Claire, That's Disgusting

How To Bring Back Heroes

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:57:00 +0000

I was just thinking about ways to get this show back on the air when it hit me: another station picks up this show. It's been done before - most recently with TNT's Southland (originally an NBC show). Going through the lineup of channels I think I found the perfect taker...

Syfy.

Think about it. It's a joke of a station without any flagship series. It's actually a mockery of a station, broadcasting such gems as Mega Python and Mega Python vs. Gatoroid. If they can air this complete junk you mean to tell me bringing back Heroes is out of the question? Let's look into how exactly this would work:

Start Over With All New Cast

Tim Kring's original vision for the series was to have a new cast every season. Well, this is the perfect way. Get all new people in and start over. Now, you still have to keep it in the same universe - you still have to make reference to the old characters. Someone would need to say "I hear there's a guy who can control space and time" or "There's rumors of more like us - one person can never feel pain and never get hurt". But all in all its new characters taking on a new storyline. No Sylar, no Peters - no one who aquires power and eventually gets too powerful for the show. Maybe as a treat during sweeps you bring back a character from the old series. Maybe someone needs to go to Angela for advice. Maybe someone needs the help of Parkman. But these would be few and far between.

Second Time's A Charm

Let's face it - this show made a lot of mistakes towards the end. We now know you can't have people who can control time and space, can't have people who aquired everyone else's power till they are mega gods, can't have characters who keep coming back just cuz they're hot and can't have Indian doctors who never seem to have a purpose on the show. Imagine if the writers could have a second chance to do this show right? I'm sure this 2nd time around they'd really stick to their "new characters every season" rule. They'd kill people off and make them stay dead. Without the pressure of getting ratings they could have a little more wiggle room in terms of storylines. The show would be better a 2nd time around with the writers knowing what does and doesn't work.

Cheaper Budget For Powers

Despite low ratings what also did in the original series was its massive cost to produce the show. The reason why reality tv is so popular is these are really rock bottom cheap to put together. But a show where someone flys or someone makes light shoot out of a cello - yeah, you have to pay people to make that stuff look good. This being Syfy you could have a cheaper budget where you have more Puppet Master or Parkman type powers (someone makes a face and its implied they're controlling your body or mind). Even if you wanted to have special effects it could be cheasy. Have you actually seen what a Mega Python or Gatoroid looks like on Syfy?

In any case production value could be cheaper and it'd give Syfy a show it could build around that fits in with its theme. We're not asking them to bring back The Golden Girls - we're talking about a show about people with powers on a station dedicated to science fiction that has nothing else to show.

What Could Have Been

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:35:00 +0000

Looking back on this series, it started off white hot and then really went out with a little POP from a cap gun. What looked like a unique universe with lots of back story about people with special abilities fizzled at the end with an unnecessary lesbian sidestory and a once-fearsome villain exploring his emotions. There's many instances where the show set up something interesting or brought up a topic only to have it go nowhere. So since the show has been cancelled I figured I'd start pointing out issues that led to its demise.

Hiro Becomes Comic Relief

One of the greatest scenes in this series is from way back in the stellar season one. Peter Petrelli is on the train, only it stops and everyone freezes. What we see next is Future Hiro who looks like some type of rebel ninja/samurai. Gone is his broken English. He's a warrior from the future, evidently. What better way to show the potential of this character? For all intents and purposes we were energized to see how this character would ultimately progress into this ultra cool ninja. What happened over the next few seasons, though, was a gradual decline of this character into basically comic relief. Even his background theme music was whimsical. They took out everything serious about this character and ultimately made sure he couldn't cause anymore trouble by coming up with a handicap that he could eventually die if he kept using his time travel powers. What happened to Ninja Hiro with the katana blade strapped to his back?

No Purpose For Suresh or Ando

I've always wondered what the hell Suresh was doing? I know he was picking up where his father left off on research of people with special abilities. But what for? He always seemed like he was on the outside looking in. He had no offensive abilities - not like HRG who while powerless was able to coexist in a world with heroes and villains. Suresh was just a doctor. Perhaps it'd have been better to make Suresh a sort of character like Xavier was towards the XMen - a mentor and developer of abilities. Perhaps he'd find you and explain your abilities and ultimately what you'd be able to do once your powers were fully developed. I think the writers wrote themselves into a corner with this character and eventually decided it'd be easier to give him a power so as to justify him being on the show. Otherwise the writers never outlined "here is this character named Suresh. This is what he's researching and this is what he's going to do with that info."

As with Ando, the writers seemed to get lazy trying to explain how a normal sidekick could operate amongst all these people with abilities. The ultimately gave him a power, even if it was a stupid one. Instead of developing this character to make him complex enough to be able to survive in this world and influence it, they gave him a power because, well, the show is about people with powers. It would have been better to kill off this deadweight. Audiences would have had an "Oh no! They killed off Ando!" and the show would have had a little more gravity and peril. Clearly in a world where there are bad guys with special powers - not enough people died. If they didn't want to kill him off, they should have made it that he was able to supercharge Hiro's powers: on his own Hiro could only go back an hour or two but by having Ando with him there'd be no limit to how far back or forward in time he could go. Like if Hiro was alone, he couldn't completely stop time, he could only slow it down but if Ando was next to him he could freeze time completely.

There's a bunch more holes in this series that could have been handled better that I'll go into eventually. Knowing that the show had a limited shelf life and was eventually cancelled it'd have been better if they went down a drastically different route then just letting this thing die a slow death.

Where Did It All Go Wrong?

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:33:00 +0000

I just wanted to briefly go over some ideas I had that I felt would've lent itself to a longer run for this series. It seems once the writers realized they couldn't have every season involve the world being in peril they just lost their steam. The last two seasons on Heroes was very up and down, and I feel the following should've been changed to allow for a better experience (in no particular order):

1. In season 1 we were treated to Future Ninja Hiro. When he stopped time while Peter was on the train, speaking in perfect English, a badass samurai sword strapped to his back, who didn't let out a big Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure-ish "woah"? That would've made a great storyline for sure, but I'll go one further: the writers became confused how to deal with the difficulty of handling Hiro's power in the storyline - why couldn't they have totally wiped out his powers in a future storyline and simply had him run around as an excellent swordsman ninja? What was the point of Hiro's Dad teaching him how to be a samurai (I know, I know, it was to be able to fight Sylar, but you know what I mean).

2. The show needed a Legion Of Doom (for lack of a better term): The entire Samuel/Circus of Freaks storyline needed to be right after the whole "Heroes/Villains" storyline. The main difference was this time the fate of the world wasn't going to hang in the balance like it did when Arthur Petrelli attempted it. Just your average bunch of super powered evil people headed by a main villain with delusions of grandeur. This should've been the next logical progression going from "save the world" to something just as menacing but not as critical.

3. They really should've explored the whole arc of Nathan Petrelli/Tracey having their powers come from a scientist. That was really a game changer. There was a few avenues they could've persued from that one nugget alone. Never should've had Tracey kill him so quickly. Or, if she needed to kill him so quickly at least let him reveal he was just a small cog in a much larger project. Implications were huge. And it all went "poof" as soon as it was introduced. Furthermore, it would've done wonders for the show to simply have Ali Larter removed from the show when Nikki/Jessica died. From that point on she served no purpose on the show except for eye candy.

4. I touched on this before, but they should've made Micah evil. He could've been like Marlon Brando in Apocolype Now, only Micad would've been surrounded by robots and eletronics that he spoke to. An entire season could've been filled out with this plot alone. This way you have the entire cast of Heroes joining together to fight a common evil enemy, with various episodes consisting of Heroes fighting robots.

5. After season 1, Claire should have went to college and that should've been the last we saw of her. She was never as important as she was in season 1. From that point on she only got in the way. It became annoying to see this tiny girl whose only ability was to not get hurt think she could battle villains. This last season she was naive to the point of endangering others. And I expected more out of her lesbian friend. I thought that was going to go somewhere.

These were just a few ideas that could've squeaked out a few good season of Heroes.

Season (Series?) Finale of Season 4

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:00:00 +0000

Oof, it looks like this series is coming to a close. With ratings having plummeted - leaving the series likely not to get picked up for next season - it looks like this is probably a good as time as any for the show to close up shop. The storyline of the past 3 episodes should've been the storyline to start the season. We all knew Samuel was the main villain, why it took the whole season to make it official is curious. The season moved along at a slow pace, viewers dropped by the week. I haven't watched the season finale yet, but just the whole preview of Sylar stating "I'm a hero", it just seems like a good way to get the series to come full circle. All along, it appears, Heroes was about Sylar. Sure, there were times various characters became too powerful for their (and the show's) good, but their abilities were dealt with - however sloppily. It just feels right that to start the series off with the ultimate mysterious villain, progress over the years to show how multi-dimensional and multi-layered he is, and now end the series with the ultimate villain becoming one of the good guys. Seems kinda "kumbaya" to me, but I like it.

There is no where for this show to go. It's probably too expensive to produce. Special effects this season were sparse. Various characters have been laid to rest with no room to progress. HRG is a shell of his former self (seriously, how much as this character changed/devolved from that first mysterious father figure/agent from season 1??). Hiro is useless and it's sad to see the move to turned him into him comic relief after season 1 showed the promised of how ultra-cool Future Ninja Hiro could be. Peter? Useless, his character was always flawed - the ultimate case of a person having more power than they know what to do with it. Suresh is basically banished to India. They never properly wrote off Tracey, what a sad way to just leave someone in limbo. Claire inherited the mantle of most annoying character and now seems relegated to a life of hot lesbianism. Parkman showed promise during the "Fugitives" storyline, but the writers castrated him and turned him into a housemom.

Alas, it is time. Say what you want about Heroes, but we'll always have season 1. They can't take that away from us.

Ok...I'm Lost

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:12:00 +0000

What the hell is happening on this show? Jeezus Christmas! This season is so bad it's making me long for the days of time travellers altering events as they see fit and all-powerful gods with more power than they know what to do with. And we STILL don't know what the purpose of this season is. Things were much easier to follow when we knew the fate of the world was in peril or evil government agents were hunting people with powers. Why is it taking so long for this season to get to The Point. The Point is what every season of every show is based on, and The Point is normally outlined within the first two episodes, 3 episodes tops. What does that Carnival Guy want with the regular cast? Yes, I know, to be a part of the family. But why? To sing Kumbaya?

Every single character is shitting the bed this year. No one has any good storylines. I know this show is on its last legs - you'd think they'd want to start coming out with the firecrackers to set up some type of "big bang". All indications are this will be the final season, and I've heard from another person who follows this show that writers are being encouraged to make sure things are wrapped up for the most part by the end of this current volume. Meaning there can very possibly be no 2nd part to this season after this current volume is done. This is how they want to go out? Who cares about this Carnival Guy? If this is going to be it give us another "save the cheerleader, save the world" premise. Give us some big stakes.

