Image from www.HeroesWiki.comIt's back and it was very good.
Yesterday, over on Scott's blog, there was just a little Heroes bashing going on. My feelings on Heroes going in are that it really has two issues from the start. 1) A lackluster season finale. The simple fact is that 90% of the Heroes viewers wanted a knockdown dragout fight that lasted for at least 15 minutes of the finale. We didn't get that and it was disappointing. 2) Heroes was such a surprise last year that it didn't have any expectations on it and now it does. Very similar to Lost after its first season. The challenge will be to see if it can keep the viewers or if people will get frustrated as I did with Lost.
So, to the episode. I really liked it a lot. As per usual, the Claire/HRG interaction was the best. I listened to some of the episode commentary by Tim Kring (the creator of the show) who mentioned that that relationship really was the heart of the show, replacing a traditional romance, and I think that's really true. It's no doubt the most emotionally resonant relationship. Of course, I wondered about timelines and why it took Claire 4 months to register in school while her dad has been working at the glorious CopyWorld for those months. Were the Bennets/Butlers still being careful or what? Also, is it really so warm in February in southern California that girls can wear tube tops to school? Obviously no Standard School Attire there. And what exactly are the cheerleaders cheering for? Football's over and basketball would be ending, and I've never seen baseball or soccer cheerleaders before. Not too sure about Claire's new peeping tom. I guess we'll see how that develops. And yes, I very much enjoyed HRG bad-assing the manager at CopyWorld. I still love how the writers can make him so gray and I still really like him.
I also like how he's working with Mohinder to try and bring the Company down, but I'm sure it's not going to be as easy as just infiltrating it. Nice intro of the ultimate "Hey, It's That Guy!" Stephen Toblowsky. Also, Mohinder and Parkman taking care of Molly? Very interesting. I really like the young actress that plays Molly. Very nice.
Speaking of Parkman, I like that he's a New York cop. I'm not sure about him cheating on the exam and I REALLY hope that this isn't the last we hear about the divorce. We can never actually see Janice again, but as a child of divorce I really expect to see that divorcing his pregnant wife really affects him in some way.
Hiro. Obviously this storyline is very reminiscent of the first Back to the Future movie, even quoting "Great-o Scott-o!" I'm hoping that it's not an extreme reworking of that. My thought is that either Hiro will become Kenzei, or the swordsmith's daughter will, as opposed to some redemption arc for English-Kenzei.
Wonder twins... or rather Maya and Alejandro. Speculation I've read is that Maya has a power/plague that kills people as is what happened, but it's neutralized when she's around Alejandro. If that's true, it's interesting and makes me wonder if it's related to the plague Mohinder was talking about.
And finally, the Nathan/Peter/Mama Petrelli/Mr. Nakamura storyline, which could be a post on its own. I think Nathan is the killer. I think he put the picture of Nakamura with the sign in the newspaper when he bumped into Ando. And I think he put the picture of Mama Petrelli in the hallway before he came in. Now, why would he be doing that? Why would he kill Mr. Nakamura? Revenge for the Company's plan which resulted in killing Peter? Or is it Peter himself seeking revenge? Follow me here. This is purely someone else's speculation, but it makes sense. We saw that Nathan saw something different than what we looks like in the mirror at the bar. What if that reflection is the result of Peter's contact with Niki/Jessica. Peter absorbed Jessica's power to put her personality into a sibling's reflection, and thus did it to Nathan when he "died" (as, perhaps, Jessica did to Niki when she died.) But then Peter regenerated with Claire's power... but his whole personality is in Nathan's reflection, so therefore his own body has no memory.
Obviously we don't know how Niki and Jessica became... fused or whatever. Possibly it had something to do with Jessica's death and so this would make a lot of sense. Now I could be wrong and whoever is killing the members of the Company's remaining 9 is Molly's monster or even someone completely different. We'll see. Oh, and did Nathan resign his position in Congress to become Neanderthal Nathan?
Btw, does anyone else think that Peter, Nathan, and Sylar returning, further cheapens the season finale last year? Hiro having to go through his Hero's journey to kill Sylar and it doesn't mean anything. Same thing with Peter and Nathan both returning, although if the speculation above is right, that would be cool, but still cheapen the finale.
Next week, I'm sure we'll see Niki and Micah and possibly the return of the not-so-dead Sylar.
Yesterday, over on Scott's blog, there was just a little Heroes bashing going on. My feelings on Heroes going in are that it really has two issues from the start. 1) A lackluster season finale. The simple fact is that 90% of the Heroes viewers wanted a knockdown dragout fight that lasted for at least 15 minutes of the finale. We didn't get that and it was disappointing. 2) Heroes was such a surprise last year that it didn't have any expectations on it and now it does. Very similar to Lost after its first season. The challenge will be to see if it can keep the viewers or if people will get frustrated as I did with Lost.
So, to the episode. I really liked it a lot. As per usual, the Claire/HRG interaction was the best. I listened to some of the episode commentary by Tim Kring (the creator of the show) who mentioned that that relationship really was the heart of the show, replacing a traditional romance, and I think that's really true. It's no doubt the most emotionally resonant relationship. Of course, I wondered about timelines and why it took Claire 4 months to register in school while her dad has been working at the glorious CopyWorld for those months. Were the Bennets/Butlers still being careful or what? Also, is it really so warm in February in southern California that girls can wear tube tops to school? Obviously no Standard School Attire there. And what exactly are the cheerleaders cheering for? Football's over and basketball would be ending, and I've never seen baseball or soccer cheerleaders before. Not too sure about Claire's new peeping tom. I guess we'll see how that develops. And yes, I very much enjoyed HRG bad-assing the manager at CopyWorld. I still love how the writers can make him so gray and I still really like him.
