Recap
We're back in the pub where Heroes left us off last week -- with Caitlin crying over her dead brother and Peter promising to avenge his murder. They decide to go to Montreal, with Peter resisting taking Caitlin till she points out that she was in the painting too. When she finds Ricky's murderer, she's going to "kill the bitch." OK Caitlin, there's cute spunky, and then there's annoying cliched spunky where you're just saying things that overly-macho men say in movies. We don't see the outcome of their little field trip till we have sat through the rest of this messy, aimless episode.
Claire, in California, tries out for the cheerleading team, and she's good according to a Kristin Kreuk lookalike, but the head cheerleader Debbie has taken a dislike to her. And it's not a democracy, people -- it's a cheerocracy. Unfortunately, the show isn't quite as clever as Bring it On, and I think we can all agree that when you're being compared unfavorably to Bring it On you might want to stop taking yourself so seriously, but oh well. It ends up that Claire doesn't make the team, and she and West gang up on Debbie to stage a fake abduction in which West scoops Claire up into the sky and drops her to the ground. Debbie gets humiliated on top of being traumatized, and the police also discover that she's been drinking. With Debbie suspended and out of the way, Claire gets a spot on the team. West tries to assuage her guilt by saying Debbie deserved it.
Noah brings the Haitian to Russia, where he confronts one of the elders, Ivan. He wants to know about the paintings, but Ivan refuses to tell him until Noah begins erasing his most treasured memories. Finally he breaks, and then Noah calmly says that actually, once the Company sees the memories are gone, they'll know he was here. So unfortunately, he pretty much has to kill Ivan anyhow. Poor Ivan. Noah's pretty damn cold when he shoots him. He and the Haitian go to look at the paintings, one of which shows a blonde woman struggling, one of which shows a man pulling a gun, and one of which is the dead!Noah painting. It's a good scene, one of the few that actually makes you feel like something might happen in the near future. (Clearly a delusion.)
The Longest Road Trip Ever continues with Maya and Alejandro still not over the fucking border. Sylar convinces Maya to use her gift for evil -- to defeat a vigilante border patrol, which is admittedly a bit gratifying, but also incredibly sinister and wrong. Alejandro starts a fistfight with Sylar, since he sees the danger of trusting the guy. But he can't convince Maya to get rid of him: she keeps saying he's a gift from God. Her superpowers don't include super deductive skillz, obviously. So then Sylar takes his first opportunity to corner Alejandro alone and tell the incomprehending Spanish speaker that he plans to kill them both and take their powers back, and also to use Maya as a new toy.
In a plotline completely unrelated to these, we see Mohinder testing Monica in the Company facilities. He basically treats her like a lab rat, even though she's kind of tired and the whole thing feels extremely exploitative. But he balks when Bob asks him to inject Monica with a modified form of The Disease that might stop her abilities. Somehow, this changes Bob's mind, convincing him to stop trying to inject people without their consent and to keep Mohinder around as a sort of ethics expert. (When you're a Company Man, pretty much anyone who can grasp that murder and violence are wrong probably has a much more advanced understanding of morals than you do.) He also assigns a supposedly recovered Niki to join Mohinder as his partner, but Niki is so confident and glinty-eyed that I bet she's Jessica. In the end, Bob drops Monica off at home with an intrusively product-placed iPod on which are loaded all the videos she needs to learn new skillz.
And, Hiro. He and Yaeko and Kensei free Yaeko's dad from the White Beard camp, who reveals that they have to destroy the guns of the White Beards so they can't ruin the way of the samurai. At one point as they try to escape, Hiro just scoops up Yaeko and teleports her out to the fields. She realizes that it was he who had the time-traveling power all along, and he who did the cool cherry-blossom thing, and says "everything I loved in Kensei came from you." So they kiss, but Kensei sees them! Hiro promises it will never happen again, but Kensei betrays Yaeko and her father to the White Beards.
At the end of the episode, Caitlin and Peter find their destination in Montreal and ener a large abandoned building full of old artifacts. Peter finds a note to himself on a mirror, signed from Adam (the same name as a file that Bob gave to Mohinder, BTW), saying that they were right about the Company and the world was in danger. He and Caitlin hug and are magically transported to New York in 2008 -- a totally empty New York with evacuation notices randomly and conveniently floating around the street. "This is next year!" Peter announces helpfully. End of episode.
Review
In a highly self-conscious show, one particular instance of meta-textual commentary stood out for me in "The Line." Ando, in trying to decipher Hiro's scrolls with the help of a lab technician, gushes about how much suspense he's in with regard to Hiro's adventures, and how much he wants to hear every single detail. Rather than reinforcing any hypothetical sense of excitement I had, this scene simply highlighted the difference between the hoped-for response and the apathetic actual response we've all actually had to season 2.
This, like the episodes before it, contained only a few developments sprinkled in a large number of meandering, disconnected or loosely-connected, often pointless plots. The discovery of the note, for example, suggested the larger concrete purpose and project that the season might contain for our heroes: stop the disease from spreading. Fine, but why didn't we see this back in episode 2 or 3? Yaeko falling in love with Hiro all of a sudden doesn't have the ring of truth that it should have after so many minutes of screentime -- it's a simple event, with as little emotional resonance as a seventeenth-century fable has once it's filtered down to our time. Also, Bob's near-instantaneous change of heart is explained by one simple monologue; it's simply ridiculous to have a character so separated from ethics that he wants to infect people with diseases without their consent, and then to have him change his mind just because Mohinder throws stuff and yells a little.
The fact that Maya and Alejandro are still on their roadtrip is ridiculous. It's been six weeks, and the only significant development is that Sylar has joined them: why has Maya been added to the cast when she's barely, if at all, connected to the main story? Not to mention that the culmination of the Alejandro-Sylar conflict, in which Sylar reveals his evil plan to Alejandro in English, is anti-climactic. Even in its unsubtle comic-book style, Heroes should, and I would argue did, show us what Sylar is doing and why he's doing it. Before he said any of it, it was clear that he meant to kill the sibs to take their power, and it was equally clear that he enjoyed manipulating Maya simply as a manipulation, separately from the part where he wants to slice off the top of her head. Having him reveal it to Alejandro was neither chilling nor surprising nor dramatically useful; it was a lazy attempt at sensationalizing a conflict that itself lacks basis in real human emotion or character development.
Meanwhile, the characters who were arguably at or near the center of it all last year, Claire (the object, the person to save) and Peter (the subject, the constant agent, the one who saves), have spun off into their own worlds. Maybe that's the problem: the show is working to connect Matt, Mohinder, Nathan, Niki, and the Company without the benefit of already-established nodes.
Let's not even get started on the dialogue. Actually, okay, let's. West to Claire: "You're a total babe, and you have powers!" (on why she is not ordinary). Caitlin: "Kill the bitch" (already mentioned, but worth resurrecting). Monica comparing Bob to Oprah (because he gives her gifts): seriously? The list goes on, but it's all kind of like this -- forced, cheesy, or just plain nonsensical.
Heroes, I thought you were going to replace Alias in my heart with your cheesy addictiveness, but that show had the most amazing second season ever and right now you are actually worse than the Sydney-Vaughn-Lauren debacle that was season 3. This isn't a slump. This is an emergency. Heal thyself!
In Summary: *whimpers*
Showing posts with label heroes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heroes. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Heroes Review -- 2x05, "Fight or Flight"
All right, it's been the Week Of No Sleep over here in the monotony that is my senior year of college and, now that my thoughts on cyclic subgroups and Elizabeth Bennett's sexual awareness have been committed to paper and handed in to their respective teachers, I am going to start catching up on posts I've been wanting to write. First, the moment we've all been waiting for: Kristen Bell's first appearance on Heroes!
Recap
Previously, Matt was a jerk who made Molly confront her "nightmare man" and sent her into what appears to be a coma. Because of that, we open on Molly, still unconscious, with Matt and Mohinder hovering over her and arguing over what to do with their baby. Matt wants to find a hospital, but Mohinder points out that since Matt's dad got Molly into this, possibly Matt's dad, you know, holds the key to the problem. Matt starts quoting lines apparently ripped off from movies he's been watching on the Hallmark channel, saying that he hasn't seen his father in decades and he's scared to find him again, blah blah blah. Matt, your father is actually THE BOOGEYMAN. Who cares about the fact that he abandoned you? He kills people for fun. Eventually he goes, however, and Mohinder brings Molly to the Company to help. Bad idea, Suresh.