The writers have done a horrible job at limiting the powerful characters. Peter, Hiro, Parkman and Sylar have all been neutered. The four most powerful characters in the show have been mired in horrible plot devices meant to ensure that the writers don't have to deal with worrying about how to fit in these uber-powerful characters into a storyline with normal people or people with useless abilities. People don't want to see these four characters as a shell of their former selves. They want action, they want hero vs. hero fighting. They want Future Peter vs. Future Sylar in the second to last episode of season 1. It's very obvious that Heroes should not have been a regular series - it should have been a mini-series. Something along the lines of "V". Get in, get out quickly and leave them wanting more. That first season is a loooong time ago, it certainly seems. Who knew a hot series could unravel so quickly just cause of one writer's strike. Right now the show should probably be relegated to some kind of webepisode show. It seems like they're trying to introduce a webisode element with the side story of that Carnival Tattoo Chick, but unfortunately I don't watch simply because I don't care about her.

And dammit, based off the ending of this latest episode - looks like Suresh is back in the picture. In the words of Charlton Heston: "DAAAAMN YOUUUU!".

What this show needs to do to go out with a bang - cuz it really does need to end now, as much as I used to love this show - is (and you're going to think I'm crazy here) introduce Micah again, but an evil Micah. There. I said it. Earth needs to be attacked by a crazy teenage boy with the ability to control electronics, who has assembled a force of cyborgs/robots to take over the world. Think Marlon Brando in Apocolypse Now. Sitting on a throne, worshipped as a king in his own little world by his own creations. You pair Peter, Sylar, Claire, Bennett and Suresh together to stop Micah and save the world from an impending cyborg doom. Hiro must die. There always needs to be a sacrificial lamb, and quite simply there's no drama or tension with a guy who can stop everything with the blink of an eye or worse - travel back in time and prevent everything from happening. Kill him off, set the stakes real high and let's see some fireworks as Peter and Sylar team up against a common enemy. I was gonna say the enemy should be an invading alien force but the show probably doesn't have the budget for the effects needed to pull that off. They barely have the budget to keep up with the show as-is.

Btw, please kill the deaf-girl who sees colors. Serves. No. Purpose. WHAT IS THE POINT?!? We're halfway through the season and I shouldn't be asking this question for a character who has had as much screentime as she has. Get her off the show.

Iiiiiiiit's Back. Chapter 1 - "Orientation"

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:49:00 +0000

Note I didn't have the time to watch the second part of last night's 2 hour premier, so any opinion of the season opener is based off of the first chapter. Since this blog was on a long hiatus I guess it's best to break things down into two parts anyway so I have more to write about.

First things first - I was underwhelmed. Where was the big bang, the "POW" from the season opener last year? The second part of last season was even more tremendous - all people with powers being hunted and everyone on the run from The Man. This season started off very slow. Normally a season opener will 1.) identify the villain and 2.) unveil their evil plan. Ok, so #1 was established - we think...All we know right now is the Carnies are probably villains. We're supposed to think that because of the dark, brooding evilish music in the background. And they killed Denko - which may or may not be a bad thing. Oh, and the main Carnie leader has evil hair and dark eye makeup, so that probably makes him a villain. But yeah, I don't think it's going too far to say the Carnies are the bad guys. Only thing is based off of the first part of the premier - we don't know what the hell they want. Sylar wanted your brains. Arthur Petrelli wanted to build a force of super humans (they never really fleshed that out though). The Gov'ment/Denko wanted to round up all people with abilities. Like I said, there was a lot of BANG! POW! to these openers. They're supposed to set the table for the rest of the season.

What do we know so far?

Ali Larter is immortal: That is, she will always be on this show. Her name may not be Nikki, it may not be Jessica, it may not even be Tracey - but she'll always be a character on this show in some way. She wasn't rather annoying to me in this opener, but alas, the season is young. I'll give her time.

Mohinder is gone: ...for now. Normally season openers will show what all the characters are up to, but Mohinder was nowhere to be found. There wasn't even the normal narrative voiceover that starts and ends the show. I think a different person does the narrating if you look at the credits - but it sounds like Mohinder so I always pretended it was him. Anyway - all gone. I'm sure the writers have him stashed away to bring out at some other opportune time (ie, when it's convenient to them after they've written themselves into a corner) but for now the show seems to be Mohinder-free.

The Hiro & Ando Comedy Group: Officially have crossed over into comic-relief. The show even *unnecessarily* has that whimsical music everytime they're on the screen. At one point when Ando was on the roof saving the cat and he fell I swear there was a Benny Hill sound effect. Almost like a Fozzie Bear "whocka whocka" or bicycle horn. What the hell is going on? And now Hiro was considering going back into the past so he wouldn't meet a fortune teller who set him on the path to wanting to be a hero? Ummm, don't you think that would mess up the storylines of the previous seasons??? Without Future Hiro to give Peter the "save the cheerleader, save the world" order then Sylar gets Claire's power in season 1 and chaos ensues. Although Sylar wound up getting Claire's power eventually, which kinda negated the tension from season 1. Granted, Hiro inadvertently has some as much harm as good with his time travelling - if he goes back in time to prevent all that who knows what winds up happening. Why did Ando not bring that up? Why did he not say "Hellooooo? If you go back in time you'll mess everything up by altering the timelines!". Also, we get it already - you don't want Hiro timetravelling all over the place so you devised this contrived scenario so that he has a built-in weakness/deterrent for using that power. Hiro's power is cool, but the character himself isn't. If this is the best you can muster then kill him off and let us remember him fondly. I sighed during the scene when Hiro/Ando were talking to the little girl. Cringe-worthy, I think some would describe it.

Carnies, small hands...smell like cabbage: From the first episode we don't know much other than the lead Carnie must really be a sweat talker as he apparently convinced that Tattoo Chick she needs to be topless when she uses her power.

Lead Carnie Guy: "Ok, I need you to take your top off so you can show me a face."
Tattoo Chick: "Is this really necessary, I can easily make the face appear on my shoulder or something."
Lead Carnie Guy: "DAMMIT JUST DO IT!"

Also not sure why he had to inject his cohort with ink to do that cool tattoo hand choking the throat trick - he's able to move dirt so he obviously has a similar telekinesis power as Sylar.

Parkman: The most powerful hero on the show (now that Sylar is out of commission for the time being) isn't interested in being a hero any longer. So let me get this straight - Angela Petrelli tells you the person you helped lock in someone else's body is now starting to manifest himself and you need to fix it before it's too late. You're reply is "it's not my problem anymore"? Granted towards the end of the show Sylar mentally threatens Parkman so I only have reason to believe he'll come around. But it's just weird someone who's now a parent wouldn't be totally gung-ho to make the world as safe a place as possible for his young. He's morphed into my defacto favorite character due to being so powerful, I hope the writers tread carefully here. I don't want another Hiro on my hands.

Peter: Completely useless once again. Just leave him like this, guys, he does more harm than good. He's more suited to be a super-paramedic than a super hero. He's perfect in his current role. Of course he's not going to go an entire season like this, but I'll enjoy this new Peter (insignificant, not crucial to the storyline) for as long as I can.

Claire: The writers listened to me. They put her back in school. It's where she belonged for the last season and a half. Glad they've seen it my way. I still don't know why they showed a scene of her playing Guitar Hero, unless that was a poor stab at product placement. Sure the song being played was ominous - "very supersticious...writing on the wall" - but unneeded. I think her geeky friend has a power, she commented something along the lines of "I'm learning this quickly every second", which I took to be a hint of some kind of ability. Her murdered roommate was going to really be a downer on the show if they gave her more airtime, I'm glad she was quickly disposed of. But anyway Claire belongs in school, back to being a special person who just wants to be normal. Crime-fighter Claire was a bomb. Not "the" bomb - "a" bomb. A failure.

I'm going to assume last night's premiere kinda needed to be watched in its two-hour entirety. The first part was just too "bleh", perhaps they saved the fireworks for the second part.

I Am Sylar (and other tidbits)

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:48:00 +0000

Taking a brief hiatus from the blog I'm back. I'll admit it's much easier to have opinion and criticisms on the show when the writing sucks. With the improved writing and stellar storylines, well, I'd be a fool if I just turned this into a nitpicking blog. Applause for the writers for making me shut my mouth.

That having been said, let's review and compare notes and what's gone on since I last wrote:

Sylar: Let's just get right into it. I'm liking the character, but after his latest Norman Bates impression in the most recent "I Am Sylar" episode, ummm, whatever? What's this all about? The guy goes from wanting to redeem himself/becoming a good guy, reverting back to form, teaming up with Danko (and we all knew that was going to be a temporary partnership), now he's trying to "find himself". Jeez, pick a Sylar and run with it, guys. Sylar and Nathan are two of the most inconsistent characters in this series. Remember last volume when Nathan was all over the place? Same thing goes for Sylar. Every three episodes it's a new thing. Speaking of Nathan, what the hell was he thinking going to face Sylar by himself? The same Sylar who survived an exploding building at the end of the last volume.

Peter: Um, wow, what a fall from grace. The character goes from being the main guy on the show to getting like 10 minutes - if that - of screentime per episode. Wow. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I think he's had his time in the sun, running around and playing God. Nice to be able to take a step back and say "the second volume of season three was when Peter Petrelli went back to being just one of the characters instead of the focal point of the show". There's nothing really to write about Peter. He's been such a small factor, his most notable (and I'll admit, probably coolest) contribution in the last few episodes was showing up in the elevator to whisk his mother away while agents were poised to apprehend her. This was the volume where characters like Peter and Hiro took a step back and characters like Matt Parkman and Nathan to an extent were allowed to sit at the big boys table. The show is much better for it, Parkman is a much better written character, more consistent and he was allowed to evolve slowly. The episode where Parkman's dad said to him (paraphrasing) "You don't even know what you're capable of, what you'll be able to do with your power. You can do so much more than read minds..." as his turning point. That's the seed and from there he's blossomed into someone exciting to watch and someone who can affect the storyline.

Future Timelines: I don't know, for a while it seems like several of the events in the future timelines were not going to come true. But lately it seems there's a possibility that Sylar will assume Nathan's identity and eventually become President like he did in the future timeline in season 1. Hiro/Ando keep bickering a bit too much for the Hiro vs. Ando future event to have been totally eradicated. Also Nathan probably dies at some point since Sylar has his identity. HRG was some type of underground rebel and with him being apprehended at the end of the latest episode I think his days as a Government Agent/consultant are over. I'm just saying, we've seen *just* enough these past few episodes that we can't completely write off some of the future storylines, and trust me, I was the first to proclaim "all those future storylines are done and probably moot".

Hiro: Ok, I'll admit, I don't know where the show is going with him. I thought he was back, as in back back, but I don't know what his latest problem is (bleeding from the nose, power not working). My early estimate is maybe Baby Matt Parkman's power is temporary, in the sense that after he turns something "on" it won't stay "on indefinitely if he's not around. Baby Matt Parkman and the Human Lie Detector Woman are tied for two of the most "convenient" characters on the show. They were created for a very specific purpose. Like, it's so convenient that Hiro bumps into the one character that can turn his power back on. See how everything fits into the box so neatly? That kind of writing makes you roll your eyes a bit, but I guess it was a necessary evil just to get Hiro his powers back (temporarily?).