I also like how he's working with Mohinder to try and bring the Company down, but I'm sure it's not going to be as easy as just infiltrating it. Nice intro of the ultimate "Hey, It's That Guy!" Stephen Toblowsky. Also, Mohinder and Parkman taking care of Molly? Very interesting. I really like the young actress that plays Molly. Very nice.
Speaking of Parkman, I like that he's a New York cop. I'm not sure about him cheating on the exam and I REALLY hope that this isn't the last we hear about the divorce. We can never actually see Janice again, but as a child of divorce I really expect to see that divorcing his pregnant wife really affects him in some way.
Hiro. Obviously this storyline is very reminiscent of the first Back to the Future movie, even quoting "Great-o Scott-o!" I'm hoping that it's not an extreme reworking of that. My thought is that either Hiro will become Kenzei, or the swordsmith's daughter will, as opposed to some redemption arc for English-Kenzei.
Wonder twins... or rather Maya and Alejandro. Speculation I've read is that Maya has a power/plague that kills people as is what happened, but it's neutralized when she's around Alejandro. If that's true, it's interesting and makes me wonder if it's related to the plague Mohinder was talking about.
And finally, the Nathan/Peter/Mama Petrelli/Mr. Nakamura storyline, which could be a post on its own. I think Nathan is the killer. I think he put the picture of Nakamura with the sign in the newspaper when he bumped into Ando. And I think he put the picture of Mama Petrelli in the hallway before he came in. Now, why would he be doing that? Why would he kill Mr. Nakamura? Revenge for the Company's plan which resulted in killing Peter? Or is it Peter himself seeking revenge? Follow me here. This is purely someone else's speculation, but it makes sense. We saw that Nathan saw something different than what we looks like in the mirror at the bar. What if that reflection is the result of Peter's contact with Niki/Jessica. Peter absorbed Jessica's power to put her personality into a sibling's reflection, and thus did it to Nathan when he "died" (as, perhaps, Jessica did to Niki when she died.) But then Peter regenerated with Claire's power... but his whole personality is in Nathan's reflection, so therefore his own body has no memory.
Obviously we don't know how Niki and Jessica became... fused or whatever. Possibly it had something to do with Jessica's death and so this would make a lot of sense. Now I could be wrong and whoever is killing the members of the Company's remaining 9 is Molly's monster or even someone completely different. We'll see. Oh, and did Nathan resign his position in Congress to become Neanderthal Nathan?
Btw, does anyone else think that Peter, Nathan, and Sylar returning, further cheapens the season finale last year? Hiro having to go through his Hero's journey to kill Sylar and it doesn't mean anything. Same thing with Peter and Nathan both returning, although if the speculation above is right, that would be cool, but still cheapen the finale.
Next week, I'm sure we'll see Niki and Micah and possibly the return of the not-so-dead Sylar.
4 comments:
Good thoughts. I guess one of my major peeves with the episode was that there was so much setting the stage and re-introducing characters. Which is necessary, especially for new viewers. But now that that is done let's get busy.
And yes the ending is cheapened that they all 3 survived. Sylar could have easily been eliminated as could either/both of the Petrelli boys. I'm ready to see them have the guts to kill off a major character.
I agree with Scott. Let's see the off'ing of a major character.
I was dissappointed how fast the Kensei bit unfolded. I do have suspicions about the sword maker and his daughter. I'm excited to see where they fit into this. Somehow the insignia of the sword keeps showing up.
I also wish that Ando had a bit more purpose. He's just along for the ride and give Hiro someone to bounce crazy ideas off of.
Nathan must get rid of the shaggy chin and I wonder if he and Peter fused into one body during the explosion or if Nathan flung Peter into space where Peter could "detonate" and Nathan just fly off unhurt.
Whew, this makes my head hurt. I also love the Claire storyline. It actually is a more fulfilling plot than most of the other characters.
And you thought Lost was hard to keep up with...
I hadn't really thought about it, but I agree that one of the best and worst parts of Lost is that they do have it in them to kill a main/popular character. I'm still shocked they would kill Ecko, not so shocked they would kill Charlie.
You're right that the Heroes writers are dealing with problems similar to Lost. They have a show that exploded on them, and now they have to keep it going. If they killed off Peter or Sylar, they would have killed the two key characters (in my mind). I think Nathan should have gone away last season finale.
Here's my other "theory" that came to me. Since Claire's new "peeping tom" has a power that seems to be the same as Nathan's, I wonder if there are other "hero" twins that have the same powers as someone else, i.e., a doppleganger. That's what I thought of with Molly's dream where she heard someone say "I see you." Maybe that is someone that has Molly's power, but with more malevolent motives. Just a thought.
"Also, is it really so warm in February in southern California that girls can wear tube tops to school?"
Yes.
"Obviously no Standard School Attire there."
Nope.
"And what exactly are the cheerleaders cheering for?"
They're cheerleaders - it's what they DO.
I also liked the introduction of one of the great That Guys: Ned the Head. Though, he does fit in with the sub-par acting, I think.
I've noticed that they seem to leave out plot developments between episodes and just allow you to figure out what happened. It seem like that continued between seasons as well. I think this worked on Arrested Development (the best show ever), but it's been confusing to me on Heroes. Anyone else?
I like Jeff's idea of the dopplegangers. That makes sense and would be quite cool.
I totally missed the "Great Scott" reference! I'll have to go back and get that one.
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