So Matt's trying to interrogate Angela when Nathan, looking clean-shaven but sporting a shaggy haircut that's very Milo season 1, protests. Matt tells Nathan the whole story, and Nathan insists on coming with him. "We can probably get there faster, you know, cuz you can...," Matt agrees. "I'm not a cargo jet," Nathan mutters (heh). So they go break into the boogeyman's apartment (after a short hesitation while Matt goes into his daddy complex again), and he pulls a very convincing doddering-dad act, even showing them a photo of himself with the Red Helix of Death drawn on it. Then he lures Matt into the back room to "show him something," like, Matt, that's the line every pedophile has used since the beginning of time. Matt immediately goes into a nightmare about being locked into a jail cell, while Nathan, following him soon after, dreams himself onto the rooftop in New York from which he can see the city burning. A baby appears in Matt's cell and Matt, amusingly, starts yelling for a guard to come get the baby as if he were actually in jail and people were going to respond normally to his requests. Meanwhile, Nathan is confronted by the burned version of himself. So Matt fights the guard who shows up, Nathan fights burned guy, and after a lot of pretty cool intercutting we finally realize that it's the same fight. They wake up and realize that Matt can defeat his father's brainwashing. ("I knew it was a con," he says, like, THEN WHY DID YOU FALL FOR IT?)
Meanwhile, a tiny blonde girl shows up on the docks looking for Peter Petrelli. It is none other than the long-awaited "Elle," played by Kristen Bell, and turns out her superpower is a pretty sweet shooting-electricity-from-her-fingertips deal. When she does find the Wandering Rocks pub where Peter's holed up, Ricky, trying to protect Peter after having found the guy making out with his sister, lies to her and gets himself fried. Unaware, Peter is in Caitlin's apartment, opening The Box. After all the hype, it turns out to contain a passport, a few crumpled dollar bills, and a plane ticket to Montreal. So all he knows, really, is his legal name.
Elle calls someone to report on her progress, trying to downplay what happened until she finally exclaims, "All right, I killed him, okay? What is the big deal?!" The unseen person on the other end of the line, whom Elle has referred to as "Dad," sends her home, the very image of a pouty daughter. Peter has just finished demonstrating his mad weird-eyed painting skillz to a somewhat frightened Caitlin with a painting of a church in Montreal when they get the news of her brother's death. Arriving at the pub, she collapses into very real tears, while Peter sort of goes into self-sacrificing hero mode and, instead of comforting the girl, starts blaming himself and planning revenge.
While keeping watch over Molly, Mohinder is nearly attacked by Niki, who's gone into Evil Twin mode trying to escape her "treatment." Once Mohinder uses the Taser conveniently introduced seconds before her arrival, she calms down and explains to him that she wants to be cured. The Company sends Mohinder out on an errand with his Taser to fetch someone similarly out of control, who turns out to be... well, Monica, who's discovered Micah's secret and revealed to him her own, pontificating about the meaning of life as a muscle-mimicking superhero along the way.
Meanwhile back at the Farm of Totally Unrelated Storylines, Ando gets some expert help in deciphering another scroll from Hiro about his adventures with Kensei. Hiro is on the eve of an attack, along with Kensei and Yaeko, against a large army called the White Beard.
Review
Kristen Bell's introduction was much better than Maya's earlier in the season. Partly because she's awesome, partly because she's a villain, but partly because she wasn't shoved in our faces like we were supposed to care on the first shot. Instead, she saunters onscreen emanating pure perky mischief and shoots some bolts from her fingertips. I think she's playing it a bit too similar to Veronica Mars -- not to mention that the first half of the episode had her playing detective to find Peter, which was just too close for comfort. But her phone call to her father was hilarious: her contrition for killing Ricky was about on the level of a teenager who stayed out past curfew.
As a threat, she's not on the same level of evil as Matt's dad or Sylar; she's like Eden, cute and wicked. The sexy villainess thing is fun, but I do think Heroes tends to devolve way too easily into that kind of gender divide in its characterizations -- men protecting women and taking the burden of the world on their shoulders, on the good side, and on the bad side, evil male masterminds bossing around Charlie's-Angels-esque twenty-somethings.
One of the biggest strengths of this episode was that it took big leaps towards tying all the storylines together. Ando and Hiro are still rotting in their irrelevant, boring subplot, and Maya, Sylar, and Claire weren't even there, but we now have Micah and Monica about to get to know Mohinder, who's married to Matt, who's now teamed up with Nathan. So that's an improvement. It sucked to have everyone moving in such separate spheres. Nevertheless, as I've said before, if several regulars have to be cut from each episode in order for said episode to have any kind of coherence, then maybe, just maybe, there are too many regulars on the show. I know that's a revolutionary idea.
The other highlight was the Matt/Nathan/burned!Nathan fight. Great editing and concept there, and Nathan's nightmare, in particular, was quite creepy. Interesting to see Matt's interaction with Janice in his nightmare, too. I think it's possible that it is simply the most nightmarish thing Matt's head can come up with to make him a father when his life has made him so afraid of fatherhood, but more likely that on some level he already knows he's got a kid out there somewhere, and has gotten so attached to Molly in part as a surrogate.
That said, I'm really still not feeling this season. Nothing's happening! I know a couple people died and Peter did the creepy painting thing and there are always hints that shit is about to hit the fan, but it just isn't happening, and rather than creating suspense the overlong build-up is just creating boredom.
In Summary: Part of the upward trend in episodes for the past few weeks, but nowhere near first-season quality.
Recap
Previously, Matt was a jerk who made Molly confront her "nightmare man" and sent her into what appears to be a coma. Because of that, we open on Molly, still unconscious, with Matt and Mohinder hovering over her and arguing over what to do with their baby. Matt wants to find a hospital, but Mohinder points out that since Matt's dad got Molly into this, possibly Matt's dad, you know, holds the key to the problem. Matt starts quoting lines apparently ripped off from movies he's been watching on the Hallmark channel, saying that he hasn't seen his father in decades and he's scared to find him again, blah blah blah. Matt, your father is actually THE BOOGEYMAN. Who cares about the fact that he abandoned you? He kills people for fun. Eventually he goes, however, and Mohinder brings Molly to the Company to help. Bad idea, Suresh.
So Matt's trying to interrogate Angela when Nathan, looking clean-shaven but sporting a shaggy haircut that's very Milo season 1, protests. Matt tells Nathan the whole story, and Nathan insists on coming with him. "We can probably get there faster, you know, cuz you can...," Matt agrees. "I'm not a cargo jet," Nathan mutters (heh). So they go break into the boogeyman's apartment (after a short hesitation while Matt goes into his daddy complex again), and he pulls a very convincing doddering-dad act, even showing them a photo of himself with the Red Helix of Death drawn on it. Then he lures Matt into the back room to "show him something," like, Matt, that's the line every pedophile has used since the beginning of time. Matt immediately goes into a nightmare about being locked into a jail cell, while Nathan, following him soon after, dreams himself onto the rooftop in New York from which he can see the city burning. A baby appears in Matt's cell and Matt, amusingly, starts yelling for a guard to come get the baby as if he were actually in jail and people were going to respond normally to his requests. Meanwhile, Nathan is confronted by the burned version of himself. So Matt fights the guard who shows up, Nathan fights burned guy, and after a lot of pretty cool intercutting we finally realize that it's the same fight. They wake up and realize that Matt can defeat his father's brainwashing. ("I knew it was a con," he says, like, THEN WHY DID YOU FALL FOR IT?)
Meanwhile, a tiny blonde girl shows up on the docks looking for Peter Petrelli. It is none other than the long-awaited "Elle," played by Kristen Bell, and turns out her superpower is a pretty sweet shooting-electricity-from-her-fingertips deal. When she does find the Wandering Rocks pub where Peter's holed up, Ricky, trying to protect Peter after having found the guy making out with his sister, lies to her and gets himself fried. Unaware, Peter is in Caitlin's apartment, opening The Box. After all the hype, it turns out to contain a passport, a few crumpled dollar bills, and a plane ticket to Montreal. So all he knows, really, is his legal name.
Elle calls someone to report on her progress, trying to downplay what happened until she finally exclaims, "All right, I killed him, okay? What is the big deal?!" The unseen person on the other end of the line, whom Elle has referred to as "Dad," sends her home, the very image of a pouty daughter. Peter has just finished demonstrating his mad weird-eyed painting skillz to a somewhat frightened Caitlin with a painting of a church in Montreal when they get the news of her brother's death. Arriving at the pub, she collapses into very real tears, while Peter sort of goes into self-sacrificing hero mode and, instead of comforting the girl, starts blaming himself and planning revenge.
While keeping watch over Molly, Mohinder is nearly attacked by Niki, who's gone into Evil Twin mode trying to escape her "treatment." Once Mohinder uses the Taser conveniently introduced seconds before her arrival, she calms down and explains to him that she wants to be cured. The Company sends Mohinder out on an errand with his Taser to fetch someone similarly out of control, who turns out to be... well, Monica, who's discovered Micah's secret and revealed to him her own, pontificating about the meaning of life as a muscle-mimicking superhero along the way.
