"Heroes" spoilers coming up just as soon as I figure out what inspired me to transcribe Mohinder's latest coma-inducing closing monologue...One of my regrets about having to bail on press tour early was not getting to ask Tim Kring his take on the whole "Save the cheerleader, save the world" semi-resolution. Given the push on the "Are you on the list?" as the new promotional tagline, I still don't know whether Kring feels he paid off the first one or if he's waiting to drop the second shoe.
I care because, as I've said in the past, the chief pleasure I take in "Heroes" is as The Show Where Stuff Happens All the Time. It's not as artful, not as deep or well-executed as a "Galactica" or "Lost" (when "Lost" is good), to name just a couple of current quasi-skiffy shows, but it provides constant instant gratification, and that covers a lot of sins. I know Kring has pledged to keep up that approach, but if he starts doing it in half-measures without realizing it, then here there be problems.
All this is a preamble to discussing "Godsend," in which a whole lot of things are set up for the second "pod" of episodes, payoffs presumably to follow shortly. Hiro steals The Sword, but it isn't really The Sword. (I did get a kick out of the writers finding a cheap yet fair way to make Isaac's Hiro Vs. Dinosaur painting come true.) Peter encounters Claude the Invisible Man, but don't get past the "Who the hell are you?" stage of the MeetCute. Parkman doesn't get any closer to nailing HRG, and then his home scenes made me fall asleep. (I woke up just long enough to laugh at the lameness of him using "pick a number" as his proof.)
Now, they're coming back from a long break, so I don't have a problem with a show that only moves a couple of stories along more than incrementally. I'm just slightly more wary about believing this will wrap up interestingly.
Stuff I liked, and other random thoughts:
- Loved Hiro's reunion with "FLYING MAN!" Nathan, and Nathan reluctantly entertaining the idea of doing some real superheroing.
- Also liked Claire re-enacting her fall from the pilot (and her baiting her father with the "Where'd you find me?," which had a double meaning about both Homecoming night and how he came to adopt her).
- Out of curiosity, I checked to see if Primatechpaper.com was a real website. Of course it was. Geeks, enjoy.
- Ali Larter's really growing on me, particularly her ability to switch between Niki and Jessica without seeming like a ham.
- Nice "12 Monkeys" time loop touch with Peter booking a trip to the Nevada desert to avoid blowing up New York, when we all know that his Nevada trip will make him cross paths with Radioactive Man.
What did everybody else think?
11 comments:
The performances all-around are excellent, one of the best things about the show. Eccelston laughing is more disturbing than any Jack Bauer torture sequence.
WTF??? Heroes gets a TB before 24??? Dropping the ball a bit!!!
I'm confused on Sylar. IIRC, he was about to power-suck Eden before she offed herself. Why then didn't Sylar escape? And what's with the cockroach? A relative of the "Mute" Hatian?
On another note, Lindermann really needs to show up by the end of the season lest he become the Heroes answer to the Hanso Foundation.
As Claire was setting up to run her demo for Zack, she was so blase about it that I flashed on how Hiro's power had gotten weaker recently, and I thought maybe the bit was going to be that she was not going to be demoing her healing powers after all. But no.
My favorite bit last night was Hiro excitedly gesturing & saying, "WHOOSH!" then Nathan telling him to take it down a notch and him responding with a low-key gesture and tiny "whoosh." Masi Oka is awesome (and apparently, he either turned up or will turn up on "Studio 60" soon).
So what the hell is going on with Sylar? Are the drugs they're pumping into him really dampening his abilities, or just killing him, or both?
Speaking of Linderman, have you seen the Heroes-Forum.com post on The Linderman Quotient? It's got a lot of info about Linderman and his association with the special people of Heroes.
http://www.heroes-forum.com/index.php?showtopic=1848&st=0&p=14942&#entry14942
Check out THE LIST -- also posted on H-F.com. It's the most complete list on the Net.
http://www.heroes-forum.com/index.php?showtopic=1766&st=0&p=17072&#entry17072
ENJOY! Heroes is the best!
Linderman is the set up to the next "big bad" and Nathan has turned into a real likeable guy.
Eccleson was great in the few minutes we saw him. He is going to be half mad (or perhaps completely around the bend) and will never leave Peter. Eccelson, the Ben Gunn of Heroes.
I could care less about Matt Parkman's wife and I hope she leaves him. Mohinder was almost interesting before the break and then slid into irritating again.
The 1-800 number for Primatech Paper works, too, and unlocks website functionality that I haven't fully explored since it seems mostly to be viral marketing harvesting.
I can't remember ever regularly watching a show where I fast-forward through so much: basically, any "emotional" scene, because the writing isn't good enough to make it work.
Laughed out loud at Nathan and Hiro's second meeting. Also, hands up all those who've got an office pool on when Pasdar and Ventimiglia start making out. Their brand of brotherly love is reaching Arrested Development levels.
Glad to see Claire trying to get her friend back; that was the most tragic part of the last episode for me. But Boo-urns to the writers introducing the God element at this point. I was really hoping they'd just stick to the evolution-goes-sideways theory and I can't tell if this new development is a sop to more conservative viewers, or a way to get out of having to pull science out of their collective behinds, or both.
Maybe it's just me, but I thought I saw something that had me scratching my head.
When Hiro was in the museum and slowed down time, the camera shows several by-standers walking around in the museum. One of them looked just like Erick Avari (Chandra Suresh) to me. I've replayed the moment and he *still* looks like Suresh to me.
Did anyone else spot this? Am I nuts?
I also emjoyed Hiro's reunion with "Flying Man!" And I was amused when Nathan taught Hiro how to pronounce villain. I'm looking forward to Eccleston's performance on the show - I enjoyed him in Doctor Who so I was excited to see he's guesting on Heroes.
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