While last night’s installment of Heroes was not enough to bounce it from The Shit List, it certainly didn’t worsen its standings, as we finally got some good old-fashioned Heroes fun. Am I still angry at Heroes for being completely and utterly different from the show I fell in love with a year ago? You bet. Did last night look like a step in the right direction? Perhaps…
1. Mohinder/Molly/Parkman — This Two Men and A Baby ridiculousness only got one scene. Can I get a Booyah?
2. Nikki/Micah/D.L. — So D.L. is dead (which you should’ve all guessed by noticing he didn’t do any Heroes promo stuff this summer, never appeared in a commercial, and his name isn’t listed in the credits– tricks of a tv sleuth!), Nikki is still saying the same lines over and over (“Mommy loves you. I have to do this. Everything is going to be fine. I’m only going away for a little while. I’m going to put on a whip cream bikini.”), and Micah has more ludicrous gheri curls than Little Richard. Oh, and Micah now lives with the oldest, ugliest woman in New Orleans. I wonder if she’ll have a pretty young daughter in her early twenties to interact with Micah? Hmmm…
3. Hiro/Sark — The guys over at The TV Addict got it right (for once) when they asked if any of the Heroes writers ever watched Alias because David Anders couldn’t have his talents be more wasted than they are right now. This feudal Japan storyline is absolutely terrible and I can’t believe the people at NBC think its a good idea. The worst part? I thought they were going to put an end to the b.s. last night, but Hiro is still in love with that damn princess and so he ended up staying in Japan! Argh! Just leave, man! Nobody cares about what happened thousands of years ago that has zero effect on the story right now! Oh, and it was vintage Heroes when it took Sark 2 minutes to change from a lazy, greedy lowlife into a kind, caring, romantic hero. 1 little mission completely changes his entire character forever? Come on. And think about how torturous that mission probably was. Sark was probably stabbed 200 times on his way to getting that scroll, probably had some limbs chopped off– it’s not like his an amazing warrior, he’s just good at getting hurt and not dying. LAAAAAAAAME.
4. Sylar/Candace/Michelle – So Candace leaves the show to go be on Reaper and she gets replaced by an equally sort of cute girl. Why don’t they just cast a hottie instead of sticking with the whole sort of cute genre? Anyway, “Michelle,” who is actually a fat chick named Betty (it was in a graphic novel), gets killed by Sylar, who doesn’t have his powers and wasn’t able to take hers. Doesn’t he have to take her scalp off and remove her brain in order to take her powers? Since when can he take it by knocking a person unconscious with a mug? Oh, and did you see those promos for this episode? If NBC ever tells me who I and my fellow Americans “love to hate,” I will stop watching this show altogether. I don’ t love to hate Sylar, so don’t tell me I do or I want watch your show, so there!
5. Peter — Definitely like this new Peter. That look of evil in his eyes as he choked the Irish guy was great, as was his courtship of that cute Irish broad. Hell, I don’t care if he goes back to his old life or not. He was sort of wuss back then– he’s used more powers in these 3 episodes than he did all last season! Vintage Heroes– Peter only uses powers when it’s convenient to the storyline. He should have super-hearing, but he never uses it. He has the ability to read minds, but it only happens one time when someone has a treacherous thought (why didn’t he just read the other dude’s mind and know what was in the box?). Also, the Irish guy says “I don’t trust you. I don’t know you” and 5 hours later Peter gets a tattoo and is part of “the family”? Give me a break.
6. Maya/Alejandro — What did I say last week? No more stupid race to the border crap! Either get to America or get killed, but no one cares enough about either of you to watch you do the same exact thing three weeks in a row. Did we learn a single new thing about this week? Even one? No. All we learned is that Heroes thinks we’re so dumb that we won’t realize the guy in the Mexican jail drives the same Nissan Rogue that Claire did (no way this guy stole it, right?), and that we won’t notice ridiculous product placement like that.
7. Claire/Southeast/HRG — Speaking of personality transformations, because West knows about her secret, it’s ok that he’s been stalking and humiliating Claire, so much so that he deserves a kiss on the beach? Really? Ok, Tim Kring, if you say so. But if you ever give me a poorly CGI’ed, Superman/Aladdin-esque romantic flight through the sky again, I will change the channel and never come back. Are there a lot of 6 year old girls who watch Heroes? Because that’s the only demographic that probably didn’t groan in disgust at that terrible, terrible sequence. Just terrible.
BUT! North was abducted by HRG and The Haitian in the past, which throws a wrench into Claire/HRG’s perfect relationship they’ve got going. Should make for some nice conflict in the future.