Season Finale: If there is someone reading this who does not think this season finale isn't going to be top 2 in this series, let that person state their case. I think a major character is going to die - that's how big I think it's going to be. (And I think that character is going to be Nathan who winds up dying to save someone in the ultimate act of selflessness which would be a rarity for that character). I don't know where the series goes after this episode as far as future storylines go, that's how important this upcoming week is. Everything hinges on this one episode. In the preview for next week they showed us Nathan and Peter walking, with Nathan saying "I love you, Pete," and Peter replied "I love you, too", the same words they said to each other in the last episode of season 1 as Nathan flew nuclear Peter away. Based off of that one brief exchange I think that's meant to be probably the last words they say to each other. Much like how in Episode 3 of Star Wars when they showed Obi Wan and Anakin's last words to each other before Anakin officially became a Sith - it was a poignant moment. I don't know, if I'm a writer that to me is a perfect time for a "famous last words" moment, you know, a calm before the storm afterwhich nothing will ever be the same again.

You know the upcoming episode is gonna be big cuz I had one of my rare "oh snap, next week's show is gonna be big!" moments after the preview. Bet the house on it (if it hasn't been foreclosed yet).

WOW...I'm Good At This Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:04:00 +0000

All right, before I get started let me just say - congrats to the writers. This past episode was the best episode in this series since season 1. We're talking top 3 Heroes episode of all time. I rank the Heroes episodes in the following:

#1: 2nd to last episode in season 1. (Where Future Sylar and Future Peter battle in...uh, the future. The first and probably best major hero vs. major villain action in the series.)
#2: The last episode of season 1.
#3: The latest episode of the current season. (I think it's Chapter 7 of the 2nd volume of season 3, if that makes any sense HAHAHA)

And congratulations to Matt Parkman. You're officially one of the coolest characters on the show. Three seasons and a half is a long time, many characters have come and gone but you stuck in the sidelines waiting and now your time in the sun has come. There was a little spark of what was to come this current volume, and your potential was showcased a few episodes ago when Peter and yourself walked in, literally, to a fortified government compound and you held them all hostage for a while. But now it's been hammered home in this latest episode. You are officially the 2nd most powerful character in the show (behind Sylar, of course). Bravo. And since we're throwing out congrats, I'm going to give some to Ali Larter in what was her best performance in this series ever. The coolest episode involving the Tracey/Jessica/Niki character. I wouldn't write her off as being dead just yet, as I'm sure everyone caught the fact that the block of ice where her face was happened to blink. The writers LOVE Ali Larter so I thoroughly believe she's not completely done on the show.

Unlike Daphne. Hey, someone needs to be the sacrificial lamb. Can't go all this time without one or two people dying.

Nothing was left on the table. This one had it ALL. I am thoroughly and completely back on the bus with this show. Season 2 was a hiccup. Hey, not even Babe Ruth hit a homerun every at-bat. It's back. I just had to get that out of the way.

Ok, I know a broken clock is right twice a day, but I hit a grand glam out of the park:

Rebel = Micah

Now, I'm sure as this chapter has gone on Micah being the Rebel became more and more apparent (at least to me), but I called this a while ago. Like, the 2nd episode or so of this chapter. 2+2=4. That's all there was to it. Kudos to the writers for not making a complete random, newly created character the Rebel, as it's been fun to play the "who is the Rebel?" game. As soon as HRG said to Tracey "lead us to the Rebel and you can walk away" I knew Micah was it. I knew it because it seemed so obvious at that point the writers wouldn't make it so easy for Tracey to walk away. She was gonna have to have some type of moral dilemna. And as soon as Tracey got the free money from the ATM I knew it as well (of course Micah was revealed like a minute after that). Free ATM money is an old Micah trick.

I also will credit myself with Hiro and the return of his power. My point in the "The Hiro Conundrum" entry was that he had spent a considerable amount of time being powerless and the writers would have to, sooner rather than later, do something about it. Well, Hiro's back. What I nailed was that when he got his power back there'd be limitations, like how they conveniently limited Peter's ability so that he can only have one power at a time. (And speaking of that, why is it most of all the cool scenes with someone flying has involved Peter? You'd think Nathan, the resident fly-guy, would have all the scenes but Peter has completely OWNED that ability. Just saying). So I called it correctly - Hiro got his ability back but he isn't the master of all time/space like he used to be. So he can't teleport. Fine. No more bouncing around back and forth and ruining the space/time continuum. This is how it should've been from the beginning but that's neither here nor there. Hiro and Ando are now major players again. Who knows exactly what Ando can do to Hiro now that he can supercharge Hiro's ability? I was thisclose to writing them off when they were found in Baby Matt Parkman's closet trying to pose as stuffed animals. I groaned. But they quickly came back from that silliness. Big things ahead for those two I'm thinking in terms of possibilities.

You want another prediction? Fine. Matt Parkman gets back with his wife Janice. Hiro and Ando find Parkman, reunite him with Baby Matt Parkman and then Matt Parkman goes on a mission to rescue Janice and in the process they wind up falling for each other again.

I'm going to give you another predicition. This has been nagging me for a bit so I'm going to announce it cuz I think I've seen enough clues to feel safe in making it public.

The Hunter has an ability.

There. I said it.

I liken this to a guy who acts like such a homophobe just to hide the fact that he is, in fact, a closeted homosexual. You know, the kind that is really into sports and makes public displays of how much they dig the ladies, just to put up a good enough screen to hide the truth. Why exactly is he so anti-powers? Being the uber-government military guy you'd think he'd want to capture and have tests done on these people to try to harness their abilities for super soldiers (like what Nathan originally attempted). Why does he want to basically just kill them? I'm going to give a run-down as to the little tidbits I've come across that made me this he has a power:

1. The aforementioned extreme aversion to people with powers just to serve as smoke and mirrors to avoid detection. Shit, even HRG doesn't have a fondness for people with powers but he knows they have their uses and he doesnt' have a problem using them as pawns to serve his needs. He doesn't go around trying to eliminate them no questions asked.
2. It was revealed that he was part of a failed military mission in which essentially everyone underneath him got killed and he was the only one to walk away. Same thing happened to Bruce Willis in the movie "Unbreakable", where he was the only survivor in a huge train crash and, oh yeah, he had powers in that movie, too.
3. The shock value factor. The only way you can surprise and shock viewers is if you have them looking one way and then pull the rug out from under their feet. The potential for a shocking revelation here is too great and tempting for the writers not to go that route.
4. In the previews they showed a clip of The Hunter talking with Sylar - I suppose they wind up forming an alliance of sorts - saying (paraphrasing here) "I guess the benefit to you is that you wind up being the only one with powers" to which Sylar replied (paraphrasing again) "something like that". It could be The Hunter wants people with powers to die just so he eliminates the competition in the same vein of Sylar. I'm sure the Hunter will attempt to turn on Sylar at the right moment, although that's stating the obvious.

There you have it, one immense episode. Welcome back.

Microwave Boy

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:50:00 +0000

This is just a short little blurb, but the more I think about it the more I start to wonder:

Just why exactly was the microwave boy (aka Luke Campbell in the show) in this season as much as he was? He didn't really accomplish much other than leading Sylar on the path to find his dad. That was nothing Sylar couldn't have found out with a little torture. And why have Sylar rescue the kid from the government agents only to abandon him an episode later?

The kid was annoying. I actually have him ranked higher than Suresh and Ali Larter in my "List of characters that annoy me" scale. That's saying a lot. He just didn't do anything to move the story along. Essentially a human navigation system. At first I thought the writers were going with a sort of "Sylar gets a sidekick" arc, which wouldn't have been so bad (not like Sylar needs a sidekick or anything). Kinda like how cool a Hiro/Ando team would've been had both of those characters actually had powers at the same time. Peter/Parkman was too shortlived but probably the most formidable we've seen aside from Sylar/Elle, another tagteam that only lasted like two episodes. I guess the writers understand just how chaotic two people with powers would be.

Also, was it me or did anyone else feel underwhelmed with Sylar's encounter with his Dad? We spend all of this volume watching Sylar hunt for his father and the actual searching for him took up more airtime than their encounter. Wouldn't it have just been insane to have his Dad take Sylar's power, come back a little more powerful and then become a major thorn in Sylar's side for a while? Sylar's Dad - his true nemesis?

I guess if they did that they'd have to call the show Star Wars.

The Hiro Conundrum

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:01:00 +0000

You are Hiro Nakamura. You are one of the top 3 or so most powerful characters on the hit show "Heroes". You are the master of all of space and time. You became too powerful on the show. What ingenious idea did the writers of your show have do to solve the problem?

They took away your powers.

Yes, the writers took the easy way out last chapter. Rather than coming up with a clever way to have such a powerful character coexist with people who can do useless things like fly or breathe underwater they simply took his power away rather than deal with the difficult task of coming up with a solution. Now, they didn't originally take away his powers at first. No, rather they tried something silly such as giving him the mind of a 10 year old first. So he was still powerful, he just didn't have the mental facility to use it. But that storyline couldn't have gone on forever - although compared to what the character is now I'd have prefered a Hiro-as-a-10-year-old character who struggled with the immense task of being so powerful than a powerless Japanese guy trying desperately hard to recapture the good times.

But that was such a long time ago. I'm too lazy to check, but I assume it's been probably 8 episodes now that Hiro hasn't been "normal" (as much as a person who can bend time and space to his will can be considered normal).

Evenutally the writers found a solution for Peter, his "one power at a time, losing the previous power" limitation will allow him to be on the show for as long as NBC airs Heroes now that the writers found a clever way to deal with his 100+ powers. In hindsight it was a rather simple solution, simply making it so that Peter can't walk around with so many abilities and limit him to one at a time and make him have to decide if it's worth it to lose his current power in order to replace it with a new power that may be a better fit for the current task. But how to you do the same thing with Hiro? Either he can travel through space/time or he can't. That is unless...

Make it so that he can travel through time, but he's invisible. So instead of going back 2 years ago and changing the future - he can still go back 2 years ago but it's more to witness events for data collecting purposes. Kinda like how Matt went into HRG's head to find out the trail of events that lead up to the government project, Hiro would be doing the same thing except being actually there. He would become strictly an observer. Then he'd go back to the present time and armed with the info from the past he'd be able to affect events in real time as the present day happens. Or when he freezes time, instead of freezing time and, for example, take the gun out of the hand of the enemy who's about to shoot him, he loses the ability to tangibly touch things and he can only escape.

Either that, or they give him a retarded power out of pity. I'd love to see Masi Oka (the name of the actor who plays Hiro) at the writer's table trying to convince them to give him his power back:

Masi Oka: "Ok, guys, don't you think Hiro being powerless has gone on long enough? Whaddya say we get him back to the old Hiro, the one that audiences loved to cheer for?"

Writers: "Yeah, about that...we just can't have Hiro running amok like the old days. We've caught a ton of flak over the years from the critics who like to point out how we've used Hiro as a crutch by having a time traveller who can erase bad storylines."

Masi Oka: "Ok, I understand. It certainly was getting repetitive having my character always bail out you guys when you wrote yourselves into a corner. I can take another power though."

Writers: "Well, we do have one power that currently doesn't have anyone claiming it. But we gotta warn ya, it's not exactly on the same page as being master of time and space."

Masi Oka: "I see...well, whatever it is it's gotta beat having no powers and being shipped off to India for no good reason. What's the power?"

Writers: "How do you feel about being able to breathe underwater...?"

And the Rebel is...