Meanwhile back at the Farm of Totally Unrelated Storylines, Ando gets some expert help in deciphering another scroll from Hiro about his adventures with Kensei. Hiro is on the eve of an attack, along with Kensei and Yaeko, against a large army called the White Beard.
Review
Kristen Bell's introduction was much better than Maya's earlier in the season. Partly because she's awesome, partly because she's a villain, but partly because she wasn't shoved in our faces like we were supposed to care on the first shot. Instead, she saunters onscreen emanating pure perky mischief and shoots some bolts from her fingertips. I think she's playing it a bit too similar to Veronica Mars -- not to mention that the first half of the episode had her playing detective to find Peter, which was just too close for comfort. But her phone call to her father was hilarious: her contrition for killing Ricky was about on the level of a teenager who stayed out past curfew.
As a threat, she's not on the same level of evil as Matt's dad or Sylar; she's like Eden, cute and wicked. The sexy villainess thing is fun, but I do think Heroes tends to devolve way too easily into that kind of gender divide in its characterizations -- men protecting women and taking the burden of the world on their shoulders, on the good side, and on the bad side, evil male masterminds bossing around Charlie's-Angels-esque twenty-somethings.
One of the biggest strengths of this episode was that it took big leaps towards tying all the storylines together. Ando and Hiro are still rotting in their irrelevant, boring subplot, and Maya, Sylar, and Claire weren't even there, but we now have Micah and Monica about to get to know Mohinder, who's married to Matt, who's now teamed up with Nathan. So that's an improvement. It sucked to have everyone moving in such separate spheres. Nevertheless, as I've said before, if several regulars have to be cut from each episode in order for said episode to have any kind of coherence, then maybe, just maybe, there are too many regulars on the show. I know that's a revolutionary idea.
The other highlight was the Matt/Nathan/burned!Nathan fight. Great editing and concept there, and Nathan's nightmare, in particular, was quite creepy. Interesting to see Matt's interaction with Janice in his nightmare, too. I think it's possible that it is simply the most nightmarish thing Matt's head can come up with to make him a father when his life has made him so afraid of fatherhood, but more likely that on some level he already knows he's got a kid out there somewhere, and has gotten so attached to Molly in part as a surrogate.
That said, I'm really still not feeling this season. Nothing's happening! I know a couple people died and Peter did the creepy painting thing and there are always hints that shit is about to hit the fan, but it just isn't happening, and rather than creating suspense the overlong build-up is just creating boredom.
In Summary: Part of the upward trend in episodes for the past few weeks, but nowhere near first-season quality.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
The Shape of Things (TV-Related) To Come
A few weeks ago, I posted about the TV shows I was looking forward to in the coming season. With a few weeks of the season having passed, I think I have a general idea about what my posting will look like this year. There are some shows that I simply couldn't get into, some that are appointment TV to be immediately recapped and analyzed on this blog, and many on the spectrum between.
Without further ado,
Shows I'll Watch Each Week, Recap, and Review
Heroes: Though this season isn't up to the standard set by last season, I'm not going to pass up a chance to watch half a dozen gorgeous men cavort around saving the world each week, especially when one of them is Milo Ventimiglia.
Gossip Girl: Twistier than Lost, meaner than Mean Girls, and funner than The OC, GG is the highlight of my TV week.
Shows I'll Watch Each Week and Post About Once In Awhile
Pushing Daisies: This show doesn't always need a recap, because each episode is so stand-alone, but I'll definitely post about it semi-regularly, and keep up with it.
Brothers and Sisters: I unfortunately have a work shift during this, which is probably my favorite returning show right now, so I won't always keep up in time, but I won't fall behind with my favorite alcoholic family.
The Reaper: Great show from what I've seen, highly recommended and very funny but also takes place during a work shift, and I'm already weeks behind.
House: Still the same quality as previous seasons (with the only team of writers on any network, it seems, who never phone it in -- so to speak), but falls during the same work shift as Reaper.
Bionic Woman: It takes place during Gossip Girl, so what's a Josh Schwartz fan to do? Will keep up, but not necessarily faithfully; it's not good enough to motivate that kind of dedication.
The Office: This is actually appointment TV for me because my friends all watch it, but I won't be writing full reviews all the time.
Shows I've Dropped Like a Hot Potato, Despite Best Intentions:
ER: Maybe, in half a decade when the DVD release schedule finally catches up to this by-then-hopefully-defunct dinosaur of a show, I will watch season 14. But for now, I'm happy enough that my knowledge stops where Elizabeth Corday did.
Chuck: The world doesn't need both Chuck and The Reaper. And I think Josh Schwartz put all his Funness into Gossip Girl and all his Nerdness into Chuck.
Grey's Anatomy: Never even tried. I just couldn't bring myself to see where my once-beloved show had sunk to.
Cavemen: Could've been so-bad-it's-good, but I never got around to it, so I guess it's not in the cards.
Without further ado,
Shows I'll Watch Each Week, Recap, and Review
Heroes: Though this season isn't up to the standard set by last season, I'm not going to pass up a chance to watch half a dozen gorgeous men cavort around saving the world each week, especially when one of them is Milo Ventimiglia.
Gossip Girl: Twistier than Lost, meaner than Mean Girls, and funner than The OC, GG is the highlight of my TV week.
Shows I'll Watch Each Week and Post About Once In Awhile
Pushing Daisies: This show doesn't always need a recap, because each episode is so stand-alone, but I'll definitely post about it semi-regularly, and keep up with it.
Brothers and Sisters: I unfortunately have a work shift during this, which is probably my favorite returning show right now, so I won't always keep up in time, but I won't fall behind with my favorite alcoholic family.
The Reaper: Great show from what I've seen, highly recommended and very funny but also takes place during a work shift, and I'm already weeks behind.
House: Still the same quality as previous seasons (with the only team of writers on any network, it seems, who never phone it in -- so to speak), but falls during the same work shift as Reaper.
Bionic Woman: It takes place during Gossip Girl, so what's a Josh Schwartz fan to do? Will keep up, but not necessarily faithfully; it's not good enough to motivate that kind of dedication.
The Office: This is actually appointment TV for me because my friends all watch it, but I won't be writing full reviews all the time.
Shows I've Dropped Like a Hot Potato, Despite Best Intentions:
ER: Maybe, in half a decade when the DVD release schedule finally catches up to this by-then-hopefully-defunct dinosaur of a show, I will watch season 14. But for now, I'm happy enough that my knowledge stops where Elizabeth Corday did.
Chuck: The world doesn't need both Chuck and The Reaper. And I think Josh Schwartz put all his Funness into Gossip Girl and all his Nerdness into Chuck.
Grey's Anatomy: Never even tried. I just couldn't bring myself to see where my once-beloved show had sunk to.
Cavemen: Could've been so-bad-it's-good, but I never got around to it, so I guess it's not in the cards.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Heroes Review -- 2x04, "The Kindness of Strangers"
When last we left our Heroes, Sylar had escaped the Company's custody and, though lacking powers, was currently at large and dangerous. This week, calling himself "Gabriel Gray," he joins Maya and Alejandro on the Road Trip That Won't End, discovering that they have "powers" because, though Alejandro's cautious of just blabbing the big secret to any random hitchhiker, Maya is blissfully unaware of the danger she's in. Sylar, unbeknownst to Maya, has already killed the man who escaped from jail with them when he threatened to call the police.
Bennett is still worried about Claire, and, given the picture of her mid-smooch standing over his dead body, especially about her dating someone. She succumbs to West's doubtful charms long enough to go on one date, lying to her dad that she's going to the library. Since the one date involves sitting on the second "O" in the Hollywood sign and some mid-air kissage, Claire decides to keep lying to her dad. She convinces him to let her cheerlead as a cover story for hanging out with West with some sob story about wanting to feel normal. He agrees, saying, "I didn't know it meant that much to you." More than your family's lives, apparently. You'd think with that kind of reason, Bennett might be a little less susceptible to his daughter's wiles. After this is settled, the Haitian appears to tell Bennett he's got a lead on the paintings and they need to go back to Odessa.
