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...?"

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.

Cold Wars

The season is going great, another good episode. Lots of HRG which is always a good thing, and the menacing Hunter guy seems to steal every scene he's in. I say the episode was "good" and not "great" because on the whole not much happened. Here's what I'm seeing:

1. Was it necessary to spend a whole episode backtracking as to how HRG got involved with the government project? Ok, I know it was necessary to reveal that a basically bored HRG wanted action (more than he wanted to protect Claire) and he wanted to head his own group. As he got pushed to the sidelines and saw the actual intent of the government project he decided it wasn't his bag anymore and switched allegiance. Not necessary to take a whole episode for that. And was it just me, but in the end when HRG was walking with the Hunter and he swore 100% loyalty was it not obvious that HRG had already flipped to the other side? When he walked back to Angela Petrelli and revealed he's back on her side were we supposed to be "ohhh snap, I don't believe it!"? There was no drama or tension there, the episode had shown HRG gradually moving away from the goals of the project, by the end there was virtually no surprise. Even when he offered to walk Matt outside the motel after Matt had been captured it was very obvious he did so expecting Peter to swoop in (literally) and take Matt. That was the revealing turn of events, slightly grinning at the sky as Matt was whisked away, that it was obvious HRG had flipped - not his conversation with Angela Petrelli. I don't know, that was somewhat weird - I hope the writers gave us more credit than that.

2. Suresh sure does annoy other people, not just me. I loved the part when Suresh objected to interrogating HRG that Matt screamed at him "if you don't like it...leave!". Quite frankly up until that point Suresh was dead weight anyway. There's no room for having a moral compass when you're being hunted. What exactly was his alternate plan anyway? How could not wanting to get more info be a bad thing? Obviously we found out he didn't want it to be known that he was aware of the government project - but as soon as they all were rounded up in episode 1 wouldn't that have confirmed what HRG told him in the taxi? At that point why wouldn't he tell the others "hey, HRG mentioned this would happen, I didn't believe him but here's what I know"? Some faulty writing there. The writers made it seem like Suresh was clueless as much as the rest, but being abducted should've been the telltale sign that whatever info he obtained was in fact correct and he should share it with other huntees.

3. Why didn't we get more "Rebel"? I'm having a great time trying to determine who that is. I don't know if the writers would introduce a new character (like when they introduced Matt's dad as the person who was haunting Molly's dreams) or if it'll be someone we already know. I like to think there's no drama/surprise when you just create a character out of the blue, that the only proper way to do a "ah ha! so [insert familiar character here] was the Rebel!" moment is in fact with a familiar character. With that in mind, I want to go over some facts we know to arrive to who the possible suspects are: the person communicates electronically; the person knows the characters (Claire, Hiro/Ando); it has to be someone not already getting much (or any) screen time this season. That leads me to believe it's either Micah (ugh) or Angela Petrelli. Micah could've possible communicated via text (to Claire) and fax (to Ando/Hiro). Angela is the only one (not preoccupied with running from The Man) who could determine that Hiro/Ando would be in India before they actually got there, as the fax was there before they arrived. Heck, even the Haitian is still out there somewhere and he's had some history on some level with Claire and Hiro/Ando.

Or it could just be a totally new character which would suck.

4. So Claire's new friend is basically Aqua Man. Yuck, horrible and useless power to have. He's so inept and useless I can't muster enough motivation to write more on this. What a waste of a power (outside of Ando's useless power). Couldn't they have made Ando's power that he can supercharge *anything*? Like if he hopped on a motorcycle he'd make it ridiculously fast. Or if he touched a normal person they'd become super strong. That'd be cool.

Still waiting for the return of the comic book store geeks, hopefully they make another appearance.

Season 3: Volume 2....Mega Changes

Sorry for the hiatus ladies and villains, I was giving the 2nd volume of this season some time to flesh out so I could formulate some opinions. Didn't want to have a knee-jerk reaction based off of one episode. Now that we have 3 episodes so far under our belt let's review/recap what we know so far. It's been, so say the least and not to sound like a fanboy - an awesome season so far. I can't think of many lulls in the storyline, can't think of many wasted arcs or whathaveyou. Everything is all pointing in the same direction. Great writing. Well, let me hold off on the "great" part, this show isn't exactly The Sopranos or anything. Greatly improved is probably more accurate.

Ch-ch-changes: Indeed, David Bowie said it best many years ago. Gone are the "save the cheerleader, save the world" plots. It's nice to see what the show can do when the fate of the world isn't hanging in the balance. I applaud this. It feels fresh. If feels more real (well, as real as you can expect about a show that involves people with super powers). This is exactly what I would expect to happen if the guv'ment ever found out about people with powers. They'd be hunted down, detained and most likely tested on. People would be forced into hiding. There's a very Star Wars Episode IV/Guantanamo Bay aspect to this season (evil empire hunting down people with powers, detaining people who are both real threats and others who are innocent). What this show needed all along was a shakeup on the writing staff. I mentioned no lulls in the storyline - there's been times in the past where you'd scratch your head wondering "how does this character/plot fit in with the overall story?". I'm looking at you Ali Larter, Alejandro, Mya, Micah and Micah's cousin.