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:21:00 +0000

This is just a small entry today, but I'm telling you, the more and more I think about it the more it seems Micah is the Rebel. I touched on this before so I don't want to recycle previous thoughts but when you add it all up you come up with Micah. That is, unless the writers didn't specifically create a new character for this one purpose just like they created the Aqua Man character just to give Claire something to do. If the Rebel winds up being a new character that's gonna be a letdown of huge proportions. With that in mind I'll proceed as if the Rebel is in fact someone we already know.

We officially know Angela Petrelli is not the Rebel. That eliminates one of the three possible suspects that I mentioned previously. That was a reach on my part regardless but I was just trying to cover all my bases.

It can only be Micah. The Rebel is only shown communicating via some type of electronic device. Cell phone. PC. Fax machine. That sort of stuff. There has been no phone communication (well duh, if there were we'd have heard the voice). The Rebel has the ability to hack into elite government networks. Now I'm sure any hacker worth his balls could probably hack into a secure network, but I'm thinking a government agency's PC is probably not doable. So it has to be someone that can hack into these things without being traced, someone that can can control a machine and "tell it what to do", as Micah himself loved to always explain as he was using his power. Also, it has to be someone who isn't captured, so we all know Micah isn't captured or we would've seen him by now.

It could always be The Hunter if you're into whacky far-out theories. He could always be using the Rebel persona as a way to control and manipulate the escapees. Kinda like how HRG pretended to be helping Suresh escape only to turn him in. Whacky. Far-out. Not likely. But I guess it doesn't hurt to consider all the possibilities.

I think it's Micah, anyway. I don't know how I feel about that, though. I guess one good thing to come out of that would be they finally got something worthwhile for that character to do. It's the way it should be - someone with Micah's power should be in fact extremely powerful. They'd be untouchable and have the ability to remain off the grid by manipulating security systems. Be extremely rich as long as there was an ATM in the vicinity. He could basically set up a virtual command center and do a vast amount of damage.

And before I go, let me just gripe about something. This whole "Parkman having a weakness while using his power" thing infuriated me. I can't stand these "oh, by the way..." moments. So the writers finally get Parkman up to a cool status on the show, he's finally a force in the series after all this time as a 2nd-tier character and NOW is when the writers feel it's time to divulge some info about his weakness. My, wasn't that convenient.

Government agent: "how are we gonna stop Parkman, he's virtually unstoppable."

HRG: "oh, by the way, I forgot to mention his weakness."

Classic roll-my-eyes moment when that scene took place. C'mon guys, tighten up the screws a little more.

Cold Wars

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:46:00 +0000

The season is going great, another good episode. Lots of HRG which is always a good thing, and the menacing Hunter guy seems to steal every scene he's in. I say the episode was "good" and not "great" because on the whole not much happened. Here's what I'm seeing:

1. Was it necessary to spend a whole episode backtracking as to how HRG got involved with the government project? Ok, I know it was necessary to reveal that a basically bored HRG wanted action (more than he wanted to protect Claire) and he wanted to head his own group. As he got pushed to the sidelines and saw the actual intent of the government project he decided it wasn't his bag anymore and switched allegiance. Not necessary to take a whole episode for that. And was it just me, but in the end when HRG was walking with the Hunter and he swore 100% loyalty was it not obvious that HRG had already flipped to the other side? When he walked back to Angela Petrelli and revealed he's back on her side were we supposed to be "ohhh snap, I don't believe it!"? There was no drama or tension there, the episode had shown HRG gradually moving away from the goals of the project, by the end there was virtually no surprise. Even when he offered to walk Matt outside the motel after Matt had been captured it was very obvious he did so expecting Peter to swoop in (literally) and take Matt. That was the revealing turn of events, slightly grinning at the sky as Matt was whisked away, that it was obvious HRG had flipped - not his conversation with Angela Petrelli. I don't know, that was somewhat weird - I hope the writers gave us more credit than that.

2. Suresh sure does annoy other people, not just me. I loved the part when Suresh objected to interrogating HRG that Matt screamed at him "if you don't like it...leave!". Quite frankly up until that point Suresh was dead weight anyway. There's no room for having a moral compass when you're being hunted. What exactly was his alternate plan anyway? How could not wanting to get more info be a bad thing? Obviously we found out he didn't want it to be known that he was aware of the government project - but as soon as they all were rounded up in episode 1 wouldn't that have confirmed what HRG told him in the taxi? At that point why wouldn't he tell the others "hey, HRG mentioned this would happen, I didn't believe him but here's what I know"? Some faulty writing there. The writers made it seem like Suresh was clueless as much as the rest, but being abducted should've been the telltale sign that whatever info he obtained was in fact correct and he should share it with other huntees.

3. Why didn't we get more "Rebel"? I'm having a great time trying to determine who that is. I don't know if the writers would introduce a new character (like when they introduced Matt's dad as the person who was haunting Molly's dreams) or if it'll be someone we already know. I like to think there's no drama/surprise when you just create a character out of the blue, that the only proper way to do a "ah ha! so [insert familiar character here] was the Rebel!" moment is in fact with a familiar character. With that in mind, I want to go over some facts we know to arrive to who the possible suspects are: the person communicates electronically; the person knows the characters (Claire, Hiro/Ando); it has to be someone not already getting much (or any) screen time this season. That leads me to believe it's either Micah (ugh) or Angela Petrelli. Micah could've possible communicated via text (to Claire) and fax (to Ando/Hiro). Angela is the only one (not preoccupied with running from The Man) who could determine that Hiro/Ando would be in India before they actually got there, as the fax was there before they arrived. Heck, even the Haitian is still out there somewhere and he's had some history on some level with Claire and Hiro/Ando.

Or it could just be a totally new character which would suck.

4. So Claire's new friend is basically Aqua Man. Yuck, horrible and useless power to have. He's so inept and useless I can't muster enough motivation to write more on this. What a waste of a power (outside of Ando's useless power). Couldn't they have made Ando's power that he can supercharge *anything*? Like if he hopped on a motorcycle he'd make it ridiculously fast. Or if he touched a normal person they'd become super strong. That'd be cool.

Still waiting for the return of the comic book store geeks, hopefully they make another appearance.

Season 3: Volume 2....Mega Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:34:00 +0000

Sorry for the hiatus ladies and villains, I was giving the 2nd volume of this season some time to flesh out so I could formulate some opinions. Didn't want to have a knee-jerk reaction based off of one episode. Now that we have 3 episodes so far under our belt let's review/recap what we know so far. It's been, so say the least and not to sound like a fanboy - an awesome season so far. I can't think of many lulls in the storyline, can't think of many wasted arcs or whathaveyou. Everything is all pointing in the same direction. Great writing. Well, let me hold off on the "great" part, this show isn't exactly The Sopranos or anything. Greatly improved is probably more accurate.

Ch-ch-changes: Indeed, David Bowie said it best many years ago. Gone are the "save the cheerleader, save the world" plots. It's nice to see what the show can do when the fate of the world isn't hanging in the balance. I applaud this. It feels fresh. If feels more real (well, as real as you can expect about a show that involves people with super powers). This is exactly what I would expect to happen if the guv'ment ever found out about people with powers. They'd be hunted down, detained and most likely tested on. People would be forced into hiding. There's a very Star Wars Episode IV/Guantanamo Bay aspect to this season (evil empire hunting down people with powers, detaining people who are both real threats and others who are innocent). What this show needed all along was a shakeup on the writing staff. I mentioned no lulls in the storyline - there's been times in the past where you'd scratch your head wondering "how does this character/plot fit in with the overall story?". I'm looking at you Ali Larter, Alejandro, Mya, Micah and Micah's cousin.

Less annoying characters: Minimal Suresh? Check. Brief scenes with Tracey? Check. Tougher Peter? Check. Shit, even Claire is back to acting more like a high school teen than some powerless vigilante hero. We needed this from her all along! She has yet to cause me to massage my temples in order to sooth the frequent headaches her shinanigans would bring. Getting back to Peter - his exchange with Nathan right before Nathan doublecrossed him was a big step for this character. He seemed tougher. When Nathan asked him if flying was Peter's only power, Peter's response was "who are you supposed to be...the cops?" with a perfect "that ain't your muthatrucking business, fool" sneer. Only flaw, which may just be a character flaw, is he's still too trusting, falling for the ole "I'm your family member, give me a hug" embrace of death, but more troubling than that is he shows his hand too much still. Has yet to master the art of "I'll go along with you so that I don't raise any red flags, but deep inside I'm keeping my eye on you just to find out what the caper is". Don't invite Peter to a poker game, that's all I'm saying.

Nathan has been refreshingly consistent. He flip flopped a considerable amount last year. What seems to be odd is the lip he takes from that menacing bald government guy. I'm assuming the menacing bald government guy is beneath Nathan in terms of authority - Nathan should have him dealt with. Whoever casted that guy deserves an award, btw - how menacing and evil does he look? He could make smalltalk at the office water fountain seem like uncomfortable doom. Looks like he gets pleasure from using scissors to cut the ears off of tiny bunnies. Look into the deep abyss of darkness where his eyes should be, you'll know what I'm talking about. And all in all the writers have kept Suresh out of the way, and Tracey doesn't seem to be getting much meaningful screen time now that she's in shackles. I can't ask for more to be honest.

Tidbits on other characters: It's still kinda lame that the writers can't think of any other way to contain a very powerful person than to render them powerless. Kring, the creator of the show, actually came out and acknowledged a conscious effort to go easy on time travellers running amok in the storyline and altering events whenever they knock over a potted plant. Still, it's been a very long time since Hiro has had powers - don't you think he's suffered enough? Shit, that's longer than Peter went without powers and Peter was a bumbling idiot up until now. Now, it's obvious Hiro's underlying message is we can all be heroes with or without powers. That's great and all, but we kinda got that message previously when Peter was powerless. Sometimes it's almost as if you feel the writers should just kill off anyone they don't think they can handle rather than resort to the old "you have to take a power time-out, now go sit in the corner until we decide a convenient time to give you your power back" routine. I do like their solution for Peter - one power at a time, loses the previous power he had, needs to physically touch the person to get their power. A far cry from the day's when Peter could be in a room with like 5 heroes have instantly get their powers. Yeah, that wasn't gonna be tough to write around. What the hell were the writers thinking?

Sylar is back (unnecessarily and inexplicitly), and remains the lone badass on the show, the way it should be. He seems to be the only one capable of having the responsibility that having many powers come with. He seems disciplined, unlike Peter who would run amok expecting to save the day. I really like this journey to find his father, who else is expecting one demented kook? I'm also expecting his Dad to have some type power as well. I think this is perhaps the 2nd time the show has had Sylar killed off in a cling hanger, only to have him return. Writers: 3rd time is NOT the charm. Let's put that to rest now. It seems the writers assumed that we would assume Sylar didn't die in the explosion in the last episode of the previous volume - they didn't even bother acknowledging him walking away from the wreckage. At least they gave us some credit for not being that gullible that they felt it'd be a waste to explain him surviving. He just appeared in the 1st episode of this volume like nothing happened.

And thank you for getting HRG back into the mix. It was a crime that he was as underutilized as he was last volume. I thoroughly look forward to the upcoming episode to see where his character is going to be going for the rest of the season.