In New Orleans, we have the introduction of another new hero. Still no sign of Kristen Bell, but I like this new one, whose name is Monica (Dana Davis). She is Micah's cousin, the older sister of Damon -- a bratty kid around Micah's age whose only goal in life is to watch pay-per-view wrestling, apparently -- and works as a fast-food cashier, but dreams of passing a regional manager test that apparently has only a 2% pass rate. People like her best "friend" and her boss keep shooting her down, telling her to be content with what she has and be grateful, but Monica keeps hoping. She's also taking care of Micah, and is a little disappointed in him when he secretly uses his superpower to get Damon the wrestling for free. It turns out she learns things really fast, and her eyes go all wonky when she watches the wrestling. Then, when a customer pulls a gun on her at the fast-food place, she uses her newfound skills to wrap her hands around a pole and launch herself into an Alias-style kick at the guy's head. I'm sorry, she learned that from wrestling? I'm confused... But Dana Davis is a charming actress, and the sheer weight of the low expectations she's battling because she's poor, black, female and lives in a region battling a disaster make her a sympathetic character.
Molly's still having the nightmares, and Matt's worried about her -- until his investigation of Angela Petrelli pans out. Angela confesses to murdering Nakamura in order to get everyone to let it go, telling Matt via her audible thoughts that she wants him to accept her false confession. Going through her things, Matt and Mohinder discovers a picture of the group of 12 that have been dying one by one, and among them is Matt's father. He wants Molly to help find him, leading to the big reveal that Parkman's father is the boogeyman -- but Matt doesn't care and wants Molly to find him anyway. Suddenly not liking Matt so much. He won't like himself much either very soon, since when Molly uses her powers to locate the boogeyman in Philadelphia she falls into a dead faint. We end on Matt hearing Molly think, "Matt! Help me! Maaaatt!"
Lastly, and most importantly, Nathan, who's still a drunk and still hallucinates the face of a horribly burned man in the mirror, shaves The Beard to please his kids. THANKGODDARWIN.
I found this episode not much of an improvement over the last few, but it did have a little more coherence and some interesting interplay of storylines -- Matt, for example, reveals himself to Nathan, Sylar joins Maya and makes her odyssey a little less irrelevant (although still not in any way compelling), and the boogeyman is given a face, a name, and some emotional relevance. Still, that coherence was only achieved by ignoring Hiro, Niki, and Peter -- kind of a large contingent to sacrifice, and if every episode is so unrelated to the one that's before it, it will be hard to keep caring about each separate thread.
In Summary: Nathan trimmed his beard -- now let's see the writers trim the cast, or learn to use it properly.
Bennett is still worried about Claire, and, given the picture of her mid-smooch standing over his dead body, especially about her dating someone. She succumbs to West's doubtful charms long enough to go on one date, lying to her dad that she's going to the library. Since the one date involves sitting on the second "O" in the Hollywood sign and some mid-air kissage, Claire decides to keep lying to her dad. She convinces him to let her cheerlead as a cover story for hanging out with West with some sob story about wanting to feel normal. He agrees, saying, "I didn't know it meant that much to you." More than your family's lives, apparently. You'd think with that kind of reason, Bennett might be a little less susceptible to his daughter's wiles. After this is settled, the Haitian appears to tell Bennett he's got a lead on the paintings and they need to go back to Odessa.
In New Orleans, we have the introduction of another new hero. Still no sign of Kristen Bell, but I like this new one, whose name is Monica (Dana Davis). She is Micah's cousin, the older sister of Damon -- a bratty kid around Micah's age whose only goal in life is to watch pay-per-view wrestling, apparently -- and works as a fast-food cashier, but dreams of passing a regional manager test that apparently has only a 2% pass rate. People like her best "friend" and her boss keep shooting her down, telling her to be content with what she has and be grateful, but Monica keeps hoping. She's also taking care of Micah, and is a little disappointed in him when he secretly uses his superpower to get Damon the wrestling for free. It turns out she learns things really fast, and her eyes go all wonky when she watches the wrestling. Then, when a customer pulls a gun on her at the fast-food place, she uses her newfound skills to wrap her hands around a pole and launch herself into an Alias-style kick at the guy's head. I'm sorry, she learned that from wrestling? I'm confused... But Dana Davis is a charming actress, and the sheer weight of the low expectations she's battling because she's poor, black, female and lives in a region battling a disaster make her a sympathetic character.
Molly's still having the nightmares, and Matt's worried about her -- until his investigation of Angela Petrelli pans out. Angela confesses to murdering Nakamura in order to get everyone to let it go, telling Matt via her audible thoughts that she wants him to accept her false confession. Going through her things, Matt and Mohinder discovers a picture of the group of 12 that have been dying one by one, and among them is Matt's father. He wants Molly to help find him, leading to the big reveal that Parkman's father is the boogeyman -- but Matt doesn't care and wants Molly to find him anyway. Suddenly not liking Matt so much. He won't like himself much either very soon, since when Molly uses her powers to locate the boogeyman in Philadelphia she falls into a dead faint. We end on Matt hearing Molly think, "Matt! Help me! Maaaatt!"
Lastly, and most importantly, Nathan, who's still a drunk and still hallucinates the face of a horribly burned man in the mirror, shaves The Beard to please his kids. THANK
I found this episode not much of an improvement over the last few, but it did have a little more coherence and some interesting interplay of storylines -- Matt, for example, reveals himself to Nathan, Sylar joins Maya and makes her odyssey a little less irrelevant (although still not in any way compelling), and the boogeyman is given a face, a name, and some emotional relevance. Still, that coherence was only achieved by ignoring Hiro, Niki, and Peter -- kind of a large contingent to sacrifice, and if every episode is so unrelated to the one that's before it, it will be hard to keep caring about each separate thread.
In Summary: Nathan trimmed his beard -- now let's see the writers trim the cast, or learn to use it properly.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Heroes Review -- 2x03, "Kindred Spirits"
This week on Heroes, a lot of things happen that we kind of knew were going to. Peter helps out the Irish gangbangers, winning the heart of Ricky's sister Caitlin in the process, revealing which of them is a traitor and eventually becoming an honorary member of the gang. She gives him a tattoo, which his magical healing body doesn't completely heal away, but replaces with the helix sign; he also gets The Box containing his identity, but refuses to open it for reasons of the heart that I'm not sure I buy. Claire also hooks up, with West, after he jerkily almost reveals who she is, but then reveals who he is by scooping her up and flying away to a nice romantic beach. Previously to hooking up they have such awesomely witty banter as, "Why are you such a smartass?" "Why are you so bad at lying?" However, getting close enough to lick his tonsils also gets Claire to the right angle to spot the two marks on West's neck, and he explains how he got them: a kidnapping, by a man with horn-rimmed glasses. Sounds like Papa Bennet!
We watch more of Maya and Alejandro's struggle to get to the border. Maya kills more people with black eye gunk. It's pretty much the same as last week. Present-day Ando finds a 300-year-old scroll from Hiro inside the sword, narrating his life with Takezo Kensei. He tries to make Takezo a hero by making him fetch a Fire Scroll from a temple that's being protected by the "90 angry ronin." As the aforementioned ronin storm angrily down the stairs of the temple entrance, Takezo nervously asks, "How angry are they?" Hee. But he gets the scroll, and wins the heart of the young woman Hiro has fallen in love with despite knowing she's destined for Takezo. He can't bring himself to leave this timeframe quite yet. Back in the present, we're also reintroduced to Micah and Niki, finally, as Niki leaves Micah with his grandmother in her search for a cure -- for which she'll have to give the Company something in return. (They also visit DL's grave, so he's definitely dead. He was pretty, but he dragged the pacing down a lot, so I'm satisfied.)
Also, Sylar's back! I know you're all surprised, because the disappearance of his body last year and the previews last week totally didn't give it away. He's being taken care of by an illusionist, and because of his injuries (presumably) he can't exercise his powers, so when he kills her to take her power, it turns out to be in vain. The episode ends with Mohinder being assigned by the Company to live in Isaac's old apartment. Nervous that he's going to be under surveillance, he calls Bennet and tells him about his new place -- in which he has found one of Isaac's paintings, #8, which shows Bennet dead on the ground with Claire kissing someone to the side. Claire arrives home from her date with West, and the two of them say good night to each other, each with deep suspicion.
Most of this was pretty predictable. We knew Peter and Caitlin were being set up, as well as Claire and West; the Maya thing continues to be blah; Hiro continues puttering around in 1671 which, while nice because it allows us to watch David Anders, seems pretty pointless; we definitely knew about the Sylar thing; and I wasn't terribly surprised by Niki's actions either because of hints we were given in the finale. Still, the introduction of another little snag in the Claire/Bennet relationship was done effectively, and I can tell the Sylar storyline is going to heat up soon. And I really liked some of the editing work with Hiro's storyline -- the shots of flower petals falling on Yaeko, and the transitions between time periods, were cool.