Less annoying characters: Minimal Suresh? Check. Brief scenes with Tracey? Check. Tougher Peter? Check. Shit, even Claire is back to acting more like a high school teen than some powerless vigilante hero. We needed this from her all along! She has yet to cause me to massage my temples in order to sooth the frequent headaches her shinanigans would bring. Getting back to Peter - his exchange with Nathan right before Nathan doublecrossed him was a big step for this character. He seemed tougher. When Nathan asked him if flying was Peter's only power, Peter's response was "who are you supposed to be...the cops?" with a perfect "that ain't your muthatrucking business, fool" sneer. Only flaw, which may just be a character flaw, is he's still too trusting, falling for the ole "I'm your family member, give me a hug" embrace of death, but more troubling than that is he shows his hand too much still. Has yet to master the art of "I'll go along with you so that I don't raise any red flags, but deep inside I'm keeping my eye on you just to find out what the caper is". Don't invite Peter to a poker game, that's all I'm saying.

Nathan has been refreshingly consistent. He flip flopped a considerable amount last year. What seems to be odd is the lip he takes from that menacing bald government guy. I'm assuming the menacing bald government guy is beneath Nathan in terms of authority - Nathan should have him dealt with. Whoever casted that guy deserves an award, btw - how menacing and evil does he look? He could make smalltalk at the office water fountain seem like uncomfortable doom. Looks like he gets pleasure from using scissors to cut the ears off of tiny bunnies. Look into the deep abyss of darkness where his eyes should be, you'll know what I'm talking about. And all in all the writers have kept Suresh out of the way, and Tracey doesn't seem to be getting much meaningful screen time now that she's in shackles. I can't ask for more to be honest.

Tidbits on other characters: It's still kinda lame that the writers can't think of any other way to contain a very powerful person than to render them powerless. Kring, the creator of the show, actually came out and acknowledged a conscious effort to go easy on time travellers running amok in the storyline and altering events whenever they knock over a potted plant. Still, it's been a very long time since Hiro has had powers - don't you think he's suffered enough? Shit, that's longer than Peter went without powers and Peter was a bumbling idiot up until now. Now, it's obvious Hiro's underlying message is we can all be heroes with or without powers. That's great and all, but we kinda got that message previously when Peter was powerless. Sometimes it's almost as if you feel the writers should just kill off anyone they don't think they can handle rather than resort to the old "you have to take a power time-out, now go sit in the corner until we decide a convenient time to give you your power back" routine. I do like their solution for Peter - one power at a time, loses the previous power he had, needs to physically touch the person to get their power. A far cry from the day's when Peter could be in a room with like 5 heroes have instantly get their powers. Yeah, that wasn't gonna be tough to write around. What the hell were the writers thinking?

Sylar is back (unnecessarily and inexplicitly), and remains the lone badass on the show, the way it should be. He seems to be the only one capable of having the responsibility that having many powers come with. He seems disciplined, unlike Peter who would run amok expecting to save the day. I really like this journey to find his father, who else is expecting one demented kook? I'm also expecting his Dad to have some type power as well. I think this is perhaps the 2nd time the show has had Sylar killed off in a cling hanger, only to have him return. Writers: 3rd time is NOT the charm. Let's put that to rest now. It seems the writers assumed that we would assume Sylar didn't die in the explosion in the last episode of the previous volume - they didn't even bother acknowledging him walking away from the wreckage. At least they gave us some credit for not being that gullible that they felt it'd be a waste to explain him surviving. He just appeared in the 1st episode of this volume like nothing happened.

And thank you for getting HRG back into the mix. It was a crime that he was as underutilized as he was last volume. I thoroughly look forward to the upcoming episode to see where his character is going to be going for the rest of the season.

Ok, I'll stop here, this is a blog - not a novel. If I think of more stuff to point out I'll do so in a separate entry.

So lonely

Man, without a weekly installment of this show there really isn't much to talk about, huh?

At this point I would give anything for a whole hour of Milo V. doing his Future Peter scowl, just to have something to comment on.

I wonder - and this is a random thought - if this show were to go off the air which character would be the most compelling to have a spinoff on. I think the writers know Suresh and Tracey only annoy viewers so a full hour based on either of those 2 would flop faster than Rosie O' Donnell's variety show. There's only so much one could take with Claire, I've already mentioned its basically the same thing with her every week, you know, her bark being worse than her bite. The series has pretty much concentrated on Peter and lately moreso Sylar so in a way I don't see a spinoff in their future (spinoffs are normally based on secondary characters). Plus I can foresee those two having movie aspirations and not wanting to be limited to the smallscreen. Heck, Zach Quinto is set to co-star as Spock in the new Star Trek movie (and likely sequels). He's best positioned himself to use Heroes as a launching pad to something bigger.

My guess (I have 2 votes) for who would be a good (and likely) spinoff:

Ando. Secondary character (although now he has a power who knows if he'll spring to the forefront, not likely, but at least he's not sidekick material anymore). Would be nice to see a story arc where he branches out on his own without being in the shadow of Hiro. I like the actor that plays him, also.

You know what'd really work? A spinoff featuring Breckin Meyer and Seth Green. Those 2 characters really worked - who doesn't think a show based on two smarmy comic book store nerds would be awesome? They had brief screentime, but they had great chemistry and really pulled it off. And it's not like Seth Green has any prospects outside of Family Guy voiceovers and Breckin Meyer would say yes as soon as the casting director dialed his line.

Make it happen, Hollywood.