Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Ugh, can we talk briefly about Heroes?

It's awesome. It's not as awesome as The Office but it's definitely the second best show on TV... or, it was, until 8 days ago when they aired the "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World" episode.

I don't know why people keep saying that episode was good because, well, it wasn't. Nothing really happened and half of the good characters weren't in it, and it ended really anticlimactically. Sylar is totally easily done in by Eden's SuperPersuasionPower, which makes me wonder why we were worried about him in the first place. Was it all a ploy on the part of Horn-Rimmed Glasses (Mr. Bennett to those non-TVgasm readers) to sapture Sylar to use him for his own sneaky plot? Why does HRG surround himself with evil(ish) mutant/heroes and freak out about his daughter? Anyway, suffice it to say that last week I was not impressed. Not worth the hype. (First of all, which cheerleader were they supposed to save? Claire, or her bitchy friend who died against the locker? I don't see this as so much saving.)

But then I decided, well, NBC's promotions are always letdowns. I remember when I used to watch ER and they would always have these promos -

THE

MOST

CHILLING

EPISODE

EVER

with words appearing on thes creen, scary Law&Order type music emphases in the background, and then you tune in on Thursday at 10 and someone gets shot in like, the foot, and no one dies. Come on! So I was hoping that this week's Heroes would make up for last week's lackluster.

No such luck. There were some good juicy bits - namely all the flashbacks, the 6-months-earlier things, where we get to see people's backgrounds. Unlike Lost's flashbacks, these were pretty explanatory - they really did cover almost all the bases (although Niki/Jessica's storyline is not only confusing me but also pissing me off and I want it to end) and they kind of cleared up a lot of little mysteries while adding more and showing how the heroes' powers all began, plus the whole Sylar thing is creepy the way all psychopathic killer origin stories should be. But the rest of the episode was basically a recap of last week! And it told us absolutely nothing new to move the story forward in the present. I appreciate the exposition, but come on, give us something to chew on until next week - the shot at DL, Peter's arrest, Claire's confession to her dad that she's maybe just a little bit capable of spontaneous regeneration, something.

Seriously - NBC is already on the rocks as a network. Why gamble with their best show by overhyping it? Just let it be that cool show that rips off the X-men, only not quite enough for anyone to care. No more shitty commercials promoting

THE

MOST

REVEALING

EPISODE

YET.

Just give me the show and get over yourself.

And thus I end my blogging hiatus.
Posted by at

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am totally confused by the whole heroes thing, I think it might be the Japanese guy grunting like he's on the can or something. I think he should wiggle his nose like whats her name in bewitched. Or the girl who has obie wan canobeeee powers, but not really. Or the guy with glasses and a chip on his shoulder, who is pissed because he wants power but the bald guy says no way. maybe I'll have to stick to reruns of Seinfeld. D

2:24 PM
Anonymous said...

em, heroes rules! a non-drunk complete analysis of your post will follow... soon-ish.
-orges
ucktbmx

6:35 PM
Anonymous said...

alright, the comment about heroes
first of all, i think it totally still rules. totally.
second, the "save the cheerleader..." episode was good for a number of reasons. it was the first climax in the series, and it wasn't any different from any other cliffhanger episodes. at the end of it we got a glimpse into what's happening, but a lot of things are left hanging. like chads. and the episode after that, "six months earlier", serves as a good breather. it's like, ok, we know claire isn't gonna die, we know the world has a fighting chance still, let's get some background on these people.

second, sylar isn't just done in by eden. he's also done in by the Haitian, whose special power seems to be the ability to block the powers of anyone around him with special powers (the opposite of peter petrelli, who can assume anyone's special powers).

HRG guy (aka Mr. Bennet) is by far the most interesting character in the show. to use the x-men analogy, he's a cross between magneto and dr. xavier: he rallies these "heroes" around him and uses their powers to advance some secret cause he has. the point is we don't know what his cause is. we don't know whether he's a good guy or a bad guy (and i hate to use such black-and-white terminology, especially since the show makes a point to show both the good and bad in people).

I think the point about which cheerleader was supposed to be saved is silly. OBVIOUSLY claire. sylar can "steal" people's powers by opening up their brains (and they're gonna have to give us a solid explanation for this sort of voodoo magic), and if he had claire's powers, he would be invincible (physically, at least).

RE: nikki/jessica's storyline. nikki is the older sister, jessica is the younger sister. jessica died at age 11, we can assume because of some sort of abuse by her father (who makes an effort to mend his relationship with nikki). jessica's spirit or soul or something lives on in nikki, and apparently took over nikki everytime their father was abusive to nikki. so, nikki has no recollection of her father's abuse, and jessica does, and when jessica takes over, she administers a solid beatdown to daddy. i think so far the nikki/jessica character is the second most fascinating one, because it blurs the line between good and evil even more. jessica has clearly killed many, many people, and nikki is allowing her to continue down this path of destruction. it's fascinating!

the shot at DL, peter's arrest, and claire's confession will all be addressed in due time, i'm sure. as i said, this was a good breather.

also, what did you think about the hiro storyline? he travels back in time, goes too far back, and is unable to save charlie anyway. but there are still all these questions about what he did in the past. also, the whole thing where he appeared in the subway to tell peter petrelli about calling hiro and leaving a message and contacting isaac mendez, they're gonna have to explain that whole thing. the long hair? the sword? come on!

and finally, speculation! i still think the little kid, what's his name? Micah! i think micah, having both a mother and a father with special powers, is bound to have some sort of crazy ability as well. i'm curious to see if they write something like that for him.
ok, this is long enough. i told you it would be detailed.
-orges

2:01 PM
Emily said...

ok i still think heroes is awesome but i wish they would quit with the overhyping. micah DOES have a power, remember? he fixed the payphone with his mind - he has some crazy mechanical abilities hence the good at computers thing. i'm interested to know how hiro got back to the diner and also i'm still curious about charlie and her story. i hope it's not over yet. it's interesting to see how her ability came out with her brain problem which would eventually kill her... just goes to show that some things are adaptable and some aren't.

and on a related note, the haitian can also erase people's memories. mr bennett isn't quite magneto/dr x because he has no powers! which is the most interesting thing about him, really. very few people on this show have NO powers - ando, i guess suresh (although seeing random boys with soccer balls, whatever).

i liked this ep better than last weeks, but i would have liked it if they gave us one little hint of what is to come. the nathan and his wife background was pretty interesting and bringing in talk of mr linderman. what i like about heroes too is the number of characters - there are so many they aren't even in every episode. it's kind of nice to know that there are a ton of directions they can go in.

2:56 PM
Anonymous said...

dude, how could i have forgotten the payphone? duh!

the thing that bugs me about mr. bennet is how he gets people to do things for him, like the haitian and eden. there's gotta be some explorable backstory there. i need to know! did he save the haitian's life, and now the haitian is paying back the debt? or do they collaborate towards some greater goal for the common good? or maybe, if mr. bennet is a "bad" character, there's some sort of extortion going on.
-orges

3:02 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)