I am really feeling a sophomore slump with this show, all in all. I feel like a lot of set-ups don't pan out, the storylines aren't interconnected enough, and the action isn't twisty enough. Can we get Maya and Alejandro over the border? Please? I am SO BORED by these two. And can we go back to shirtless Peter? I miss shirtless Peter. Sniff.
In Summary: I guess we'll have to wait for Kristen Bell to come and perk things up.
Related Posts
10/01/07: Heroes Recap and Review -- 2x02, "Lizards"
09/24/07: Heroes Second Season Premiere
We watch more of Maya and Alejandro's struggle to get to the border. Maya kills more people with black eye gunk. It's pretty much the same as last week. Present-day Ando finds a 300-year-old scroll from Hiro inside the sword, narrating his life with Takezo Kensei. He tries to make Takezo a hero by making him fetch a Fire Scroll from a temple that's being protected by the "90 angry ronin." As the aforementioned ronin storm angrily down the stairs of the temple entrance, Takezo nervously asks, "How angry are they?" Hee. But he gets the scroll, and wins the heart of the young woman Hiro has fallen in love with despite knowing she's destined for Takezo. He can't bring himself to leave this timeframe quite yet. Back in the present, we're also reintroduced to Micah and Niki, finally, as Niki leaves Micah with his grandmother in her search for a cure -- for which she'll have to give the Company something in return. (They also visit DL's grave, so he's definitely dead. He was pretty, but he dragged the pacing down a lot, so I'm satisfied.)
Also, Sylar's back! I know you're all surprised, because the disappearance of his body last year and the previews last week totally didn't give it away. He's being taken care of by an illusionist, and because of his injuries (presumably) he can't exercise his powers, so when he kills her to take her power, it turns out to be in vain. The episode ends with Mohinder being assigned by the Company to live in Isaac's old apartment. Nervous that he's going to be under surveillance, he calls Bennet and tells him about his new place -- in which he has found one of Isaac's paintings, #8, which shows Bennet dead on the ground with Claire kissing someone to the side. Claire arrives home from her date with West, and the two of them say good night to each other, each with deep suspicion.
Most of this was pretty predictable. We knew Peter and Caitlin were being set up, as well as Claire and West; the Maya thing continues to be blah; Hiro continues puttering around in 1671 which, while nice because it allows us to watch David Anders, seems pretty pointless; we definitely knew about the Sylar thing; and I wasn't terribly surprised by Niki's actions either because of hints we were given in the finale. Still, the introduction of another little snag in the Claire/Bennet relationship was done effectively, and I can tell the Sylar storyline is going to heat up soon. And I really liked some of the editing work with Hiro's storyline -- the shots of flower petals falling on Yaeko, and the transitions between time periods, were cool.
I am really feeling a sophomore slump with this show, all in all. I feel like a lot of set-ups don't pan out, the storylines aren't interconnected enough, and the action isn't twisty enough. Can we get Maya and Alejandro over the border? Please? I am SO BORED by these two. And can we go back to shirtless Peter? I miss shirtless Peter. Sniff.
In Summary: I guess we'll have to wait for Kristen Bell to come and perk things up.
Related Posts
10/01/07: Heroes Recap and Review -- 2x02, "Lizards"
09/24/07: Heroes Second Season Premiere
Monday, October 1, 2007
Heroes Recap and Review: 2x02 "Lizards"
Tonight's episode of Heroes opens with Peter Petrelli being beaten up by our favorite gang of Irish thieves. Little do they know he can heal himself and phase through stuff! They want him to remember things, but he says he can't. Girls across America melt into a puddle because sweaty Milo is kinda hot. Eventually a cute girl named Kaitlin, the sister of one of the thieves, comes in to sponge Peter off (as girls across America melt further out of sheer jealousy) and realizes that he's totally healed. Later, when she's left alone to keep watch over him, he escapes from his ropes and is about to climb out the window (it's not really made clear why he can phase through ropes, but he needs a window to get through a wall) when he hears some guys come in and threaten to rape Kaitlin. So Peter goes Sylar on their asses, throwing them across the room with a mere gesture, and Kaitlin is sort of shocked and awed by the whole thing, enough to try to protect Peter from her brother. But her brother has other plans for Peter, which unfortunately I missed because I got a phone call!
Meanwhile, Claire is having a bit of a tough time settling into playing normal. She shows off by reaching into a pot of boiling water to rescue her mother's ring. Mama Bennett's response? "You don't need to be flashy." After she heads to school, Bennett sees the news about Hiro's father's death, and shows his wife Isaac's painting predicting that exact event. Apparently there are a series of eight that have yet to come true. Bennett has embarked on a quest to get these paintings, using Mohinder's in with the Company to get him to cure the Haitian from his mysterious hero-disease and procure him a job at Bennett's Kinko's. Mohinder's memory is erased, but the Company sees it as just an honest bungling of the job. But poor Bennett also has to deal with an idiot of a daughter who not only gets her car stolen but has an unfortunate tendency to talk loudly about sensitive information (like the fact that she can regenerate, or that they're running for their lives) in the middle of Kinko's. Claire's fascination with the idea that her blood could help wounded people heal or regenerate leads her to use household scissors to cut her pinky toe off. After a fairly long moment of suspense, the toe does grow back, and West, who was creepily staring in the window, sees the whole thing. Claire chases him outside, but all she finds is a copy of Suresh's book.
Hiro, meanwhile, tries to right the wrongs he created in 1671 Japan by convincing Takezo Kensei to woo the right woman and become a hero. (Part of the convincing involves dunking. Toughguy!Hiro is pretty amusing.) He saves the young woman Takezo was destined to love by using his power to steal swords instantaneously from his enemies. She's a lot more grateful than Kaitlin. Like, take-me-now grateful. But Hiro convinces her that it was Takezo himself who saved her. Then he almost gets Takezo killed by leading him into the path of three arrows, but turns out Takezo heals pretty damn quick after an arrow is pulled out. Very interesting.
Parkman investigates Hiro's father's death, accidentally tipping off Angela Petrelli that he can read minds. She demands a lawyer, ending the interrogation. The Beard shows up (with Nathan Petrelli in its evil clutches) to pick up his mom, but she's being attacked by an unseen force. They save her in time, but find the threatening picture from last time on her person. Ominous! It's actually a really great scene. Meanwhile, Maya runs and makes people's eyes bleed again. It's still boring. In case you care, though, they're on their way to Mexico, and apparently Maya's brother has either the superpower of healing song, or he just likes to sing while exercising his healing powers. It's unclear--but then, I have trouble paying attention to subtitles.
Great episode. I was totally into it, except when Maya was on, and I'm not missing Niki and company at all; it was a very action-packed, well-rounded, well-paced hour. We have the introduction of a few longer arcs, what with the mysterious long-distance attack (the Boogeyman!), the series of eight paintings, and the insinuation of Mohinder into the Company.
In Summary: All I could've hoped for.
Related
September 24, 2007: Heroes Second Season Premiere
Meanwhile, Claire is having a bit of a tough time settling into playing normal. She shows off by reaching into a pot of boiling water to rescue her mother's ring. Mama Bennett's response? "You don't need to be flashy." After she heads to school, Bennett sees the news about Hiro's father's death, and shows his wife Isaac's painting predicting that exact event. Apparently there are a series of eight that have yet to come true. Bennett has embarked on a quest to get these paintings, using Mohinder's in with the Company to get him to cure the Haitian from his mysterious hero-disease and procure him a job at Bennett's Kinko's. Mohinder's memory is erased, but the Company sees it as just an honest bungling of the job. But poor Bennett also has to deal with an idiot of a daughter who not only gets her car stolen but has an unfortunate tendency to talk loudly about sensitive information (like the fact that she can regenerate, or that they're running for their lives) in the middle of Kinko's. Claire's fascination with the idea that her blood could help wounded people heal or regenerate leads her to use household scissors to cut her pinky toe off. After a fairly long moment of suspense, the toe does grow back, and West, who was creepily staring in the window, sees the whole thing. Claire chases him outside, but all she finds is a copy of Suresh's book.
Hiro, meanwhile, tries to right the wrongs he created in 1671 Japan by convincing Takezo Kensei to woo the right woman and become a hero. (Part of the convincing involves dunking. Toughguy!Hiro is pretty amusing.) He saves the young woman Takezo was destined to love by using his power to steal swords instantaneously from his enemies. She's a lot more grateful than Kaitlin. Like, take-me-now grateful. But Hiro convinces her that it was Takezo himself who saved her. Then he almost gets Takezo killed by leading him into the path of three arrows, but turns out Takezo heals pretty damn quick after an arrow is pulled out. Very interesting.