Ok, I'll stop here, this is a blog - not a novel. If I think of more stuff to point out I'll do so in a separate entry.

So lonely

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:22:00 +0000

Man, without a weekly installment of this show there really isn't much to talk about, huh?

At this point I would give anything for a whole hour of Milo V. doing his Future Peter scowl, just to have something to comment on.

I wonder - and this is a random thought - if this show were to go off the air which character would be the most compelling to have a spinoff on. I think the writers know Suresh and Tracey only annoy viewers so a full hour based on either of those 2 would flop faster than Rosie O' Donnell's variety show. There's only so much one could take with Claire, I've already mentioned its basically the same thing with her every week, you know, her bark being worse than her bite. The series has pretty much concentrated on Peter and lately moreso Sylar so in a way I don't see a spinoff in their future (spinoffs are normally based on secondary characters). Plus I can foresee those two having movie aspirations and not wanting to be limited to the smallscreen. Heck, Zach Quinto is set to co-star as Spock in the new Star Trek movie (and likely sequels). He's best positioned himself to use Heroes as a launching pad to something bigger.

My guess (I have 2 votes) for who would be a good (and likely) spinoff:

Ando. Secondary character (although now he has a power who knows if he'll spring to the forefront, not likely, but at least he's not sidekick material anymore). Would be nice to see a story arc where he branches out on his own without being in the shadow of Hiro. I like the actor that plays him, also.

You know what'd really work? A spinoff featuring Breckin Meyer and Seth Green. Those 2 characters really worked - who doesn't think a show based on two smarmy comic book store nerds would be awesome? They had brief screentime, but they had great chemistry and really pulled it off. And it's not like Seth Green has any prospects outside of Family Guy voiceovers and Breckin Meyer would say yes as soon as the casting director dialed his line.

Make it happen, Hollywood.

Episode 13: Dual

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:31:00 +0000

We made it.

Final episode of the year and of this current volume.

An end to one of the most up and down seasons for not only this series, but in probably all of tv-dom in recent memory. Has any series really had a season that combined some of it's lowest points with some memorable scenes? Any season in recent memory where one character has gone from bad, to good, back to evil again? Mind you, this was done over the course of only 13 episodes.

I'm going to go light on the criticism this time. I think by now everyone knows the cat is out of the bag, the show has writing and consistency problems and it isn't new or shocking to be the one to try to reveal "hey, this show isn't gold, it does have it's weak point". Besides, I'm not one to pull out a magnifying glass to look for anything to make fun of. No show is perfect. Let's review this last episode for what it was - the tv show equivalent of a basketball team that was down for most of the game hitting a key 3 pointer to tie the game up right as the buzzer sounded. Now we're at half-time, all tied up, all the mistakes and whatnot have been erased (but not forgotten) and you leave the crowd eager and excited for the 2nd half. That was episode 13. The preview for the upcoming volume couldn't have been any better. I literally said out loud "wow".

Can you not imagine the voiceover for the upcoming season:

"Heroes - they've saved the world....now they must...save...themselves. "

I look forward for a Heroes volume that doesn't involve the end of the world and/or mankind. There are some certainties that ruin the suspense of a show like Heroes. We know the world isn't going to end. There's no tension in that. Mankind is not going to be wiped out. A show like Heroes is like watching a Mission Impossible episode - you know the good guys are going to win, it's just a matter of how. We also like to see who is going to die (and stay dead). So for a season to be about Heroes being hunted like Jedi - who knows where that's going to go? This is unchartered territory. I like it.

Back to episode 13. We had some people die, to put it bluntly. Arthur we already knew was dead, but we weren't sure if he'd stay dead. It certainly seems that way, unless the writers want to completely remove any credibility and have the show become a parody of itself by constantly killing off characters and bringing them back. Arthur was odd - what was his ultimate vision? What was he ultimately trying to do? We only know he was a villain because he stopped at nothing to accomplish his goal, but that in and of itself doesn't a villain make. How exactly was he a threat to humanity, if anything he wanted to improve humanity by giving everyone a power. The writers didn't flesh that out too much. How was he anymore a villain than Angela, who was also manipulative. And the whole Arthur and Angela are Sylar's parents was handled so poorly, that was a pretty big revelation and the payoff was near nil.

Speaking of Sylar, it sure looks as if he's dead. Of course, this will be the 3rd time he's been down this road. This is the problem with not keeping characters dead - when you cry wolf so many times people tune you out that one time a wolf is actual at your door. Sylar "dying" just didn't hold that much weight. No one is convinced he's actually dead. It's not conceivable how he could be alive, but I think everyone won't bat an eyelash when the writers bring him back using some hokey nonsense excuse. But he certainly made a good villain in this last episode. I sort of wished he would have mindfucked everyone further, maybe had a major battle between 3 of the escaped convict villains at one time. His fight with the Puppet Master could've had more chutzpah.

That Fear Guy died out of nowhere. That's one guy I think we all agree will actually stay dead. I'm not convinced Arthur is completely out of the picture and certainly am not buying Sylar is dead, so that leaves one out of three. Classic sacrificial lamb scenario - someone has to die and stay definitely dead.

Funny thing happened at the end of the episode. Suresh got into a car being driven by Tracey. The only thought in my mind was "now that the two characters that annoy me the most are in the same car - couldn't the writers just have it blow up right now and kill two birds with one stone??". Further proof to back up my claim that NBC just wants to keep Ali Larter employed. I simply don't know what future hijinks they're going to put her in for the upcoming volume, and apparently she has a partner for whatever it's going to be. With Suresh's sly grin as he got into the car I'm going to assume he's going to play up his evil scientist role. And apparently the recipe for surviving exploding labs is to get covered in oodles of power-goo. Certainly seems like he's become just a tad more powerful.

Speaking of becoming just a tad more powerful, looks like Peter finally got his groove back. Only question remains is did he get his original power back - and was able to fly since he absorbed Nathan's ability - or did he just aquire the same weak flying ability as Nathan by coincidence. I'm going to bet he got his original power back, I'm sure the writers feel Milo V. suffered enough all season. Not cool enough to pull off being powerless like HRG can do. And was I the only one who put his head in his hands as Peter made a weak attempt to point the gun at Nathan trying to stop him? Did anyone think Peter was going to pull the trigger? I didn't think so. No tension at all there. Flint had the fastest flip-flopping in the series, btw. He went from going to beat up Peter/Suresh to teaming up with Peter to trash the lab to turning on Peter again in the end. In the same episode. Again, I'm not here to nitpick and criticize in this entry, just pointing things out.

This episode was too big to be contained to just one entry, I'm going to stop now and continue in a new entry to be released shortly or else my thoughts will be all over the place. We still have Hiro/Ando and a little bit of Claire to talk about.

Crystal Ball (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:20:00 +0000

I just wanted to take this opportunity to look back on a prediction I made in a previous entry that wound up coming true. It's uncanny how spot on I was:

Peter's scar that Future Peter has on his face is going to be related to Peter
fighting his dad. Think about it - he had Claire's regeneration ability, so
the only way that Peter could get scarred facially is if he didn't have that
power. It just so happens he's in that very predicament right now, so look
for the battle that brings about that wicked scar to happen sometime
soon.

Ummmm...wow? Kinda scary I also nailed how Arthur would be the one to give Peter that scar. Hey, some theories are easy to predict - like Elle not lasting too much longer since Kristen Bell was still being mentioned as a "special guest star" and not one of the main cast - others take guts and a keen sense of insight to make. Too bad I wasn't able to predict the Haitian's power could be overcome by a more powerful person (in this case, Arthur). I also couldn't have predicted that the Haitian's power would stop working altogether as a result of being overcome by Arthur, thus allowing Sylar to use his own powers. So, the Haitian's ability just stopped working just like that? Sure, he was mentally spent but I already pointed out he doesn't need to be concentrating for his ability to work, as evidenced by Parkman's power not working in Primatech and when Hiro was trying to steal the formula back and the Haitian was in the in the movie theater; it took Hiro and Ando combined to beat him by ambushing him since Hiro's power wasn't working around the Haitian.

One thing that sucks about Peter being scarred is now for the rest of the series Milo V. will have to wear that scar on his face. And how the hell are we gonna tell the difference between Future Peter and Present Peter now! OMG!

Note (updated 12/11): A reader of the site keenly pointed out that the scar that Peter aquired in this latest episode is not the same scar that Future Peter has. For reference, check out the massive Future Peter scar:

So yeah, this is obviously a much different scar than what Peter received from his dad. My counter to this observation is that Future Peter's scar just may no longer exist in that form as it's from a different timeline. Just like how Claire no longer contains the catalyst since Hiro went back in time to have his mom inject it into him. Also, keep in mind in the future timeline that we first saw Future Peter he was running a bar with none other than Nikki. And we all know how things eventually worked out for Nikki. So it certainly seems that timeline is moot.

My bigger overall point is this (and I'm glad the reader who made the comment allowed me to flesh out my thoughts) - how many more times is Peter going to be without his powers? How many more times in this series future will Peter not have the ability to regenerate himself? As soon as he gets his power back (even if it's just his power absorbtion ability) he's going to run into someone who can regenerate (most likely Claire) so it's safe to say Peter will always have the regen ability in one form or another. How many more times can the writers go to that plot device where Peter is powerless? The answer to this question is "not likely to happen many more times, if at all". I think this will be the only time Peter is without his powers, thus making this the only time he could be scarred and not heal himself. Furthermore I think this will be the scar that Future Peter displays. Again, thanks to the person who commented on this to begin with. I look forward to the people who point out things I may have overlooked and I look forward to seeing if I was ultimately right or wrong.

Episode 12: "Our Father"

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:16:00 +0000

I have to say one thing about this latest episode - finally.

Finally the show delivered. Sure, I have some nitpicky items to complain about but overall it was a supremely done episode. If I was scoring at home I think there was about 5 minutes total of people using powers - the rest was all good dialogue and brisk pacing of the plot. Great scenes, the two that stick out mostly were present-day Claire pleading with HRG-from-the-past and Hiro's scene with his mother. Both Past-HRG and Hiro's mom took huge leaps of faith (Hiro's mom encounters a stranger who claims to be her son from the future and she believes him just like that), but with only one more episode for this volume to go we really didn't have a lot of time to nuture those storylines so it's understandable. Hey, I'm firm but fair.

I applaud the writers for throwing us the curveball of Hiro losing his powers and getting stuck in the past so soon after having his memory restored. No one saw that coming at all and this is what the series needs - unpredictability. It doesn't make sense that The Company had 2 healers in the group - Linderman and now Hiro's mom. Rather redundant, wouldn't you say? But that's for another debate. It was a gripping scene that went beyond people simply using powers. And again, the same applied to the Claire/HRG scene. This latest episode also showed us how Ando winds up getting that power that Future Ando displayed against Future Hiro. So obviously Ando goes to Pinehearst soon, attempts to get a time travelling power and winds up with that ability to shoot blasts of energy/fire/laser/whatever. Also after the Marine was injected with a power and got that super strength he seemed to exhibit some aggressiveness - possible side effect perhaps? Is that what causes Future Ando to turn on Hiro? Suresh surely became overly aggressive after injecting himself with his failed prototype serum. Kinda all would make sense.

