Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Heroes Wednesday: Out of Time
If you gave up on Heroes after last week, I couldn't really blame you. It was bad. But I'm afraid you gave up a week too early, because this one felt a lot like last seasons' best episodes. Was it as good as Five Years Gone or Company Man? No, not by a long shot, but it was easily the best of this lackluster season.
The good news? No twinzzzzzzzzz. Oh please let them die off screen and us just hear about it in passing. No Monica this week either and while I like her, I didn't mind it because we got some really good action and character work this week.
Parkman: Great job by Greg Grundberg in this role, working through all the daddy issues as he went up against Maury.
Nathan: I liked how Nathan really took some charge of the situation at the Company and put the screws to Bob to find out some information.
Claire and Noah Bennett: A little more movement on this plot line. I liked West finding out about HRG, but (and maybe it's because I'm not a high school girl) I found the scenes between West and Claire to be so schmoopy and tiresome, especially listening to music together. Is that what I have to look forward to in the future? Oh please no. I liked seeing all the painting and getting some payoff with them in that very episode. We're also set up for Mohinder with gun and the nose bandage which would seem to lead to HRG's death.
Mohinder: Dr. Suresh once again takes his stupidity pills that morning. Geez, at least he looks good, because he ain't smart at all. Telling Bob that he's actually working with HRG to bring the Company down? Seriously? I was so wishing at that point that when he told Bob he was doing that, Bob had shrugged and said, "Yes, we know."
Niki: Nice to see her back in action and also nice to see that she was very affected by DL's death, however that happens, which I guess we'll find out next week. Also, now that she has the (mutated) virus, things have become quite a bit more dire for her.
Hiro: I'm glad this storyline is over, but I'm also glad it got some residual poignancy by Kenzei becoming a villain because of Hiro. That will obviously have some play out at the end of this whole thing.
Peter: I was so glad they didn't spend the whole episode in deserted 2008 New York. I thought it was a nice touch how we went there occasionally. Christine Rose again did a great job as Angela Petrelli, now a little softer and those who were interested got shirtless, wet Peter. I'll be interested in how they resolve the Caitlyn being left in the future aspect of this. As well as now finding out what happened to Kenzei/Adam Munroe in the intervening 300 years, as well as why he was working with Peter, but yet was one of the original founders of the Company.
The bad: I can't find it right now, but I read an interview with Tim Kring explaining why the plot lines were so expanded this week, and the upshot of it made me worried for the season. He basically said that he thought people didn't mind it because even though they might not see their favorite character or storyline each week, they'd still come back the week after to see what had happened to them. And I'm sorry Tim, but that's just dumb. People don't want to come back after a "cliffhanger" or at least a significant unresolved plot point and not have it resolved the next week. Like I stated last year, that's why Heroes in Season 1 was different than Lost. It resolved plot points pretty quickly and then moved on. That's honestly one of the reasons Hiro in Japan seemed so listless. It didn't seem to have any relationship to the rest of the story. It seemed like just an excursion for Hiro in Japan for him to have fun with his childhood hero. Not bad in and of itself, but if we're interested in the overall plot, that stuff just takes away from it. Now, it better that we know that Kenzei does affect the overall plot, but still, I think that's one of the reasons Heroes had the lowest ratings of the season on Monday night. People had/have given up on it. Monday felt like a step in the right direction, but if this is philosophy of the season, especially with the twinzzzzzzzzz storyline sucking the life out of the show, I fear for the rest of the season.
Overall, I'm going with a B+ on this one. Very solid ep, and very much in the feel of season 1.
This is not the article I was talking about above, but an interesting one, nonetheless: 'Heroes' Creator Apologizes to Fans: Tim Kring admits mistakes were made at the beginning of season 2, but promises to get back on track
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6 comments:
Honestly, I thought this episode was a D, but the last minute with the Kensei twist made it an A-. I could also do without the Claire/West snuggle time, but I'm even more convinced now that West is bad and he killed Hiro's dad. I also know that you like Molly, but I'm a little over the Molly/Parkman emoting all the time.
Back to Kensei/Adam - THAT was some good writing to work that angle in. I have to wonder whether that has been the storyline all along...that Kensei started the company to ultimately track down Hiro to get revenge. That's why the "godsend" symbol has been all over everything (I wonder if he had something to do with Niki's tatoo). Of course, there's a lot of space/time continuum mess to deal with there since Hiro going back to Japan started that chain of events. Anyway, I really like where they could go with that. And I'm so glad that next week will answer the three month gap of what happened at the end of last season.
I agree with you Phil, that the audience is much more demanding and doesn't need several episodes in between getting answers solved and plot lines developed. Next week's episode took too much time to set up.
If we're lucky, Sylar will kill the twinzzz soon.
I thought this episode was about a "B" only because it confused me. I will be anxious to start unraveling some of the stories. Mostly Adam/Hero/Peter.
Is Adam really bad? Who is bad? Is anyone good?
Why did Hiro go back in time to Japan? Is that something we still don't know? Was it just out of curiosity? Didn't we see him appear in Japan in the season finale of Season 1? When did that happen? He didn't know that they had saved the world. Ando had to tell him that they had saved the world. I've been rather confused by the whole Hiro is Kenzei's Japan storyline from the beginning. And now that Kenzei is Adam, I'm even more confused. (I do like the Kenzei/Adam actor, though. He was in Alias with, Greg Grundberg, as a villain character.)
I think I must be easy to please because I've enjoyed this season, with only the occasional complaint. I must say, though, that I feel like I stay in a constant state of confusion...trying to keep all the characters and storylines straight. All the changing between different years/centuries just makes me feel dumb because I can't keep up with who knows what and who knows whom, who's good, who's bad, etc. (Your blog helps me keep it all straight...thanks!) I just can't figure out what I'm supposed to know and what the show hasn't told us yet. Does that make sense? Regardless, I was still thoroughly entertained with this week's episode.
one thing I'm curious to hear reactions on is what people think of Kring's article I linked to. Is he being overly critical of himself or are the problems he noticed exactly what needs to be fixed? I think he's nailed it exactly. Like Justin said to me, it's like he's been reading my blog.
My take isn't worth much, Phil, because I don't analyze the show like so many people do. I just let it be what it is and enjoy it. But, if I were to really critique the show, I think Kring's article is right on target. I especially think he's right when he said that it took too long to get to the big-picture story. Maybe I'm just slow (no doubt), but I was even glad he said that the "viral armageddon" was indeed the big-picture story...I was beginning to wonder how many new ideas and plots I could keep straight in my head. Without the big-picture, it just felt loose and disconnected, especially with the new characters introduced the way they were, which he also referred to as a problem. I hadn't really thought about how they were introduced, but he is so right about that one. I'm not so much bothered by the "Claire/West romance" or the "Hiro in Japan too long" issues that he referred to.
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