Parkman investigates Hiro's father's death, accidentally tipping off Angela Petrelli that he can read minds. She demands a lawyer, ending the interrogation. The Beard shows up (with Nathan Petrelli in its evil clutches) to pick up his mom, but she's being attacked by an unseen force. They save her in time, but find the threatening picture from last time on her person. Ominous! It's actually a really great scene. Meanwhile, Maya runs and makes people's eyes bleed again. It's still boring. In case you care, though, they're on their way to Mexico, and apparently Maya's brother has either the superpower of healing song, or he just likes to sing while exercising his healing powers. It's unclear--but then, I have trouble paying attention to subtitles.
Great episode. I was totally into it, except when Maya was on, and I'm not missing Niki and company at all; it was a very action-packed, well-rounded, well-paced hour. We have the introduction of a few longer arcs, what with the mysterious long-distance attack (the Boogeyman!), the series of eight paintings, and the insinuation of Mohinder into the Company.
In Summary: All I could've hoped for.
Related
September 24, 2007: Heroes Second Season Premiere
Monday, September 24, 2007
Heroes Second Season Premiere
Tonight the long-awaited second season of Heroes opened with the teensiest of bangs, taking us four months forward to see what's happened to our beloved super-people. Admittedly, I couldn't see very well what had happened to them because my antenna reception sucks, but here's what I could gather.
Hiro's still in 1671 Japan, and I don't think it's four months later, but whatever. He finds Takezo Sensei, but discovers he's actually -- gasp! -- a white dude from England, and -- double gasp! -- in fact, that he is Sark. (Actually, that was my discovery. But it made me much happier than most of this sleepy-making pilot did.) He's excited about that, but immediately becomes afraid that he's pulling a Michael J. Fox and changing his own future/present.
Meanwhile, back in the present-time-but-four-months-later (whatever), Claire and her family have moved to Cali and are trying to blend in. Claire flirts with a pretty boy named West who, it turns out, can fly. So is he also related to the Petrellis, or do some superheroes repeat powers, and why didn't we know that before, and can Claire ever have sexual tension with someone who's not, you know, possibly related to her?
Other developments: Nathan grew a beard, Mohinder and Parkman are taking care of Molly, and Mohinder's plotting with Bennett to get an in with The Company. Ando is now the lackey of Mr. Nakamura, but when the latter receives a death threat in the form of a photograph of himself with The Symbol printed on it in red, Ando tries to fetch him a sword to defend himself. Meanwhile, Evil Grandma Petrelli also receives a death threat... and the photo of her is the other half of Mr. Nakamura's! She and Nakamura posit that the killer is "one of them," whatever that means (there are apparently nine left). This was actually somewhat intriguing.
New character Maya's trying to make a run out of Mexico for America. Her storyline would have been exciting, what with the human trafficking and the threat of separation from her brother and the eventual revelation that her powers have somehow killed everyone around her, but... I don't know Maya, so I managed to keep pretty calm. Mostly I was wondering when I got to stare at Milo Ventimiglia's face again.
This didn't happen till the end, when a bunch of Irish iPod thieves (it was bad reception but I really think this is what they were) discover Peter Petrelli chained inside a warehouse. He doesn't remember who he is! That was exciting! But it only happened in the last thirty seconds and the rest of the episode was about as exciting as the History channel!
Good things: there's definitely a new villain hovering just offstage, one who gives Molly nightmares; I assume that will be the second-season nemesis, and that's a relief, cause I was getting tired of Sylar. Also, Hayden Panettiere is still a cute, talented actress, Hiro's still a cute dork, and Nathan's beard was so hideous that it almost became cute again. I think it should get separate, possibly top, billing in the credits. It definitely stole the show.
So, there were good things. But... I was bored. I didn't find the first-season finale quite as disappointing as everyone said it was, but this was just painful. I almost did homework during it. I don't feel like it did a great job setting up an arc for season 2; the characters were too separate, when the action should have been more unified, and important characters like the Bennetts barely even got a story at all (to say nothing of the Niki-Micah-D.L. clan, without whom I frankly think the show was better off). Fastforwarding and showing us that, yep, after the big season finale things did change a lot: that's not surprising, and it didn't make me need to watch more.
We know that the writers of this show are capable of putting together addictive, fast-paced episodes that keep our attention glued despite an unwieldy cast size and disjointed episodic storytelling. They were off their game for the premiere, but hopefully things will pick up in the rest of the season.
In Summary: As Hiro would say, tsumaranakatta! ("That was boring", obvi. Sorry for the repetition, but it's kind of all I've got to say...)
Hiro's still in 1671 Japan, and I don't think it's four months later, but whatever. He finds Takezo Sensei, but discovers he's actually -- gasp! -- a white dude from England, and -- double gasp! -- in fact, that he is Sark. (Actually, that was my discovery. But it made me much happier than most of this sleepy-making pilot did.) He's excited about that, but immediately becomes afraid that he's pulling a Michael J. Fox and changing his own future/present.
Meanwhile, back in the present-time-but-four-months-later (whatever), Claire and her family have moved to Cali and are trying to blend in. Claire flirts with a pretty boy named West who, it turns out, can fly. So is he also related to the Petrellis, or do some superheroes repeat powers, and why didn't we know that before, and can Claire ever have sexual tension with someone who's not, you know, possibly related to her?
Other developments: Nathan grew a beard, Mohinder and Parkman are taking care of Molly, and Mohinder's plotting with Bennett to get an in with The Company. Ando is now the lackey of Mr. Nakamura, but when the latter receives a death threat in the form of a photograph of himself with The Symbol printed on it in red, Ando tries to fetch him a sword to defend himself. Meanwhile, Evil Grandma Petrelli also receives a death threat... and the photo of her is the other half of Mr. Nakamura's! She and Nakamura posit that the killer is "one of them," whatever that means (there are apparently nine left). This was actually somewhat intriguing.
New character Maya's trying to make a run out of Mexico for America. Her storyline would have been exciting, what with the human trafficking and the threat of separation from her brother and the eventual revelation that her powers have somehow killed everyone around her, but... I don't know Maya, so I managed to keep pretty calm. Mostly I was wondering when I got to stare at Milo Ventimiglia's face again.
This didn't happen till the end, when a bunch of Irish iPod thieves (it was bad reception but I really think this is what they were) discover Peter Petrelli chained inside a warehouse. He doesn't remember who he is! That was exciting! But it only happened in the last thirty seconds and the rest of the episode was about as exciting as the History channel!
Good things: there's definitely a new villain hovering just offstage, one who gives Molly nightmares; I assume that will be the second-season nemesis, and that's a relief, cause I was getting tired of Sylar. Also, Hayden Panettiere is still a cute, talented actress, Hiro's still a cute dork, and Nathan's beard was so hideous that it almost became cute again. I think it should get separate, possibly top, billing in the credits. It definitely stole the show.
So, there were good things. But... I was bored. I didn't find the first-season finale quite as disappointing as everyone said it was, but this was just painful. I almost did homework during it. I don't feel like it did a great job setting up an arc for season 2; the characters were too separate, when the action should have been more unified, and important characters like the Bennetts barely even got a story at all (to say nothing of the Niki-Micah-D.L. clan, without whom I frankly think the show was better off). Fastforwarding and showing us that, yep, after the big season finale things did change a lot: that's not surprising, and it didn't make me need to watch more.
We know that the writers of this show are capable of putting together addictive, fast-paced episodes that keep our attention glued despite an unwieldy cast size and disjointed episodic storytelling. They were off their game for the premiere, but hopefully things will pick up in the rest of the season.
In Summary: As Hiro would say, tsumaranakatta! ("That was boring", obvi. Sorry for the repetition, but it's kind of all I've got to say...)
Friday, September 14, 2007
The TV Premiere Season is Upon Us...
...and thus I give you a blanket post of all shows to whose return or premiere I am looking forward in some degree, listed by the system of "The Order I Thought Of Them In This Morning." I figure this is a useful guide to my likely interests in the coming year, since this is a new blog.
1) Battlestar Galactica (back in Jan. '08, Sci-Fi)
Returning for its fourth and final season in January, Battlestar Galactica is sure to dazzle us all. The third season dealt with the Cylon occupation and its aftermath on levels personal and public, from Kara's transformation into ice queen to the fleet's hatred for Gaius Baltar, and concluded with Baltar's trial, the death and triumphant return of Kara Thrace, and the revelation that four of the fleet's own are... not quite the fleet's own. I personally can't wait to hear what happened to Kara between "Maelstrom" and "Crossroads"; to understand Saul Tigh's past in relation to his new identity; to find out who the fifth cylon is; to see Earth. Despite the heavy predominance of sci-fi on my current list, I don't in fact enjoy sf much of the time. But Battlestar Galactica is no conventional genre-bound show; it's a brilliantly written, beautifully acted, and incredibly moving one and in my opinion the best on TV.
