and you leave the crowd eager and excited for the 2nd half. That was episode 13. The preview for the upcoming volume couldn't have been any better. I literally said out loud "wow".
Can you not imagine the voiceover for the upcoming season:
"Heroes - they've saved the world....now they must...save...themselves. "
I look forward for a Heroes volume that doesn't involve the end of the world and/or mankind. There are some certainties that ruin the suspense of a show like Heroes. We know the world isn't going to end. There's no tension in that. Mankind is not going to be wiped out. A show like Heroes is like watching a Mission Impossible episode - you know the good guys are going to win, it's just a matter of how. We also like to see who is going to die (and stay dead). So for a season to be about Heroes being hunted like Jedi - who knows where that's going to go? This is unchartered territory. I like it.
Back to episode 13. We had some people die, to put it bluntly. Arthur we already knew was dead, but we weren't sure if he'd stay dead. It certainly seems that way, unless the writers want to completely remove any credibility and have the show become a parody of itself by constantly killing off characters and bringing them back. Arthur was odd - what was his ultimate vision? What was he ultimately trying to do? We only know he was a villain because he stopped at nothing to accomplish his goal, but that in and of itself doesn't a villain make. How exactly was he a threat to humanity, if anything he wanted to improve humanity by giving everyone a power. The writers didn't flesh that out too much. How was he anymore a villain than Angela, who was also manipulative. And the whole Arthur and Angela are Sylar's parents was handled so poorly, that was a pretty big revelation and the payoff was near nil.
Speaking of Sylar, it sure looks as if he's dead. Of course, this will be the 3rd time he's been down this road. This is the problem with not keeping characters dead - when you cry wolf so many times people tune you out that one time a wolf is actual at your door. Sylar "dying" just didn't hold that much weight. No one is convinced he's actually dead. It's not conceivable how he could be alive, but I think everyone won't bat an eyelash when the writers bring him back using some hokey nonsense excuse. But he certainly made a good villain in this last episode. I sort of wished he would have mindfucked everyone further, maybe had a major battle between 3 of the escaped convict villains at one time. His fight with the Puppet Master could've had more chutzpah.
That Fear Guy died out of nowhere. That's one guy I think we all agree will actually stay dead. I'm not convinced Arthur is completely out of the picture and certainly am not buying Sylar is dead, so that leaves one out of three. Classic sacrificial lamb scenario - someone has to die and stay definitely dead.
Funny thing happened at the end of the episode. Suresh got into a car being driven by Tracey. The only thought in my mind was "now that the two characters that annoy me the most are in the same car - couldn't the writers just have it blow up right now and kill two birds with one stone??". Further proof to back up my claim that NBC just wants to keep Ali Larter employed. I simply don't know what future hijinks they're going to put her in for the upcoming volume, and apparently she has a partner for whatever it's going to be. With Suresh's sly grin as he got into the car I'm going to assume he's going to play up his evil scientist role. And apparently the recipe for surviving exploding labs is to get covered in oodles of power-goo. Certainly seems like he's become just a tad more powerful.
Speaking of becoming just a tad more powerful, looks like Peter finally got his groove back. Only question remains is did he get his original power back - and was able to fly since he absorbed Nathan's ability - or did he just aquire the same weak flying ability as Nathan by coincidence. I'm going to bet he got his original power back, I'm sure the writers feel Milo V. suffered enough all season. Not cool enough to pull off being powerless like HRG can do. And was I the only one who put his head in his hands as Peter made a weak attempt to point the gun at Nathan trying to stop him? Did anyone think Peter was going to pull the trigger? I didn't think so. No tension at all there. Flint had the fastest flip-flopping in the series, btw. He went from going to beat up Peter/Suresh to teaming up with Peter to trash the lab to turning on Peter again in the end. In the same episode. Again, I'm not here to nitpick and criticize in this entry, just pointing things out.
This episode was too big to be contained to just one entry, I'm going to stop now and continue in a new entry to be released shortly or else my thoughts will be all over the place. We still have Hiro/Ando and a little bit of Claire to talk about.
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