HULK SMASH
I missed last week's episodes on account of having a million things going on, so I watched all three episodes back to back tonight. A few quick thoughts, since they mostly made me want to get back to playing Arkham Asylum. Throw in Batman and we'll talk, Heroes.
PETER: Peter mourns Nathan's death, bonds with Claire, continues to be Peter Parker with his police scanner because he feels too useless and unheroic NOT to put himself in harm's way. Oh, and apparently he's the best candidate for leading the carnies if Samuel bites it. Iiiiiiiinteresting. Too bad grief has pushed him back into old habits. Namely rushing into things without thinking. In this case, with Emma. ("OH HAI EMMA!" *CELLO SMASH* "THERE, I DID IT! NOW YOU WON'T BE EVIL!") First rule of prophecy, Pete: doing that kind of shit means you have a 95% chance of making said prophecy come true. Try to apologise to her BEFORE Sylar "saves her" by eating her brain. Or whatever.
The "love-hate relationship with rooftops" thing made me laugh. Peter seems to spend more time sulking around on rooftops than Batman and Spiderman combined.
NATHAN: Bye, Nathan. :( Even though they covered up his death again, the funeral was at least good for closure and finally letting the fallout kick in. I didn't choke up until they gave Angela the flag, and the airplanes did their flyby. It was the least they could do to let his final send-off be about Nathan and honouring his memory, rather than mucking around with the other dramas associated with it. Claire was right on that one: everyone needs a moment to just ditch the drama, STFU, and mourn.
Was that Nathan's wife and kids walking by in the background at the wake? At least they remember they exist for THAT if nothing else.
Two Petrellis down, two to go. It's funny how Papa Petrelli is always 100% more interesting as a vague non-character that people reminisce about (usually resentfully). Way better than anything he actually did in season 3. Which seems to be a trend with godawful characters, come to think of it. Even the brief mention of West and off-screen meeting was a lot more bearable than the flying douchebag ever was on the show.
SYLAR: *sigh* And here I actually had hope we might be done with any trace of Sylar/Claire. Instead Sylar follows his tattoo, and takes a page from the Edward Cullen school of stalking. Don't do this to us again, show. It was squick-worthy enough the first time around.
I don't have much else to say, except: GOOOOORE! Loved that shot of him after he was pwned with Samuel's rock storm. Single best moment in the whole three episodes.
EMMA: "Do you read hands?" BURN. I love Emma's snarkiness. Nice to see her finally getting involved in the main plotline. Even if it seems like it's shaping up to be more about Peter and Sylar's feud than about Emma herself. Prove me wrong, show. Don't reduce her to the damsel in distress. Or another example of favoring L33T POWERZ over plot by having characters pull hitherto unknown superpowers out of their ass.
These episodes were kind of bad about remembering she's deaf, though. Or at least, Peter was. ("I'll call you"? OH PETER.)
HIRO & ANDO: LOL, that's Ikuebukuro? I THINK NOT, HEROES. (To be fair, it was much better than most of their fake-Japan sets tend to be. It just amuses me whenever they have a Japan scene set in a place I've visited, and I can go "LOL NO".)
As far as "Hiro being mentally damaged" storylines go, this one is at least more interesting than the season 3 one. That seems to be a trend with this season. Most of the reused ideas are at least being done more competently a second time around. I keep thinking that if this season had been season 2 - or something close to it, anyway - things might have been better.
My geek sense is stronger than Ando's. I'd figured out all Hiro's clues by the second repetition or so. Swamp Dragons, Castle Arkham, Doctor Watson, Doctor Connors? Pff. Florida asylum to rescue Doctor Suresh. It kind of kills the suspense when a whole episode's worth of riddle-solving doesn't take more than five seconds for anyone with even a passing knowledge of comic books to figure out.
The Batman comic Hiro had was Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. Good taste.
Maybe I think too much about certain things, but it kind of brings me down to see people resigned to sidekick status. Even Ando. China Mieville was on to something in that Un Lun Dun interview: "The sidekick is a stock figure in fiction, and even when I was very young, I was really troubled by the notion of a character who is existentially defined by their subordination to another. It's a pretty terrible disrespectful way of conceiving of someone-they're not a friend, they're a subordinate."
NOAH: Sad moments are ruined by product placement. I'm looking at you, SPRINT.
Fun times with torture again, this time with Edgar. HRG has a pretty one-track mind when it comes to getting info. Too bad he blew it all trying to tell Edgar what was best for him and his family. What's so wrong about them all living together, anyway? Is he so ingrained in his bag-and-tag Primatech mentality that he can't see why superpowered people would want to be around people like themselves for support?
MATT: I like Janice's new haircut. And no prizes for guessing that Matt's going to go off and do something heroic again. When there's people like Angela and HRG in your life, you don't get the luxury of being a stay at home dad for long.
CLAIRE: It just wouldn't be Heroes without Claire picking up another creepy stalker or three. I'm at least glad that Claire is as squicked about Nathan-Sylar as everyone else should be. And that she and Peter finally have something in common, even if it's being lied to.
EDGAR: You know, being tied up in a cold freezer would be more convincing if you didn't leave the door open. Or we could see your breath fogging.
MOHINDER: SURESH SMASH! Suddenly I have the urge to go watch those Hulk Vs. cartoons again.
I think I'm in the minority for not finding the stuff at the asylum particularly funny. The little hand-wave was cute, though.
THE CARNIES: HAI, DAVID LAWRENCE. Always cool to see him again.
Whatever flaws the storyline has had so far, I still like the idea of the carnival being a place of refuge for misfits and freaks, even the ones who have been evil before. Waifs and strays, coming together to help each other and survive. Under someone like Joseph or Peter, it might even be something OTHER than a "cult" or whatever connotation they're throwing out. Bennet is the only one who seems to think there's anything wrong with it.
Uh, Samuel? Dumping a psycho killer in Lydia trailer and telling her she's the carnival bicycle isn't a compliment. Just in case you're somehow surprised when she turns on you.
Vanessa? It's it a little late in the game to be dropping in new characters? Just another page of the the Heroes guide to romance: kidnapping and stalking the object of your affection is A-okay!