2) Heroes (9:00 Mondays, NBC)
Another sci-fi show on the list, this one more of Alias' ilk: good story, great cast, might not change your life but could eat up several days of it at a time in marathon sessions. The first season was uneven, as noted by many others, and I personally would love to see Sylar go away and stop bothering everyone (I prefer villains a bit more complicated, a la Arvin Sloane)... but with little Hayden Panettiere's fantastic acting, Milo Ventimiglia and Greg Grunberg's general awesomeness, the balanced ensemble feel of the show, the acrobatic juggling of storylines, and the promise of Kristen Bell (squee!) I hope that Heroes will survive the inevitable sophomore slump with our love for it intact.
Premieres: September 24, 2007
3) House (9:00 Tuesdays, Fox)
This show needs no explanation. Gregory House is one of the great TV characters, sharply written, terribly human, fatally flawed, intelligent, challenging, funny as hell, and let's face it, pretty damn sexy for someone who's probably older than my dad. The end of season 3 saw a big shake-up with the loss of the ducklings, but Wilson and Cuddy, the essentials, remain. I can't wait to see the new underlings House gets to torture in season 4.
Premieres: September 25th, 2007
4) Lost (back in Feb. '08, ABC)
Always terribly uneven, Lost took a rather large dip for the worse in season 3. The writers displayed a basic lack of respect for character and plot development, an increasingly aggravating tendency to portray Jack as a hero without any real justification, and seeming disinterest in answering our questions. Also, Bai Ling? Seriously? But the season finale was intriguing (flash-forwards were a nice change) and I hope to see the plot fairy uncurl herself from her long hibernation and give us a little love in season 4.
5) 24 (back in Jan. '08, Fox)
Didn't watch season 6, I'll admit it, and unless one of my friends buys the DVDs I can't afford to catch up. I heard it was terrible; I have no comment. With the deaths of Tony and Palmer in season 5 and the super-blah romance of Kiefer and Audrey, I had somewhat lost interest. But I hope to tune into season 7 and see what's going on. Fox wants the rumor mills churning about a better year ahead, and I'm taking the bait (and mixing my metaphors).
6) Bionic Woman (9:00 Wednesdays, NBC)
David Eick and Katee Sackhoff of Battlestar fame produce and guest star respectively. For fans of BSG I'm sure I need not say more, but NBC's new drama is getting lots of hype and I can't imagine that it won't live up to our expectations.
Premieres: September 26, 2007
7) Gossip Girls (9:00 Wednesdays, CW)
A bunch of it-girls in NYC, their sex lives, and their drug use. Josh Schwartz betrayed his promise once with the steady downward spiral of The OC, but I hope that his new creation Gossip Girls, like the former, will have at least one season of teen-soapy glory. Plus, Kristen Bell. Again. Best TV season ever.
Premieres: September 19, 2007
8) Pushing Daisies (8:00 Wednesdays, ABC)
Looks like a charming little bundle of magic and quirk and romance. It remains to be seen if the combination gets too relentless.
Premieres: October 3, 2007
9) ER (10:00 PM Thursdays, NBC)
The biggest TV obsession of my life has been showing its age for seven or eight years now, and I haven't watched this season, or seasons 11 and 12, very regularly. With the reunion of Abby and Luka after three years apart though, one of my craziest TV wishes was fulfilled (as unexpected and welcome as the resurrection of Starbuck and the triumph of Pacey over Dawson). Hope to have the time to tune in for season 14...
Premiered: September 13, 2007 (and I had no idea till I looked it up this morning! Bad blogger!)
10) Brothers and Sisters (10:00 Sundays, ABC)
With a cast full of pretty boys (Matthew Rhys, guy who plays Justin, Rob Lowe), the talent of Rachel Griffith and Sally Field, and a sugar-sweet mix of soapy romantic drama, snappy family humor, and genuine character insight, Brothers and Sisters deserves much more attention than it got. Season 1 saw Kitty, Sarah, Justin, Tom, and Kevin gossiping, squabbling, gossiping, bonding, and gossiping some more as they dealt with the death of their father and the insinuation into their lives of his mistress (played with aplomb by Patricia Wettig). Also, they have a Crazy!Mom, which Sally Field already won an Emmy for playing on ER. I look forward to the return of the Walker clan, and I hope the show gains popularity with others as well.
Premieres: September 30, 2007
11) Grey's Anatomy (9:00 Thursdays, ABC)
I loved the first season of this show, found the second season a drop-off, and the third a travesty (what I saw of it). I may be one of the few people mourning Isaiah Washington's departure -- whatever the actor's personal flaws may be, Burke and Christina made my romantic little heart glow. Perhaps the fourth season will go back to the magic, wit, and heart of the first. Perhaps it won't. But I think I'll at least tune in for the premiere to find out.
Premieres: September 27, 2007
12) Chuck (8:00 Mondays, NBC)
Josh Schwartz, creator of The OC. Need I say more? Even better, Rachel Bilson is supposedly going to appear (thanks, TV Addict). Apparently involves an electronics retail worker becoming a government spy. Sounds goofy, but might be good for some pre-Heroes fun on Monday nights.
Premieres: September 24, 2007
13) Cavemen (8:00 - 8:30 Tuesdays, ABC)
It's... about cavemen, and inspired by Geico commercials (?!). That's kind of all I know. But, I'm curious, it sounds like it could be funny, and it can at least function as my Tuesday-nights-at-8 rebound fling, for sure. (Gilmore Girls, how I miss you.)
Premieres: October 2, 2007
With the demise of Veronica Mars, the OC, and Gilmore Girls, my list is suddenly very light on the teen soaps -- fitting, I suppose, since this is the first season I start past my teens! It's also lighter on shows that have truly gripped me, but I'm willing to go back and give several another chance, and I'm excited about the new shows.
That said, until January comes and BSG returns to light up my life, I'll be counting the minutes.
1) Battlestar Galactica (back in Jan. '08, Sci-Fi)
Returning for its fourth and final season in January, Battlestar Galactica is sure to dazzle us all. The third season dealt with the Cylon occupation and its aftermath on levels personal and public, from Kara's transformation into ice queen to the fleet's hatred for Gaius Baltar, and concluded with Baltar's trial, the death and triumphant return of Kara Thrace, and the revelation that four of the fleet's own are... not quite the fleet's own. I personally can't wait to hear what happened to Kara between "Maelstrom" and "Crossroads"; to understand Saul Tigh's past in relation to his new identity; to find out who the fifth cylon is; to see Earth. Despite the heavy predominance of sci-fi on my current list, I don't in fact enjoy sf much of the time. But Battlestar Galactica is no conventional genre-bound show; it's a brilliantly written, beautifully acted, and incredibly moving one and in my opinion the best on TV.
2) Heroes (9:00 Mondays, NBC)
Another sci-fi show on the list, this one more of Alias' ilk: good story, great cast, might not change your life but could eat up several days of it at a time in marathon sessions. The first season was uneven, as noted by many others, and I personally would love to see Sylar go away and stop bothering everyone (I prefer villains a bit more complicated, a la Arvin Sloane)... but with little Hayden Panettiere's fantastic acting, Milo Ventimiglia and Greg Grunberg's general awesomeness, the balanced ensemble feel of the show, the acrobatic juggling of storylines, and the promise of Kristen Bell (squee!) I hope that Heroes will survive the inevitable sophomore slump with our love for it intact.
Premieres: September 24, 2007
3) House (9:00 Tuesdays, Fox)
This show needs no explanation. Gregory House is one of the great TV characters, sharply written, terribly human, fatally flawed, intelligent, challenging, funny as hell, and let's face it, pretty damn sexy for someone who's probably older than my dad. The end of season 3 saw a big shake-up with the loss of the ducklings, but Wilson and Cuddy, the essentials, remain. I can't wait to see the new underlings House gets to torture in season 4.
Premieres: September 25th, 2007
4) Lost (back in Feb. '08, ABC)
Always terribly uneven, Lost took a rather large dip for the worse in season 3. The writers displayed a basic lack of respect for character and plot development, an increasingly aggravating tendency to portray Jack as a hero without any real justification, and seeming disinterest in answering our questions. Also, Bai Ling? Seriously? But the season finale was intriguing (flash-forwards were a nice change) and I hope to see the plot fairy uncurl herself from her long hibernation and give us a little love in season 4.
5) 24 (back in Jan. '08, Fox)
Didn't watch season 6, I'll admit it, and unless one of my friends buys the DVDs I can't afford to catch up. I heard it was terrible; I have no comment. With the deaths of Tony and Palmer in season 5 and the super-blah romance of Kiefer and Audrey, I had somewhat lost interest. But I hope to tune into season 7 and see what's going on. Fox wants the rumor mills churning about a better year ahead, and I'm taking the bait (and mixing my metaphors).