Ok, you don't come here for rave reviews and for glowing praise, you want nitpicking. Here we go:

Sylar, pick a damn side! So what are you now - a villain again but you kill only bad guys (like Showtime's Dexter)? A rogue villain, so to speak? Don't get me wrong, Sylar stepping in and being the one to kill Arthur instead of the completely useless and inept Peter makes complete sense here, it's just what is his motive now? Kill the people on that phone list who have powers? So basically Sylar has come full circle, I see. So we've spent an entire season jumping through hoops just to come back to the same point - Sylar is a villain and hungers for other people's powers. Much of the early season plot regarding Sylar was made moot and irrevelent - his brief relationship with Elle (glad to see she's really dead, that's 2 dead people, zero people coming back to life for those scoring at home); the whole Sylar is a Petrelli farce; Sylar wanting to redeem himself and let's not forget the most important: Sylar not having to kill people to get their powers. What what the point of Arthur showing Sylar that he could use empathy to take other people's powers? And I want to add I'm really tired of the show inventing these temporary characters who have abilities to serve as a way for Sylar to get a power to complete a certain task. So the girl with the retarded human lie detector ability was created SOLELY for the purpose to serve as a sacrificial lamb to Sylar so he could ask Arthur one question. Quite a reach there, eh?

Tracey - completely useless. Her whole thing recently was to plot behind Nathan's back to manipulate him into joining his dad. Which he did.....ON HIS OWN. What did she accomplish! I am aggravated at this character. And was it just my tv or was Ali Larter wearing the most unnecessarily *bright* red dress you've ever scene? That dress' red was so loud my ears are still ringing. Talk about popping right off the screen. Anyway, she is utterly useless and has always been, whether her name is Niki, Jessica, Tracey or Hilda The One Eyed Sea Hag. She's part of the my triumverate of hated characters - Peter, Tracey and Suresh. Ugh.

I spent the entire scene where Peter was struggling to pull the trigger on his dad with my head in my hand, peeking out through my fingers. That is, I was completely annoyed and flabbergasted in the lunacy that is the Peter Petrelli character, but I didn't want to miss the scene. It's official - I hate Peter Petrelli. I'm also not liking how they put a limitation on the Haitian's ability. Listen - either he shuts off your powers or he doesn't. Yes, Arthur was immensely powerful (one power he apparently had was the nifty ability to always know where Hiro was), but if the Haitian shut off his powers then there shouldn't have been anything Arthur could do. The Haitian doesn't even need to be concentrating for his power to be used - in season 1 when Parkman followed HRG to Primatech he was spying on HRG and couldn't read HRG's mind, unbeknownst to him it was because the Haitian was somewhere in the vicinity, even though Parkman was hiding. So if the Haitian can affect your powers without even knowing you're there then one can only assume what happens when he has his full concentration on you. Writers - you created this universe on Heroes...stick to the rules you create. Don't change things as you see fit.

But yeah, this is just minor stuff. Great episode overall. Apparently the next episode is going to be chock full o' action, with it being the last episode of this year and volume. I saw the preview and Hiro has his samurai sword. Looks like you can take the power out of a man - but you can't take away his ABILITY TO REGULATE, SON.

The Eclipse: Part Two (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:28:00 +0000

I love how the writers have been reading this blog, or at the very least heading the growing sentiment on the internet - and had Claire proclaim on this episode [to paraphrase] "I have no business trying to fight bad guys...I'm just a stupid cheerleader".

Thank you, Claire, for your honesty.

That was a very feelgood moment for me. I felt vindicated. Like when you've been trying to tell a friend they don't look good in the color brown and one day, as if they figured it out all by themself, they state "ya know, I'm gonna stop wearing brown, I just don't look good in this color". Now I'm vaguely excited about where her storyline goes as it now appears she's gonna put the whole "fighting villains" thing down for a bit. Does she go back to school? Goes into hiding since every bad guy on Pineherst's payroll is out for her? I say with Sylar thisclose to killing her dad she goes back to trying to take down villains, in other words business as usual. Whatever happens I just hope this is the last season of this whole "save the cheerleader" theme. We get it. She's important. If she's that important she should be locked up in Level 5 where it's safe.

I'm still miffed at how easily Sylar has gone back to the old Sylar. That didn't last long. I already talked about this so I won't go there again. What a shame.

Let the records show Part Two of The Eclipse had the coolest moment in Nathan's Heroes career. Did anyone think a guy who could fly could really be a threat to anyone, let alone someone else with powers? But the way Nathan took out the Haitian's brother - flying at him and ultimately crashing him into a truck - displayed the awesome potential of Nathan and his abilities. Why haven't we seen this before? It really took 3 seasons to get this character to do something awesome with his power? Wth this latest episode it's hinted Nathan is going back to his old self - colluding with someone with bad intentions for some epic plan that will affect mankind. Only difference this time is Nathan has come to think this way of his own accord and not because someone higher up was pulling the strings behind the scenes. Sure seems like Nathan will be joining his dad's side as he thinks everyone should have a power. I applaud the writers for at least making it very plausible as to how Nathan would come to that conclusion (witnessing innocent people get abused in the village).

And let me just be the first to admit that now that Peter doesn't have any powers - and this has gone on longer than I thought it would - I actually don't find him to be as annoying these days. He doesn't have the ability to get in the way, can't shape things as he sees fit. Just as shame the writers have decided that they only way they can solve the problem of Peter being too powerful is to remove his powers. That's lazy. Tim Kring (creator of the show) mentioned that since he originally wanted new characters every season he didn't anticipate having to deal with this issue of an uber-power person walking among lesser-powered people - and I can understand that conundrum - but it just feels a little too "easy" to just remove all of his abilities. Listen, writers, at some point you're going to have to deal with Peter. Either you remove him from the show or you give him his powers back and let him run amok. Now is the perfect time. If I had to bet I'm going to say Peter will get his original power back (ability to absorb other powers) but will have lost all the powers he aquired. Kinda like a reset. Just like how Sylar doesn't use all of the powers he aquired since season 1. Right now all he uses is just his telekinesis and regenerating ability he stole from Claire. But I do think that's how the writers will give themselves a temporary out, simply letting Peter gradually build his powers back up again. Of course, that's basically how our government is solving our financial crisis - temporary wiping out current mistakes and delaying having to deal with the root of the problem. The root of the Heroes problem is the show doesn't want to have a bunch of Peter's and Sylar's running amok. I don't think everyone on this show was supposed to have these insane powers. I think it was supposed to be a bunch of Nathan's and Claire's, you know, people with simple abilities. It's costly to have mega special effects all the time to do all these powers. I don't think this was a road the show really wanted to go down. Don't get me wrong - it's exciting to have people with powers duking it out - but eventually it'll always come down to Peter and Sylar being too powerful for everyone else and the writer's having to think of new zany ways to limit the damage that Peter and Sylar can do. Look at what they've done to Hiro, to prove my point. Writers felt the best way to reduce the influence that Hiro can have on outcomes is to make him think he's a kid.

Episode 10 - Eclipse, Part Two (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:13:00 +0000

Do it.

Just do it already.

This is what I said to the tv - to HRG specifically - as he held a boxcutter to Sylar's throat. Do it - just kill Sylar. Telling the writers to finally grow a scrotum and revolutionize this series with a jawdropping turn of events. And yes, HRG did kill Sylar. For a short while it seemed this show was throwing out all conventional wisdom and doing something out of left field. But alas, the writers lacked the balls to stick to their guns and as the eclipse faded away and Sylar reemereged, it was all back to the same old, same old. Old friends coming and going, and coming back again. The Heroes way of doing things. Imagine all the internet buzz had Sylar was really killed off? All the positive chatter and hype and hoopla returning to this series that hasn't seen positive chatter, hype and hoopla since season 1. Don't get me wrong - Sylar is my favorite character on the show. Absolutely love him. But I love the show more than I love Sylar and killing him off would've pumped new blood and electricity into this series that's in rapid viewership decline. Let's face it, by all standards Heroes is still a hit series but a show can only bleed viewers for so long until it gets the axe. It won't happen this season, nor next. But suddenly a world without Heroes isn't so hard to imagine these days. Sure looks like Elle is done for, but that's not really shocking all that much and if she really has died (and at this point you can't assume people are dead for long anymore) it was a cheap consolation. The show needed Sylar to be dead. They indeed pulled the trigger and shot him, but once more the gun was loaded with blanks.

Ok, with that out of the way let's continue.

HRG, welcome back. I can hardly think of a better episode you've been in than this past episode. Manipulating people. Hunting suckers down. Killing. All in a day's work for a badass. I also want to thank him for finally laying down to rest the whole "Sylar is a Petrelli" farce. I've already pointed out why that didn't make any sense. Seemed kinda anti-climatic to reveal it that way, though, I was expecting Arthur to doublecross Sylar at an opportune time and with Arthur stating the truth, almost like a reverse Empire Strikes Back moment ("Luke, I am *not* your father"). One thing that is growing increasingly annoying is the fact that Sylar - tv's best villain - is so easy to manipulate. Evil Sylar becomes Good Gabriel because Angela Petrelli tells him she's his mother. Now because a person thisclose to dying reveals to him that he isn't a Petrelli and all of a sudden Sylar is a villain again? Really? Just like that? I understand a season can't go on forever, so unlike a novel the writers don't have an awful lot of time to gradually build things up, but this is lunacy. Sylar has gone from villain to a good guy looking to redeem himself to back to a villain in - get this - half of a season. We're still in the same volume that started back in September. Just 10 episodes in. How can you have a character flipflop like that, willy nilly? I shake my head in disappointment, writers, tisk tisk.

*sigh*

Anyway, one other thing this episode brought was possibly the best Hiro moment thus far. The whole Hiro arriving just in time to save HRG from Sylar by teleporting "Bad man" out of the house - awesome. That's one thing I didn't see coming and it's nice to be surprised. I don't know why Hiro brought Elle to the same place Sylar was, but we'll chalk that up to the mistake of a 10 year old mind. Also, I'm glad we've reached the end of the line with the 9th Wonders comic book (save for Isaac Mendez's unpublished final copy that apparently is going to come into play very soon). The show has several tools, or tricks, in their arsenal they've utilized one too many times - people dying then coming back to life through miracle blood; time travellers altering past/present/future; trotting out HRG at opportune times as the answer to a particular problem, etc - but one recurring trick has been the use of the 9th Wonders comic books as a way to move the story along. Characters in a bind had this apparent book of knowledge that would reveal the future and help explain what their next move should be. It's nice that the writers have answered a question that was growing in internet message board - how many comic books did Isaac Mendez write that a character killed off in season 1 can still be affecting events 2 seasons later by way of his comic books??. The answer is he wrote 2 seasons worth of comic books and now the well has run dry at last (finally!). You mean people will have to figure out things by themselves ? Yes! I'm happy the writers decided to do away with that crutch. The problem with a show about heroes is it gives the writers all these fictional avenues to help write themselves out of jams when they reach a dead end.

Time to see what other tricks the writers have up their sleeves. And if one of those tricks involve a person with the ability to cause eclipses, thereby flicking a switch and turning people's powers on and off - then I will simply end this blog and watch something educational.