And, best and most important of all, WE GOT A PAINTING! Sweet Jesus, a painting! Remember these guys? Remember how the show used to have suspense, and felt like it was leading towards something bigger, and was actually about something? Remember??? The moment I saw that awesome painting of HRG shot in the face while Claire kisses some guy in the background, I felt my heart surge and my stomach flutter. THIS is what used to make Heroes awesome– the feeling that everything had a purpose, that there was an overall narrative arc and that we were being taken care of by creators who knew where the story was going. It’s a nice feeling, and one I hope pops up more, starting now.
Many ridiculous instance of Heroes fudging details or changing personalities to fit the narrative, a lame technique we’ve all come to expect. But we’ve got a painting, we’ve got some conflict, and if Those Scenes were an indication, we’ve got a new baddie on the horizon. So while Heroes is still on my Shit List (it takes 3 solid eps in a row to get off), perhaps this episode indicates a step in the right direction?
Grade: B-
the big problem i had with this episode was when hiro wrote the notes to ando describing what had happened, and then they wasted the next 5 minutes summarizing what we had already seen in the last episode.
Nice call, Deb. They have been doing a lot of repeating of info lately. Like how it was a big suspenseful moment when Peter learned his name. Um, we already know his name, but thanks for the unnecessary dramatic music.
I don’t understand why you hate the Hiro storyline so much? I think it’s fairly obvious that it’s going to be a very important storyline. You say “Nobody cares about what happened thousands of years ago that has zero effect on the story right now!”. That’s exactly the point. It will have something to do with the storyline now. At the moment, it’s about Hiro trying to make Kensei into the hero that history remembers him as. But the fact that he has a power, and it’s his symbol that crops up everywhere surely shows that he’s an absolutely crucial character somehow? Is he the first ever Hero? This series is called “generations” after all. Will Hiro’s actions in the past change the future somehow? Will the whole situation help Hiro mature as a character, and possibly turn him into more of a “5 years in the future” Hiro, from season one? I just think you should lay off Hiro a bit, and see how his story develops.
But I do think that, as a whole, all the storylines are moving incredibly slowly! Each of the sets of characters has had maybe a single “ahh” moment, where we figure out what’s happened to them in the last four months, or what they’re doing now. But besides that, there’s no action, there are no reveals, there’s no suspense. I mean it took Claire a full three episodes to figure out that wierd stalker guy knew about her power, and that he has one. I just wish the characters would behave a bit more intelligently, and that things would move on a bit faster. But I do anticipate a big *CLICK* moment in a few episodes time, where everything fits into place, and we finally see the significance of everything that’s happened so far this season.
Thanks for the comment, Nell. In your response, you sort of answered your own question: “It will have something to do with the storyline right now.” I don’t see how something “will” be important, but is already important “now.” The Hiro storyline might tie in later, but its been 3 episodes of boring, repetitive garbage thus far. If you want to make me be patient for one or two episodes to let something develop, fine. But just like with Maya/Alejandro, Hiro’s story is going absolutely nowhere, and since he’s still in Japan, it looks like it’s going to be the fourth straight episode of stagnancy next week. It’s just Hiro whining about being love, whining at Kensei, and, at least at this point, has absolutely nothing to do with anything else going on.
I watch a lot of television, and you’ll have to forgive me if I lose patience with a show for being lame and of increasingly poor quality for 3 episodes in a row. There are many other shows I could be watching, so I don’t appreciate having my time wasted by a show that throws in filler episodes so they can make more money through advertising by having a longer season. NBC has gotten WAY too cocky about Heroes, and I’m afraid Heroes is going down the path of what happens when the cult becomes the mainstream– it totally sucks.
I know for a fact we’re going to get some info-filled episodes coming soon (episode 8 is called “Four Months Ago” and fills us in on everything that occurred between seasons one and two), but I don’t like being jerked around by a show that feels like it has the luxury to jerk us around for as long as it wants because its so popular anyways. Bear in mind, this show is on my Shit List. It needs to win me back, not just lull me back with mediocrity and the promise that something cool might happen down the road.
hey maven,
I want to redeem myself, I hope its not too late. Alright–you’re right–there was no scene with Nikki getting experimented on by the company–but it is IMPLIED (i guess i just have a pretty vivid imagination) in the last few minutes of episode 3, that Nikki is going to “the company” to get cured (perhaps she has the same virus that the Haitian had?). The scene takes place during a phone call between Nikki and Bob. Bob says they’ll help her in exchange for something, but we don’t know what that thing is yet. That’s where I got the impression that she would be MIA for a while. Better?
-Belle
Hey Media Maven, I know I am a bit late, but I would love to know who the artist is for the music that is being played while West takes Claire up and away. I love Heroes and have been catching up by watching old episodes. Thank in advance.