6) Bionic Woman (9:00 Wednesdays, NBC)
David Eick and Katee Sackhoff of Battlestar fame produce and guest star respectively. For fans of BSG I'm sure I need not say more, but NBC's new drama is getting lots of hype and I can't imagine that it won't live up to our expectations.
Premieres: September 26, 2007
7) Gossip Girls (9:00 Wednesdays, CW)
A bunch of it-girls in NYC, their sex lives, and their drug use. Josh Schwartz betrayed his promise once with the steady downward spiral of The OC, but I hope that his new creation Gossip Girls, like the former, will have at least one season of teen-soapy glory. Plus, Kristen Bell. Again. Best TV season ever.
Premieres: September 19, 2007
8) Pushing Daisies (8:00 Wednesdays, ABC)
Looks like a charming little bundle of magic and quirk and romance. It remains to be seen if the combination gets too relentless.
Premieres: October 3, 2007
9) ER (10:00 PM Thursdays, NBC)
The biggest TV obsession of my life has been showing its age for seven or eight years now, and I haven't watched this season, or seasons 11 and 12, very regularly. With the reunion of Abby and Luka after three years apart though, one of my craziest TV wishes was fulfilled (as unexpected and welcome as the resurrection of Starbuck and the triumph of Pacey over Dawson). Hope to have the time to tune in for season 14...
Premiered: September 13, 2007 (and I had no idea till I looked it up this morning! Bad blogger!)
10) Brothers and Sisters (10:00 Sundays, ABC)
With a cast full of pretty boys (Matthew Rhys, guy who plays Justin, Rob Lowe), the talent of Rachel Griffith and Sally Field, and a sugar-sweet mix of soapy romantic drama, snappy family humor, and genuine character insight, Brothers and Sisters deserves much more attention than it got. Season 1 saw Kitty, Sarah, Justin, Tom, and Kevin gossiping, squabbling, gossiping, bonding, and gossiping some more as they dealt with the death of their father and the insinuation into their lives of his mistress (played with aplomb by Patricia Wettig). Also, they have a Crazy!Mom, which Sally Field already won an Emmy for playing on ER. I look forward to the return of the Walker clan, and I hope the show gains popularity with others as well.
Premieres: September 30, 2007
11) Grey's Anatomy (9:00 Thursdays, ABC)
I loved the first season of this show, found the second season a drop-off, and the third a travesty (what I saw of it). I may be one of the few people mourning Isaiah Washington's departure -- whatever the actor's personal flaws may be, Burke and Christina made my romantic little heart glow. Perhaps the fourth season will go back to the magic, wit, and heart of the first. Perhaps it won't. But I think I'll at least tune in for the premiere to find out.
Premieres: September 27, 2007
12) Chuck (8:00 Mondays, NBC)
Josh Schwartz, creator of The OC. Need I say more? Even better, Rachel Bilson is supposedly going to appear (thanks, TV Addict). Apparently involves an electronics retail worker becoming a government spy. Sounds goofy, but might be good for some pre-Heroes fun on Monday nights.
Premieres: September 24, 2007
13) Cavemen (8:00 - 8:30 Tuesdays, ABC)
It's... about cavemen, and inspired by Geico commercials (?!). That's kind of all I know. But, I'm curious, it sounds like it could be funny, and it can at least function as my Tuesday-nights-at-8 rebound fling, for sure. (Gilmore Girls, how I miss you.)
Premieres: October 2, 2007
With the demise of Veronica Mars, the OC, and Gilmore Girls, my list is suddenly very light on the teen soaps -- fitting, I suppose, since this is the first season I start past my teens! It's also lighter on shows that have truly gripped me, but I'm willing to go back and give several another chance, and I'm excited about the new shows.
That said, until January comes and BSG returns to light up my life, I'll be counting the minutes.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Californication Review -- 1x03, "The Whore of Babylon"
I picked up the Heroes DVDs today, yay! They were only $47.99 at Borders and I'm excited to watch the last half of the season that I didn't get around to watching before NBC took them off its website. I can't review the extras or anything yet because I don't want to be spoiled, but I'll say that: A) I like the stylish design, B) the chapter menus are clunky and there's no scene selection that I can find, which sucks, and C) Peter Petrelli and Officer Matt are my new TV boyfriends.
Anyway, onto last night's Californication...
"But Magnums... wow. Did you have a growth spurt?"
Californication Official Site
In the third episode of Showtime's cute little comedy-that's-not-so-much-comedy-as-soft-core, Hank finds himself in jail after an embarrassing altercation with the director who made his book into the loathed movie -- a scene in which I actually found myself praying that the trend of opening each episode with a ridiculous dream scene was continuing, only to find myself sadly convinced that yes, this was actually happening. (There's a dream bit later, of course, brief and Ally McBeal-esque, which isn't necessarily a good thing.) Hank then proceeds to seduce Meredith, the unfortunate victim of his blind-date etiquette from the pilot, after a (hopefully) heart-felt apology. He even seems to fall for her, and by the end of the episode it's decided that they are "maybe, possibly" dating.
Meredith is an attorney, who's been sleeping with a married man for the past five years. She's quite pissed at Hank when she runs into him, but forgives him far too easily and even seems to be falling for him in return. I like the way her character's being handled: she is smart and beautiful and outwardly acts rather tough, which explains why Hank falls for her... but has low self-esteem and is continually ready to excuse members of the opposite sex for their poor behavior, which explains her liking Hank.
But other than the introduction of a character I can actually root for, in this episode there's a titty-twisting scene that, I'm sorry, exposes a childishness in Hank that goes well beyond unattractive and into the realm of the pathological; there's a wrap-up blog entry by Hank that ditches last week's self-satisfied rant on pubic hair and Hank's prowess in the sack for an overwritten, sappy meditation on fatherhood that's even worse; and there's a really weird side plot with Hank's agent and his hot, masochistic assistant that I don't really care to summarize because it managed to be both extreme and still somehow boring.
Not enough scenes with the daughter, too many ridiculous actions by Hank, not enough jokes. This episode was a definite fall-off for Californication in terms of snappiness and watchability. I've referred to it as "brain candy" but this time it felt kind of like brain poison.
In Summary: I hate dropping shows after I've picked them up, but my goodwill for Californication is slowly eroding.
Related Posts
8/16/07: Californication Review -- 1x01, "Pilot"
8/23/07: Californication Review -- 1x02, "Hell-A Woman"
Anyway, onto last night's Californication...
"But Magnums... wow. Did you have a growth spurt?"
Californication Official Site
In the third episode of Showtime's cute little comedy-that's-not-so-much-comedy-as-soft-core, Hank finds himself in jail after an embarrassing altercation with the director who made his book into the loathed movie -- a scene in which I actually found myself praying that the trend of opening each episode with a ridiculous dream scene was continuing, only to find myself sadly convinced that yes, this was actually happening. (There's a dream bit later, of course, brief and Ally McBeal-esque, which isn't necessarily a good thing.) Hank then proceeds to seduce Meredith, the unfortunate victim of his blind-date etiquette from the pilot, after a (hopefully) heart-felt apology. He even seems to fall for her, and by the end of the episode it's decided that they are "maybe, possibly" dating.
Meredith is an attorney, who's been sleeping with a married man for the past five years. She's quite pissed at Hank when she runs into him, but forgives him far too easily and even seems to be falling for him in return. I like the way her character's being handled: she is smart and beautiful and outwardly acts rather tough, which explains why Hank falls for her... but has low self-esteem and is continually ready to excuse members of the opposite sex for their poor behavior, which explains her liking Hank.
But other than the introduction of a character I can actually root for, in this episode there's a titty-twisting scene that, I'm sorry, exposes a childishness in Hank that goes well beyond unattractive and into the realm of the pathological; there's a wrap-up blog entry by Hank that ditches last week's self-satisfied rant on pubic hair and Hank's prowess in the sack for an overwritten, sappy meditation on fatherhood that's even worse; and there's a really weird side plot with Hank's agent and his hot, masochistic assistant that I don't really care to summarize because it managed to be both extreme and still somehow boring.
Not enough scenes with the daughter, too many ridiculous actions by Hank, not enough jokes. This episode was a definite fall-off for Californication in terms of snappiness and watchability. I've referred to it as "brain candy" but this time it felt kind of like brain poison.
In Summary: I hate dropping shows after I've picked them up, but my goodwill for Californication is slowly eroding.
Related Posts
8/16/07: Californication Review -- 1x01, "Pilot"
8/23/07: Californication Review -- 1x02, "Hell-A Woman"
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