Correction (ie, I was wrong)

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:49:00 +0000

A reader of the blog submitted the following comment with regards to my criticism of Elle knowing where to locate Claire, you know, the whole scene where HRG kicked Sylar's ass.

Anonymous
It was Sylar, not Elle, who knew Noah would take Claire to
Stephen Canfield's house. While he worked with Noah earlier in the season,
Sylar's ability allowed him to understand very quickly the way Mr. Bennet thinks
and acts. With this knowledge and their previous run in at the same place, Sylar
deduced Claire and Noah's location.

I recently viewed the episode again to clear this up, and yes - I was incorrect. Sylar distinctly pointed out he knew how HRG thinks and was able to deduce where HRG would hide Claire. Ok, with that out of the way, let me reiterate - how? Sylar did aquire the ability to touch an object and know it's history but that's about it. He only had a minimal amount of encounters with HRG, they were only a team for one mission. There just wasn't enough of a history between the two where it could be obvious that they both knew how the other operated. The show didn't suggest Sylar knew HRG's whereabouts due to a power - he was just using his noggin'. Whether Sylar said it or Claire said it is mostly irrelevant, the point is it was cheap and lazy writing. I'd rather Arthur had used his future seeing ability to draw a picture of where Claire and HRG were hiding and THEN Sylar saying "hey, I know where that is - I've been there before!". Now THAT would've made more sense.

But anyway, I write this to point out readers of this blog can sometimes know more than I. I know, it's scary to think, but I give credit where it's due. Good job, whoever posted that comment.

Episode 10: "The Eclipse, Part 1"

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:04:00 +0000

My, the little kitten's got claws.

Peter Petrelli really gave it to Nathan in this episode. I'll admit I figured Milo V. had the acting ability of Natalie Portman in "Star Wars: A Phantom Menace", but that heated exchange between the Petrelli brothers in the jungle was just what Peter needed to get right back into this. When Peter proclaimed Nathan had been "a puppet your whole life, doing whatever Dad wanted you to do", you gotta admit Milo said that with some chutzpah. I approve. You get the sense that when Peter mentioned Nathan did whatever their Dad had wanted that Arthur did some mind manipulation on his own son to get him to follow the same path. Nathan alluded to the same thing in the previous episode when he encountered his dad and said (to paraphrase) "my whole life I've done whatever you wanted me to do...I went to law school. I married the girl you approved. I ran for office". Hey, anything can be said once, but when it's alluded to twice then there's gotta be more to it there. That's why I'm here, to get you to read between the lines.

Before I continue, I really just want to kick myself for not putting my initial suspicions about Daphne out there. I just knew it deep inside she used to be a cripple. The writers practically begged us to read the writing on the wall. But...I didn't say it so I don't get credit for it. I saw some silly internet Heroes website had a theory that Daphne used to be a turtle, I saw some poetic justice there but c'mon, I understand this is a live-action comic book show but let's operate with some semblence of logic here. You won't find any of those zany theories here, just so you know.

Ok, we got a nice serving of HRG. The greatest thing about him in this episode was how they showed you that with all things being equal (ie, no one having powers) HRG truly is a straight up badass. At least we know why the Primatech motto is "One of Us, One of Them", cuz when One of Them loses their powers you need someone who knows how to kick ass with his bare fucking hands. This blog must really be read by the writers, cuz HRG said to Claire the same things I've been saying: "You don't have any ability to fight bad guys". I still don't see how being able to swing a stick is going to help her in a fight with, say, Flint, but at least HRG echoed my sentiment. He could've helped her more by teaching her how to handle a gun. And before I continue, just how exactly did Elle know that Claire would be at the Vortex Guy's house? That is just zany and lazy on the part of the writers. Pure laziness.

Writer A: Ok, we got a doozy here. How are we gonna get Elle and Sylar to capture Claire? How would they know where to find her?

Writer B: That's easy...since Elle has met Claire about 4 times total and with only one of those times on friendly terms, naturally she'll know how Claire thinks and will be able to find Claire in one of the most random of places - the house of the Vortex Guy.

Writer A: But that's just stupid. Elle was never in the Vortex Guy's house. Unless she memorized the address of every Level 5 villain when she was an Agent how would she know where to find it? And even if she knew where it was, why would she think that place out of everywhere else would have any significance to Claire and how would Elle know about that significance since she wasn't aware of Claire's encounter with the Vortex Guy?

Writer B: Point taken, but since we're working on a deadline and since this is basically a comic book show we'll go with the Vortex Guy's house.

The shear lunacy of that encounter bothered my brain. It should never have even happened.

And speaking of lunacy, let's take a look at the Haitian. Bear in mind he's on of my top 5 favorite characters on this show, so I say this with love. Faced with a dilemna of stopping his brother in some remote, out of the way jungle/village OR some catastrophic calamity to all of mankind (that still hasn't been fully explained yet) the Haitian opts to....stop his brother. Essentially he said "mankind can wait, I gotta take care of some family bullshit". His priorities are impeccable.

Episode 10. It had it's moments of tension (Peter/Nathan arguement in the jungle). It had it's moments of comedy (Parkman doing the Parkman face on Daphne's doorstep). It had action (HRG kicking Sylar's ass). It had Breckin Meyer. No matter what happens someone will be able to answer the question "that Breckin Meyer, whatever happened to him? What has he done lately?"

Heroes: keeping out-of-work ex-teen movie actors employed since 2006.

Crystal Ball

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:40:00 +0000

Before episode 9 is aired tonight I thought it'd be nice to take a look at some of my theories/predictions to see how they've panned out. Note - I routinely edit past posts to clear up typographical errors or to clarify a sentence that was poorly worded - but I don't touch predictions. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, if I'm right I don't win any prizes anyway. But it's always fun to take a look at the past and review how correct you were in your theories or how off-base you turned out to be.

1. "If I had to wager some poker chips I'm going to say something interupts Papa Petrelli from fully taking Hiro's power. First bet is Ando does something."

Ando did indeed interrupt Arthur's stealing of Hiro's power. Some conversation with a reader of the blog drew into question as to what exactly was going on with Arthur and Hiro in that scene. Past scenes where Arthur has put his hands on someone shown he was stealing their power. I was correct that Hiro wouldn't lose his power due to someone knocking Arthur off him, but since Hiro now has the mind of a 10 year old it's questionable as to what Arthur was doing to him. Arthur doesn't need to touch you to put thoughts in your mind. Common internet chatter suggests Arthur didn't need Hiro's power since he already has it thanks to Peter Petrelli, so Arthur just wanted to erase Hiro's mind. The writer's did a poor job of explaining what was going on. Obviously Arthur has some other power he aquired that allows him to steal abilities, it hasn't been revealed yet how he got that ability - his main power is mind manipulation. Considering he was the defense attorney for Linderman that actually was a *very* useful ability to have in a courtroom. But anyway, this was a correct prediction on my part.

2. "If I had to bet on this I would say [Daphne's] playing Pinehurst, afterall if she was truly going to doublecross Parkman he could've read her mind."

Daphne turned out to doublecross Pinehurst afterall. I still like how the writer's cast just enough doubt in that one scene. Again, as I pointed out, the future in which Daphne dies while trying to capture Sylar/Peter doesn't seem likely to pan out because there's been several Butterfly Effect instances in our present timeline, so it's not like we have to follow that path anymore. But when you think about it, that future is starting to come into fruition more and more. We have Sylar quicking morphing into the Gabriel the peace-loving father. Certainly seems Parkman and Daphne are gonna be an item. That future isn't entirely out of the question.

3. "Also - why did [Adam] whither into dust when Papa Petrelli took his power - but Peter didn't?"

Duh, genious, isn't it obvious! I should've known, as found out in various Heroes message board discussions, that Adam's power was what was keeping him alive all those centuries. Without that power he would've turned into dust a loooong time ago. Peter, while naive and gullible, is still a healthy under-30 year old, powers or no powers.

It remains to be seen how Peter/Nathan don't remember having Sylar as a brother and if the Haitian erased anyone's memories, but I'm sure we'll find out soon cuz sweeps are coming up.

Before I end this I want to put this next theory of mine out there:

Peter's scar that Future Peter has on his face is going to be related to Peter fighting his dad. Think about it - he had Claire's regeneration ability, so the only way that Peter could get scarred facially is if he didn't have that power. It just so happens he's in that very predicament right now, so look for the battle that brings about that wicked scar to happen sometime soon. If I were to be so bold and look for bonus points, I'm going to say when Arthur dies in this future battle is when Peter gets his abilities back. But I'm not feeling adventerous today, it's a Monday afterall.

Episode 9 - "It's Coming"

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:06:00 +0000

I got the feeling of being a hamster in a wheel while watching this episode. You know, you're a hamster, you're running, you're thinking this is the greatest thing ever and you're really going places - but actually not much is happening. That was episode 9.

Let's look at the major developments that happened (trust me, it borders on "more of the same" and "not much"):

1. Ok, Sylar doesn't have to kill anymore to get people's powers. The only way the writer's could have hammered home the fact that "Sylar is not a monster anymore" is if they personally emailed all the viewers of the show. I'll give this to you - this is somewhat big. What the show gains in a real powerful hero that everyone can root for, performed by a really talented actor, the show loses in one of the best television villains of our generation. The gods giveth, and they taketh away. I personally have liked Gabriel more than Sylar so I have no probs with this development.

2. The two sides have been chosen. Good vs. Evil. Ma Petrelli vs. Arthur (Papa Petrelli). Son vs. Father. We all know wherever this is leading the good side (Ma Petrelli side) is going to prevail, but on paper the Arthur side should wipe their dirty assholes on the Ma Petrelli side. Look who's on the Arthur side - Arthur himself. Apparently Sylar (so far). As they say: "'nuff said". You got Elle. You got your Flint and Fear Guy. Tracey. Let's take a look at who's in Ma's posse: a person who can see into the future (Ma); a powerless Peter Petrelli. A teenager who can feel no pain and regenerate herself when she inevitably gets dominated. Someone who can fly. A powerful hero who thinks he's 10 years old. Ok, Parkman and the speedy Daphne obviously have some good offensive powers. The only thing that saves the Ma Petrelli side is the inevitable defection of Sylar (and his new friggin caliente piece of ass - Elle) to their side. That's it. Unless the writers can create a hero who is the opposite of Arthur/the Haitian and has the power to restore people's abilities, thereby swinging the advantage considerably to the Ma Petrelli side (Peter with his powers back+Sylar=win).

Let's switch gears quickly and point out what was wrong:

3. Hiro didn't lose his powers. Unfortunately he now thinks he's 10. This is poor writing only in the sense of what the hell did Papa Petrelli do, or more importantly "how did he do it"? What does making someone think they're 10 years old have to do with the power to take people's powers away? Obviously Ando interrupting the power stealing of Arthur affected the outcome, but you would think the end result would be Hiro having only limited powers since the power stealing started but was never completed. If you illegally download music files (what, like you don't?) and the transfer gets interrupted - yeah, you can't play the music file but if you look in your hard drive somewhere you'll find the music file (albeit an unplayable music file). You don't find a Word doc or something completely unrelated. I pride myself on being able to see all the angles but I'm helpless against poorly thought out writing. Also poorly thought out was Ando being able to activate Hiro's power for him while in Africa with Arthur coming after them by closing Hiro's eyes, but in the bowling alley Hiro showed he had to *really* concentrate to get his power to work. But that's the little things, and we try not to break out the angry townfolk with their pitchforks and torches for the little things. I just want the writers to know I'm watching and they need to sharpen up a little bit.

4. Tracey (Ali Larter) has an evil agenda. This is a very natural and logical plot development. I mean, it was only 2 or 3 episodes ago that she was ready to kill herself, now she's running on all pistons and is looking to get in on the ground floor of an evil plot by manipulating the very person who saved her life. Very logical. Nevermind the fact that the person who saved her life flat out stated he doesn't trust his father, no, it's better to assume you know the score and can start brokering deals. This show tries very hard to keep Ali Larter relevant and employed. They were grasping at straws the 1st two seasons with those awful DL/Micah storylines that had minimal (and I'm being polite here) impact on the overall plot. Now they "resurrect" Nikki/Jessica by renaming the character "Tracey" and hatching up some hooey about her getting her powers in a science lab. Oh yeah, remember that? That's the supposedly huge plot development from a few weeks ago where it was revealed she wasn't born with powers, rather Tracey and her sisters were tested on and injected with powers. She hunts down the doctor that did it, kills him, finds out the truth and....Yeah, that's all that happened. This was supposed to be a great (or at least interesting) turn of events. You mean not everyone on the show was born with abilities? You mean there could be others who were tested on? I'm sure the writers will go back to that before season's end but I just don't agree with this sudden getting off track. Finding out more info on the whole "creating powers in a lab and injecting them into babies" was supposed to be Tracey's story arc this season. Now she's done with that and is moving on to evil plots to take over the world. Naturally.

5. Claire, its ok for you to refer to Ma Petrelli and Arthur as "Grandma" and "Grandpa". They're the parents of your biological father, making them, yes, you're correct - your grandparents. Btw, as soon as Arthur was told the catalyst was "someone" and not "something", who really didn't know the catalyst was going to be Claire? We all saw that coming a mile away as soon as that catalyst info was revealed. If you're scoring at home, this episode marks the 1,000th time that Claire has decided to stand up to/fight villains only to be (quickly) beat. This is bordering on lunacy. She is so inept as a hero that a powerless Peter was able to stop Flint/Fear Guy. And listen writers - we know Milo V. and Hayden P. are a couple in real life, please don't dilute the show with unnecessary air-time with them in scenes together.

6. One last flub (or maybe I'm reading too much into this). Arthur mentioned to Sylar essentially "you were always the strongest of my sons". Really? After Sylar mentioned in the same episode his mother - the one he killed, not Ma Petrelli - messed him up for always making him think he had to be special when he was a kid. So how is this possible? Something's off with the timeline here. Did Arthur mean when Sylar was an infant he showed himself to be the strongest (a time that maybe Sylar can't remember)? How could Sylar have been raised by both his fake mom and have a long lost dad that he not only doesn't remember, but a long lost dad that apparently was around him enough to be able to ascertain that Sylar was the strongest? We know Nathan is older than Peter. It doesn't seem likely he's younger than Sylar, which would mean Nathan *should* remember Sylar. Why hasn't this been discussed more? Why hasn't Peter asked Nathan or his mom yet about this? I will give you the answer to the mystery - I can see this coming over the horizon. And, yes, you heard it here first because I can add 2 + 2. The Haitian erased Sylar's memory.

Bam.

I just said it. Watch, by the end of the season we're going to see a flashback like in episode 8 with the Haitian erasing Sylar's mind, and the mind's of Peter and Nathan to make them forget having known Sylar.

This makes so much sense I have nothing more to say about episode 9. I'm going to rest my feet up and declare today a win for me.

Episode 8 - "Villains"

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:08:00 +0000

Ok, now it seems things are back to normal.

There's been a shakeup with the writing staff, but I'm pretty sure this episode isn't part of the new regime. Episode 8 revealed what the backbone of this show is - the people who can actually act. It featured the people on the show with actual talent. We had Nathan. We had Papa Petrelli. Zach Quinto. Malcolm McDowell (Linderman). Ma Petrelli at her finest moment to date. I'm interested and I want more. What it didn't have was the constantly brooding, one-dimensional Milo V. or the two-man comic act known as "Hiro and Ando". Don't get me wrong, I love my Hiro (who doesn't), but this show was quickly morphing into the Peter & Hiro Show. Also getting minimal screentime was Suresh, I think the writers have been reading my blog.

The only bad note about this latest episode is how the writer's seem to want to have everything fit together in a nice gift-wrapped box. It wasn't enough to have Flint (the blue flame power guy) on the show - now he has to be related to one of the central characters as well (apparently he's Claire's uncle). Necessary? Not at all. Also, this episode revealed that Sylar and Elle have a previous history together (Elle as HRG's partner trying to manipulate a mentally fragile Gabriel into resuming his hero-killing). I have to go back and rewatch the episode where the Villains escape Level 5. They escaped because Sylar was trying to take Elle's power and she short circuited the entire complex. Did Sylar give any indication that he knew Elle? Did he acknowledge her in anyway that would suggest he knew her from a previous time? Based off of memory I'm thinking no, at least I would've recalled such an exchange between the two former lovebirds. If this is the case - that's really bad, writers. You should be ashamed of yourselves. I think we all know where this is going anyway - Elle is going to be the one he impregnates and that's the mother of Future Sylar's son. They'll probably keep her around long enough to give birth to Sylar's son. It doesn't seem the show has long term plans for Kristen Bell because she's still listed as "guest starring" on the show, as in she's not considered a main character.

So, apparently Hiro loses his powers. I don't know where I stand on this. On one hand it just goes to show just how badass Papa Petrelli is. On the other hand that would leave Sylar as the only person strong enough to take him down. On the other hand (if you were a three armed person) next week's episode throws in the wild card of another eclipse happening which will be a mystery as to how that plays a role on everyone's powers. Nevermind that another lunar eclipse so soon after season 1's eclipse is scientifically impossible. The things that the show doesn't show you are as important as the things that are shown. We didn't see Hiro lose his powers. We saw him in the process of losing his powers. If I had to wager some poker chips I'm going to say something interupts Papa Petrelli from fully taking Hiro's power. First bet is Ando does something. Second bet is the Speedster saving Hiro. Of course this is all contingent on Hiro not losing his powers. One thing that certainly makes no sense is how the African Future Seeing Guy could predict Hiro sneaking up on him several times (which he thwarted by knocking Hiro out with a shovel) but he didn't see in any of his visions of the future...oh...someone cutting his fucking head off! I also would like to know (and this is going back several episodes) how African Future Seeing Guy had a copy of "9th Wonders" - Isaac Mendez's comic book - in his hut. I guess it's another example of the writers trying to get too cute in showing how everyone in the show is somehow connected.

Anyway, enough of my nitpicking. The show delivered and seems headed back in the right direction. I just hope that direction involves more of the actors who have actual acting skill and less of Peter Petrelli/Claire/Suresh.

Episode 7

noreply@blogger.com (Hell Atlantic) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:25:00 +0000

Let me ask you something.

So, you're a hero - or at least someone who has powers and abilities. You exist in a world where other people have powers. People who can fly or absorb powers of others or create illusions are not shocking to you.

So when you walk into the offices of a mysterious, shadowy company and you see what appears to be your father - even though he's been dead for a bit - standing in a room full of villains why is your first reaction to embrace this individual?

Let me introduce you to Peter Petrelli, folks.

Rather than saying "hold up - let me digest all this for a second, maybe read this guy's mind to see if it truly is my dad" he walks over with open arms and gets his powers stolen in the process. The only thing I find more laughable than that is him being powerless in his holding cell trying to attack his dad and other captors with a tray.

What else did episode 7 tell us?

1. Suresh is a villain now. He's officially crossed over into "Evil Scientist" territory. I'm wondering why it took a show that's essentially a live-action comic book so long to have the stereotypical villainous scientist/doctor. At least Suresh now has a decent reason to be on the show other than to antagonize me with his long-time uselessness.

2. C'est la vie, Maya. Or should that be "Adios, Maya"? The last link to all that made season 2 such a crappy season has now left the building. She never caught on with the audience (despite being so caliente) and has set the record for most consecutive episodes with a crying scene. Seriously, I think every episode she appeared involved her crying at some point.

3. The Elle/Claire tag-team duo. It makes so much sense. With Elle walking through the doors of Pinehurst to have her powers removed one doesn't know how long this duo is going to last but it worked on a lot of levels. Which brings me to this - what's up with all these people looking to remove their powers? First Maya, now Elle (and it also seemed Claire was headed down that path for a bit). I guess we're supposed to contrast Sylar's need to feel special and superior with Claire's need to be normal. I'm not certain people would actually want to have a power removed (unless you're that guy from the Skittle s commercial who turned everything he touches into Skittles). But Elle/Claire has a lot of potential as a crime fighting unit - Claire wants to fight villains but lacks the power to take them down and Elle has a very nifty ability to stop people in their tracks. Would be a shame if they dismantled that duo before exploring the possibilies of a tag-team first.

4. There was an unnecessary Hiro sighting. Ok, we understand he's a fan fave, but his 1.5 minute scene didn't accomplish anything other than to feed the audience's Hiro-addiction. Couldn't they have just saved that scene for the next episode where they could've had a better flow to the storyline? It just felt so obligatory, like "oh snap, we almost forgot to put Hiro in this episode!". It's ok, writers, we know Hiro isn't going anywhere, you can leave him out in an episode and we won't panic.

5. HRG/Noah. You feel that? Yes, slowly but surely you're becoming a background character. What a shame. As Claire breaks further away from him his whole "whatever it takes to keep my family safe" approach becomes more and more pointless. What made this character resonate so well was his motivation to protect his family and to shelter his Claire-bear from the prodding scientists of The Company. Writers need to find another role or purpose for this great character. He consistently was one of the bright spots on the show. You never knew if he was just doing what was best for his family or if he was still an operative of The Company and just playing the role. He always had that sly grin that could've gone either way.

6. Sylar delivers, yet again. As soon as Peter didn't die from the fall as he was launched through the window of Pinehurst I knew Sylar had a hand in it. Excellent turn of events. Is there anyone who wants to argue this show isn't focused on Sylar? Seasons 1 and 2 were all Peter, but season 3 has been the breakout of Sylar. I applaud the writers for this decision.

7. Finally, marvelous plot development in the Parkman/Speedster storyline. Her conversation with Pinehurst cast serious doubts as to whether she was still aligned with them or with Parkman. If I had to bet on this I would say she's playing Pinehurst, afterall if she was truly going to doublecross Parkman he could've read her mind (unless that's a serious gaffe on the part of the writers). You can't make it that Parkman needs to do his "Parkman reading your mind" face every time he uses his power, it should be assumed that this character continuously scans the minds of people he speaks with, thus making it hard to dupe him.

With the election of the president unfortunately getting in the way of our normal Heroes festivities we have to endure a whole week without an episode, thus spend a whole week with me talking about how I wish when Elle's electricity was on the brink of bringing the plane down and Claire decided to absorb Elle's electrical current she had proposed they transferred the electricity by touching lips rather than taking her hand.